Okay, so I told myself I'd be blogging about From Krakow to Krypton very very very frequently, and make it really "in the moment." Whenever something happened that was book-related, I'd blog about it right away. Of course, that didn't end up happening. Things got too busy real fast.

Oh well.

But ever since the book first started trickling into comic book stores and, um..."book" book stores, I can tell you now that it feels really surreal. Because after several years, From Krakow to Krypton is finally out! And it was a really long pregnancy. In fact, it was on October 4, 2003 that I received that first e-mail from JPS editor-in-chief Ellen Frankel asking if I'd like to turn my articles on Jews in comics into a book.

For those who don't know, this book started as a three-part series of articles that appeared in the fall 2003, winter 2003, and spring 2004 issues of Reform Judaism Magazine. (An interesting side-note: That fall 2003 issue of RJ also contains an article on John Kerry's Jewish roots. That article was written by Jennifer Anne Perez, wife of my fellow IDW Publishing writer Andrew Steven Harris. I first met Andrew at WonderCon in February, when I'd just finished writing the miniseries Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer for IDW. In the "civilian" world, there are 6 degrees of separation. It increasingly becomes clear to me that in the comics world, there are like only 2 or 3 degrees. Everyone seems to know everyone, and it freaks the hell out of me.) When I have more time, I'll talk more about the process of interviewing the various comics creators I talk about in the book.

But, as that lovable rapscallion Snoop Dogg would say, "later for dat." I just got back from my first stop on my book tour, in Ft. Myers, Florida. After being in NYC for so long, Ft. Myers really made me feel like a vampire. The city is all sunshine and palm trees and dragonflies and blue skies and wide open spaces. Like, can't they fill up the wide open spaces with some -- I don't know -- buildings or something? It seemed kinda unnatural to me, like they weren't utilizing the space correctly. But again, maybe I've just been in New York too long.

Anyway, I get there and Naomi, who coordinated my lecture gig, gives me this sorta "welcome wagon" bag stuffed with postcards for my event and a Jewish newspaper with ads for the event. Which is really nice of her. But that's not all! The bag is also chock full of the following: a package of pretzels, a package of pretzel sticks, two things of peanut butter crackers, a packet of M&Ms, two peanut butter chocolate bars, three bite-size Twix bars, two bite-size Hershey's chocolate bars, a low-fat oatmeal raisin bar, three Milky Way Midnight minis, a regular Milky Way mini, three Three Musketeer minis, and a Snicker mini. Then we go to have dinner at this place called Mimi's, where the food is amazing. And after I have dinner, the waiter hears that it's my first time at Mimi's, so he gives me a container filled with FOUR BIG-ASS MUFFINS EACH THE SIZE OF A HUMAN HEAD!! Now, unless my name is Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, or Wally West (or if you're a non-geek, Michael Phelps), there's no way for me to burn through all these calories. So I took all this stuff back with me to New York. And I'm not faulting anyone in Ft. Myers for giving me all this food. On the contrary, I actually really appreciated it. Even if I can't eat any of this stuff, it's a really sweet (pun intended) gesture. What's my point? My point is this:

Shame on you, New York, for not showering newbies with free food like they do in other cities!! For shame!! This is why people leave NYC and go to the suburbs! For the big-ass muffins!