Wizard World Texas this year was just as good as last year, although I’m still pretty tired from it, so my musings on it might be slightly less witty than normal. Slightly. Thanks to everyone who came out, and welcome to the newcomers who I met first at the show!

Probably the best thing to happen from this year was all the cool artists I met and got to hang with. I sat next to Jarrod L. Perez, who is a great guy, and an incredibly prolific artist. He has a quirky chrairchature-type style that suits itself well for his books — and he makes a LOT of books. I also hung with Kyle Sanders, who makes two webcomics: Standad Deviation (if you like Dorm Dorks, you’ll like this) and Jovian Luck, a funny sci-fi adventure. David Degrand made quite an impression on me with his cool, quirky style as well. Give these guys a visit and tell ‘em I sent ya!

IF you’ve never been to a “Live Art Show,” it’s something you really need to do sometime. Saturday’s live art show was a blast, we watched some awesome artists work on some fantastic pieces, and then those pieces got auctioned off for charity. It was a cool event, check out the photos from it at the Heroes for Heroes website.

All in all, a great show. You may want to put down the dates for next year, if you haven’t already.

This strip is pretty much directly about me. I was pretty much exactly what Chuck describes here in High School. Yeah, thats a tie-dye shirt that has a guitar shape at the center. I had that. It was real. In fact, I still have it, although I’m quite larger than I was in those days of hippie innocence. I had a pair of bell-bottoms, too. Add a necklace I made myself out of yarn, and a bass guitar in my hands… man, Chuck’s right… I WAS so cool back then!

Shortly after tie-dye fest, I went through a cool Hawaiian Shirt phase… I’m thinking about bringing that back, and getting an old chain wallet again. Spike my hair a bit, get an eyebrow pierced… I could be cool again…

This weekend, this very Saturday, something happened… Something changed… Something began.

Temperatures were in the thirties, a cold wind was blowing, thats right, ladies and gentlemen — I wore my jacket.

And you might not think that was strange, but remember. I live in Texas. And winter has finally  come.

Don’t let it fool you. When winter hits Texas, it’s a unique experience. We don’t have the normal progression of summer passing to fall, passing to winter, etc. Instead, we have an oppresive summer — no fall at all, until Winter rears back and begins a long and bitter war with summer. This weekend was Winter’s opening salvo in this year’s struggle. We can expect two more months of alternating weather patterns — one day, full on Winter, the next, Summer fights back and pushed temperatures back into the 80’s. They will alternate as control shifts from one to the other in bitter competition. Not till early January will Winter finally take control of the Lone Star State.

I welcome the war. It’s long, and fraught with peril, but Winter is my favorite of all seasons. The Annual War of the Seasons is officially begun… and I say bring it on!