Mister Bull Goes to Washington

Greetings, fellow Americans! I'm feelin' all patriotic and American-y 'cos here I am in our nation's capital, Washington, DC! I've travelled down here for the 2006 BookExpo America, running all this weekend at the big impressive Washington Convention Center. This is the big yearly trade show event of the book publishing world, where all the publishers and booksellers get together and decide, yes, it would be a dandy idea to sell a lot of books this fall! Which is always a good thing. It's an excellent way to get to meet publishers, see what they're coming out with on their Fall publishing lists, and schmooze with the elite and the neat of the book world. P'raps this year someone will ask me to publish a book! I will wander around the floor looking wistful carrying my manuscript hoping that someone will offer me a lucrative publishing contract with the standard rich-and-famous clause.

Comic book publishers often attend BEA as well, so I'll be checking out the big DC pavilion (always an oasis of impressiveness) and the tiny Marvel booth (usually just one guy sitting behind a table—c'mon, Marvel, get with the program!) Many of the other independent publishers are there as well and I'll be searching them out, especially if they're giving away buttons or free stuff. That's one of the most amazing things about BEA: it's a cornucopia of free stuff, from trinkets and toys to lots and lots of free books. Don't be grabby or selfish and ask nicely when you step into a booth and p'raps they will give you one of their many giveaways! Remember: just because they have a book displayed that does not mean it's for free!

Tomorrow is the big busy "set-up" day and I will be helping John and Miss Eugenia assemble our big battleship of a display booth, cart around boxes and unpack books and catalogues. I'll take some "before" and "after" photos to show you how hectic it is! (I hope I get to hang up some posters!)

In the meantime I had a pleasant day today wandering a bit up and down the Mall in Washington:


Here I am admiring the very tall Washington Monument. That reminds me: I need to buy a new pencil.


Then I stopped in at the Capital Building to give Congress a piece of my mind about this Superhuman Registration Act I've been hearing so much about. They were a bit disinterested. I kept on asking them: whose side are you on! But no one would tell me if they prefer shiny metal Iron Man or patrotic, shield-slingin' Captain America. To educate the Congresspersons I began to sing their theme songs: "Tony Stark/Makes you feel/He's a cool exec/with a heart of steel..." and "When Captain America throws his mighty shield/All those who choose to oppose his shield must yield!". But despite my excellent singing voice and uncanny knowledge of Marvel theme songs, no one really wanted to hear me or to make a choice of which hero they supported. I think I need to take a big fat stack of Marvel Comics around there tomorrow and pass them out so our government knows what's going on. You know, I truly think that would solve a lot of problems: what the nations of this world need to learn to do is to read more comic books. Especially Mister Bush. I think he would really, really enjoy a comic like Green Lantern or Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Everybody would be better off with a comic book, I think.

More from BEA tomorrow!