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This past Friday, I had a very agreeable meetup at Tucson’s Kon Tiki with a slew of Comics Curmudgeon readers! A fun time was most definitely had by all, as the following photos should demonstrate beyond a doubt. Let’s start with the big group shot:

Up front, you have Trilobite, me, and my lovely wife Amber; in the row behind that you have Bob Weber, Jr., The Divine O’F, KT, Mr. Bats :[, Fran Ledue Page, Bats :[, and Mountain Momma; and behind them you have The Divine O’F’s husband Rocko (face sadly obscured by overhanging tiki ambience), Mooncattie, Jimmy, Garrett, and Wood.

KT here is looking happy in his Cassandra Cat shirt and holding his book of his own cartoons. He drove all the way from Houston to attend, and shockingly he wasn’t even the one who came the furthest!

That honor goes to Mooncattie, seen here with his video camera, who flew all the way down from Toronto, Foobonia, to spend a week in the Arizona sun. Will the video of me giving a little speech in a Family Circus vest (more on which momentarily) hit YouTube? Only time will tell!

Mooncattie also brought Canada’s greatest literary product, Michael Patterson’s Stone Season, as a gift. Actually, this was much, much better than the actual Stone Season, since it was mostly blank — except for individual Comments of the Week from last year pasted on each page!

So, about that vest … Bats :[ discovered some fabric emblazoned with classic religiously themed Family Circus cartoons. Naturally, she turned into a vest that she presented to me as a gift. The best of the cartoons features Dolly declaring that “Heaven is a great big hug that lasts forever.” It was determined that, as per this classic Dinosaur Comics, this sounds unspeakably creepy when you whisper it.

I tried my best to get around and chat with everybody. I thought this was a good pic of Fran and Trilobite; the latter looks kind of pensive, even though I’m pretty sure that at this point he’s telling me about his storied history of consuming alcohol at the Kon Tiki. (Unlike KT and Mooncattie (and everyone else, really) Trilobite was actually able to walk to the bar from his house.)

Here’s a nice pic of the Divine O’F chatting with Bob Weber, while the latter’s wife looks on affectionately. Bob was obviously much beloved by all in attendance, and naturally turned out to be a superstar of friendliness! He even brought super-cool original Slylock Fox art for everyone who came! Ms. O’F is holding hers in this picture, and here’s a photomontage of others of us and ours:

Bats :[ scored a Count Weirdly cartoon; I got one featuring Reeky Rat, whose virtues I had been extolling mere moments before Bob revealed the goodies he had brought for us; and KT ended up with a Cassandra Cat number — appropriate, since he was the crazed genius behind a certain bit of Slylock/Cassandra bootleg art you might remember.

I loved hanging out with all of you! A few folks had to leave early, but here’s a great picture of the rest of us worshipping the tiki god, or at least grinning in front of it. Thanks to everyone who came! I will definitely be planning more events like this in the future, I think.

Anyway, due to the travel and the guest-blogging and the hey hey, I’m going to let Darkefang’s reign of COTW terror continue for another week. But still, we must, as is our practice, give thanks to our advertisers:

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Let’s give it up for our advertisers:

• The world-famous laugh factory: A fixture on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for 28 years! All the legends of modern standup comedy have graced our stage, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Paul Rodriguez, Dave Chappelle, George Lopez, and more.
• Shop Indie. Pass it on!: Shana Logic loves Joshreads.com fans because they are independent, rockin’, super nice art lovers! Totally unique hip & hot jewelry, killer ties for men, home Decor & iPod gear, unusual plushes, and more — the best gifts for our favorite people!
• Ghost Hunters: The scariest season of is upon us. Tune in. Premieres Wednesday March 5 at 9/8 central on SciFi.

To find out more about advertising on this site, click here.

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Hey everyone, I know what you’re thinking: “Early comments of the week? Does that mean that Josh is going to be going on another vacation?” Sure does! But for a lucky few, that means you’ll get to meet me in person in Tucson next Friday. I’m going to try to make this a regular part of my travels, so perhaps this will ease the pain of my vacations somewhat. In the mean time, you’ll be in the hands of the inestimable Uncle Lumpy ’till Monday 3/10.

Oh, and before the CsOTW, I do have something for your delectation from faithful reader Andrew Leal: a compilation of the greatest panels from retired Gil Thorp artist Frank McLaughlin:

Ahhhh, takes you back, doesn’t it?

Anyway, here’s this week’s COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

“Hey, look, Lu Ann! Wolves! Here, let me throw you to them.” –Darkefang

And the runners-up … also hilarious

“Tuesday’s FBoFW is dreadful, in the sense that it genuinely inspires dread.” –Trilobite

“Pray all you want, Frosty, summer’s still coming. AND WITH IT YOUR DOOM.” –Inspector Dim

“When Dee married into the Patterson clan, she became The Human Uterus. She exists solely to incubate, birth, and raise Michael’s spawn, so all her deprecated body functions (abstract thought, aesthetic pleasance) have been steadily degrading ever since.” –commodorejohn

“Shouldn’t [the snowman] be given some clothes to wear before he starts praying? At least Frosty had the decency to put on a hat!” –BigTed

“Yikes. You could stick a cello in Funky’s crotch, and I don’t mean that in a good way.” –gkl

“Maybe Snowman Larry would be happier if he had some GIANT FUCKING GLASSES. You know, like the most striking and easily drawable visual feature of the real Larry King. I understand you can’t draw the smell of Vick’s Vap-o-Rub and cheap hookers, but I think the Keanes could have tried a little bit harder on this caricature.” –The Other Commenter

“‘Belly Laffs’ is truly baffling. Where is this published? in Terrible Joke A Day Weekly? She’s typing, so it appears not to be a comic strip; one has to imagine the joke without the accompanying picture, which, to be fair, would make it easier to ignore.” –Evan

“Snowman Larry King looks kind of beat down. He probably just noticed that Josh has paired him with ‘Belly Laffs’ and realizes there’s something worse than melting.” –kingklash

“It’s the smug smile of satisfaction on Jenny’s face as she ‘writes’ this tripe that gets me. As if she’s sitting there convinced that she’s churning out Pulitzer winning material and is at that moment planning which hideous turtleneck she’ll wear when she accepts the award.” –ConcreteQueen

“A-Train doesn’t seem to mind the intrusions though. He’s too busy trying to impress her with his suave, ‘I know how to purchase a money order’ smile.” –# ar_d

See ya next Monday, everyone! Be nice to your favorite Uncle.