Click any pictures to enlarge.
The last time Drew Friedman came to town, either I had to work or I was sick. I forget. This time I made it, but I took no notes because I still haven't written up
Richard Price event and didn't feel like dealing with The Burden. That was a mistake. Schwartz did an excellent job, conducting more a conversation than a stilted interview. The talk was funny and dropped lots of interesting tidbits. A few I'm confident enough to quote directly... Friedman is a vegetarian, yet for a while he was drawing illustrations for Field & Stream. He said "I drew the deer heroic." Later, he said he'd like to draw Barack Obama "because he looks like Barney Fife." When The Graphic Novel Question came up (hi, Eddie!) he seemed rather bemused by it. In short his answer is summed up as that doesn't have anything to do with me. Then he mentioned Mike Nesbit wants to do a book with him about his life with the Monkees. Don't laugh! You know you'll buy one (if it happens).
There were two sets of people filming the event (one one on a consumer cam, one a pro set-up) so maybe a video will show up on You Tube down the road.
When I walked into the store I thought maybe I had been misinformed and just Friedman would be holding forth for the afternoon, because this is how they had the author area set up:
Then I guess somebody at the store took another look at their press release. A couple of staffers moved in just before the event started to tear down the single podium/single mike and set up a table with two microphones. I thought that was funny.
None of my crowd shots turned out decently, so you'll just have to take my word that it was a standing-room crowd, sprinkled with more than a few writer and performer celebs, not that I recognized anybody expect for the guy in black, whom you'll see below. Him I recognized instantly because I've seen him in tons of television shows. However, I kinda suck at names. His first name is Don. If anyone can help me out with the last name, I'd appreciate it. Update! Thank you inbox. His name is Carl Ballantine.
It seems my superpower of snapping a picture at the PRECISE moment the subject blinks was in full force today. Still, some of the shots came out all right. In a lot of these pictures Friedman has Serious Face going on. You know how some people have a Serious Face on when they're actually listening to what being said to them? He's one of those, I think. For the record, Friedman smiled a lot during the event, but I only managed to get a few of shots of him smiling. In in two of those he kinda looks like a psychokiller, in three his eyes are closed and in the other one he's sort of blurry. Sorry. (That's the psychokiller shot at left.)
His signing shot, and that of Don Of The Unknown Last Name, can be found at the hobby site.
