Today my brother and I braved the cold and snow to see Scott McCloud talk about comics at CMU. The crowd was late arriving but the auditorium filled out pretty well in the end. The talk was really good, very amusing. Those 700 slides seemed to fly by. Scott McCloud just seems like a really cool individual. We were trying to figure out how we first heard about him but really couldn't remember. I know we got Understanding Comics for Christmas one year, and I can remember going to his web site back when it was still just an under construction graphic, but I guess it was just one of those things that happen. Anyway, we're both fans (we've even got The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln around here somewhere). I did have a surreal moment towards the end of his presentation when it occurred to me that it was Scott McCloud right there and he was talking to me about comics just like in his comics.

After his talk and his daughter's presentation about their tour (which was cute), we stood around for a bit deciding if we wanted to buy a copy of his latest book and get it signed. We decided to do it and stood in line for a bit. So we get up to the front of the line and buy a book, and I let my brother take charge because I know he has more of a capacity to do something interesting. If I hand the book over it just ends up saying To Nick and Luke, Scott. But my brother hands him the book and says something like, "do you mind if I make a strange dedication request?" and he proceeds to get Scott McCloud to dedicate the book to Nick and Luke Fredland - Innovators of the Future. You see, while we were standing in line, he had randomly opened the book to page 139 where it says "innovators of the future take note" and decided that that was us. Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it.