Yeah, this comic is just a self-indulgent goof. What can I say? I was thrilled to be invited to my first convention. As a former head of the NSO, I of course had a leg up. I was so proud of my sci-fi club, running a weekend-long event with guests and waffle breakfasts and everything.

I recommended Trina Robbins as a guest, and she was great; she gave her slide presentation on the history of women in comics, which went over well. Esther Friesner is a Vassar alumnus and my friend Mike’s mom, and she’d agreeably shown up for NSO events in previous years. She totally kicked my ass in a public “Hamsters Vs. Gerbils” debate. After I drew this strip, Non-Con scored a couple of additional guests, including comic-book writer Rachel Pollack and Sluggy Freelance creator Pete Abrams. As I said in a previous commentary, my aunt Kerry and her family showed up in matching Narbonic T-shirts to form my posse. It was excellent.

Non-Vassar people may be somewhat confused by Dave’s choice of period costume. He’s dressed as Matthew Vassar, the very dapper founder of the college. Since Dave was a character in my college strip, “The Ratio,” logically he must be an alumnus. Vassar has been a coed college since 1969, but the selection of straight men was often somewhat limited. Then again, Justin Long was in my class, and today he haunts the dreams of Mac-using women everywhere, so things weren’t all bad.

2007 bonus for this Sunday: Eva Schiffer was kind enough to send me a link to photos of a Girl Genius LARP in which she played Victorian Helen. Here’s Eva:

Check out the whole photo gallery; it’s pretty spiffy.

P.S. to Emily: Happy birthday!