While the hit counter on this site was lapping a quarter-million, my friend Carolyn and I were visiting Victoria, British Columbia, tooling around in the harbor in a little ferry boat like the one above The skipper (that's what you're supposed to call him) takes you around, pointing out items of interest. Then he lets you out for a while on a dock where you can eat great fish-and-chips while you feed seals. Enormous fun.
We were up there so I could sign comics at the Victoria Comic, Movie & VideoFest 2002, a friendly little convention in a friendly little city. The convention organizer, Bill Code, couldn't do enough for us, getting us chauffeured about, forcing expense money on us, and so on. We stayed in a very nice room in a Traveller's Inn, a chain of hotels in Victoria that are ubiquitous in their outlets and advertising. As two separate grumbling cab drivers explained to us, this one company bought up half the hotels in town and — here's the reason for the grumbling — renamed them all "Traveller's Inn." This has led to no end of confusion, such as when someone says, "Take me to the Traveller's Inn on Douglas." There are several on Douglas Street, including one that is officially titled "Traveller's Inn Douglas Street," and the one we stayed in, which was on Douglas but wasn't "Traveller's Inn Douglas Street." In fact, our Traveller's Inn on Douglas had a very nice view of another Traveller's Inn on Douglas Street, which also wasn't "Traveller's Inn Douglas Street."
So that's why the cab drivers are grumbling.
I also found it funny that Traveller's Inn advertises everywhere. They have an ad on every third page of the Victoria Yellow Pages, regardless of heading. So under "Pest Control," there's an ad for Traveller's Inn, under "Mausoleums," there's an ad for Traveller's Inn, under "Firewood," you get the concept…
Best part of the convention was spending a little quality time with the other guests, who included three of the best artists in and around the comic book field — Steve Lieber, Ken Steacy and Mike Kaluta. Steve, I really didn't know as a person before; only as a very dedicated, talented illustrator. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School, Steve has worked for DC and Marvel, but is best represented by Whiteout (from Oni Press) and the small-press Me and Edith Head. You can find out more about Steve over at this website. You can even order those books from him, which you really ought to do.
By the way: I'll tell you how small Victoria is. Steve left for the airport about four hours before Carolyn and I did, but we got the same cab driver. The driver was telling us how, earlier in the day, he'd had this comic artist named Steve Lieber in his cab…and he said, "That guy's a real comic artist. Not one of those kids who works on a computer. He does it the real way. On paper."
Not much more to say about the trip, other than that Alaska Airlines performed flawlessly, if you can overlook meals that really warrant the little printed prayer that accompanies each one. And that we want to go back to Victoria real soon…if not sooner.