Cool Jerk book signing @ M-Theory

Before the complete fuckfest of fuckery that led us to missing out on Mariposa Ice Cream, we made a quick stop just six blocks away to the cute neighborhood of Mission Hills where there was a book signing by local comic artist, Paul Horn ("Cool Jerk"). We parked by the Mission Hills Public Library where I saw this cool sign celebrating Banned Books Week which is from September 25 to October 2! Let's celebrate!

Most of the books I like are on that list (the Harry Potter (series) by JK Rowling, "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier, the classic novel beloved by anti-social misfits and serial killers,"Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger, and lastly, the Captain Underpants series (hey, I have a 10 year old kid that thinks these are hilarious; she has since graduated to Stan Sakai's "Usagi Yojimbo").

The book signing was at M-Theory Music, which used to be located in South Park several years ago. I thought this was a rather cool choice to have a book signing.

Although we missed the Tabe BBQ truck earlier (please read about it in Darlene's post, "Music, Comics, Food"), I was glad to see there were some books left. I intended to get his whole Cool Jerk collection. If you bought the first three, then the 4th one was free! As Eddie Murphy would say, "Chopsticks, 29 cents...What a bah-gain. Ah think ah will buy some! Now that is a bah-gain for me!" (from his first comedy album, "Delirious" for those of you that don't get it).

By the way, Paul is the husband of Darlene from the blog, My Burning Kitchen; I finally got to meet both of them that evening. It was so nice putting faces to the names. Darlene is as awesome in person as she is on her blog. And, she's cute as a button too! She was also kind enough to give me a little food gift, which I'll blog about in a future post...Oh yeah, Paul was cool too!

How many of you have met any readers of your blogs? I've only met a few and so far, they've all been pretty cool people. No budding Jeffrey Dahmers or axe murderers (I hope).

Here's Paul signing my books...he even drew the different characters for me! I wanted to squee so badly but refrained from completely geeking out.

I felt like a total fangirl yattering to him about my love for Berkeley Breathed's "Bloom County". If it weren't for that strip, I wouldn't have given a flying fk about politics back in the 80's (Iran Contra scandal anyone?).  Bert used to give me Opus stuffed toys as gifts when we were in high school and college. He even gave me a Bill the Cat stuffed toy and one of my most prized possession, the Opus the Penguin phone!

TORC looking at CD's with one of the employees. She ended up buying a Smiths CD (I think it was "Hatful of Hollow") because it had the song she was looking for, "Reel Around the Fountain". TORC, if you're reading this, please correct me if I'm wrong!

I will definitely have to come back here to look around in more detail...we stayed only long enough to chat and get the books signed. It was nearly 8 pm so Darlene and Paul were just wrapping up as well.

And before we go, here's that Bill the Cat stuffed toy (this image isn't mine but one I found through Yahoo). My Bill the Cat doesn't have a bandanna around his neck or a stain on his belly! Can you believe this shit is going for $80 online? Bill has scraggly hairs all over his back too, funny. "Ack!"

And here is that Opus phone I was talking about. OMFG, it's going for $120 on ebay! Yikes! Too bad mine isn't working anymore! But even then, I wouldn't sell it!  Isn't he cute? When you lift the phone from his back, his head turns! Sadly though, my Opus phone now resides in a lonely dark corner of TC's closet. Maybe I should get it fixed and put it in our living room. Now that'll be a conversation piece or an eyesore depending on whose side you're on. Not as bad as a "Leg Lamp" though, eh?

As mentioned earlier, Mariposa was a bust so we'll have to go there another time!