Nothing like opening an email from the publisher and hearing that the printer completely f-ed up and decided to send my Ditko book to the MoCCA offices for Monday, instead of yesterday so that, you know, it might actually debut at the festival for which I came down to NYC?

Strange (and Stranger) that within a 24-hour period, I get to announce news of my signing with Fantagraphics for two new books coming in July 2009 - a Bill Everett coffee table art book and the Steve Ditko reprint collection, but then have to announce the first book is going to be delayed by two days.

Beyond my own disappointment that it won't be available at the Festival, I'm more disappointed for anyone who will come looking for it (not that I'm that narcissistic to believe that anyone came from out of town - like I did - solely to get the book) and they then won't be around until Monday in NYC to get a copy at Jim Hanley's Universe.

So, here's the good news / "the drill" for the next three days:
1) I'll still be opening the MoCCA programming in about 3 hours.
2) I'll still be at the Fantagraphics booth at noon signing copies of the bookplates for the book that you can then tip in later. I'll also have copies of my "I Have To Live With This Guy! book, plus 9 copies of the latest issue of Rob Imes' fanzine, Ditkomania (#65), to sell (only $1.50). I'll still be signing said plates on Sunday at 2pm too. Come by and buy me a drink to salve my pain. Or buy me a page of original Ditko art. That'll do the trick.
3) I'll still be doing the Jim Hanley's Universe event tonight from 8-10pm. You'll still get to see the "In Search of Steve Ditko" documentary in its entirety, and you can pre-order the book that night and pick it up Monday at Hanley's. And it'll be autographed by me if either the printer delivers it super-early on Monday to the MoCCA office (where I can sign them all) or if you come to Hanley's sometime (I suspect) after 6pm. I have plans for the afternoon (starting at noon and ending at either 4:30 or 6:30pm - not sure yet, but I'll keep this site updated with the timing on Monday).
4) Reset the "Countdown Clock" until I will have a copy in my sweet little hands (I'll probably reset it until 6pm Monday, just to be safe).

If you're in NYC until Monday, you'll certainly be one of a handful of people in the world who will enjoy a copy until Wednesday June 18th, when The Beguiling event takes placein Toronto. They will be the second store to receive a shipment (see how well I treat people who butter me up with an exclusive event?). From there, there is a small chance that Diamond might ship copies to the Direct Market comic-book stores on that Wed the 18th, but it's much more likely that it won't be until Wed Jun 25th.

We'll turn "Crap" into "Craponaid" this weekend, folks, you just watch!

I'd probably be in a bitchier mood if A) this hadn't happened to every person in the industry at some point in their career; B) I wasn't enjoying NYC as much as one can; C) I hadn't waited for like 5 years for this book to debut, so what's another 2 days in the grand scheme of things? I acknowledge it's a lot for people at the Festival who won't be here for those "2 days later in the grand scheme of things" and, for them, I wish it was in my control, so I could take the blame and feel extra bad for them.

As it is, I'll just go back to reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and try to make objectivist reasoning around how a printer, who's sole job is to get people books and presumably on time, can mash that up.

Anyway, it's still going to be a glorious day, at my first MoCCA Art Festival, so I'll keep blogging and you'll see me with a smile on my face.

Below: Blake, with a smile on his face.