I was hoping to spend all day Saturday at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda—which I last attended two years ago, where I felt privileged to meet civil rights legend John Lewis—but life intervened, and I was instead only able to spend a few short hours there on Sunday. My abbreviated time that day was because I had to leave early to get to—and I’m sure you’ll understand—a ukulele jam. But my visit, though short, was still fun.

The high point this year was the brief time I got to spend with Bill Griffith, whom I’ve been reading since I was a young teenager.

I first encountered him through his cartoons in the pages of the East Village Other, which spoke more to my sensibilities when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn than did the Village Voice. And I bought at least one of his underground comics at my first convention. Which means I’ve been reading stories of his most famous creation, Zippy, for about as long as Griffith’s been drawing him.

Griffith was signing at the Fantagraphics table, where I bought and got him to autograph a copy of his new autobiographical memoir, Invisible Ink.

It’s a fascinating story of his mother’s 16-year love affair with a famous cartoonist and crime novelist—an affair which Griffith only learned about almost immediately upon his father’s death. It’s beautifully written, beautifully drawn, and you should definitely get yourself a copy.

After chatting with him for as long as I felt I could—hey, there was a line of other people behind me also wanting autographs—I then wandered the seemingly endless aisles of exhibitors, where I unexpectedly ran into Gil Roth, whom I don’t think I’ve ever seen outside of a Readercon.

Gil is the proprietor of the Virtual Memories podcast, for which he was once even foolish enough to interview me. Based on what he was telling me, he managed to record some killer episodes while at SPX, so keep checking his site to see what turns up.

After continuing to browse other comics for awhile, my final interaction before I left was at the table of Keith Knight, whose Knight Life is one of the my favorite strips in the Washington Post.

Knight’s booth was the most crowded I saw at SPX, with people standing three and four deep. Perhaps that’s because what he does isn’t just entertaining, but important as well. One example—his new book, They Shoot Black People, Don’t They?, the contents of which he also presents as a traveling slide show at schools, art centers, or wherever else you’d care to invite him.

Since it’s unlikely Knight will make it to your neck of the woods, I suggest you pick up a copy of his book here.

And that was it for my SPX!

Wonder how next weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con will compare?