– I’ve been working hard for the last few months trying to finish up my coloring commitment to my friend and studio mate Barry Deutsch’s new Hereville graphic novel. About a week ago Barry told me that the book’s editor would be in town and wanted to meet with all of us (Barry, background artist Adrian Wallace and I) for dinner. That was tonight. But it was a trick. We arrived at a local Lebanese restaurant to find about 25 of my friends and family members crammed into three big tables. I couldn’t figure out why they were there. It turned out that it was a completely unexpected surprise party for me, celebrating the 500th Modest Medusa strip. Totally unexpected. I had no idea. It took me several minutes to actually fully understand what was happening. I’m told I looked very, very confused. Barry organized the whole thing, and it was great and very overwhelming. Marah and my cousin made a banner, which is now sitting  in the window here at the studio. It’s hard to see in this photo, but it has a snake on the bottom of it. Anyway, the whole thing was super great and totally unexpected.

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