Bribery

There is an anecdote told of a comic book convention where Sergio Aragones was scheduled to be on two panel discussions that were to be held at the same time, on different floors of the hotel. Rather than disappoint any fans, he started off at one panel, and at a convenient moment, slipped under the table, crawled out, took the elevator up to the second panel (doing sketches for fans in the elevator on the way up), and slipped into the second panel. At a convenient moment in the second panel, he slipped under the table and out of the room, did some sketches for fans in the elevator on the way back down, and crawled back up to his seat at the first panel. I have seen Sergio work; I have no doubt he could pull that off. However, when he was announced as a guest at two conventions on the same weekend, I was less confident. He could do panels on two different floors of a hotel at the same time, but how he would manage cons in two different time zones was another matter entirely.

One of the two cons is near me, and we considered going if Sergio was going to be there. So, I sent a message to an email list frequented by ME, who should count Sergio's schedule as one of his many areas of expertise. In the message, I offered to sweeten whatever pot the Motor City Con was offering Sergio by volunteering my services as amateur booth babe, me showing up as one of his characters, and homemade cookies. According to ME, Sergio will be at Motor City, and though this was decided before my offer, I will still make good on the package. I am still waiting on the cookie preference.