So, my first con. Not necessarily a success, not necessarily a failure. I broke even, which most people tell me is a success in the Artist Alley. So, I'll take it for what it is.
It was a retardedly long drive: 7 hours from Austin to Lubbock. We accidentally overshot our exit by 30 miles and ended up in a small town by the name of Throckmorton. Because of the ensuing adventure, I am once again certain that GPS is a fun-killer.
When we got into town, the Motel 6 was already out of rooms (argh!), so we drove around looking for anything less than $80. By then, it'd been raining for hours. We resignedly had Whataburger for dinner and went to bed.
The next day, I realized that I forgot my tablecloth. Jenny was mad. But I HAD TO HAVE IT. My whole display depended upon that specially selected piece of fabric to tie it together. Thankfully, Hobby Lobby opened at 9:00, and I was able to get a new one just in time.
I was in-between two artists - Ariel Walden and the super-talented Will Terrell. Ariel does a comic called Sparkling Trio, which looks something like a mix between the Ninja Turtles and Sailor Moon. She was cool, but her art needs a bit of work. Will's comic Black Dawn is lovely and has an absorbing storyline. Both people were a real pleasure to hang out with for the afternoon.
As the day went on, I got a little bored and started drawing alongside Ariel's friend, shown here on the left (Ariel is in the middle).
He was drawing a Fire-Emblem-inspired picture, and I couldn't help but join in. His is on the left, mine is on the right.
All in all, it was a pretty good time. I met some cool people, ate way too much fast food, had to listen to little kids bang on wood with hammers for seven hours, and sold a mess of comics. I might go back in November for the West Texas Comic Con. Here's hopin'!
I've begun the planning stages to my comic 2 Specks of Light. It's a project I've been rolling around in my head for a while now, but it took a long time to come up with the basic plot structure. I like the idea of setting it many, many years after the first one. There's a mystery in trying to build closure over such a long gap. Here's the sneak peek:
Today I posted a little contribution to Harvey James' little kitty collab, where you choose one of his adorable little creatures and make your own. A lot of talented artists are taking a whack at it. Here's mine (his original is the tiny one on the left):
Well, looks like convention-going won't be a total bust for me. I may have missed that table at Staple last month, but while attending, I ran into a gentleman passing out table applications for the Lubbock Comic Book Expo on May 2. So I filled out an application, and a week later, BAM! I'll be at table 22 - the map is here.
In addition to my recently finished graphic novel Grackle, I'll have copies of 2 Specks of Light and some B&W copies of Rabite Season, along with these lil' guys:
Other news:
I recently finished a six-pages filler comic at The Wotch, which you can find here.
And most importantly, a huge chunk of my time has been devoted to a charity project that I am organizing with some of my artist friends over at the Wotch Forum. It's a calendar about hawt girls living in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world. Here's my current progress on my first piece.
There's a lot of exciting art going on from a lot oftalentedartists, and I can't wait for it to be ready. You can see our progress over here.
Well, I hate to follow a complaint post with another, but this deserves mention.
Surely, if you are a comic fan, you at least know the name Will Eisner. He's one of the genre's champion pioneers, so much so that the highest award in the industry is named after him. Perhaps one of his best qualities is his understanding of the human spirit and of the situation of the general downtrodden everyman.
Recently I checked out from my local library The Name of the Game, one of Eisner's later works. I was disgusted to find that some Christian censorship nut had gone through and scribbled out the word "God" from in front of all the "Goddamn"s and replaced it with "Goodness" in all the "For God's sake"s. I was livid with anger. How could some jerk think he or she was improving this comic by imposing visual censorship on it? As if we wouldn't know what was underneath the scribbles! I noticed none of the exposed breasts were covered; none of the other swear words scratched out; no act of violence hidden. Nope — just instances where Commandment 3 was broken.
At least in this last one (which chronologically is the first one) someone had the nerve to right the situation.
Anyway, I'm still pretty riled up about all this. But c'est la vie, no?
God damnit!!! I've been waiting a full freaking year to sign up for a table at Austin's alternative press convention, Staple!, and the tables sold out YESTERDAY! There were tables available till February last year, and with recent financial troubles, I've been saving up to reserve one, thinking they'd be available next week. I have been crafting and drawing my ass off, and now this.
You wanna know what the worst of it is? I've spent the last two months in sort of a "who gives a crap" daze, and now, when I finally get the nerve to update, I get a kick in the butt. Fan-freakin'-tastic.
So all the cool stuff I was gonna show you for Staple! is just gonna have to go unposted.
Well, friends and newcomers, here's how the whole shmiel went down.
I left on Friday morning for the airport and arrived at 5:30 AM, ready to go. The woman at the check-in counter, dressed in bedazzling neon red, informed me that the day's only flight to San Francisco was for 6:40 PM. I had misread my itinerary. For a second I was thunderstruck. There's just no way! I reasoned to myself. But it was true. Meanwhile, my friend Sam had been driving up from Orange County for the past 2 hours and was well on his way to pick me up at the airport. But Sam — poor, poor Sam — does not own a cel phone. I waited for his inevitable "Where the heck are you?" call from a payphone.
His call came at 9:30, an hour after he was supposed to get me. Turns out construction had backed up traffic. To his great surprise, though, he was not the late one. He would spend the next thirteen hours waiting for me.
Why thirteen?
Because my plane was also going to be an hour late, due to the sudden appearance of horrible rainstorms in the area. That's right — an Indian summer; and now, on the day of my arrival, a full weekend of rain. Meanwhile, I have to keep my cell phone off in the plane, and Sam, who has patiently waited twelve hours, must now wait one more, and he with no way to contact me.
I eventually arrive in San Francisco, plug my phone into a clandestine outlet, give it five minutes of juice, then sprint to the BART train and wait for his call. It comes. He is a bit frantic (understandably). Finally, at 11:00, I arrive at the Civic Center station, and we meet in person for the first time (for Sam and I are forum buddies, known under the aliases of Elijah Sight and DecafCoffee, respectively).
We drudge back to his car, exchanging pleasantries along the way, and get to the hotel. We are in no mood to party. We just want some hot tea. I go out a little later for a taco al pastor. And then it's off to slumberland. An entire day wasted, but happily endured for its own sake.
The next day, we wake up, dress, and head downstairs. It's off to Mel's Cafe for some much needed steak and eggs. But first, a witch! No really, a witch! A woman clad in black busts through the lobby doors, arms aloft, shouting, "Look whatcha did ta me! Look whatcha did!" The hotel manager bursts in front of us. "You must go! You must go now! I will call police again!" he screams, shoving her to the door. She slinks back towards me and Sam, but we've seen quite enough, and so we slip out for our munchies.
After breakfast, we take off for the MAC pro store to buy my wife some makeup (her one vice), and then down to APE. We are soaked. We are downtrodden. We are finally here.
Being my first convention, APE is to me a wonderland of visual delights. Everything is "so neat" and "quaint" and "just so cool". Sam, having just come down from his ComicCon high a few months back, is less impressed, but enjoys himself nonetheless.
My first stop is the Fleet Street Scandal table, where I greet my childhood buddy Kevin Dart. His artwork is nothing short of dazzling, so much so that he garnered some unexpected attention. I hadn't seen him in three years. There's nothing quite as refreshing as seeing old friends.
Later on I got to meet the talented Angela Melick of Wasted Talent. Her comic is super cute and she is quite the nice person. I hope she liked my comic! Sam and I made sure to each buy one of her adorable Portal prints. I also got a copy of her annual convention sketchbook.
After taking our first rounds, we attended Jessica Abel's panel, the first segment of which I recorded below.
Megan Kelso's panel was also fun. I spent the rest of the afternoon passing out portfolios and comics, hoping to secure an internship; talking with Kevin (and meeting his friend Chris Turnham and girlfriend Elizabeth Ito); and just kickin' it with Sam. We had some burgers across the street at this little family-owned burger joint called Susie's cafe. After APE we headed back to the hotel, watched "Assault on Precinct 13", and recorded a webcast.
Day 2 of APE was a bit more relaxed. We walked the full fifteen blocks through the West Addition and the Tenderloin (eep!) and got inside around 12:30. We went to Chris Ware's panel right off the bat — I would've taken some video, but we were in the back, and Chris had a sore throat and thus was speaking quietly. Upon leaving, I went to bug the CCA table a couple of times — I was hoping so SO bad to meet Julia Wertz, but alas, it was not meant to be. I left her a comic and a drawing. I hope she likes 'em.
We skipped out at 2:30 to go meet my friend Sandy, who we had coffee with. Again, it was good to see a familiar face. She was a real angel and agreed to let us stay at her place for the night instead of sleeping in a parking garage like we'd planned to. Upon ending our meeting, we were confronted by a hobo who I gave some change to, but, upon receiving more than he needed from the next person, promptly returned my change to me! He then went on to explain his theory of mind control for Jesus.
Um.
So Sam and I went back, buzzed around for another hour point five, and then headed back to the hotel to check out. We drove down to the southwest side, parked on Dolores, and walked in circles for a while before settling (begrudgingly) on Pizza Hut. And then... another webcast!
Eventually Sandy came home from church, treated us to hot tea, and then it was back to slumberland. Five hours to go. We woke up, took a super myspacey pic...
...and left for the airport, whereupon I recorded a final video blog.
And that's it!
Here's my comic haul.
Top row - Bob the Angry Flower promotional freebie, Robin Enrico'sController, Laura Park'sDo Not Disturb My Waking Dream, Cal Wong'sHattie et Millie, and a holiday card from Elizabeth Ito Rigth side, going down - five Jack Chic tracts (two of which are parodies) Second row - Angela Melick's 2008 convention sketchbook, Der-Shing Helmer's Snowball in Hell (kinda lame, but only cost a buck), a how-to freebie from Ken Huizenga, Tugboat Press' Papercutter 6 and free Nerd Burglar, and a Dresden Codak sticker Third row - Six adorable Sour Milk Sea comics and Angela Melick's Portal print Last row - Alex Robinson'sToo Cool for School, Jeff Lemire'sEssex County vol. 3, and the Fleet Street Scandal art book
