Baltimore Comic Con Recap

The Baltimore Comic Convention was a great time this past weekend!  This was the first time I shared a table with 2 other people (Ellen Stedfeld and Carlos Abdu).  There are pros and cons to sharing a table with a lot of people.  Cons are that you have less space, it takes some time to coordinate things like transportation etc, and we learned that we needed to figure out how to work together to talk to people who passed by - don't talk all at once - either take turns or one person should give a summary of everyone's merchandise.

There are some cool pros too:  We had a special deal where you could get one custom piece of artwork done by all 3 of us!  Here's how it worked:  A customer wanted the character Ryu from Street Fighter.  Carlos penciled it:

 Ellen inked it:

And I colored it!

And it came out beautifully!  GO TEAM!!

Other pros of sharing a table are (of course) keeping costs down.  It's also advantageous have someone else "man"  the table if you want to leave the table.  You can also pool your resources together when you have multiple people.   For this trip Ellen found us all a place to stay with her friends (thank you Marie & Jeff!).  I took charge of the food by grocery shopping for us all the night before and making lunches for everyone.  It was so much cheaper buying a loaf of bread and everything for 3 people's lunches to last 2 days than if we'd all bought lunch individually.

Another perk was that we could share each other's display stuff.  I have my own piping archway that hung our sign, our drawings, and Ellen's mobile (as shown in the top picture).  Below, you can see my new story, "The Lucky Penny," in a special standing case that Carlos shared.  I want to get more of those!  He also shared those star Post-Its for pricing, which are super cool and effective because you can stick them right on books.  I had the new Power Rangers Megaforce book for sale (thanks to Michael Petranek for comps!).  You'll also see a bonus sketch of Mindy Indy as a Dodgeball Teen by Emilio Velez in the back.

 Overall, we all sold some stuff, had a good time, and learned a lot.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table!  As always it was great to meet new people and reconnect with friends and fans :)  VICTORY!

 

Toys on the Hudson Recap!

Had to take some time to recover after another 3 day show (technically a 2 1/2 day show).  The pic above is of the Westin Hotel in Newport NJ, where Toys on the Hudson was held.  It was a new thing for me to exhibit in a toy show.

The show was divided into many rooms of the hotel, with all the comic books and artists in one big room.  The Jersey Journal covered the show, and you can see more pics of the toys on their site.  It was a good show for me, despite low crowds.  I was given an extra table too!

I did another lecture about "Getting Started Exhibiting Your Comic Art at Conventions."

And of course I did a lot more sketches!  One guy that sold Transformers toys wanted me to draw any kind of "mecha" (robot) I wanted.  Check out the unicorn mecha in rockin' boots!  Have you EVER seen a giant robot in high heels?  I don't think so!

I sketched this Optimus Prime in keeping with the toy theme of the show.  Transformers was of course popular....

As was Godzilla!  I tried something new with this sketch and made a misfortune to go with it:

This guy wanted a portrait.  The spittin' image!

This girl wanted a My Little Pony.  I asked "old school or new school?" (because there's a new version that looks different from the 80s version), and she chose old school!

Yeah rockin' Firefly Pony!

The same guy that had me do the story book pictures at Super Heroes for Hospice came back for 2 more drawings!  Yay repeat customers!  These are like concept sketches for this children's book he's writing for his grand kids (rather than the finished art that would be in a book).

This one turned out extra awesome.  It's the "Rock King" and the guy described him as being made of smooth, speckled rock.  GO, Prismacolor Brush-tip markers!!

Overall, it was great meeting lots of nice people and seeing familiar faces.  Spiro from Super Heroes for Hospice (the last con I did) was at a booth right across from me, and my friend Emilio was at the table right next to me.  I also talked a lot with R. Allen Leider who gave me lots of helpful advice.  Thanks everyone for being part of the show, both exhibitors and fans!

 

King Con Brooklyn

The economic aftermath of hurricane Sandy was felt at King Con.  With most subways not running this weekend, people scrambling for gas, and the fact that it was the first really cold weekend this fall, hardly any customers showed up.  On top of that, the Lyceum had no heat!

It was hard to draw with my hands being so cold, and hard to even see the colors of my markers with little light (where my table was).  But I kept thinking of all the people who are still without power and heat, and that's what kept me going.

2 years ago the last King Con saw many tables lining the center as well as the perimeter of the Lyceum, and so many people you could barely walk the aisles.  This year with so many vendors unable to get there, some people got a table last minute for $25.  Despite difficulties of low attendance, other artists and I still made a bit of money.  During the slow times, it was super great to meet lots of creators and writers!  I talked a lot with Jason Quinones, who was at the table next to me.  I was even able (through the power of twitter!) to get my friends Sean Von Gorman and Josh Gorfain to exhibit.

I made my table money back with one sketch!  An anime called "One Piece" features a character called Luffy that can stretch his body like rubber.  The guy that wanted the sketch saw similarities between Luffy and Plastic Man.

Since many families with small kids came, I drew some of my favorite cartoon characters like Finn & Jake from Adventure Time and Sponge Bob.

After the con, I got some creators together for an after-party at The Rock Shop.  It was so nice to get to know other cartoonists and writers!  Jason said it best:  "You all helped to make what should have been a disaster of a con into something special."  It's also noteworthy that this convention still went on despite many events in Manhattan and Brooklyn being cancelled or postponed (even the New York Marathon!).  It took very passionate people to make King Con happen.  Cheers to getting NYC going again!