C2E2 post-game report

 (written 4/16/12)

1am and I'm sitting in Mr. Greeks gyros on Halstead thanks to Amtrak changing their policy about people waiting overnight for their trains. Sucks, but gives me time to reflect on the past couple of days working my artist alley table at the third annual C2E2.

Other than the waiting right now, I'd call the weekend a success. Once I add in some of the cash that was in my pocket at the end of the day fri and sat, I made my table fee back so it falls into my good/solid range on the artist alley success scale. (A decent show you pay for the gas you use. A good/solid one pays gas and table fees. Outstanding shows pay travel, table and hotel.)  The show might have started slow, but ended strong.

Came up Thursday using the train out of Carbondale. Uneventful ride with me getting 8 pages of work for hire script done between Rantoul and Kankakee. Met up with longtime Digital Webbing bud Glenn Jeffers and dropped my bags at his place before hitting a local bar to catch up. After a couple of beers, we crashed and on Friday morning I was ready to take on my first "official" artist alley table at a Chicago convention in five years.

Thanks in part to my giving links to 51 DELTA and FRACTURES on Comixology in my AA application, I was placed in the "web comics pavilion." Friday for me was weak. Every show has a personality and quirks. Back when you could still walk up to the door and get into SDCC on a Saturday, that was "locals day" when everyone would come in see the costume people and hunt for freebies. C2E2's freebie scavengers came thru Friday. I didn't have any giveaways like my neighbors on either side, but did the "Better Off Dead" special ("$2!") in honor of John Cusack being a guest on old DWP issues. Those would be the only things to move.

After crashing another night at Glenn's place, I hit the con just before 11 Saturday morning. Another slow start, but a lot of traffic led to more sales - primarily the lower priced DWPs & DREAH SPECIAL. Was pleasantly surprised by a visit from DREAH fan John. John owns the artwork for the story in DWP #12 and most if not all of the DWP #22 story pages. He was very happy to see the "lost story" in print and I may have to get he and Sarge together to talk about selling some more pages. Finally started getting nibbles on the 51 DELTA trade as the "Hogans Heroes at Area 51" pitch began to click in the afternoon.

You may notice I've not talked about seeing or getting to talk to many of my Digital Webbing friends. A lot of that was due to being tied to the table. In the past I've usually shared a table or wound up sitting in with a friend at their table, allowing them to get up and walk/do a meeting/whatever and I had the same luxury. On this trip I was flying solo and my usual con buds had passed on doing pro badges. Still managed to touch base with nearby friends Andie Tong, GW Fisher, Comic Geek Speak's Pants, Josh Elder, Ed Catto and newly announced Fantastic Four penciler Ryan Stegman. Bar-con led to running into Seth Demoose, Dirk Manning, JK Woodward and Ben McCool.

Like I said, every show has its personality. 90 to 95% of them are dead on a Sunday. At C2E2, that has been my best day. Last year sitting in with Chris Kirby and slinging older Markosia trades to this year with my own stuff - Sunday's just seem to make my stuff click with the folks I was pitching to as they passed by. I think it also helped that the show was so loaded, Sunday was the first day those folks who are willing to try new/Indy product were really able to seek it out. I may have also stepped up the hand selling on 51 DELTA as that was the big seller of the day after only moving a couple fri and sat. The IT GIRL MURDERS preview book was also getting some love from the crowd and the DREAH special sold itself with the cover Sarge had put together. Half went 3-for$5 with the special, DWP 12 & DWP 26, while the other half just dug the cover and only wanted the special. ("Fan Service" is your friend kids) In the end, I am coming home with only 3 copies of 51 DELTA and about the same number of DREAH specials. Also managed to give a copy of the DREAH book to Danielle Corsetto of "Girls With Slingshots" for her files as I used the sketch she did for me back in '07 as part of a back up feature.

No regrets from the show other than winding up missing the Captain Action panel Saturday when I had a sudden rush of sales as about to go to the panel. As that was the start of a decent day of sales, I can live with it. Even the lulls were productive, with ideas flowing for some art prints to tie-in with IT GIRL. With the writing picking up and the likely hood the IT GIRL MURDERS trade will be out and a possible DREAH collection to add to the table, it is a safe bet I will try to come back for year four of the con.