I’ll be heading down to Florida tomorrow for Megacon this weekend. Come to Brown 12 where I’ll be set up and say “Hi”.

I’ve added Disqus to the blog to enable comments. We’ll see how well it works. Textpattern does have built in comments, but I don’t feel like digging through and figuring them out. It’s easier to just install a third party system. It is a little weird though because to comment on individual posts you have to click on the post title. If you scroll down and post on the blog page you won’t be commenting on individual posts. Oh well, it’s better than nothing.

Yesterday was the first Cincinnati Comic Expo, and for a first year show it was very busy. I did make my table back, but even when I mentally prepare myself to accept that that is a good result I still find myself a bit disappointed that I didn’t make a little money. And if I add in gas and take out printing costs I probably lost money overall. This is not to say it wasn’t a great experience. Being only my second comic book convention, it’s nice to have one where the table is affordable allowing you to pick up a few things to hopefully break even on larger shows, like Mid Ohio Con, which is coming up. I was fortunate enough to have good neighbors. Terry Huddleston was to my right and was so busy we really only got to talk briefly, but he had some great art that was very popular. To my left were a couple of guys I talked to more than they probably liked, Bruce O. Hughes and Justin Wasson. They were a lot of fun and Justin is a drawing machine who spent more time with his head down and his hand active (get your mind out of the gutter!) than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Next stop for me is Mid Ohio Con. It’s a bigger show, two days, and I’m really hoping to put the right stuff together to make a couple bucks, or at least break even. A few things I learned from Cincinnati: people like known characters, and people are turned off by either the word webcomic or the fact that my Subterfuge book wasn’t the entire story (I couldn’t tell for certain). My 10 page mini comic for $3 sold more copies than my 52 page Subterfuge book for $6. This baffled me a bit. I did notice that some people seemed put off by the word webcomic. Possibly there’s a stigma there, or they figure it’s free online so why pay. I’m not really sure. Personally I don’t feel comfortable making money off of prints of other people’s, or company’s, characters, but I think I’ll have a few small originals of existing characters at Mid Ohio that will hopefully offset the table fee. I don’t think my own stuff will sell enough for me to not feel rode hard and put away wet otherwise. And I’m really looking forward to next year when Subterfuge is done and collected in a trade to see if it that changes things at all. Only time will tell.

From top to bottom, left to right: approaching the Cintas Center at 8ish in the morning, my quick watercolor sketch of Superman for the benefit auction, Justin and Bruce, the hall before opening, the hall about mid day, and a couple of the many costumed people.

GenCon was last weekend and I’m finally in the last throws of the cold I caught in Indianapolis. Overall it was a fun time, good to see old friends and make new ones. From the top we have me sitting at my table (exciting, yes?), my neighbor and all around good guy (yet slightly disturbed as we see in this photo) Joe Slucher, some cool knight costumes, Boba Fett and his single stormtrooper friend, an L5R playmat that I contributed to (mine’s the one on the far left), and the look down from the 17th floor of the Embassy Suites my wife and I stayed at.

I think most artists who attend and are wanting to work in the RPG industry are happy if they make their table fee back and maybe a little more. There are also other artists there selling various non-fantasy/sci-fi type art. All in all a diverse and fun group of creative individuals. It was nice to see people in person I’ve worked with and also talk to some I hope to work with in the future. I came close to making my table fee back and only time will tell if more illustration work will come my way. So, to recap, overall a fun time, though I could’ve done without the cold.

Next stop is the Cincinnati Comic Expo on September 18th. It’s is the first year for this particular show. The organizers are doing a great job getting the word out so hopefully it will be a great turnout for a first year show. Check out the to the right to see what it’s all about and if you’re close enough to get there, then get there!

Here’s the pile of stuff in my office, ready to be put into the car on Wednesday for the haul one state over to the city of Indianapolis and the giant show called GenCon. Hoping for a nice large amount of sales. My wife and I aren’t splitting the room with anyone so it’s a pricy trip, but I’m not really the share a room kind of guy. Well, with anyone other than my wife. I’m getting really stoked to see old friends and make some new ones. If you’ve never been to a big convention, it’s a pretty cool atmosphere. And if you’re going to be there stop by the art show and say hello.