During Phoenix Comicon, Christian and I were interviewed for many, many sites.
Now, I finally have some links to share with you.
First off is the review at Land of the Nerds for our webcomic Validation. The review also discusses the “Fake Geek Girl” phenomenon and how our webcomic tackles that issue.
Then we got an interview with Watch Play Read discussing our webcomic, ladies creating comics, and getting published. The photo there makes me look like a class-A dork, but that’s ok.
Last week I packed all my stuff into a car, left enough room for Marc the Boyfriend, myself, and some food, and we drove all the way from Phoenix, Arizona to Saint Clairsville, Ohio.
According to Google Maps, it’s a trip totaling 2,033 miles.
My car is amazing. Not only did she not break down but she’s like a bag of holding, because I managed to fit a bedroom and an office in it.
On Day 1 we made it through Arizona…
Rest area off of I-17 heading north to Flagstaff, AZ.
And we stopped at New Mexico and camped out for the night.
Rest area off of I-40 in north-ish New Mexico.Marc the Boyfriend!
We hit the road again in the morning and stopped at Albuquerque because the last time I passed through there, I stopped at a place called the Owl Cafe. I freaking loved their food there, so Marc and I had to stop and get breakfast.
There is no such thing as too much bacon.
We kept going and passed through the rest of New Mexico, then the Texas panhandle (we passed Cadillac Ranch), and then into Oklahoma.
Oklahoma rest areas serve coffee, but this one was closed.
If there’s any one thing I noticed about the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma, it’s that the wind never stops blowing.
I’m not joking. All of the trees grow at crooked angles because of the wind.
We stayed the night outside of Oklahoma City, and then the next day we went on through Missouri.
The Road Cone God was spotted at a Missouri rest area. Make offerings to him to ensure your construction project gets completed.
I drove us through St. Louis because the interchanges from I-40 to I-70 are a butthurt-and-a-half and I had driven it at least twice before.
Then we got pizza in Illinois and stayed the night in Indiana.
It was the darndest thing, though.
Marc and I were trying to get to Ohio before we finished the day, but ended up staying in Indiana at three in the morning because we were too tired to keep going.
When we hit the road in the morning, the Ohio border was (I kid you not) right next door to our hotel.
But we made it home on Sunday.
SO. MANY. BOOKS.
I took a few days to unpack and settle in.
But now I’m available for conventions in Ohio and the surrounding states!
In fact, on the road trip over here, my friend Chloe and I secured a spot at the Toledo Art Walk next month!
The Toledo Art Walk is happening July 24th from 6 pm to 9 pm. More details about the art walk can be found on their website.
Something tells me that I’m going to be making an entire comic (or two) with this most marvelous of tools: the brush pen.
A Sakura Pigma archival ink brush pen, to be more precise.
Now if only they work with Prismacolor markers…
OH WAIT…
Click for larger image.
THEY DO.
I think I’ll be using this type of pen to draw Charlie & Clow AND The Legend of Jamie Roberts.
I love the free flow of the brush pen, and it’s much more controlled than a paint brush, plus it keeps a better ink flow.
That’s my least favorite thing about working with paint brush and India ink: the ink sputters and turns grey JUST as you start to get into a groove.
I don’t want to interrupt my groove! I want to draw!
Thankfully the brush pen doesn’t do that because 1. it has its own ink well built in, and 2. it’s way more confident than the wimpy paint brush. The brush pen could totally beat up the paint brush and steal its cookies.
With all of that said, I’ll definitely be redrawing what few Charlie & Clow pages I have inked.
But uh…
Charlie & Clow, page 1, still in progress. Click to enlarge.
…Oh boy that’ll be a pain to redo.
I love you, city-scapes, but you are a right pain to draw, much less re-draw.
Right now you might be thinking, “No! You don’t have to do it over again! Save yourself the effort!”
I’m going to anyway. I HATE how the cross-hatching turned out on this page. It’s messy, it ruins the skin complexions I’m trying to illustrate, and it’s way too time-consuming. (And in comics, you need every minute you can scrounge up).
I’m going to redraw it with brush pen, and grey markers for tones. That, and Charlie needs a slight costume change.
I was at Phoenix Comicon this past weekend. Now that it’s done, I have the focus to talk about how to run a table at Artist Alley.
I’ve had tables at conventions for a little over four years now. With all of that experience, here are some of the basics I learned. Let’s start with before and during the con:
Get your table number. Sounds so basic it’s dumb, but it’s super important to know where your table is at the convention. On that note, know where the Artist Alley will be in the building. Find the room number and where the bathrooms and food are located.
Bring water. This is especially important because you’ll be talking to a lot of folks. Bring snacks if you can, too (it’ll save you money because con food can get pricey).
Bring a buddy. Your buddy will help you sell your work, watch your table while you get food (or even better, get food for you both), and watch over the table while you go to the bathroom. Your buddy can be anybody: a friend, a significant other, your work partner, your mom…
Take breaks. You’re either doing a lot of standing or a lot of sitting. Take a second to stretch out even if you can’t leave your table. Be on your feet for a bit if you’re sitting a lot. Extensive periods of sitting is actually very bad for your health.
When you’re at the convention, you should have these things with you for your Artist Alley table:
Tape. To hang signs on your table, make minor repairs, or help out another artist who forgot their tape.
Cashbox, with $50 in bills. Really you can have over $50 if you can manage it. My point is, you NEED change. Because there will be customers who have $20 or $50 bills and they will be sad if you can’t make change for them. (People want to support you).
A Card Reader. You can get one from Paypal or Square. I use Square. Either way, they connect via your smart phone. So bring that with you, as well.
A Sketchbook and some art supplies for commissions. There will be people asking if you do commissions. Be prepared.
Sharpies for signing your work.
A Notebook for tracking sales. I track my sales by day, one day on each page. Tracking sales will tell you what’s working and what isn’t, so you know what to make for next year (or next con).
Scissors (optional) just in case it’s hard to cut your tape or something snags. Alternatively you can be Cosplay Medic, helping cosplayers fix their costumes on the spot.
Running sales? This will be tricky for some of you. There are tips everywhere online to help you sell better. Some articles will be linked in a moment.
However, I’ve been in retail sales for four years, not counting the convention circuit. I’ve personally found the following things to be helpful:
Don’t be a salesman. At least, don’t be the stereotype of a salesman. You know the stereotype: sleazy, weird, and not too interested in the people they’re talking to unless that person becomes a means to an end. Alternatively,
, where the customer is always right and you do everything possible to please them, even if you think they’re a grade-A creeper or a professional douche nozzle. Also, there will be people who say they will buy your work but never come back. Accept this. It will happen.
Talk to your customers like they’re people. Because really, your customers are people. They may be excited, bored, lost, or overwhelmed. Try to understand where they are coming from. Ask them if they’re enjoying the con so far. Pay attention to what they say and how they say it. Don’t try to change their attitude. Just meet them halfway and have a conversation. (This is a good way to make friends, too. Friends are awesome).
Rotate your pitch. Your pitch is how you explain your work to people. Try to have two or three different spins on your pitch so you don’t repeat yourself (that much) – or worse, annoy your table partner or neighbors.
At the end of the day, take some time for yourself. I’m a bit of an introvert. But when I’m selling at a con, I’m in full engagement mode and talk to almost everyone I meet. However, I take some time afterwards to be by myself and calm down so I don’t overstimulate. Do the same for yourself so you don’t drain.
If you need more pointers on selling, 99U made a good article for introverts on self promotion.
The Webcomic Alliance also have a useful post about table set-up (though be warned that it can get pretty heavy on the marketing jargon, like “optimize,” “brand,” and “content”).
Thank you for reading!
If you found this blog post useful, please let me know in comments and share it with your friends!
