Wizard World St. Louis Day 3

Whew.

Wizard World is over and, though I know this is what everybody says, I am wiped out.  As I've learned, Sundays are usually really slow days for everyone at the convention.  Obviously, there's less people coming out to the con because most of them will all come out and do everything on Saturday.  In our case, however, not only was it slow because it was Sunday, but St. Louis also saw six inches of snow all day.  So, needless to say, there wasn't a lot of foot traffic, and from casual conversations with other artists, it sounds like everybody had a pretty lousy day for sales.  Now I see why some people don't bother to do Sundays.  If it's a lousy day for sales and they can catch a late flight out Saturday night, why pay for an extra hotel day?  It's a basic cost/benefit analysis.

So, cost/benefit for me, was it worth doing the convention?  Well, to use an industry term, I did not make table, which is to say that I did not make enough money to pay for the costs of using the table at the convention.  I did make some money, I was within double digits of "making table" but add the costs of parking, food, gas, and dang ol' Chris Samnee for charging me TWENTY-FIVE dollars for his awesome hardcover collection of The Rocketeer that he did with Mark Waid, and that starts to eat into the coin purse  (Capitalist jerks!).

But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a loss.  First of all, to be brutally honest, I've been operating Zero's Heroes at a loss for the last four years.  What's a couple bucks compared to the (much, much larger) production costs of putting together the actual book?  I'm perfectly okay with that.  The name of the game at this point is getting my work out there in front of as many people as possible, and to that end the convention was a success.  Sara and I must have handed out at least 1500 stickers, and while there were plenty of kids and adults who were just collecting swag, there were also a good number of people who seemed genuinely interested in the pitch I gave them after luring them to my table with stickers.  Though, it's entirely possible that I'm not as good at reading people as I think I am.  Time will tell how many people follow through and enjoy the comic.

Galactus

I had a fun time at the convention and I enjoyed seeing all the fans and, more importantly, the kids who are interested in comics.  The guy sitting next to me was a nice guy named Wade who made custom figures.  He had an awesome 6 foot Galactus made out of a mannequin.

Sitting next to each other for three days straight, we had plenty of time to talk.  He was frank about how he never makes any money doing conventions, he just does it to be a part of the festival, because a six foot tall Galactus is the exact kind of thing that people come to comic conventions to see, and he's happy to contribute to the overall experience, with the added bonus of seeing the convention for himself, and possibly finding a new customer interested in commissioning a custom action figure.

Like Wade, I'm happy to contribute to the experience.  The amount of people specifically combing artist alley looking for new, independent books was small, but they were there and I was glad to meet them.  I'm confident in the books I'm producing and I think with enough time put in, we can build an audience for what we do.

As I said at the beginning, attendance was low today, so there were less costumes, but I did manage to snap a few.  There was a good Rogue cosplay, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture.  Darn the luck, darn!

LUMPY SPACE PRINCESS!

Mr. Gumby

Hunter S. Thompson

Wizard World St. Louis Day 2

Whew, today was long, but fulfilling.  I don't have a lot of interesting things to report because I spent the whole day behind the table chatting it up with the con goers.  I was again fortunate enough to meet some people who were regular readers of Zero's Heroes, as well as a couple of aspiring creators and other would be artists.  I always like meeting other comic creators because they share a passion with not only comics, but usually a sense of Do It Yourself Independents.  From what I've seen, there's usually one common road into the "mainstream" of comics, and that's through self publishing.

Science Hero was a big success today.  There were a number of people who saw us from across the aisle, noticed the big blue Science Hero logo, and were compelled to come over and ask what it was.  So, I guess I owe Chris McJunkin a big fat raise for designing a killer logo!

We saw a lot of kids today, most of them lured over by the siren call of Free Stickers.  We also saw a fair share of parents who were looking for comics for their kids or grandkids.  Since Zero's Heroes is largely PG (sometimes veering in to the PG13 arena), it received a lot of attention from them.

I was also surprised by the amount of people who were themselves pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the notion that I describe Zero's Heroes as a Superhero Comedy.  I've never really thought of superhero comedy as being a novel concept, but I was raised on The Tick and Freakazoid cartoons in addition to the regular regiment of Spider-man and X-Men, so maybe I'm the outlier.  I suppose, if we're being honest, the regular fare you see from Marvel or DC these days is about as far from "comedy" as it can be, discounting the unintentional hilarity that they sometimes find themselves publishing.

All this is to say that, though I dread to dredge up the recurring complaint, it seems very obvious to me that Marvel or DC could be doing a lot more to reach out to kids or younger audiences with a wider array of styles and genres.

But that's okay if they don't.  Assuming there is a demand for such a thing, then it's a hole in the market that I can try to fill.  That's your Free Market Economics at work!

As usual, there were also a lot of great costumes today.  I managed to snap a few pics of some my favorites.  It's hard to pick an absolute favorite.  It's a toss up between Kiki's Delivery Service and Flash from G.I. Joe.  Of course, that tiny Harley Quinn was just adorable.  She probably had to pose for hundreds of pictures by the end of the day.

Dr. Quest

Kiki and Jiji

He's Batman

Yo Joe!

Tiny Harley Quinn

SPAAAAAAAACE GHOOOOOOOOOOST!

The Rocketeer

He does whatever a spider can.

Wizard World St. Louis Day One

Hello everybody.  I haven't been that active on the blog lately, mostly because for the last few months, I've been preparing for my first real convention season.  This is the first year I've ever been in an Artist Alley of any kind, peddling my books Zero's Heroes and Science Hero.  Today was the first day of Wizard World St. Louis.

This is the booth, dutifully manned by colorist, Sara Rude while I take the picture.  For a first day, I can report that it went very well.  We only made a few sales, but we gave out a lot of free stickers which people seemed to respond to.  Who doesn't like free swag, right?

Needless to say, being in St. Louis, the Dogtown print got a lot of attention.  I also got a chance to chat with the awesome Chris Samnee (Daredevil, Thor: Mighty Avenger) before the convention began, who's friendliness was only overwhelmed by his talent.

I had the great fortune of meeting a lot of other really nice people, a few of whom had actually read the comic online, which was a very pleasant surprise.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day, we expect to see a lot of people corralled through the convention floor, which means we'll be giving out a lot of stickers, I'm sure.

And of course, there were a lot of great costumes.  I've never been able to commit to cosplay, myself, but I appreciate the hobby for what it is.  Here are a few of the cool costumed people who swung by our booth.

Little Link!

ADVENTURE TIME!

GHOSTBUSTERS!

Nightwing and Batgirl

Superman and Wonder Woman

Both Sara and I are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who visited the booth!