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Overall, a pretty god con. Glad I went.

Highlights:
“Thanks for the masterclass in chiaroscuro, Mike Mignola. I’d like to give reverse the usual order off things and give you my book.” “Cool, thanks. *flip through book* Oooh, cool! *keeps flipping* This is really cool!” Then I said I’d love to do a Hellboy short someday. He said they ain’t doing those now but he’s definitely keeping my book and you never know what will happen.

At the Prophet table, Simon Roy:”Before I sign this, do you like dicks?” “Oh hell yes I am all about the dicks.” “Cool!” Then there was a discussion about dick cosplay and the fact that Brandon Graham’s neck is about as wide as his head, which resulted in me sneaking back and snickering as I handed off a little drawing of Brandon’s DICKSONA. (They had been talking about how some people DID NOT LIKE IT when Simon drew dicks while signing, so now he asks first.)

“Oh, wow, you have really great River Song and Doctor Who outfits.” “We’re not cosplaying!” “Yeah, we just decided to dress up for the con! I was thinking of wearing my tux.” (They were DEAD RINGERS except for having American accents, I suspect they may have been the real thing undergoing a reality slip.)

Chatting with Amara’s sister Raina about, well, Amara, since Amara’s a good friend of mine and Raina’s next book is about growing up with Amara.

Hanging out with Dana for a weekend behind a booth.

Lowlights:
90% of Friday. One customer, scarily little traffic in my corner of the con. I was direly afraid it was going to go like this al con and basically had nothing to do but slowly melt down and occasionally tweet my worries. Friday ended with the Mignola signature on a book and the exchange at the top, but I still ended up curling up and crying for a bit when I got home. Now I know better; even a megacon is stupid slow on Friday.

I don’t think I made back my booth cost, but I’ve signed up for next year. My placement note? “Closer to the central flow than 2503 was in the 2013 plan, plz! <3”

What I did definitely make was a decent number of new fans and a few connections. I ran out of Rita fliers, and then I ran out of business cards. And then I printed up a couple sheets Sunday morning and ran out of THOSE by the end of today as well.

Also, my takings must be considered to include this.

I think I spent like… $25 for the whole lot. I’d go up to people whose stuff I wanted, and say “I’d like this book! I can give you money, or would you like to swap for my comic?” All but two people agreed enthusiastically after flipping through Rita. Admittedly about half of them were already aware of my work to some degree but STILL. Twelve comics in exchange for ten copies of Rita and two comics. I shan’t say who said no, I feel like that’s something best left private.

The two times my swap target had a tablemate, they looked at the book too and said “ooh, would you like to swap with me too?” To which I quickly decided my policy is always YES: if the person whose book I want thinks you’re cool enough to spend a whole con with, then I’M GAME. Also I would totally feel like a dick saying no.

(I think the rule of thumb, if anyone else wants to try this game, is “swap with people who are at about the same skill level”. Bonus points if they’re doing the same general kind of stories you are – there are FAR too few good SF comics in America, and I think everyone who makes ’em is hungry for more.)

A chat with one swapper about “my god how can you afford to sell these nice hardcovers so cheap” (answer: “Kickstarter paid for ’em all, plus printing in China!”) resulted in a pointer to his printer. And afterwards I was all, omfg, I have been NETWORKING, and I don’t feel like a sleaze at all. And now there’s several people who’re working on stories close to mine in one way or another, who will kick back with my work and maybe post about it and/or link to it. And we all have cool comics to read!

I also learnt some lessons about selling. Furry cons are small enough that if you’re pro-quality you can just sit back and people will come up to your table without prompting, for the most part. A megacon like this is chock full of people who have been pros for years, and of all kinds of distractions, so I found myself watching what my neighbors (the reMind crew) were doing to draw people to their table and shamelessly swiping. A simple “Hi!” to a passer-by that looks like the type of person to groove on your work; if they slow down and look at me and my wares, then “Would you like to have a look at my comic?” while lifting it up and starting to offer it. Not thrusting it at them, just picking it up. And if they bite, then I give them the elevator pitch (“It’s about a robot lady who’s dragged outside of reality by her ex-boyfriend”), which always got a grin, and enough interest to start flipping through it. (Unless they were drawn to the Tarot deck, in which case I talked about that some. I wasn’t really pushing that; I figured the people who needed it would see it and know.) Dana started playing with an elevator pitch for ‘Heavenly Nostrils’ after seeing how surefire mine was.

And finally here is some photodumpery.