Well. This has been a very different con from what I’m used to.
It’s a small show. Bigger than most furry cons that are not Anthrocon, but smaller than most of the comics shows I do. (And of course my standards there are skewed what with one of the five biggest comic cons in the US being my hometown con.)
But I sold like crazy. I brought twenty copies of each volume of Rita; I sold out of volume one around 2PM on Saturday. Which was three hours after the dealer’s room opened. This is a crazy outlier compared to all the other cons I do; normally I’d be bringing some of those things home with me, I sold most of the twenty copies of v2 I brought as well; I think I have like maybe eight at most sitting on my table right now. And one Tarot deck out of what I brought left.
Walking around the show during setup was interesting. Very strange to walk around a comics con and not see any walls of Marvel/DC fan art. I saw one person affixing a Spider-Man balloon to the top of their sign as an eye-grabber, and later I saw a few bits of what might have been Fifth Element fan art at one table. But largely it was people selling their own creations, and, if my sales were any guide, people buying those personal works in volume. I will probably be applying for 2016. And I will be shipping a lot more books.
Then I got to go to the Ignatz awards and see my room-mate fail to get a brick for ‘Best Online Comic’. Welcome to the club, Blue; there will probably be a few years to go until you sweep the Ignatzs, or some other award, with ‘best new creator’ and a couple other works. And then I hit the dance, about which the best thing I can really say is that it made me really realize what one of the things is that I’ll miss if I never do another furry con again – furries put on amazing raves, in big ballrooms full of people dancing in crazy light-up costumes, with fandom DJs who have a huge collection of high-energy electronic dance music and a fine sense of mixing for the crowd. This was… well, once the DJs changed it was okay, but it was smaller than some dead dog parties I’ve been to at furry cons. Furries know how to party.
I’m writing this on Sunday morning. I’ll probably hold down the table working on Rita, and maybe selling a few v2 to people who only took a chance on 1 and devoured it last night. I get one or two of those most cons. But first I need to go have breakfast and have my fifteen minute long pitch meeting with Nickelodeon, who’s actively soliciting them here. Will they be interested in my show? Who knows. The best I’m really hoping for is “holy shit this is neat but it’s so far outside of what we could ever do, sorry, good luck!”. Unless they are secretly looking for something to compete with the several continuing shows over at Cartoon Network.
…A bit later. They were interested in my pitch, but they are explicitly looking for proposals for 2-3 minute cartoons. I have a week to figure out how to fit the basics of the whole setup into that much space, and send them an outline. I went and sat out in the sun with a bagel and some water in the time between my pitch and the show floor opening; I now have a first draft of a cartoon, based on their suggestion of having the two teams compete for something, and Kin’s idea from last week of having one of the first episodes on both sides be a rescue, so as to establish them both as Good Guys. When I get home I’ll see how badly it fits into the alotted time, and decide how many optional things I have to leave out and how many essential things I have to grit my teeth and cut.
Now I am sitting in the dealer’s room for the second and last day. Not really bothering to try and pitch anyone very hard. I may get up and wander some, possibly even buy a few comics? Wish I’d brought more merch. Next time.
…Later, in the airport. Scott McCloud stopped by my table and said hi during his swing through the dealer’s room. SENPAI NOTICED MEEEEEE. Nothing much else interesting. Blue and I finally got a chance to hang out and chat before we left the hotel; our tables were nowhere near each other, and we basically saw each other as sleeping shapes in the bed for most of the con. We bonded over the game of “Who Directed This Warner Bros. Short?” as we packed, then chatted on and off as we rode the subway through a series of insanely brutalist stations to the airport.
I have several hours of airplane ahead of me now. I’m going to be so damn glad to get home.