Another lettered state edition drawing in colored pencil, this one for Sue McLoughlin.
Things went very well at NYCC. I did better than last year with A Distant Soil graphic novel sales up a bit, which was heartening. Up by a third, I think. But it was nerve wracking, as most buyers were waiting for last minute Sunday bargains, so for awhile I thought I was going to get stuck shipping home boxes of stuff (nope.)
Here’s a con overview from The Beat.
I didn’t bring much to sell at the show anyway, since I knew I would have a very bad location (great for enjoying the show with friends and doing deals, bad for sales.) I also shipped the wrong box of art, the one with the Captain Atom pages and like works which don’t have much of a market, so comic pages didn’t move.
Still I had completed a number of advance commissions and everyone who ordered their drawings picked them up at the show, so lots of art sold in the end. I have never been asked for so many commissions before. I have raised my prices, but that didn’t slow down requests. I was unable to do them, alas, unless people asked in advance of the show.
I skipped most parties, but for the first time in my life, someone tried to hit on me AND a male companion simultaneously at the CBLDF gathering, which was quite a shock.
Rantz Hosely (who is attractive, yet married, I must conclude we looked decorative together) and I were talking quietly with one another at the bar when two very aggressive men approached us and asked, “Do you swing?”
While I stood there and blinked at them trying to process what had just transpired, Rantz quipped, “Sure, I like ’50’s music.”
Good times, good times.
At the DC party, I arrived very late and two men came to my table to sit with me.
Party crashers.
In short order, their ignorance of the event and what we were doing there became apparent as I tried to explain to them that yes, people really do draw comics with their own hands. Freelancers couldn’t get into that party, but by golly, these two dopes claimed their cousin got them in. They didn’t even look like they were the same species, much less cousins.
They asked “What’s this party for?” so that was a clue they had crashed it, see. It’s pretty bad when you don’t have market penetration at your own party. I got up to go to the banquet to get some food and they quickly gathered their things and left, but not before they had scarfed down some free eats.
Yes, I got sick again. I left the show early, and would have left even earlier had I not had a commission to deliver. The customer didn’t show until late on Sunday, and then I was out of there. Nothing major and horrible like last year’s bout with whooping cough, just annoying. And I sound like a frog.
There was one retailer selling buy one get TWO FREE graphic novels, and I did just that. I also bought an Aquaman doll from Tonner and I await delivery as they had sold out at the show. It was on sale 2/3 off.
Oh my God, it’s gorgeous. I’ll post a pic as soon as I have it.
Looks like conventions are the way to get uber-bargains. I am very much looking forward to Charlotte Heroes Con, because if the sales are anything like last year, I am going to have to back up a truck to the door to haul goodies away.
Bad news: very few vendors selling art supplies. Blue Line, where were you??????
c
