Portrait of the Artist: Comic-Con Returns!

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I debuted a new table cover at the show!!

After a two year absence, the San Diego Comic-Con returned on July 21–24—and thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi, catch up, shoot the breeze and/or purchase comics. This was my best Comic-Con ever—and I don’t mean just the bottom line (which was true, even not counting the original art I sold), but in all other ways as well. I’m not sure whether the show was back in full force since it didn’t *quite* feel as frenzied and packed as in past years, but the venue and outside still felt plenty crowded. I make that observation with the usual caveat that I usually experience Comic-Con in a bubble, meaning that during exhibition hours, I'm behind my table for 95 percent of the time. That said, when I took a stroll down the marina promenade immediately behind the convention center after hours on Friday, there were huge crowds camped out so that they could get into the infamous Hall H the following day.

Speaking of bubbles, kudos to the convention organizers for requiring everyone to be fully masked and show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test in order to attend. With people visiting from around the country and the world, they did the smart and responsible thing—especially since I consider mask wearing to be only a minor inconvenience. I’d done the Comic-Con Special Edition show in November (which served as a dry run of sorts for this show) and already have been going to restaurants, concerts and plays masked, so I don’t consider such policies onerous at all. Plenty of cosplayers often found clever ways to integrate the mask into their costumes.

I don’t know if it was an anomaly, but I have started to notice during recent events and signings an increased interest in my trade paperbacks and more openness to new material. I’m not sure whether this is the result of pent up demand due to COVID or the result of my efforts to better promote myself, but I even ended up selling out of one of my trades—and this was after enlisting a friend who was coming down Saturday to swing by my home on Friday and bring more trades with him, as I reported at the time on Facebook. That was after realizing I was down to only a couple of those books on Friday.

Connections
As I mentioned, I enjoyed connecting and speaking with lots of folks. It’s nice to see that my work still can catch the fancy of people as they walk by and bring them over to learn more about it. People are still attracted to the “old school” classic vibe and clean lines. I'm always amazed that I occasionally barely have to do anything to "sell" my book before someone decides to buy an issue, a trade paperback or even more—and especially heartening, of course, when people return as repeat buyers, including those who first read my work from a previous year (or sometimes just the previous day), and purchase the rest of the series! A few examples:

A gentleman who had not been to Comic-Con for 10 years who told me I was one of two people he made a point of seeing at the show and said he needed every issue since #13 (I just released issue 23!).

A boy from Mexico about 12 or 13 years old who came over, picked up my book and said shyly and tentatively in broken English, “You’re work is GREAT!” and immediately purchased two trade paperbacks. That was the extent of our conversation.

A French gentleman from L.A. (he had settled here about 10 years ago, pictured at right), who was very excited to see me—apparently, he was disappointed that he was unable to see me at a signing earlier in the month at the Comic Bug comics store in Manhattan Beach, CA. He was not aware that I was scheduled to be at Comic-Con and stumbled across my booth by pure happenstance! We had a great conversation talking about French comics like Ric Hochet and Michel Vaillant, a car racing series, that he was thrilled to hear was a point of inspiration and reference for my next story.

I spoke at length as well with another gentlemen who bought some books about the great Jack Benny radio show (see, it’s not always about comics!).

It really struck me what a great mixture I have of both new readers and ongoing—I even had a guy come up to tell me that he had already reached his purchased budget at Comic-Con but said he wanted to come by and tell me that he had picked up several early volumes and found them “fun as hell”! He promised he’d start next year in the Small Press.

Anyway, it felt pretty busy throughout the show. It’s funny how certain things can go in waves—for example, on Sunday, within the span of a couple hours, I had several people run up to my booth to buy my “Death at Comicon” issue based on the banner at my booth and the issue’s concept. Of course, this is a perennial seller, but it was funny how I had this spike in sales on this one issue within a specific time span on one day. Just goes to show ya!

Lonnie Milsap

I also met and caught up with several fellow comics colleagues. I have to say, particularly since the pandemic, social media (particularly Facebook) has been a godsend in both meeting and keeping in touch with people during the pandemic. Though social media has its toxic side, I have found that as long as you find a community of like-minded people and stay in your lane, it is a great way to interact with people. It’s always a highlight to finally meet people you’ve only met online.

At the risk of omission, the sundry creators, industry folks and social media friends I saw and talked with included Tom Batiuk (and his lovely wife Cathy), Bobby Breed, Steve Bryant, Barry Gregory, Jenni Gregory, Jackie Estrada, Enrica Jang (my booth neighbor this year and in 2019!), Benton Jew and his SO, Deeana Iselgrud, Tom Mason, Scott McCloud, Lonnie Milsap (who I’ve known for years but only just discovered attended and worked at UCLA the same years as me!!), Bill Morrison, Rik Offenberger, Don Nguyen, David Olbrich, Joe Pi, and Christie Shinn. There were a few I hoped to see but missed—it was difficult to get away to visit the floor, particularly with Artist’s Alley on the complete opposite side of the hall.

Original Art

I’ve sold pieces of original art over the years, but on Preview Night, I had three people express interest in three different pieces! One minor hiccup occurred, however, when one of the buyers, a gentleman from Spain who discovered my work a few years ago, came by to purchase the piece he originally earmarked. Before we finalized the sale, he thumbed through my portfolio and stopped at a piece someone else said he was considering purchasing.

Noting that he had not seen it before, now he couldn’t decide on which piece to purchase. I mentioned to him how someone else was thinking of buying it—he sweetly indicated that he’d be willing to have me ask the other person if they were still interested, but I told him I didn’t want to keep him from getting the piece if he was ready now. I half-joked how difficult it used to be part with my original art (it really isn’t anymore)—he promised he’d give the art a good home and take good care of it lol! I posted about the sale on social media—and about 5 minutes later, the other person commented that he knew he should have purchased it lol. (I know the other person and knew he’d understand—he was indeed very generous in congratulating the other person.)

Comic-Con After Hours

I’ve never been a schmoozer or one for after hours parties—aside from my innate shyness, I also need to be on the floor the next morning relatively early to set up for the day’s show, so dinner is usually with my immediately family and buddies.

This year, however, I had the fortune to have Thursday dinner with Funky Winkerbean cartoonist Tom Batiuk and his wife, Cathy (more on that in a future post). Tom was a special guest at the show. On Sunday, I had a post-Comic-Con dinner before departing for L.A. with longtime industry friend Barry Gregory of Gallant Comics. We go way back to the 1990s, when he—along with his wife Jenni and my now-wife—were invited to an all-expenses paid trip to Montreal for a signing! We’ve been friends many years—indeed, I asked Barry to serve as my moderator/”wing man” during my Spotlight panel at Comic-Con in 2018 (where I was a featured guest and received the Inkpot Award). Barry is also my printer via Ka-Blam.

In my report about last November’s Special Edition Comic-Con, I mentioned that my wife and I had our first dinner together during the show in nearly two decades. This is due in large part to my late hours at the show and my wife handling the kids. With the kids older now (in fact, my daughter could not make it), we were able to have a grown up dinner together twice—once at a seafood place and another at a somewhat upscale Russian restaurant that I’ve actually eaten at about three times before!

After dinner with my wife on Friday evening, after she returned to our room, I decided to stroll down the promenade on the marina side of the convention center, from my hotel on the north side of the venue to the Hilton on the far south side—my purpose was to pop in on the Eisner Awards, where I arrived in time to witness, among others, Larry Hama, Howard Chaykin, and Alex Nino get inducted in to the Eisner Hall of Fame. Nino was on hand to receive the award in person and spoke emotionally about growing up in the provinces in the Philippines and of the many Filipino artists who paved the way for him, like Nestor Redondo. I also saw them announce the nominees of the Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, which included the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, where I had done a signing earlier in the month!

Anyway, it was a fun time and energizing as always—not even that flat tire I experienced on the way home dampened my enjoyment and memories!

Links to some key posts on Facebook during the show:

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