De-Con-structing

This last weekend (Saturday the 19th to be precise) was the Spokane ComiCon, and I was there exhibiting in Artist Alley, sharing a table with my buddy Matt Nelson. This was the third year I was there as an artist, though the first that I was there specifically promoting myself. The previous times I had been at the Comicsmiths' Guild table, representing both myself and the local artist group I'm a part of.

Sharing a table with Matt was a lot of fun, and I thought we were a great team, talking up each others' products to whoever was at the table and getting even more sales. This was also the first time Jenny was able to attend while I was exhibiting, since her schedule changed and she now has weekends free. We all had a lot of fun, and it was great seeing all our friends from out of town who were there for the convention.

This certainly felt like the best year of this Con so far to me. It seemed like there were more people this time, and it was just generally busier. I definitely did a lot better sales-wise than last year, and I think better than the year before. I was mainly selling prints and sketch commissions while I was there but I also had mini-comics, sketch-cards and copies of The Stars #1 (which I lettered) available for sale.

In addition, I printed up copies of a 20 page sketchbook (a popular choice for artists at cons) and an 8 page ashcan, which collected my 4 page story from the first Comicsmiths' Guild Anthology with a bonus intro page, plus sketches and pin-ups. I want to do more stories soon with the character (Seamus O'Kyte) from that story, so I made it up as a sort of Preview Book for the upcoming comics.

The next convention I'm planning on attending is the Jet City Comic Show in Seattle, on September 22. I'll be there sharing a table in Artist Alley with another buddy, and fellow local artist, Josh Montreuil. I'm intending to have at least one comic featuring Seamus available then, and possibly some more projects started as well.

Unfortunately I fell behind on my "In Geekness..." journal comics, but plan to pick them back up this week. I wanted to be ready for the convention well ahead of time, but that didn't happen - instead I ended up scrambling the past couple of weeks frantically preparing and getting things printed, at the cost of other work I should have been doing. I think time management is my worst weakness and the one I really need to fix this year if I want to be any sort of success as a professional artist.

I also got very little sleep the last week or so, and was generally stressed out from getting ready and worrying about the con, and I was completely exhausted by the time we got home Saturday night (after spending a few hours at an awesome post-Con BBQ party hosted by our friends Heidi & Levi), so Sunday I did virtually nothing beyond rest and running a lot of laundry and dishes.

But now it will be back to work, though. I've got a lot of real work to play catch-up with this week and, exhausting or not, the whole Con experience is a great boost to wanting to make comics!