Business Casual

Sunday was the first convention where I felt actually prepared to attend as a guest artist/creator. I attended 2 conventions last year, but I really had no idea what to expect from either of them. I was unsure if anyone would stop by my table, I was timid about talking to people about my comic, and I was just basically lost in the convention scene. Now, while I'm still far from being a convention veteran, I feel that I'm getting somewhat comfortable sitting behind the table. I still suck at promoting my the fine world of Business Casual, but that's going take some time.

As for the Microcon itself, I had a great time and was very encouraged by all the people that stopped by my table to either buy some stuff or just talk to me. And for most of the day during the con, I was pretty busy with either talking to con-goers, doing some commissions, or chatting up some fellow convention guests. For some reason, I even failed to take decent pictures of the event. I didn't even remember to get a picture of my table at the convention. However, I do have a pic of my table preparation from the night before.




The con started around 10am, and within 5-10 minutes, I was already meeting some people and talking up my comic. One of my first sales of the day was to Microcon's and Fallcon's resident Superman. I've seen him at every convention that I've been to here in Minnesota, and this was the first time I got a chance to talk to him. I snapped this picture of him to use as a reference for a sketch card that I drew of him. It's a shame that I didn't remember to take a picture of the card itself because I thought it turned out fairly well.




I never have an actual sign up for commissions because I'm generally terrified of them. I just don't feel confident enough in my art abilities to do random art on the spot. But, at the end of the day, I somehow had cranked out 5 separate sketch requests ranging from a free quick sketch in a notebook for someone who purchased some stuff at my table to a full-page Brainiac 5 sketch. Still, I stupidly never got around to actually snapping pics of these sketches. So for all you know, I'm making all of this up.

Microcon is a smaller convention so I wasn't expecting a huge turnout. And I expected even less with the slight rainstorm that graced the convention most of the day. However, it seemed fairly packed in there to me. The con would never be mistaken for San Diego's Comic Con, but I could see a steady stream of traffic for almost the entire day.






Some other misc con highlights.

- Seeing such a positive reaction to my Rusty The Wonderdog comic. People devoured the free 6 page sample book that I printed, and I actually ran out of them before the con ended. I also got a much stronger response to the sale of my original art from the Rusty comic than I ever expected.

- Getting to chat with Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square. Paul sat to my immediate left during the con, and it was a delight to talk comics with him.

- Experiencing panic when a person at my table spilled coffee on my stuff. Luckily, not much merchandise was hit by flying coffee, and the sketch cards that were hit were protected in plastic pages. I was dumbfounded as how to react.

Whew...That's enough for now. I've probably rambled on for longer than anyone wants to read anyway.