Artistic Doom

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Well, as some of you may already know, I was just exhibiting in Seattle for Emerald City ComiCon over this last weekend. I got home earlier today and have been struggling to have the energy to do anything! Knowing that, I’ll tell you now, It was one hell of a con! It’s almost overwhelming how good it went actually. In comparison to the previous conventions I’ve done, this by far has been my favorite. That being said, I was slightly bummed out that I didn’t really have much of an opportunity to walk around to meet new people, mingle with old friends, see what other art was out there, or just flat out be a nerd myself. So sadly, the amount of pictures I took from the booth or around the convention are really rather limited… but I still have plenty to report! First, let me give you the low down on what I had with me, what sold the best, and what I’m planning on having at future conventions! And feel free by the way to take this opportunity to suggest anything you think I should have at future cons, I’m always willing to get feedback from others.

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The Merch:

• 20 different hand selected Unconscious Ink [ui] Prints
• A random assortment of [ui] buttons
• Reeder Rabbit – The Gift of Death – Zine
• “I Love You” – Painting
• “My Heart Burns for You” – Painting [SOLD]
• “Melting Tree Spirit” – Painting
• Reeder Rabbit Plushie [SOLD]
• Fire Plushie [SOLD]
• 8 Issues of Anhedonia Blue Chapter 1 [SOLD OUT]
• 5 Anhedonia Blue 11×17 Prints
• 5 Unconscious Ink 11×17 Posters

As you can see, I sold BOTH plushies! I was really excited about this, but it was sorta sad to let them go. They were the first ones I ever made and now they are gone forever! Oh well, I’m in the process of making a few more of those Fire Plushies and I am considering making a few more Reeder ones possibly as a buying incentive (buy the plush, you get a Reeder book free sorta thing). Interestingly enough, after going to APE just last August I watched Philippa Rice of My Cardboard Life sell plush after plush and it impressed me so much I figured I’d try it myself. I never in a million years thought they would both go, nor would I be able to make the quality plush i was able to make. Also, I was worried that Emerald City would NOT be the right place to sell such things but apparently it was the PERFECT place to sell them. In fact the first day of the convention I was about 15-20minutes late and was throwing all my merchandise up on the table as quickly as I could and not even 2 minutes into that a guy walked up and asked to buy the Reeder Rabbit plushie! I was shocked he didn’t even last through the morning! :] Another Top seller was the prints. In the first day I sold out of all 10 of my Zombie Twilight prints and several others the following day. I’d have to say about 60+ percent of my profit actually came from these prints! The take home message from this event, at least as it stands, is that people like to buy art pieces especially humorous ones that make them smile (90 percent of the prints I sold the buyer laughed at the one they bought) or something that simply looks interesting. Now knowing this I’m probably gonna work on taking an even broader selection of Unconscious Ink prints to the next con and POSSIBLY work on a few unique prints that look like art pieces rather than advertisements for my comics and/or projects. From watching the difference in the number of sales that Cari of Door made with her 11×17 art prints, for instance, in comparison to Ali and I with our Comic related 11×17 poster prints, I realized what people want is something unique for their walls that people will like to look at but doesn’t look like promotional garbage; which in all honestly our current posters sort of look like at the moment. The fact that I designed my Unconscious ink prints to look simple and classy, which I sold a lot of, and the Anhedonia Blue Poster that has doubled as an advertisement, which I sold ZERO of, I feel like that assessment of the situation is not too far off from the truth. So to any of you out there considering what art work or merchandise to put together and sell online or at conventions keep that idea in mind; art pieces not promotional advertisements.

Anyway, Enough talking shop. As far as the convention itself went, I had a GREAT time! I was on my feet just about the entire convention trying to talk with everyone who came by the booth. I barely even took a break to eat on Saturday and DIDN’T eat till after the con on Sunday. Even though I didn’t get much of an opportunity to leave the booth, several really interesting people came by and chatted with me; including Ryan and Vee of Channelate, a comic I’ve been reading off and on for quite sometime now and actually really enjoy! Other interesting things that went down at the convention is the fact that Stan Lee (the creator of more super heroes than I can count), Lou Ferrigno (the original Incredible Hulk) and Jhonen Vasquez (the creature of Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), were all within 1 or 2 booths from our booth. At first I was bummed that we weren’t over by the other Webcomics but over time I got over it cos we really did have a great location! Plus, what I heard from some of the other webcomic people is that Jeph Jacques’ line was so long that they were blocking the way to a lot of the other webcomics booths! So that alone made me glad I didn’t really have to deal with that, the lines for the aforementioned famous people were planned and guided off out of the way of our booths… the convention center probably wasn’t expecting that little old Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content would amass such a large line.

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The interesting thing about conventions, especially for a web based comic collective such as TNP Press, is that without them we may never meet our collective members; we often recruit our members via the internet and don’t necessarily live ANYWHERE near one another and therefore never have reason to meet. So just as I finally met Philippa Rice at the Alternative Press Expo [APE], this convention I met the guys who do Woody After Hours; Paul Westover [the artist] and Ben Carter [the writer]. It was great to finally sit down and mingle with these guys. I feel like I’ve already made close friends out of them and would love to do more conventions with them in the future. IN FACT, we are already in the works of talking with Scott Ferguson of Nerf This, Philippa Rice, Ali Showkati of SSWestern and Paul/Ben to do APE together this coming year! If we did, it would be the most collaborative epic convention the collective will have done to date! Who knows though, with the way life happens to us all there’s a possibility that this wont happen, but I’ve got my fingers crossed. At least I know that this year I will 100% definitely be doing San Diego Comic Con International with Ali (which we should be meeting up with Cari while there), and about 80% sure I’ll be doing APE again this year especially since I should be living in San Fransisco for school by the end of the year.

Even though I had a BLAST, and will definitely be doing Emerald City ComiCon next year, I’m REALLY glad to be home. Every night of the trip I almost felt DEAD for real and couldn’t wait to sleep. I still have a sore throat from all the talking I did and I ache like my body was pummeled by 1,000 angry seals but I’ve still got a smile on my face knowing that this was a very successful, eventful and fun experience. Thanks to all my friends and fellow comickers for making that possible!