Ah the Experience, Ah The Innocence
What to say about Wizard World Chicago? Hmm. It's really really big, and it acts as a harrowing for people not interested in the big boys. Think of the room as a filter...If you make it through Marvel, DC, Tokyopop, etc, then you must pass through the second tier of blue-curtained booths...then through the dealer area...and then at last artists alley, the end of the road (unless the loading dock is of interest). Anyone who makes it that far is looking for something different (or the toilets).
I met some great folks, nabbed a few interesting comics (three made me laugh out loud--Ouija comics are too cool), and we sold our share. Talked with another reviewer for the ALA Booklist (Hi Tina!), got some Neutro sketches (I will scan these for you in the coming days), got a fantastic piece of original art from an old romance comic, and satisfied my geek urge. We even vastly expanded our mailing list, thanks to a giant pen (think comedy big) from Walgreen's.
The best part was talking to people who'd read our books from last year and came back wanting more. That was a gas. Still, even with the filter in place, it's a tough room. This is still a con for people who want their existing tastes validated more than anything else. Its size and lack of comparably-sized midwest competitors draw in some folks interested in something different, but it ain't SPX, APE, MOCCA or the like.
We can be a tough sell. LJ Douresseaux told me once that once he learned how to read our comics, he really enjoyed them. I read a random quick review of THE FAIRER SEX that said it sucked because there wasn't one of those "And here's exactly who everyone is" pages. You need a page like that if you need to know that this guy is the rebel and this gal is the abused one to explain the action; but if you write motivations into the action, then you find out for yourself who these people are...they ain't the X-Men.
An interesting occurrence was explaining to folks that we were the artists and writers, as well as the publishers. There was a lot of surprise there; many folks thought we were merely salesmen. Okay, we're not kids, and several of us have dayjobs in frontline public contact; so we don't present ourselves as your average DIY types. That picture in the middle of the page here, that's us. Well, that's us having on the Sears Portrait Studio people, but there you go. I know whenever I get introduced as the writer of MAN IS VOX, people tend to disbelieve it at first, then get a little more creeped out, because I look basically normal. It's almost scarier, right? He seemed like such a nice man...
Still, it's easy to overdissect these things, resecting a liver until we find that it's just all liver. Cons always feel like Schwab's Drug Store, the place where you suddenly break out. There's a fever that can take hold. For some reason, each day you spend working, writing, drawing, publishing, none of those feel quite the same as the con daze. And that's strange, because those are the moments that matter. At a con, you're a raw nerve jammed in a river of sense data; no wonder most con stories involve drinking.
In the end, WWChicago was fun, but I can't help but feel there are greener pastures awaiting.
I met some great folks, nabbed a few interesting comics (three made me laugh out loud--Ouija comics are too cool), and we sold our share. Talked with another reviewer for the ALA Booklist (Hi Tina!), got some Neutro sketches (I will scan these for you in the coming days), got a fantastic piece of original art from an old romance comic, and satisfied my geek urge. We even vastly expanded our mailing list, thanks to a giant pen (think comedy big) from Walgreen's.
The best part was talking to people who'd read our books from last year and came back wanting more. That was a gas. Still, even with the filter in place, it's a tough room. This is still a con for people who want their existing tastes validated more than anything else. Its size and lack of comparably-sized midwest competitors draw in some folks interested in something different, but it ain't SPX, APE, MOCCA or the like.
We can be a tough sell. LJ Douresseaux told me once that once he learned how to read our comics, he really enjoyed them. I read a random quick review of THE FAIRER SEX that said it sucked because there wasn't one of those "And here's exactly who everyone is" pages. You need a page like that if you need to know that this guy is the rebel and this gal is the abused one to explain the action; but if you write motivations into the action, then you find out for yourself who these people are...they ain't the X-Men.
An interesting occurrence was explaining to folks that we were the artists and writers, as well as the publishers. There was a lot of surprise there; many folks thought we were merely salesmen. Okay, we're not kids, and several of us have dayjobs in frontline public contact; so we don't present ourselves as your average DIY types. That picture in the middle of the page here, that's us. Well, that's us having on the Sears Portrait Studio people, but there you go. I know whenever I get introduced as the writer of MAN IS VOX, people tend to disbelieve it at first, then get a little more creeped out, because I look basically normal. It's almost scarier, right? He seemed like such a nice man...
Still, it's easy to overdissect these things, resecting a liver until we find that it's just all liver. Cons always feel like Schwab's Drug Store, the place where you suddenly break out. There's a fever that can take hold. For some reason, each day you spend working, writing, drawing, publishing, none of those feel quite the same as the con daze. And that's strange, because those are the moments that matter. At a con, you're a raw nerve jammed in a river of sense data; no wonder most con stories involve drinking.
In the end, WWChicago was fun, but I can't help but feel there are greener pastures awaiting.
posted by John Ira Thomas at 1:48 PM
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