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Hooray! I’ve been selected to be a guest at this year’s SpringCon, being held at the MN State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, MN! I’ll have my own table and will be presenting my newest collection of comic strips called “And This Year’s Award Goes To…” along with the new version of my “Anytime, Anywhere Beer Passport”. I’m very excited to be a part of this event…please go to www.midwestcomicbook.com to get the complete rundown of this amazing two-day comic extravaganza!
Once a year I travel to Pittsburgh, PA for the Pittsburgh Comicon (www.pittsburghcomicon.com). I’ve been going to this comicon for over 10 years now. I’ve met some pretty amazing professionals and some pretty awesome competitors-turned-friends. It’s really not about the money when I go to Pitt, it’s more about the camaraderie.
That being said, let’s document for posterity my most recent appearance at the Pittsburgh Comicon.
Since I relocated to Minneapolis and Pittsburgh would be an 18-20 hour drive, I opted to fly to the comicon. My good friend, Michael Cole, creator of “Dragin” (www.dragincomics.com) drove up from Asheville, NC to meet me. He picked me up from the airport and we shared a hotel room off-site from the show. See, this year we wanted to stay somewhat professional and remove ourselves from the craziness that is comicon…
Friday was the first day of the show. It started at 1pm, giving us a lot of down time before hand. So, we enjoyed a breakfast at Bob Evans, watched some t.v. and arrived early at the table to set up. Traditionally, Fridays are pretty slow, Saturdays are the big sale days and Sundays are pretty much a waste of time. Well, this year, the tradition ran true. I made a few sales on Friday, cleaned house on Saturday (including a couple big original art sales and commissions!) and caught my plane early Sunday morning. And, as is my new practice, I took pictures of some of my fans and customers, gleefully holding up their new “Best In Show” purchases…
Kerry comes to the show every year and has been a fan for several of those years. This year, she was the first to stop by the booth and buy my books.
Matt is a collector of celebrity autographs. Of course, I signed an item for him...
Dennis is an old aquaintance from back home in Upstate NY. He is also a published non-fiction writer. His latest work is about the New York regiments in the Civil War.
Shawn had chosen wisely...He picked up the latest collection of "Best In Show" comic strips..."And This Year's Award Goes To...".
Bob was the blue ribbon winner that weekend. He sprung for TWO pieces of original cartoon art!
Jenna was a sweet young lady who found my one children's book to be mighty appealing. She said she was going to read it for one of her school programs...There you go! I've gone educational!
Ashley and Sierra bought a "Make Your Own Cartoon" grab bag. I told them that if they drew a cartoon and brought it back, I would trade it for an original "Best In Show" sketch. Sonuvagun, they did it!
Anthony was another fan that bought a grab bag and traded his creation for one of mine. His dad Conrad was awesome in his support of his son's talent.
My scaled-down table set up. Since I was flying, and didn't want to pay for checked luggage, I traveled pretty light. It's amazing how little I really needed to set up with.
My friend and colleague, Michael Cole. His table space was right next to mine.
On the night before the show opens, my good friend and colleague Al Dorantes throws a 'post-set up' party at the convention hotel. He asks all the creators that attend to draw something on ceramic tiles, which are later donated to the Make-A-Wish charity auction that happens later in the weekend.
My donation...Phoney Bone from Jeff Smith's classic adventure series "Bone".
Did I mention that the Ghostbusters were at comicon?
Commission Collaberation! Another creator, Steve Witmaak, collects commission sketches of his characters and prints them in a hard-cover coffee table book. Clever.
Oh yeah...I met Stan Lee. He autographed my ancient copy of "How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way".
Here I am representin' my (new) home city. This t-shirt was a hit at the show. Funny thing is I bought it at the Minneapolis airport before I got on the plane!
The trip back to Minneapolis was blessedly short and uneventful. It took me the rest of the day to unpack, sort my comic materials and get to work on new comics. I tell ya, a Cartoonist’s work is never done.
A funny thing happened when we moved to MN…The craft beer boom followed us! Being beer connoisseurs and ready and willing advocates and members of the local beer scene, we’ve been making friends. Last weekend I had the pleasure of a tour of Dubrue Brewing Co. in Duluth, MN. There I met Nick Cameron, co-owner and brewer. We sat for FOUR HOURS talking about beer, baseball and comics. We also spoke about my beer passport and getting it in front of the Minnesota Brewers Guild…See, I’ve been promoting my beer passport here and decided to take it in a more generic and open to anything direction. As in Asheville, my plan is to get this sucker into as many breweries as possible. Beer festival season is coming…Behold my Beer Passport Version 2.0!
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