VAGicon

Today I went to my very first comic convention as an artist rather than a browser/buyer.

But I’ll back up.

The guy who organizes the bi-monthly comic cons that normally happen at Heritage Hall on Main street finagled the annual “Comix & Stories” to happen at the Vancouver Art Gallery in concert with the comic exhibit “Krazy!” I, as you know, have been working on various comic book projects, so I thought I would sieze this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at a comic convention in the VAG, even though I don’t actually have any complete comic books to sell (that is, comics with my artwork in them). I’m working on the Rhinosferatu story for the Cloudscape Comics Collective anthology and of course The Underbelly with Kolja for his website, but neither would be ready for the con.

When the organizer said that he would be publishing an anthology for the Comix & Stories convention and that all artists who would be at the con could submit, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have something with a semblance of completeness to show/sell at the con. So I worked my ass of but ultimately my project (a tangential origin story of one of The Underbelly’s background characters) was rejected. Nevertheless, I finished a somewhat rushed page of Rhinosferatu (I’ll put it up shortly) so that I could have a sample for a brochure I put together with a little bio and mini-portfolio of comic stuff. That worked out decently but I quite literally finished it at Kinko’s on the way to the convention (it’s been a busy week folks).

Unlike the regular comicon’s at Heritage Hall which all happen in one big room, this con was split up not just between three rooms but three floors, each more warm than the last. I was on the middle floor (actually the 3rd floor, there was nothing on floor 2) and although turnout was decent I think it would have been way better for the floor 3 and 4 people if finding these rooms wasn’t confusing and winding.

I shared my table with a nice woman named Dex Thompson who Deanna got to know and I brought some buttons, stickers and CDs with me. The buttons sold reasonably well AND I got paid for my back cover of Outnumbered #2 (which was published and released at the con – my first paid comic book work!) AND I got a new sketch of Rhinosferatu by Steve “Much the Miller’s Son” Lecoulliard (stand by for that) AND Mike “Space Jet” Myhre promised to do one for me at the September con (he’s just getting into Lovecraft so we chatted briefly about that).

So it was quite fun all in all and I’m glad I did it, but man was I worn out from all the running around and lack of sleep. Super awesome thanks to Deanna and Kolja for moral support and watching my table so I could pee and chat with other artists at their tables, and thanks to Kelly, Paul, Geoff, and Jason for coming down to visit. Yay!

Plus now I can say I’ve had my artwork in the VAG.