Yayyyy it's good to be home! Well, kind of. It was really nice getting to see the gorgeousness of the west coast again, and traipse about in Seattle's perfect (PERFECT) weather and pretend I lived there. I'm therefore always a little sad to come home again.
Comic conventions are always a gaggle of emotions and experiences for me, and after they're over it's good to get to relax, but also hard to relax when you've been so motivated and inspired to DO MORE COMICCCCSSSS all weekend. That is just part of the delicious nature of this comic beast - get all ramped up and exhausted creating stuff, then spend a weekend yelling and laughing and discussing comics all weekend, then flop home exhausted, but still wired and inspired to do more comics stuff once again. Sigh. Sometimes it's hard to sulk back to my day job after such experiences, remembering I have some Clark Kenting to do in my real life until comics become my real life.
Every convention I try to do better at The Thing I Am Worst At - i.e. promoting myself and networking with fellow comics peeps. This year I think I did a bang-up job, even though it wasn't without it's awkwardness (Yes, I did splash myself in the face with water as I was talking to someone). To put things in perspective, last year at ECCC I spent a lot of time hiding out in my hotel eating my meals alone. So this year it was bound to be better! Plus, it didn't hurt that I found some beloved comics peeps I've hung out with before, and they allowed me to chat within their orbit and meet others through them.
I think I've learned one of the most important aspects of networking - just try to be a pleasant human that's in the conversation. Just stand there, absorb, and most importantly, ask about and listen to the other people. Don't push yourself or your work on them. Participate, be a good conversationalist, enjoy the moments, and hey, maybe they'll remember you next time. And don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work. Or rather, if you THINK it's not working. True, you may get into an annoying situation where the other comics peeps pretend you don't exist or that you've somehow invaded their elite comics party, but sadly that's the nature of the beast. All of us creators are socially awkward in SOME way, and it's best not to assume others are maliciously being tool bags, just unintentional tool bags. (Plus you can quietly go home and unfollow them and they'll NEVER KNOW.)
Okay, enough of my convention musings. All of you guys who came by and chatted with me and told me you read Bonnie and/or Gods & Undergrads (and didn't hit me for not updating it for a while) and bought sketches and did things - you're all so wonderful. THANK YOU for being the awesome people I'm lucky to have as readerssss!!
Let's get on to the sketches! I was really happy with this bunch, they were so much fun to do.
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That's right, it's happening next weekend, and besides the fact that it's always a super fun show for me .... this year it'll be EXTRA out of control because it coincides with the release of my new book Part-Time Princesses!
