Emerald City Con Recap & Sketches!

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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Selling Comics, Big Easy Style

I'm currently reporting from a blank room full of piles of my belongings, hunkered down on two boxes of comics inventory. That's right, I'm all moved into my new home! Woo! Now, my next challenge is locating all of my stuff. And/or finding places to put them that make sense. At least my cats have come out of their litterbox, where they spent moving day smooshed together in mutual horror at the new enviornment and all the crashing around of the movers. It was the cutest truce I've ever seen in Kitty Land before.

Anyway, I wanted to take a minute to recap about my super great weekend trip to Wizard World New Orleans last week and share all the fun commissions I got to draw (if you follow me on Tumblr or Instagram, you were already inundated with these during the con!) Since I seldom do big shows I wasn't sure what to expect. Plus, being in New Orleans my table helpers/manservants were sure to be scarce at the very best (the lure of bloody mary's and the French Quarter is not something I would begrudge them succumbing to). WWNOLA was a nice, spacious con. It wasn't so choked with people that you had trouble getting around, yet there was a constant stream of attendees. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly enthusiastic and supportive about comics. Once again, as with other big shows like Baltimore Comic Con, I was pleased to see so many families there. Especially families who dressed up as teams of superheroes. I love the potential embarrassment of family superhero costumes, but honestly a lot of them were really pulling it off. Normally I don't get too jazzed about celebrity appearances either, but I have to say that walking in behind Kevin Sorbo and having Michael Madsen in my line of sight for most of the convention was pretty sweet. I wandered by the Walking Dead actors too, but sadly didn't get to glimpse any of the Star Trek folks. But hey - Patrick Stewart will be at Emerald Comic Con, so maybe I'll get another chance!

On to the drawings!

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