Our First Comic Book Signing - Wrap Up

Last Saturday we had our very first in-store signing at Collector's Paradise in Winnetka, CA. As part of the Free Comic Book May events, we represented the local Indie side. The store was pretty busy since they had a lot of great deals going on. We were setup in the middle of the store so it was easy for people to approach us. Some had questions on how we got started and wanted to know what cons we're hitting up next. We also talked about our up-coming projects which hopefully be done by the end of the year. People were genuinely interested in our stuff. And, our friends and family came out to support as well. It was a wicked awesome day!

Thanks to Ed and his fine staff at Collector's Paradise for the opportunity.

Jared, Giulie & Rob

Talking to fans.

Friends & family dropped by to support us.

Name Plate for Legitimacy

Jared signing a copy of Jingles are for Losers.

Long Beach Expo: 2012

Two Saturdays ago was the Long Beach Expo, a smaller, single day version of the Long Beach Comic Con. We missed checking out the show last year, when Giulie and I were busy scoping out wedding venues, but this time we were excited to make it our first post-wedding convention!

The expo was a lot of fun! This being our third time tabling at a show we've started to get the hang of it. We were able to easily set up and quickly pack at the end of the day. Everything went smoothly, making it by far our least taxing show. We didn't set the world on fire with sales, but Jared and Giulie were fortunate enough to be interviewed a couple times (one of which can be found: HERE) and I was able to talk to people from a couple of different comic stores who were interested in stocking Clown Fight (Metropolis Comics & Collector's Paradise). We've even gotten familiar with other creators during our last couple shows and it was great seeing a lot of them again. Some of the creators we talked to were:

Sheika Lugtu - OMGcow
Clint Wolf - Zombie Ranch
Kirk Kushin - Ozopolis
Gavin Andazola - The Stone Legacy
Chris Kawagiwa - The Sunless Circus

We had a blast and though it's not until November we're looking forward to the bigger, multi-day Long Beach Comic Con!

On our way to the show we saw spotted a DeLorean!

Long Beach Convention Center

A-Team van

Ninja Turtles van

Entering Artist Alley

Rob & Jared

Giulie & Rob

Clown Fight ready to fly out the door

Ultimate Spider-man cosplayer

Iron Man cosplayer

Jared looked surprised all day

The view from our table

Tables spilled outside of the main ballroom

One of a handful of modern comics dealers

Jared likes his Dustin Nguyen print

Post show dinner at Islands

May 19th, 2012: Collector's Paradise Signing

We're currently working on a Long Beach Expo wrap-up post, but something really cool also came about last weekend. After the show, we headed up to the Collector's Paradise in Winnetka, CA to join in the festivities at the Dames in the Atomic Age party. We were introduced to Ed, the owner of the store, and he offered us a table at their Indie Comics celebration the following weekend! So, priding ourselves on not being complete morons, we gratefully accepted. It'll be our first in-store signing and we couldn't be more excited! So stop on by and spend some time at a cool comic book store.

May 19th (Saturday), 12pm - 3pm

Collector's Paradise

7131 Winnetka Ave.

Winnetka, CA 91306

Check the flyer below for their upcoming events.

Pluto Moon Base: Preview!!!

My next comic, Pluto Moon Base, is coming along very nicely. The artist, Claudio Munoz, is doing amazing work! He's totally nailed the humor I was going for in the script, while far exceeding my hopes for the quality of art. More than half of the 12 pages from the story have been inked, so in the next few weeks I need to start looking for a colorist. I'm aiming to have the completed comic ready for our fall convention schedule. Fingers crossed!

Long Beach Comic Expo

Our next show is only a few weeks away, it'll be the one day Long Beach Comic Expo on May 12th. The show will be held at the Long Beach Convention with a $15 admission fee. Along with this being our last show until September, this will also be Giulie's and my one week wedding anniversary! Yep, we'll be celebrating one week of marriage the best way we know how, by tabling at a comic convention! So stop on by, say hi, and most importantly read some comics.

By The Slice - Reviewed

Recently the mini-comic has been making the rounds to fans and bloggers alike. Rob Clough reviewed it along with other slice of life stories over at his blog, High-Low: Check it out

By The Slice now online!

Great news, By the Slice is now online.... for FREE! I've uploaded it to the Graphicly website so it's accessible to anyone and everyone.  It's so user friendly, you can even read it on your smart phone.

By the Slice on Graphicly

If you want to order a printed copy it's still available on Etsy.

WonderCon 2012: Day 3

The last day of the show! YAY! BOO! A long (but great) weekend came to a close on Sunday. Fortunately the show hours were shorter and the doors opened later than the previous day, because by this time we were all running out of steam. After we checked out of the hotel, we decided to forego a sit down (a.k.a. expensive) breakfast and just grab something at the Marriott Starbucks. Though it probably didn't save us any time because the Starbucks line was super long!

As for the show, there's one word to best describe our experiences on Sunday, SLOW. It was by far our slowest business day and very little foot traffic came through our aisle. From the attendees I talked to, I got the sense that a lot of people had spent most of their money on Saturday and were only looking for last minute deals on back issues and trades in the closing hours of the show.

But the slow business actually made it perfect for us to each take turns walking the floor. As I walked around, it was the first time I actually realized how big the show really was! Sitting at our little table in the small press area and from being so focused on our own stuff, I hadn't fully realized the enormity of the con (though it's still small compared to San Diego, but then again everything is small compared to San Diego). There were tons of cool things to see or buy, and I couldn't help myself from jumping on some great last minute deals.

We met a few more comic creators, but mostly spent the day chatting with people we've befriended over the course of the weekend. Though before we knew it the show was over and it was time to pack up.

By the time we were leaving, the convention construction crews were already dismantling the floor. All the large corporate booths were being torn down, to be shipped to another show somewhere in the country or to sit in a storage unit.

The entire weekend was a great experience! We met so many awesome people that it's hard to remember everyone during the whirlwind weekend, but I highly recommend checking out the work of:

Chris Ryder: Dames in the Atomic Age
Daniel Logan & Dave Dwonch: Action Lab Comics
Fon Davis: Morav
Brian Apodaca: Zombie Outlaw
Chris Dickens & Phil Morgenthaler: Vigilante Project
Geoffrey Golden: Devastator
Jason Brubaker: reMIND

Every one of these awesome people helped me fill my backpack and head home with a nice stack of comics!

All in all, I feel like this was a really important show for us. It was our first multi-day show and our first full on, large scale comic convention. There are only a handful of cons in the country that are bigger than this one, so it feels like we've gotten over a hurdle and are now ready to take on anything!

'Til next year WonderCon!