Comic Meet-ups

With us not attending this year's San Diego Comic Con and on top of the lull in our convention schedule, we still wanted to keep up our comic book socializing. It's pretty much assumed that we're an indoor-type of bunch, with our deadlines and all. But we're not all anti-social vampires. We like to get out, occasionally. But at a convention, it's difficult to have a real conversation with creators, cause most of the time you can barely hear them or there's too much foot traffic around their booth. I've been searching for other ways to meet writers and artists in the comic community, so I signed up for a couple of groups on meetup.com. 

Living in a large city you're bound to find more than one comic book pow-wow. The first one I checked out was Comic Makers LA which meets once a month in Downtown. It's mostly artists, some working professionals and others still honing their craft. It's a casual atmosphere where everyone sits around a long table, sketching and chatting. It's kinda like stitch-and-bitch but instead of sewing you're drafting. It takes place on a Sunday so depending on my weekend warrior schedule, I'll try to attend the next one.

The other meetup group is Koffee & Komics. This takes place at a cafe, where it's more of a social setting. From where I was sitting I can see veterans and newbies making the rounds introducing each other. And for the next four hours people were coming and going, talking about podcasts, showing their sketchbooks and sharing industry war stories. At this point, I know somebody, who knows somebody else, who used to be Jim Lee's landlord. The world gets smaller and smaller. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.

And finally there's Comic Book Sunday where recently we chilled out with lots of creators and fans, post SDCC. This took place during a hot afternoon where it could've easily been mistaken as a BBQ. Alas, there were no grilling meats, but there was a healthy dose of "whatcha' reading these days." Price of admission is hard to beat, a donation of comic books for the swap table. We donated a handful of single issues and picked up a few as well. And since it's on a Sunday, availability may be an issue, but I'll try.

All in all, we met quite a few local creators whom we hope to bump into again soon. Like with most social gatherings, strange faces become familiar faces. And possibly, acquaintances can become friends...or collaborators. You just never know who ya gonna meet.