Yes, ladies and gentlemen: believe it or not, Rick is a Con Virgin. (By Con I mean, Comics Con - not, "ripping off old, rich ladies"-kind of con). I have been in front of the booths before, perusing the divers and various wares, but never behind the table, showing off my stuff.
This is actually rather interesting, because I never did get my own space. I sat next to Jay Jacot - good old Jay - and practically squished myself between the stacks of Comics Obscura mags and displays. Somehow even my one-ton portfolio binder managed to find a space in there, and, egads, people were actually stopping to look at it. I tell you there is no better feeling than corralling perfect strangers and shaming them into looking at your stuff.
And guess what? I even sold a drawing! I got a commission for a Robin (as in, Batman and Robin), and I daresay it was a pretty good rendering. As in, you could tell where the arms and legs were. And that he was human.
I jest. It was damn good. Bow before me. No? Well, did you make five dollars on a ten-minute drawing? I thought not. Now, a little abject groveling, if you please.
There were plenty of rather odd characters, of course - this being a Con and all. There were Jedi, Sith, stormtroopers of various types and persuasions, a rather disconcerting monster with a sawblade-skull on one hand, and even a transvestite Wonderwoman (WonderwoMAN, we were calling her...I mean, him). About ten yards that way (imagine me pointing left) was a booth for Made In Michigan horror films from No Budget Productions. Much as I support our local film industry, most of it seemed to consist of strippers, slashers, slasher-strippers, lesbian strippers, and gallons of fake blood - not exactly my cup of tea. To the right of that was something called Captain Jolt, a bizarre little film concern using puppets, dolls, and processed dessert items; by the end of the night the poor guy was swapping his DVDs for comic books and sketches. And to the right of that, quite a ways down, was a witch. Yes, a witch. Go figure. She had a witch costume, a bubbling fake cauldron, a book of spells, and a lineup of Lothlorien Moon wands (so the display said). I'm pretty sure it wasn't a gag, either.
Ah, well. C'est la Con.
Spent my whole Con doing sketches. Did some of my characters; a Robin, of course (five bucks!); an alien; I even did some custom business cards, complete with one-of-a-kind image. I'm thinking I'll do these for the "special" customers - all the rest will get my standard blue business cards. That way I'll have more time to do more cards. See? A perfect system.
I'd like to make a shout out to Christie for picking me up, and to Amanda, Martina, and Monica for (cheerfully) bearing my odor and occassional Turrete's-like outbursts while riding to the Con. Can you believe it? I drove all the way to Lansing, squished several other passengers in a car on the way to Flint, only to realize that not only was there somebody from Howell (area) at the Con, but that it was the same distance from Howell to Flint as it was from Howell to Lansing - maybe even less. The gist is that I could have driven to Flint myself, saved gas, and even made room for somebody else who wanted to go to the Con.
Talk about sheepish. You could make a blanket out of me.
At any rate, thanks to Jay and Ryan Claytor for putting up with me; also thanks to Eric Wilmoth for giving me a ride today. I wasn't planning to come today (figured church was more important, you heathens), but after being at the Con for the day, the Imp of Being Geeked About Stuff has fully inhabited my brain. Church is every Sunday, folks - Con is maybe once a month! God help me...
Rick Out.
This is actually rather interesting, because I never did get my own space. I sat next to Jay Jacot - good old Jay - and practically squished myself between the stacks of Comics Obscura mags and displays. Somehow even my one-ton portfolio binder managed to find a space in there, and, egads, people were actually stopping to look at it. I tell you there is no better feeling than corralling perfect strangers and shaming them into looking at your stuff.
And guess what? I even sold a drawing! I got a commission for a Robin (as in, Batman and Robin), and I daresay it was a pretty good rendering. As in, you could tell where the arms and legs were. And that he was human.
I jest. It was damn good. Bow before me. No? Well, did you make five dollars on a ten-minute drawing? I thought not. Now, a little abject groveling, if you please.
There were plenty of rather odd characters, of course - this being a Con and all. There were Jedi, Sith, stormtroopers of various types and persuasions, a rather disconcerting monster with a sawblade-skull on one hand, and even a transvestite Wonderwoman (WonderwoMAN, we were calling her...I mean, him). About ten yards that way (imagine me pointing left) was a booth for Made In Michigan horror films from No Budget Productions. Much as I support our local film industry, most of it seemed to consist of strippers, slashers, slasher-strippers, lesbian strippers, and gallons of fake blood - not exactly my cup of tea. To the right of that was something called Captain Jolt, a bizarre little film concern using puppets, dolls, and processed dessert items; by the end of the night the poor guy was swapping his DVDs for comic books and sketches. And to the right of that, quite a ways down, was a witch. Yes, a witch. Go figure. She had a witch costume, a bubbling fake cauldron, a book of spells, and a lineup of Lothlorien Moon wands (so the display said). I'm pretty sure it wasn't a gag, either.
Ah, well. C'est la Con.
Spent my whole Con doing sketches. Did some of my characters; a Robin, of course (five bucks!); an alien; I even did some custom business cards, complete with one-of-a-kind image. I'm thinking I'll do these for the "special" customers - all the rest will get my standard blue business cards. That way I'll have more time to do more cards. See? A perfect system.
I'd like to make a shout out to Christie for picking me up, and to Amanda, Martina, and Monica for (cheerfully) bearing my odor and occassional Turrete's-like outbursts while riding to the Con. Can you believe it? I drove all the way to Lansing, squished several other passengers in a car on the way to Flint, only to realize that not only was there somebody from Howell (area) at the Con, but that it was the same distance from Howell to Flint as it was from Howell to Lansing - maybe even less. The gist is that I could have driven to Flint myself, saved gas, and even made room for somebody else who wanted to go to the Con.
Talk about sheepish. You could make a blanket out of me.
At any rate, thanks to Jay and Ryan Claytor for putting up with me; also thanks to Eric Wilmoth for giving me a ride today. I wasn't planning to come today (figured church was more important, you heathens), but after being at the Con for the day, the Imp of Being Geeked About Stuff has fully inhabited my brain. Church is every Sunday, folks - Con is maybe once a month! God help me...
Rick Out.
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