The Post Mortem

Well, with Convention Season all wrapped up, let's see how things went.

STAPLE: The only bad thing about this show is the travel expenses. Between the airfare, cabfare, hotel, and food costs, I will probably never make a profit at this show. Yet, I'm still signed up for next year. Why? Because the audience at STAPLE is great. They're receptive and open to trying new comics, and you don't gotta pull teeth to make a sale. The boost to my ego alone is worth the trip. Also, I like Texas Chili. The lower price books sold the best (which is supposed to be the point of the lower priced books in the first place), so Gulatta! was probably our overall best seller. HFSAC performed admirably as well.

SPACE: I love SPACE. Again, we lose out on travel expenses, but I love the show because it's all Indy guys, and all the Indy guys are usually pretty cool to each other. I've made more "connections" with other pros at this show than at any other show I've worked. I also tend to spend more on Small Press and Mini Comics at this show than any other, so there's that. We did very good at this show, with HFSAC selling extremely well.

Free Comic Book Day at Comic Quest in Evansville, IN: FCBD at my "local" comic shop went swimmingly. Free table, virtually no travel expense (a little bit of gas money was all), and best of all, we actually sold some comics. The lower priced books performed the best, with Gulatta! and SDF: Pulp selling very well. HFSAC still managed to hold its own, too.

Chicago Comicon: Our most expensive table, but also our best payday. We saved on travel costs by crashing with some of Bro's friends (also got at least one free meal out of the deal as well), so that was good. This was the first show where I brought along some new stuff, like the TORC Press Logo shirt, the TORC Press Poster, and some original, framed paintings. We moved some t-shirts, but that was it. Groan. Still, the comics did their job, with HFSAC selling very well (we had at least two or three people buy the whole series in one felled swoop), and SDFP did good too. I believe we introduced "Death Nouveau: Ep 2" at this show, and it sold very nicely. Strangely, Gulatta! underperformed at this show for some reason. If it wasn't for the super expensive table, this would have been our best show of the year, despite the fact that I thought we were utterly doomed on Friday. That day totally sucked. Saturday rocked, though.

Nashville Comicon: Table prices were higher, but we got to stay the night for free with my cousin (Hey, Katie!), so it worked out okay. Foot traffic was spotty, but we still sold fairly well. This was the ONLY show where someone bought one of my paintings, and it was my first sale of the show no less! That was awesome. HFSAC, SDFP, and DNEP2 all sold nicely. Again, Gulatta underperformed. Also, again, we managed to sell all the issues of HFSAC to at least one or two people. Crazy.

GMX: The good news: Cheap table and free room and board (Hi again, Kaite!). The Bad News: Ssssslllllloooooowwwww foot traffic and a largely unreceptive audience. Having said that, there were a handful of people that tried us out, which was nice, and best of all, there were actually a few people that bought a full run of HFSAC, which blew my mind. Still, there is nothing in this world worse than working a convention by yourself and having no one to talk to and making no sales for four hours straight. That was rough.

Mid-Ohio Con: On the bright side, I split my table with Clint, so the overall cost was mitigated somewhat. On the other and, we were stuck in the absolute worst spot in the whole con. Holy crap, talk about terrible table positioning. Still, we did okay. Gulatta and the other all ages books redeemed themselves, selling very admirably (lot of families at the show, thankfully). HFSAC continued its job of being our flagship title, and SDFP did okay. In truth, I sold more comics to my comrades-in-arms (other Creator's Common guys) than I did to the regular folk. That was odd.

Next Year: I'm already signed up for STAPLE and SPACE, which are both in March of next year. That'll be a rough month. I've got a heads up on some really cool smaller shows that I might try to work as well. I'll probably work Chicago if for no other reason to give Bro an excuse to hang with Brad and Jen. I should try to work at least one Nashville show next year in order to hang with Katie and my nephew Jack. Also, I've heard a lot of good things about Dragon Con, but I'm not sure if I'm in the mood to travel to Atlanta, GA. Also, Clint and I talked about the possibility of splitting a table at some of the new Wizard shows that will debut next year.

I've got new plans of attack. New stuff I'm gonna try. New shows to go to. Buckle up, baby, cause we're going for a ride.