San Diego '10: After Action Report

Few noticed the two men who got off Flight 490 that day. One was bearded and wore green. The other had on tan shorts and a Captain Hammer t-shirt. They were indistinguishable from the horde of nerds around them. That’s how they wanted it.

They strode to baggage claim, their eyes invisible behind black sunglasses. There they picked up several large, unassuming bags. If someone had been paying attention, they would have heard the unmistakable rustle of a belt of .50 ammo and the clicking of machetes against each other. These men were no ordinary nerds. They came not to just sell comics. They came to do battle with the very forces of hell.

Oh, wait. Sorry, those guys weren’t us. We were the nerds who couldn’t quite manage to get ten feet without dropping a piece of luggage.

Seriously.

Despite the luggage dropping, all in all we had a great con. We were in the Small Press area and it stayed really busy all four days. Leigh and I rarely left the table and we ended up selling out of issues #1 and #2. It was easily our best con by a long-shot.

To our right was Cody Vrosh and his lovely wife Sheatiel Sarao from Binary Winter Press. They were very nice, though I continually tripped over their display. To our left was Josh Warner from Hanging Chad and Sean Forney from Savage Mind Comic Studio. Both Josh and Sean were great guys and both of them helped chat up our books to attendees, so if you’re looking the best damn Super Hero Moose comic or Little Red Ridinghood adaption you can find, go talk to these guys.

Around us, in no particular order were: WCG Comics, Crowbar Medic LLC (can't find a page for them), Super Searnold, Strange Matter Comics, Possum Press/Ultraist Studios, Chris Wisnia, Pirate Cove, 17 Machine Studios, Devon Devereaux Illustrations, TNP Press, Kennon James Illustrations, Studio 407, Pen 2 Paper Entertainment, and Ms. Monster & B-Minus Productions. All of them were very cool and we had a lovely time in Rows K-L of the Small Press area.

Also, shout outs to our good friends Jason Martin from Super Real Graphics and Kevin McShane from Lobrau Productions. They weren’t lucky enough to be in the same row with us, but not everyone could be.

I also got to talk with writers and personal friends Bill Harms and Eric Trautmann, both of whom came by the booth. Bill even dropped off a copy of his new novel Dead or Alive for me, which was much appreciated. I also ran into Greg Rucka, a well-known comics and film writer. Weirdly enough, he was sitting about three feet away from me at the airport on Monday and I knew I knew him from somewhere, but my brain was shot so it took a while for me to recognize him. I actually went to elementary school and junior high with Greg (I went to his 10th birthday party), so it was great to have a chance to say ‘hi’ and talk about the industry.

The absolute pinnacle of the con, however, was a little incident that happened on Friday.

Some quick backstory:

Three years ago, at our first con (Emerald City), I noticed that Bill Willingham was there. He’s one of my all-time favorite writers, so I went over to give him a copy of #1 and generally geek-out. He was very gracious and we chatted a little before I let go of his leg and left.

Fast forward to Friday at SDCC. I look up at one point and see, you guessed it, Bill Willingham walking up to our table. I don’t recall the exact conversation, but the salient points were:
He liked our comic.
He invited us to an after-con party.

At that point it wouldn’t have mattered if our table burned down, cannibals stole our comics, or an elephant pooped directly onto Leigh, ‘cause Bill Willingham invited us to a party.

We of course went, had a great time, and met a bunch of cool people, including the artist Inaki Miranda, James Sime (whom I will always remember as ‘the man in the purple suit’) from Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge, and Mike Maihack of Cleopatra in Space. There were more, but sadly, I can’t find all my business cards and I was so tired that night that I can’t recall any other names.

So, to sum up:
San Diego 2010 rocked.
We sold lots of comics
We met a ton of cool people
And Bill Willingham invited us to a party.

It’s going to take a lot to top that SDCC.

Cheers,
-Jason