Wondercon 2009 Day 3

Hoooo-wheeeee! Wondercon is over and I am beat! Day three wasn't as insane as Day two, but not as mellow as Day 1. It was raining that day, but people still braved the weather and there was a good amount. Saturday was such an awesome day for sales I only had 7 copies left to sell, and sell them I did! I actually sold out!

Sue! Wheat! I am very thankful to all the people that came by the booth and bought a copy of my book. Every bit of encouragement helps for me to keep on going! I'm also very thankful for the guys over at Ghostbot for letting me share their space and work the booth. And of course, I'm very thankful to God that He's given me the opportunity to be able to pursue a dream I've had since I was a kid!

It was a very tiring weekend and we were all on our last legs because of the madness of Saturday, but we all trooped on and managed to push a few books. I took a quick break and visited a couple friends of mine from RISD: Andy Ristaino and Chris Bennett.

I hung out with them at the end of the first day and we ended up going into a CBLDF sponsored auction where people could donate sketches for people to buy and have the proceeds go to the CBLDF. That was a lot of fun, I don't think I've just sat around drawing with other artists in a long time! Anyway, it was cool to see Andy and Chris again.

I think the biggest highlight for me happened around the end of the day, as we were breaking down the booth. We were handing out free sketches that day, but ended up having one left over. It was a drawing by Brad and it was just kinda laying around at the booth, when a little girl with her father walked by. I figured, why let the sketch go to waste? And told them they could have a free sketch. At first they were in disbelief when I told them, but they were so happy when I gave them the drawing.

They wanted to thank the artist that drew it, but unfortunately Brad was taking a lunch break (yeah, his lunch was at 4:45 or something that day!). Still, they were very happy and I caught glimpses of the daughter showing off her cool Wondercon Sketch to the rest of the family. Brad had finally returned and while we were telling him how his sketch made a little girl's day, that family passed by the booth again.

They were so happy to see the man who had created the sketch, and immediately wanted to snap a picture with him. They wholeheartedly thanked Brad and It was so cool to see the geniune appreciation they had for him and his sketch.

After a week of just busting out sketches, putting on our salesmen gamefaces and worrying about how to sell as much of our stuff as possible, it was nice to see someone actually appreciate the artist behind the sketches. It was a good way to end our first con!

At the end of the day, packing up the Ghostbot/ Bomb Squad booth was pretty efficient with all four of us pitching in.

That's it for tonight's post! Wondercon is over and the neverending battle continues! Goodnight and God Bless!

Wondercon 2009 Day 2

When I got to Wondercon on Friday, the foot traffic was not bad. A few people stopped by, some customers who had never seen my work bought a few copies of my book, and it was good. But, it didn't seem like I could sell much.

This is my Day 2 shirt. day 2 was such a rush, I took this picture while brushing my teeth. That's my toothbrush in my mouth in the upper left corner...


Anyway, upon entering Day two I had similar sale expectations for Saturday as I did on Friday. The Ghostbot guys whom I was sharing the booth with were also thinking the same thing. So to drum up foot traffic, they had decided to offer free sketches. They even let me tag along and do a few sketches of my characters! This is the booth at early morning setup:

And sure enough, once that "Free Sketches" sign went up, boom! Actually, more like KRAKA-SROOMA-DOOM! There was a flood of people all over the booth! The Ghostbot guys had to keep a waiting list and have people come back to the booth to get the sketches! On top of the free sketch idea, the crowd was different on Saturday.

A lot more families, kids, teenagers, people with costumes, R2D2's, The Watchmen, Spiderman back packs... you name it! Everybody and their mother was there (Actually one of the Ghostbot guys mother was really there)! It was that double whammy that just made the day go by so quickly because we were all drawing sketches at such a breakneck speed, selling the books, hob-nobbing with the fans... whooo!

Here's a view from my corner of the booth as I witnessed the power of Ghostbot! I didn't get fifth Ghostbot, Kris into the pic who dealt out some sketch madness as well...

I don't think I've ever drawn my character that fast in so many poses! But for every sketch I did, each Ghostbot must've done 3 in that time! I mean, I know the amount of work these guys (and gal!) have to do on a normal workday, but I've never seen them in their working state! And lemme tell ya that was impressive! It was like that scene in Raiders of the Lost ark when Marion and Indy have to shut their eyes when the Holy Spirit is released from the Ark! I had to close my eyes otherwise I would melt like a Evil Nazi with glasses...

Here's a pic of Ghostbot breaking down the booth at the end of the day... What a day!

Anyway, the day went by so fast and a few friends came by, I met a few nice people in publishing and people also trying to get their own stuff going, it was really fun. Thanks to my friends who brought by food, I didn't really leave the booth much but we were well stocked with Beard Papas, Dim Sum from Yank Sing, a Turkey sandwhich from Firewood and Beef pot pies! Yeah, I ate alot!

I've almost sold out of my stock! I think I have 7 books left. Definitely, my sales were better than I expected, I was actually hoping to just sell 10! Good thing my friend told me to print more and I bumped it up to 50. So, thanks to everyone who bought my book! You guys definitely made me more optimistic in cranking out more issues! Okay, I gotta get ready for Day 3! Woooondercoooon! And Awwwaaaayyy!