As a guest of What the Flux Comics, my Megacon table looked like this. With my prints on the lower left, portfolio to the right and shirts in the background. I was able to sell at least one of everything I had at the table. I also had the Concrete Dove posters, I inked and colored, as well as my shirts and Bellydancer posters, and actually had quite a diverse audience for them. I later started hanging the following sketches, that I did, live, at the con, on the front of the table to get people interested in Commissions, which you can see below, of Daredevil, Emma Frost, Batman and Batgirl.
Batgirl Con Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
Batgirl con sketch - inked by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
I did end up getting four Commissions, including: Death, a character the man apparently got various con sketches of and seemed to list mine among his favourites, and mentioned it getting very positive comments from several other artist’s he approached to do one. A fellow artist’s personal character, for whom I regret to say I don’t remember the name (please email if you find this and let me know so I can link you). Batgirl sitting atop the Hulk’s shoulder. And a character from Patrick Sessom’s comic S.O.A.R.
Megacon Commissions 2010 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
Jeramy Hobbs, a fellow WTFC artist seemed to like my work quite a bit and I was asked to ink one of his pieces. This one of the main characters from God of War and Assassin’s Creed fighting one another, I was told this piece sold, later that same day.
God of War vs Assassins Creed by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
I got to sit next to Larry Watts and his wife Sarah, who along with Patrick Sessoms and Randy Taylor, along with a few others were running the ICCW table right next to us. We were all kind of in the corner, and business was hard. There were many artists but very few companies – so networking was about the only option and for that reason ICCW flourished, with around 25 new members after the first day. The ICCW rampage Vol. 1, featured my story “Friend$hip” and Patrick’s story that I inked, “3:33am” will premiere in Vol. 2.
I got to meet new artists, such as Banky Farando, Patrick Larcada, Matt Buck, and Lamar Mathurin as well as catch up with some past acquaintances from the Mini-Megacon, and old friends like Ryan Miller. I also bought a book from Botobit, Epidemic vol. 1 – which, like the ICCW rampage vol. 1, was an anthology of different artists from around the globe, though more fine arts related and less sequential focused. I also stopped and grabbed a flyer for the Orange County Regional History Center, who have several comic themed exhibits, both currently and upcoming.
I got a few artists’ to critique my portfolio and recent work in Decision’s, such as Rick Tucker and various companies I talked to. And I was even asked to review up and coming artist’s portfolio’s, which was great, such as Jeanette Pabon, who is working on putting a website together. I got to meet and talk art with one of my recent influences, Erick Jones, one of my all time favourite artist’s Dave Dorman, and others as I examined their wealth of original artwork they all had on hand.
I was also able to spend some time at the Cosmic Times booth with Robin on Sunday, where we signed the first available copies of Decisions for customers, which premiered this weekend, and got to talk with two of the nicest people working in Indy Comics. Here’s a pic of the three of us, the creative team for the 1st issue, excluding only the cover artist Dan Mann, who was also available for autographs at the con though I didn’t get a chance to meet, and the editor Connie Voss. (From left to right: Martin –writer-, Robin –letterer- and me, Zach –interior artist).
I did want to mention, to those of you who bought the book, and there is a note towards the end of the book that Cosmic Times is depending on readers like you writing in and letting them know what you think about the series, to decide weather of not to continue Decisions into a series. So send in those reviews! Speaking of which, we should hear back soon after from a few different blogs and websites who will be giving their opinion. Arthur: The Legend Continues, the Legend Continues (their flagship book) was received very well and even featured on the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS) so I can’t wait to hear back about this one.
I was able to pick up some trades I was looking for at ½ cover price such as The Return of Superman, New X-men: Vol. 2, Fables Vol. 1 and Vertigo’s: First Cut. And while not everyone who stopped and looked bought something, most did take the time to grab a business card and that exposure alone is enough to help. All in all it was a great first Convention to officially be on the other side of the table at.
I was also informed I am slated to ink their next coming first issue – Outlaws, as the banner displayed on their website shows.
