[NOTE: The following contains art by professional creators, which depicts images of copyrighted characters. As I own this art, now, I'm pretty it's within my rights to display it online, but if I am incorrect and you are the artist, or a representative of the artist or company, please email me, and the art will be taken down immediately. I have no desire to upset anyone with this act -- and would prefer to not be sued].
It’s a 3 hour trip to the city of beef and cheese by way of I-95 from DC, but it’s a trip I do not make often enough, clearly. Philadelphia is a pretty neat town (though admittedly, given how much I dislike DC, everywhere seems more interesting, except for Cleveland), and I don’t think you need a comic con to feel that way.
However, that’s why I went, and so, let me get down to my notes on the experience.
Friday:
We stayed at Club Quarters Philly, so our first task was to find the place. Let me just say that should you decide to visit Philly, and think this is a good place to stay, it is, but the directions they have on their site are reversed. What I printed said they were at the corner of 16th and Chestnut, when really they’re closer to 17th. It also said that the parking was at the corner of 17th and Chestnut, when it’s on the 16th side.
This tiny detail (when added to the 55 minutes we spent being lost, after making a wrong exit) added 58 minutes to our travel time.
Because of this, we were late in getting into the Friday festivities. We arrived in time to see the second half of the movie roundup, which went through the various movies that are coming out in the distant future, including Thundercats, He-man [NOTE: This film will be done without Dolph Lundgren], GI Joe, Avengers, etc. But I missed out on any other Friday panels.
The event is a lot smaller than the New York Con, much more intimate, as I had been told. All the same, despite this, the artist’s alley seemed to sprawl, where New York’s in hindsight seemed deficient. There were so many creators at the event that it definitely seemed more like a comic con.
So far as celebrities are concerned, while there were people like Lou Ferigno, Juliya, the original Lois Lane, the 76er cheerleaders, and Dirk Benedict, they were all scuttled over into a corner like second class citizens, compared to artist’s alley, which in New York was as cramped and crowded an affair as celebrity row was here.
One of the most fascinating dynamics I noticed was that while fanboys (and girls) were not shy about talking to and ogling alternative sex symbols like the Suicide Girls, who were in attendance, no one seemed to be visiting the 76ers’ cheerleaders. They seemed lonely whenever I walked by, and were generally wistfully looking over at Dirk Benedict’s booth which was across the way, clearly envying the Face’s ability to draw a crowd.
We spent a long time over at the Aspen table, as we were hoping to buy some Michael Turner art, as he is Ann’s favorite artist. It should be noted, however, that she went direct to the table, and made a face of displeasure unrelated to anything at the table, and somehow managed to get a death stare from the man himself, Michael Turner. As this blog has a readership of almost 2, and last I checked Michael Turner is not my mother, this is a long shot, but Mr. Turner, if you read this, please understand this was unintentional.
Overall, we spent a long time at the Aspen booth trying to find the right page that night, and initially figured we had no hope of finding anything we could afford. This was prompted by the cover to Flash 211 (the final post-production cover can be found here), the artwork for which consists solely of a picture of the Flash’s head, chest, and upper arms. This was priced to move at $2000. In Turner’s defense, his agent assures me that the purchaser also gets a signed full color print, which really would look awesome over any fireplace.
That night, we went back to the hotel at 6pm, after the con closed down (it’s an early night in Wizard World, apparently) and read the Wikipedia article on Philly cuisine, which spent surprisingly little time on cheese steaks. Thus began my entirely unsuccessful quest for Black Cherry Wishniak, which I really am interested in finding. If anyone out there knows where it can be found, please let me know.
Saturday:
Most comic book conventions seems to have their share of Princess Leia’s in the metal slave bikini from “Return of the Jedi.” For example, New York had a full 9, who travelled in a veritable horde of fan boy dreams. There’s another adjective I should probably add, but will not at this moment.
In Wizard World Philly, there was only one this year, but this just meant that she was even harder to avoid looking at. When you’re surrounded by 3 quarter dozen half naked Leia’s it just seems to be part of the natural order of things. One, however, makes you feel like you’re staring at the last of a dying species. It’s generally most fun at this point to watch the crowd, and see the reactions from everyone who passes - the women all looking upset, and the men all looking far less so. For a picture of what I’m talking about, you can see her the final post-production cover can be found here.
I definitely cannot understand the way that comic fans break down. I mean, I show up to a comic convention feeling 10 pounds overweight, and wishing that I could make it to the gym more than my customary 3 times a week (which admittedly I missed out on for a few weeks not so long ago). After half an hour in the room, I feel like Adonis and Hercules rolled into one. And yet, I still don’t feel like I would want to stand around with my ass hanging out for 8 hours (which is what so many of the females in attendance do). Granted, their willingness may be because they actually are in pretty good shape.
Leia, and several storm troopers were again running security (as in New York), and so that was the first sight I had upon entering on Saturday morning. This was followed by the sight of Ann dragging me to the first panel.
Christian Beranek from Silent Devil lead a panel on how to break into comics. Well, by panel, I really mean it was just him. All the same, it was good. Very good. He’s a guy who’s worked in a couple of different capacities in a couple of different places.
He had a lot of good suggestions, and information, including debunking the old story that you can copyright something by mailing it to yourself. Unfortunately, while this probably does prove something, it is not admissible in court. Therefore, it’s better to just pay the $25 to copyright something for real.
He recommended trying out Comicspace.com, which is like myspace, only comic related. He insisted that it was best to try out for contests given by companies like Topcow, Tokyopop, and Devil’s due, because it gets exposure. Anything that gets exposure works, and especially in comics which is such a close nit community. If you stick to it, you actually can get in.
His example of this I found very interesting, and wish that I had bothered to ask Bendis about when he walked close enough for me to trip him (this may seem like a pathetic thing to do to get someone’s attention, but I wear size 13 shoes, so it’s always more of a miracle when I don’t trip people). Brian Bendis drew his own stuff (which I knew), and would buy out a booth at the various conventions, and it took him something like 12 years to get the attention of the publishers. Of course, he now writes for every single book at Marvel, and may be re-writing the US constitution on December. So, that is, I hope comforting to people trying to get in by traditional means.
The basic idea is that you have to be there, and you have to be vocal, you have to talk to people, again, and again, and keep a thick skin, because you will probably be rejected time and time again. Too many creators aren’t talkative people. They’re shy, and that’s a problem — you have to be able to sell yourself.
Admittedly, this is a problem for me, though I’m pretty loud in general. I have a hard time so long as I don’t know what I’m trying to get out of the process. I also have a hard time dealing with one person. A large number is an audience, but a single person is a person, to me.
So, I personally decided to get a new table at the Small Press Expo in Baltimore. Tragically, they are all taken. So, maybe next year. Or maybe I’ll go to APE. Or, whatever. All the same, I want to get out there more, as soon as I have more material to show off. Doing a weekly web comic for such a small readership probably isn’t going to be enough — but I’ll get into that more below.
Encountering Angus Oblong
One of my all time favorite cartoons is “the Oblongs,” which was created based on the work of escaped mental patient and part time clown Angus Oblong. For those of you unfamiliar with Oblong’s work, it’s disturbing, but hilarious. He’s often compared to Charles Addams.
Now, he dresses as a very messed up clown in conventions, and so my first encounter with him was related to that. As I was walking up to his booth, a mother brought her daughter up and asked is she could take a photo with him. She put the daughter up on the table, where the little girl sat in the precious-little-girl-photo pose in front of Angus, who posed like he was Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It.”
Once this future topic for the girl’s therapy was over, I looked through his work, and found a couple of things I liked a lot. He was a bit busy, so I bought them, and nearly walked away, when he asked if I wanted the book I bought signed. I was a bit shocked — I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten this, and I totally spazzed out. Honestly, I’ve never understood people who freak out upon meeting someone famous, but my brain completely shut down when he asks, “do you have a favorite character?” I’m sitting there thinking “Don’t say Milo, that’s too easy,” he asks “are you familiar with the show?,” and Ann says to me, “You like the mom.” Which I do, but she’s not my favorite visually. So I turned to her and was like “I do?”
Either way, I’m just completely disoriented by this point, though I think still somewhat normal. Then he asks me my name.
Now, I know my name, and this has nothing to do with being flustered, but I actually had to think about this. I go by Schieber, but my first name is — well, I don’t have to spell it. So, even though only a handful of people call me by that name, I have to say it — and I’m not used to saying it. So, I seem even more like a dork in my mind.
But either way, I got my first sketch at a convention, ever, from Angus Oblong, and it’s pictured below.
Not that I plan to ever sell this, but I did of course ruin any chances I have of doing so. If I had instead said “Highest Ebay Bidder” is my name, but you can call me Hi, I think that would have helped insure me against tougher times.
All the same, as I say, this is something I do not plan to part with, and I think is now as valuable to me as my prized autographed collection of my favorite author Harlan Ellison books, which, I believe, nearly cost me my life [I filled out the order form for Harlan's book club while drunk on night in '96, and made a terrible joke related to the dedication -- thinking, I thought logically, that he wouldn't sign paperbacks. I got a hand typed post it from Susan, his wife, indicating some annoyance at my shenanigans, which was deserved I readily admit. She asked if I wanted the books signed or not. Given his reputation for ferocity and tenacity, I worry that I'm on a list of enemies and one day after the James Camerons and AOLs of the world are taken care of, I'm next].
This was then followed by the most pivotal moment of the trip. I Found a page by Joe Madureira, my favorite artist of all time. And, more importantly, it was a page from an X-Men issue (316, page 14 to be exact) that I poured over when I first got it. It is, admittedly, the most boring page from that issue, but it was much cheaper than the far more interesting page that was 8 times as much, so you know what? I don’t care.
Here’s a sample of the page, as you can see Banshee is preparing for the gym. That’s action!
DC Panel
After a particularly embarrassing moment, I picked up what was left of my dignity, and headed down to the DC panel. The main story was that they are introducing a new book staring Jimmy Palmiotti, called “Panty Patrol,” or something like that, I kind of zoned in and out.
Remarkably, this panel dealt a lot more with Marvel’s recent decisions than I expected, including some great quotes from Bob Wayne:
On the Death of Captain America -
“You’ll be amazed by the characters that feel bad ‘Oh, I feel so bad… I’ll have a splash page now.’”
Bob then went on to talk about DC’s plans, with similar backhanded comments like:
When the editor of JSA Classified was asked about Dr. Midnite, he took a swipe at the competition again -
“No ones gonna believe a blind superhero…”
When asked about when “All Star Batgirl” would come out -
“We didn’t manage to put out all star Superman and Batman as frequently as we’d like, so we’re holding off until we have a few issues, so we can disappoint you in the middle of the story, rather than the beginning”
Over all the most disappointing new from the panel was that Amanda Conner [whose work has only recently come to my attention] was not going to be able to make it, as she was under the weather. I’d hoped to get a sketch from her, and I still hope to at some point.
Bendis vs. Joe Q.
Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor in chief, was interviewed by Bendis (who announced that he has just signed a new contract, in which he will also be writing all checks sent out from Marvel, as well as stories for the office stationary) for the Wizard website. I don’t want to give too much of the panel away, though I must say a few quick things:
1) I had no idea that Joe did not get into comics until he was 29 years old. His story is fascinating, even given that he got in with what seemed like relative ease, and I prefer to hear hard luck stories. I highly recommend that you read over it once it’s posted.
2) Joe also could tour doing just his impression of Stan Lee, which is, true believers, totally spot on.
3) Bendis has made the promise that “Spider-man will never kill someone with his bare hands just to get an erection.” Apparently this is true in both the regular and the Ultimate Marvel Universes. Anyone who says otherwise, is a bald faced liar. And Bendis knows from bald.
Sunday:
Sunday started off not with Leia, but instead with www.drunkduck.com.
Based on the panel, I am seriously considering posting on Drunkduck, in addition to my own site. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get more exposure, and I guess that’s it (well, either that, or I’ll need to start wearing my own metal bikini, and I hardly think a highly publicized trial for public indecency is good publicity, regardless of whether or not there is such a thing as bad publicity). Again, it’s important to get into some kind of community, and have people to interact with, and be someplace where you can be found.
If I do it, it will be in the next couple of weeks.
Other recommendations made include making sure to copyright everything, and ad a copyright and trademark symbol where possible. Trademarking itself is expensive, which is why it’s lucky Ann works for a law office that handles them, so I can find out how much it would cost. Copyrighting is pretty inexpensive, all things considered.
The entire panel more or less agreed that you have to make money through advertising, or merchandizing, though you can also work with paypal donations. The trouble with the latter is that if you are really successful, you have to figure out tax law in a hurry. It’s best to set yourself up as a corporation.
The point was made repeatedly that web comics are still growing in popularity, and that we have not reached their potential. Mobile content is really a growth industry, and one in which one could potentially make money directly, for example. All the same, there are many Web Comics creators who have readerships that dwarf those of the major comic companies (I myself have more readers than enjoyed the “Clone Saga” from Spider-man, but I doubt that’s the same thing).
We also discussed merchandizing, and in addition to Cafepress, they recommended www.spreadshirt.com. They recommended making your own merchandise, or researching and finding companies to produce merchandise specific to your concept. Should I make a stuffed Smokey the Monkey? A stroller decked out in skulls? I don’t know… I’ll have to think about it.
We finally, on the last day of the convention, after spending at least 30 minutes each day at the Aspen table, bought a page from Michael Turner. It was an earlier page — in fact, it’s inked. It’s page 12 from Witchblade 14.
Below is a link to a sample panel.
Ann also got the awesome dragon sketch below from Aspen artist Micah Gunnell sketch.
(Click the thumbnail)
As we were leaving, I did my part for the Hero initiative by buying the below sketch of Phoenix by Phil Noto:
(Click the thumbnail)
The basic idea, as I understood it, was that artists in the Charlotte Hero Con (which was also going on this weekend), were doing pencils, and then the pages were being brought up, and inked by artists at Wizard World.
You’ll notice that my sketch is not inked. I didn’t really think about this until I found this note on the back of the package.
I don’t mind, to be honest, and it was very amusing to find this, after the painful 5 hours spent doing the 3 hour drive back.
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