My first table at Wondercon, in artists alley. There was a place on the exhibitor sheet asking where I would like to sit. I requested to sit by both Ryan Sook and Mick Gray, who I knew had sat together the year before. I assumed I would be so low on the totem pole, they wouldn’t give a shit what I requested, and I wouldn’t get to sit by either of them, but when the seating assignment came, I was located between them both! I thought that was so cool, and immediately emailed them to let them know they would have to be my neighbor.
They were both sweet with their replies. Ryan said he didn’t mind a bit, and Mick made a crack about, “Oh man, you better keep me entertained.”
Overall, I did well at the convention. Mick Gray didn’t show up until later in the day, and next thing I knew, someone else had stolen his seat. I was a little irritated about that, because when he showed up, he wound up sitting somewhere else, and I didn’t have a chance to spend time with him. But I thoroughly enjoyed sitting with Ryan.
I kept cracking dirty jokes or swearing, and he always laughed really hard, but never joined in, and it made me wonder if I should lighten up. After the con, I emailed what a nice time I had with him, and that I hoped I hadn’t been too strong a flavor. He wrote back that I kept him sane. That was the nicest thing he could have said.
The first day, I basically sat at my table the whole time, which was quite uncharacteristic of me, because I like to move around and find artists to do pin-ups. I just get anxious and restless. I was there alone, but Elizabeth came the second day, and allowed me time to do my poking around.
My books sold relatively well. What I would do is glom onto Ryan’s line. And while people were waiting, I’d say, “You guys have to see this pin-up Ryan did for my book. Yeah, it will be out next month, but while you’re waiting in his line, why don’t you flip through and see these other pin-ups I’ve gotten, from Mike Mignola (I had a copy of it I could show to people), Mike Allred, Sam Kieth, The Hernandez Brothers.” Desperate, shameless ploys, riding on the names of my pin-up artists, but I spent a lot of money on them, and they hadn’t generated the sales I had expected. I felt I’d earned the right. And it was absolutelt true that if people realized what I was doing, some of them would give the book a try. So people would look, and some of them would be impressed, and a few of them bought my comics.
This was the first con I was asked to do sketches. The first sketch I did was for Nick from Texas, who was sitting with Ryan, and had done his website. He had a Hellboy book, and he had asked a bunch of cool artists to do sketches of any character from Hellboy. I wanted to do something different from all the other sketches in there, so I did Hellboy with the giant horns still on his head. He was impressed that no one else had done the horns yet. I used a lot of black, and when I handed it back, was a little concerned that maybe it wasn’t a good sketch. When he received the sketchbook back, he looked at it, and had a look on his face like he was getting high from the fumes of the permanent marker, because I’d used so much black.
I also did a sketch of some girl character from some girl comic I wasn’t familiar with. The girl who asked for the sketch said what a fan she was of this particular book, and she knew the artist, and she was doing the official website or something, and she would post the sketch. I never figured out if or where that sketch was posted somewhere.
I did a sketch of the Hulk I was pretty proud of. I did a sketch of Batman that I would be afraid to see again, because somehow I don’t think it turned out well. That taught me that sketches can give a lot of artists anxiety, because sometimes the pen and paper just don’t go your way, and you have to make the best of it.
Approached Dave Stevens to show him my monster stuff. He said the stuff looked familiar, even though I’d shown him three or so times by now. I asked if he might ever have time to do a pin-up. He seemed to get irritated, like people had been asking him for commissions all weekend, and he REALLY didn’t want to do commissions for people. It reminded me of the first time I’d met him, maybe around 1997 at a Wondercon, and I mentioned I’d seen him on tv for a Betty Page special. And back then he’d seemed irritated, because the special had been recorded years ago. He had just said something short and got up to take a break.
This time, he said, he keeps telling people, he’s done it all before, and he just wants to do something new and different when he draws, and if I like his drawings, I should just buy his sketchbook. Instead of pointing out to him I’ve been coming up and saying hi to him every West Coast Convention for at least the last three years, and showing him my monster stuff every time, and instead of pointing out that I’ve already bought all his sketchbooks, and some of his prints as well, I told him I thought it would be so great if he drew, for example, a pin-up of a giant gorilla hand reaching through a window and grabbing a woman, like in King Kong, or a pin-up girl on a beach, and the cameramen all leaping back in horror, because behind her, a huge creature is emerging from the water. But this just got him more irritiable, and he said, Already done that! Already done that before! He seemed genuinely irritated. I retreated as quickly as I could, apologizing as I went.
Elizabeth came the next day, and I asked if she would go over with me to talk to Dave once more. We went over, and I was really nervous. I told him, I’m sorry if I was pestering you too much about a pin-up. But I want you to know it’s because I’m such a fan of yours. “It’s out of love,” he said, joking. I asked him, since he said he’s done it all before, if he had any drawings or sketches of these giant monsters he’d said he’d done, lying around that hadn’t seen print, that maybe I could buy the right to publish in my book. He said he couldn’t think of any. So for example, I said, you’ve got that sketch of the Rocketeer cover with the gigantic hand grabbing him. He said, yeah, he couldn’t think of any off hand, other than that one. So we left with him saying, maybe he’d poke around and see if there wasn’t anything. I felt much better about that.
I learned a couple things from this exchange.
First of all, the comic convention setting is an ultra-surreal, ultra-stimulating, ultra-stressful environment. You have hundreds of people coming up at you throughout the day, making and asking smart comments and questions, and idiotic comments and questions, and you have to be careful to just go with the flow. If I piss someone off, it isn’t necessarily me. It may just be the long, annoying days. It may be poor sales that particular day. It may be a lack of sleep from trying to connect with editors the night before. Or hell, maybe it is just me. Maybe I’m really fucking annoying.
Also, even if someone is wearing a very distinct outfit, such as an ugly tie, that you would think would stand out in everyone’s mind, and even if they’re showing you artwork of giant monsters inked by Dick Ayers, it’s easy to forget who’s who, or forget what you’ve seen or said or done or been told. So if I’m going to keep approaching the same people year after year, it’s a good idea to always remind them who I am, and not assume they remember every little thing about me. Just because the exchange is so important to me, doesn’t mean it will stick out to them.
Third, just keep trying until they do remember you, and don’t take it personally if they don’t. Just try again, and be just as patient and explanatory, and if you sense they’re getting irritable, just ease off. There’s no hurry. They’re going to be there year after year. And maybe one year, you’ll catch them in a good mood. I’ve caught a lot of people in not-good moods, or in stressful or scattered stages of mind, and I’ve always eventually caught them in good moods. I’m talking about everyone. Even if I’ve had a terrible experience with someone, I’ve managed to catch them in good moods at another time, and to realize it isn’t ever personal. There’s just always too much going on.
Even though we were in the cheapest area (artist’s alley), it was my best con to date for sales. I wasn’t sure if it was just a good con for me, or if it was because each time I had more books at my table, I sold more (I had three Tabloias out now, and maybe another three Ojos).