San Francisco Feb 10 2006
I had my first “trade paperback” for this convention, and I was hopeful that, as people had told me, I would be able to start making a little money with it. Trades have a much higher cover price, and since they usually collect a story arc, buyers like them as a whole, easy package.
Of course my “trade” wasn’t exactly a trade. It only collected twenty-five pages worth of previous story, and that’s as many pages as a single comic has. Also, it was oversized. But I couldn’t exactly call it a graphic novel, because it was two thirds reprinted material, and fifteen out of fifty-six pages were pin-ups.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high, but I hoped I would see a little better money made at this con. Not to mention I felt I’d done decently at Wondercon the year before.
One kind of neat thing about this con was that half a dozen people who had contributed pin-ups to the issue were going to be there. I was excited to see them all again and give them copies.
I had requested once again to sit with Ryan Sook and Mick Gray. This time, I was “by” them, but they were on a table together, and I was separated from them by a narrow aisle. Shucks.
I popped over at one point to say hi to Ryan. I say “popped over” because even though we were “by” each other, I had to physically get up and walk over to visit. I gave him a copy of the Doris Danger book, since he was in it. He was so gracious, he kept saying, “Are you sure?” because he didn’t want to put me out by giving him a copy. I was thinking, Please. It’s the least I can do, if you were kind enough to contribute to it. I felt like I should give him more, if he wanted any.
He asked what I was working on now. I had just talked to someone at my table about this very thing. At my table, I had told the person, “I’m doing a story about an atheist who dies and finds himself in a Christian Fundamentalist afterlife.” There had been an uncomfortable pause. I then further explained that the atheist found himself arguing all the problems with people literally interpreting their scripture, and this person breathed a sigh of relief.
So now, with Ryan, I just gave the whole pitch at once, including the “arguing all the problems” ending – so that there wasn’t the same uncomfortable pause I’d gotten the first time around. But now, after hearing the entire pitch, Ryan gave an uncomfortable pause.
Later in the week, Elizabeth told me, “I didn’t realize Ryan is really religious. His wife told me.” And then I understood the uncomfortable pause he had given. Woops…I guess there’s just no winning with that kind of subject matter for a story.
Mike Mignola was only about four people down from my booth. I went over to give him a copy of my Doris Danger book, which he had a pin-up in. At that moment, at the front of the long Mignola line, was Nick from Texas. Nick did Ryan Sook’s website, and I believe he did one for Mike as well. He had a sketchbook full of drawings of Hellboy characters by a lot of great artists, and also one I had drawn him the year before. Right as I walked up, Mike was flipping through, and I realized when he got to MY sketch, he said, “Wow, that’s nice.”
Not one to miss out on a chance to bolster myself, and make sure Mike knew who I was, I immediately and blatantly blurted, “Nick, did Mike Mignola just say he thought my sketch was nice?” Mike looked up, and I gave him the Doris book.
Mike Allred was billed to appear at this convention. I assumed, without assigned tables, he would be pretty difficult to hunt down. He had a talk scheduled here and there, but no actual table sit-down time that I could find. I wondered if I would be able to hunt him down, because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go listen to a talk.
I later learned from him in an email, that he actually just did his panel discussions, and then ditched the con to do San Francisco sight-seeing. And who can blame him!
Mario Hernandez did his usual stop by our booth, and then come back behind the table, sit down, and hang out with us for an hour or so. Elizabeth and I are so fond of him! While we were visiting, a woman came up and said, “Mario, I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Laura. My husband, Mike, is such a fan of yours, and he’ll be so sorry he didn’t have a chance to see you.” Of course, by then, I realized this was Laura Allred, Mike Allred’s wife. I asked if Mike might be able to stop by, and she said they were just leaving, and Mike was already out at the car. I was bummed not to get a photo with them, but glad at least to be able to give Laura a copy of the book for Mike.
Also in the book and appearing at the con were Ramona Fradon and Thomas Yeates, both of whom were great to see again.