I had been to New York a couple times, in college, because my sister moved out there for a few years. Elizabeth had never been, and wanted to do lots of traveling. We also knew Dick Ayers was in New York, and I thought it would be great if we could do a con where he could join us.<\/p>\n
I picked out the MOCCA con, and told Dick I would pay for a table and dinner if he would come out and join us. He mentioned it was a long drive, and parking was tricky, but made it sound like he would probably do it, and I was pretty excited about that.<\/p>\n
Then I went to the MOCCA website and realized they had sold all their tables. That’s when I found the Big Apple Con, because I still wanted to try and do a New York Con, for Elizabeth, and to pair up with Dick. Dick said he would be a featured guest at this particular Big Apple Con, but would come sit at my table for an hour. I thought that was fantastic.<\/p>\n
The week we were getting packed to come out, Dick told me that it turned out he wasn’t a featured guest, and wouldn’t have a table of his own, and he had a lot of work to do anyways, so he wasn’t going to come out to the convention. I was disappointed, but at least I still had a fun trip to New York, and a convention to shop my first two issues and Ojo. And then we’d spend a few extra days in New York, which I knew would be fun.<\/p>\n
We got there, and it’s a really peculiar setting. It’s kind of maze-like, and feels a bit like a warehouse. It’s kind of claustrophobic and weird lighting, and confusing to find your way around.<\/p>\n
We found the artists alley, and asked where we belonged. We were escorted to our table, which turned out to be in a narrow hallway. Our “table” was only two feet wide, since there wasn’t really any room for an actual table in this hallway. From the artist alley, if you looked around, you wouldn’t even notice the hallway, or if you did, you’d assume it didn’t go anywhere. So no one knew, or thought to look, for where we were. We didn’t get any traffic from that direction.<\/p>\n
Before the con, I called Irwin Hasen to let him know I would be there and give him copies of issue #2, since his pin-up was in it. I also wrote to Bill Sienkiewicz (since he was also in the issue), Larry Lieber, and Murphy Anderson. None of them were listed to be at the con, but I knew they all lived in or near New York, and said what a fan I was of each of them, and let them know that if they were in the area I would love to meet them.<\/p>\n
My hope is, having two issues of Tabloia out, SOMEONE would come to the con and say, “Hey, I saw your stuff in a store and picked it up, and I really enjoyed it.” It wouldn’t happen again until May 2006.<\/p>\n
I was excited that Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez were featured guests at the con, and excited but a little nervous that Steranko was also featured. It was fun to say hello to all these guys.<\/p>\n
Being in New York, we poked around the city a little. We popped into two major comics shops, and both of them had copies of Tabloia. Isn’t that a fun feeling, knowing your work is in stores all the way on the other side of the nation. I thought, this is all a very good sign. My book is out there, and it’ll catch on.<\/p>\n
Before we left the con, the convention runners asked me to write a blurb about how much I enjoyed the con. I wrote a paragraph I thought was funny, and THEY EDITED IT! I talked about how I was an unknown comics artist, but after the con I was a national celebrity. They removed my last sentence, which was, “We would definitely like to come again, especially if we aren’t stuck in the back hall by the emergency exit.” Which they shortened to, “We would definitely like to come again…” DOT DOT DOT!
\nAnd so I begin to learn why you want to just say sound-bites, and not big long sentences that can be edited and manipulated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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