San Jose is like Canada; it’s clean, and the people are nice, and make with the happy. Even the San Jose airport is awash in this aura of cleanliness and niceness. Our flight out of San Diego was delayed three hours, and we tried really hard to be grumpy about that when we finally landed. But the Sikh driver of the rental car shuttle drove off his route to return a bag we accidentally left behind, so we just had to be happy, damnit. We made it to the Wyndam on First Street around midnight, and we tried to be grumpy about the late hour. Our hotel was, you guessed it, clean and full of nice people. As an added bonus, there was a giant inflatable chicken on the mezzanine level. So once again, we had to be happy.
We tried one last futile attempt at being grumpy when we had to get up at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday to set-up at Super-Con. We wound up happy again because being at a Con before it opens gave us a great opportunity to meet fellow small press folk. Luckily for us, these folk were a lot more experienced at publishing then we are. Travis and Janell Hanson of Bean Leaf Press were helpful, fun to talk to, and, of course, nice. And we thought this about them before the coffee kicked in. Now that’s good people.
Travis and Janell gave us a lot of great advice about getting a business license and setting up an account to process credit card transactions. We’re going to try to have a credit card account ready to go for San Diego Comic-Con in July, since we’re going to have more expensive products to sell there.
We also got the friendly from the awesome artists at Emonic. James helped them haul product to their booth, prompting me to accuse them of stealing my husband and roadie. We all hit it off after that. I loved their work, and they gave me a free print! I returned the favor by giving them signed copies of Project ElOhIm #1 and #2. They were nice enough to give us suggestions for places to eat dinner in San Jose, since they knew we weren’t locals.
But wait! There’s more awesome niceness! One of our booth neighbors was Ryan Sook. Ryan is a penciller for the majors, and has done work on tons of books including Hawkman and the new X-Factor. He was selling his original pencils and inks of advertisements for DC’s Countdown for ??? get this ??? $1,000 each. He sold two of two those that day, and made another $1,000 off three pieces of other original art. Whoah. So when he started talking to us like we were in the same league as him ??? double whoah. He really liked my drawings of the Little Vampires, and suggested that I sell them. “I wish I could draw cartoon vampires,” he said. I wish I could sell my art for $1,000, so we’re even.
Super-Con opened to the public, and we realized very quickly that this crowd favored artists more than writers and small press publishers. The attendees were focused on getting sketches from their favorite pencillers, people like Ryan. The folks who didn’t do the usual drive-by-make-no-eye-contact-with-the-small-press-people were very focused on the art in Sangrael and Project ElOhIm. We got a great variety of comments about the art in both books, and the comments were overwhelmingly positive. When we explained the premise of the book, we got even more positive comments. But it was an art focused Con, so I felt the need to expand my role from mere writer to mere writer AND artist.
It was a good thing I did. A young boy named Joseph visited our booth soon after the doors opened. “Do you draw superheroes and villains?” he asked. Flummoxed, I answered with a tentative, “Yes?” He asked if I could draw Venom. Before I could panic, his twin brother Anthony chimed in with, “Can you draw Carnage too?” With these two adorable kids and their parents staring expectantly at me, how could I say no?
I told the boys to give me an hour to draw for them and they wandered off. I turned to James. “Quick, find me a picture of Venom and Carnage!” There was no WiFi in the hall we were in, so James did some magic with the cell phone and found me some reference art to use for my sketch. The boys came back a half hour later, but luckily I was just finishing what turned out to be a passable sketch of Venom and Carnage. The boys seemed happy with my work, even though they couldn’t tell which one was Venom and which one was Carnage (this despite the fact that I colored Venom black with my sharpie). I explained that Carnage had tendrils, and pointed to them on my sketch. “Venom has them too, they’re just more inside his body,” said Joseph. You go little fanboy! The boys and their parents thanked me, and off they went with my first Con sketch.
Ryan had been away from his table, but I jokingly told him about the sketch I had done when he returned. Wonderful guy that he was, he said he wished he had seen my sketch! I wished I had had the foresight to take a picture of it to show him. I also wish I had a picture because I need proof that I created art that someone would actually want. The way Ryan kept pumping the positive vibes over my way, I’m almost convinced that other people would actually purchase art that I drew.
We eventually started getting some visitors to the booth that were interested in more than just viewing the cover and interior art of our books. Our first uber-enthusiasts were Eric and Les, who bought Project ElOhIm #1 and 2 based on the art and the concept. Dave, who does small press oriented podcasts, gave us the love also. But it was Jerry and Gerry ??? and yes, those are their names ??? that were the first to buy the whole extra value meal of Sangrael #0 and 1, and Project ElOhIm #1 and 2. Woot!
In between sales pitches, I sketched the Little Vampires in various emotional states. The little guys actually got some positive attention. For those who don’t know the history of diminutive nosferatu, James has type 2 diabetes. One day I commented on all the little puncture marks on his fingers, the result of his testing his blood sugar by drawing blood from them several times a day. “Yes, it looks like I’m being bitten by a swarm of tiny vampires,” he said. I drew what I imagined those Little Vampires would look like. At Super-Con we developed an entire history and mythology of the adorable bloodsuckers to go with my sketches. Considering the positive response of people that saw the sketches, I’m going to develop some of my ideas.
I’m glad I practiced Little Vampire sketches, because Cliff Moore came by the table to show us some of his 3D cutout artwork. He also showed us his sketchbook, which was full of amazing sketches by comic book artists. He asked if I could fill in an accidental blank page with “something interesting.” I figured if I could pull a Venom and Carnage drawing out of my butt, I could draw something interesting.
The page beneath the one Cliff wanted me to sketch on had a woman’s nude torso drawn by Frank Cho. The sketch woman had no arms and legs, but hey, who needs them when you have boobs that round and perky? I drew a Little Vampire staring up in shock and naughty amazement at the breasts of Frank Cho’s Venus de Boobo. When my sketch page is laid over Cho’s page, it looks like one complete sketch. Cliff was happy with my work, and I went to get a celebratory stale pretzel of relief from the concession stand. Being interesting is hard work, people.
Saturday could not have been a better day, yet it ended on an unimaginable high note. Ryan said his goodbyes, explaining that he wouldn’t be at Super-Con on Sunday. He asked for a Little Vampire sketch, and asked how much it would cost. I stammered out “One dollar?” He paid me twenty. Now, money’s good, but the advice Ryan gave me was far more valuable than any currency. He showed me that, no matter what I think about my artistic ability, what I draw is art, and it has value, and I should treat it as valuable. I can’t sell myself short if I’m going to sell my work.
After Super-Con closed for the day, we ate dinner at one of the restaurants that our buds at Emonic recommended. The Bold Knight on First Street is definitely a place we’ll be visiting again. Then it was back to the Wyndham, where we tried to process all that had happened that day. We were tempted to watch the train wreck of fun that was a Quincea?era competing for space with a Lion’s Club Convention, but we resisted.
