Nick here. Last weekend, February 9th-11th, I was in Greensboro, NC. Why, you might ask, would I go to Greensboro? The answer, is simple, WTHCon, a small convention run by the Yachting Club (don’t ask) at Guilford College. The convention hosts a wide variety of independent artists (though most offer some form of webcomic) to attend, sell their wares, and talk to people about what they do and how they do it.

This year, the only difference was the number of guests who had published on Lulu. For example, most of the NCWCC (North Carolina Web Comics Coffee Clatch) was there (pictured from left to right, Phillip Wright of Furmentation, McKenzee of Sinister Bedfellows, Matt Wood of Dada Detective, Jamie Robertson of Clan of the Cats, our own Joe Komenda of Feral Chicken , and Dave Milloway of Dada Detective) was there, all of whom publish through Lulu. Also there was the infamous Jennie Breeden of Devil’s Panties fame attended, and was awesome, as always, but unfortunately is not pictured.

On Saturday, Jason and I ran a panel on Print on Demand Technology, and of course talked a lot about Lulu. I was even able to run a live demo after our maintenance last week, and offered people stickers if they were interested in signing up for the newsletter. After fielding questions, showing off some of the cooler parts of the site, and talking about Print on Demand in general, it was a great time.

I also got to speak with Greg Stolze at the convention. For those of you that aren’t into role-playing games, Greg wrote Unknown Armies, and is working on Reign. He has also written fiction, and has a collection of short stories on Lulu called Scary Face. It was awesome to get to meet him, talk a little about Lulu and see an ashcan of Reign. Definitely one of the highlights of the convention for me.

Next up, I’ll be at South By Southwest Interactive with a bunch of other Lulus, so if you’re headed there, stop by our booth and say hi. I'll leave you with a picture of Ryo-Ohki (a rabbit that turns into a space ship) reading our promo comic!

Covert Operative Report from UberCon by Jared Axelrod - member of 365 Tomorrows, author of Tales from the Uncanny Valley and keen podcaster of The Voice of Free Planet X among countless other projects.

I am no stranger to conventions. I've attended more than I care to count. Heck, I wrote a play about conventions. I am asked to speak at them, usually podcasting—I'm the guy at the end of the table you keeps reminding folks that you don't need a mixing board to do a good podcast—and such was the case here at UberCon. I have, as the saying goes, been around the conventioning block.

So I think it is no small thing when I say that UberCon is unlike any convention I've been to before.

For starters, it's a gaming convention, in the purest sense of that term. People do not attend UberCon to see panels, to meet celebrities, look at and purchase original artwork or to involve themselves in workshops, like other conventions I've been to. No, folks come to UberCon to play games. Lots and lots of games. From the table top role-playing to complex miniature-based strategy to muti-player first-person shooters, all games were represented. There was even systems running Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution set up in the corner. The ballroom of the Secaucus, NJ La Quinta was literal hive of organized play.

Pictured: I, Uberconer. Check out my \A/ guest badge.
I myself got in a quality round of Scrabble with fellow guest JR Blackwell in between our own panel and hearing Mike Stackpole, the guest of honor, speak. JR and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Mr. Stackpole, speaking with him about podcasting, writing, and, naturally, salsa dancing. He taught JR and I a new move that I cannot wait to try out on the dancefloor. Such is the magic of UberCon: come for the games, stay for the dancing.


Pictured: On of the many tasteful Lulu displays I set up at Ubercon.
The Lulu promo comics I handed out were a huge hit, I must say. I placed stacks of them all over the con, and in minutes they were under the arms of almost every on there. Such was the only dark element of Ubercon: a complete lack of reading material. After all, you can't game all the time.

Leah here - Joe and I are back from our third year at the illustrious and fun Small Press Expo, in Maryland. Small Press Expo (or SPX) is a venue steeped in independent and self-publishing comic creators. We had a booth there where we managed to talk to hundreds of people about Lulu, and occasionally eat cookies. I got to high-five Colleen Venable (We Taste Like Presents and also Fluff in Brooklyn a photo-comic) and get a signed copy from Steve Ahlquist of his The Complete Annotated Oz Squad, Vol. 1 - I've always been a big fan of the Oz books and this graphic novel is a must-have.

There were other Lulus there, too. Eric Knisley (The Adventures of Furlington Macklethwaite) flew from the UK to share a table and play pranks on Paul Friedrich (Onion Head Monster). Fred Van Lente (Tranquility) was there promoting one of his other books, Action Philosophers. And we were lucky enough to be right beside Stephanie Freese, Matt Wood and Dave Milloway, creators of The Dada Detective.

Speaking of travelling, I met with Scott McCloud and his lovely and awesome family (Ivy, Sky and Winter) and discussed Lulu's capabilities, and other hip stuff. I'm organizing an upcoming lecture in January/February as part of Scott's Making Comic 50 States Tour, so I wanted to put a face to the email.

Pictured: A Tiny Picture of Joe In Our Booth
Joe and I met tons of cool new people (who may be putting books on Lulu, we hope!) - Kevin McShane who creates Toupydoops, Jim Kohl and Tommy Brennand of Happy Hour Comics were all very excited about the technology we offer self-publishers.


Besides high-fiving current Lulus and recruiting new ones, I'm always trying to connect reviewers of independent content with Lulu as a source for cool new books. We first tried our hand at this when Jason Adams contacted a great comic review podcast, Comicology. The result is Comicology's creator, Neil Gorman's recent review of Lulu and The Wippins Campaign by Kevin Cornell.

Pictured: Leah Pretending To Be Interviewed by the Guys at Comic Critique (because they forgot to take a picture during the actual interview)
Oh! I was waiting to post about this until the interview went up - but I just got email that the MP3 of my interview is available here. Joe and I both got interviewed by the guys at ComicCritique.com. They were very nice, I talked about how great Lulu is, and for once I don't completely sound like an idiot - so check it out!


Anyway, that's about it for the moment. I liked the new venue for SPX, and I hope that next year it's even bigger and better. Our next convention coming up is <a href=GenCon SoCal, which Clinton Nixon will be exhibiting at. I'll let you know the booth number closer to time. In the meantime, I'm going to be planning my Halloween costume. (I'll definitely be posting about the costumes in the office on October 31 - we always have awesome ones). What are you all planning to wear?

Leah again - my six-hour shift at 24 Hour Comic Book Day just ended here at 5:00 a.m. More than half of our participants have finished their 24 pages and were heading home, the remaining three were diligently finishing up. They've been creating comic pages for 18 hours - facing the challenge of creating a 24 page comic in 24 hours. They only have about six more hours for the participants Chapel Hill Comics, North Carolina to finish their 24 pages. As for me, after this post I'm going to bed.

Some of the local papers were covering the event, so I figured I'd link to them: The News & Observer The Daily Tarheel (You have to check out the illustration of comic shop owner Andy Neal to believe it!)

Here's what some of the participants had to say:

"This was really cool and fun. I liked it a lot."
- Isaac Bryant, local student and cartoonist

"24 Hour Comic Book Day totally rocked. This was the first comic I ever wrote, and I wouldn't have done it without a group to participate in."
- Jessica, an art school teacher at Rocky Mount, North Carolina's Nash Central HS (she drove an hour and a half just to attend).

Pictured: Left to Right, Remy and Jessica start out their comics early on Saturday
The word from Annie and Carol is that the video of 24 Hour Comic Book Day will be up later this week on Lulu.tv. The books that the participants are creating right now will be published and up on the site later this week too (I'll be sure to re-post an overview later when I've had some sleep). As I said before, with this event we're combining super-fast comic creation with super-fast comic publishing.

Pictured: Ray Damron, age 8, stops by and contributes a single page comic
Even though this is just the third year for 24 Hour Comic Book Day, there's a lot of participation worldwide. Since artists can participate individually or in groups, it's hard to measure exactly how widespread it is. But with groups going on today in 90 locations, in 17 countries, I'd say that next year is going to be even more tremendous. If you don't get to participate this weekend, comic creators are still encouraged to get their creativity going by trying out this challenge anytime during the year. The results may surprise you.

Well, that's the end of my up-to-the-minute coverage of 24 Hour Comic Book Day. Joe is there now finishing out the final hours with the participants. I'll see you later this week!

Leah here. I've just gotten back from my first shift at 24 Hour Comic Book Day, going on here in North Carolina - we've got seven participants dedicated to the challenge. We're already five hours in, and it's going great. 24 Hour Comic Book Day is an international event (started in 2004) where comic artists create a 24 page comic in 24 hours (on their own, or in groups). Lulu is co-sponsoring a local gathering of artists in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with Chapel Hill Comics (which is where the event is happening).

The Comic Creators Get Started on Their 24 Hour - 24 Page Challenge

The comic artists at our location started their comics at 10:30 a.m. today (Saturday) and they're going to work on creating 24 pages before time's up at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. This 24 page/24 hours challenge originated from Scott McCloud, one of the most inspiring gurus of comic creators. The artists that complete the challenge will receive some free copies of their comic through Lulu - combining super-fast comic creation with super-fast comic publishing.


Henry, 14, starts his third comic page

I'll be going back at midnight tonight to work the first of the overnight shifts (midnight to 5 a.m. for me, 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. for Joe). Charlotte's there now, and Annie clocks in for a late afternoon to early night shift. For now I'm going to take a nap, but I'm so excited about comics. This is a pretty inspiring event, just to see people get together spend a day just creating. I just hope we don't get sick of the smell of markers.


On a related note, we already have one 24 Hour Comic Book Day (or 24 HCBD) book on our site: Ryan Estrada's impressive Ped X-ing: A 168 Hour Comic. Ryan took the challenge to the limits by sequestering himself in with just some paper and markers to create this book, all pages created within the 168 hour span.


I'll update later, when I come back from my overnight shift. We're also filming at the event, so I'll be sure to link to the video at Lulu.tv when it goes up.

Nick here. Clinton and I are back, safe and sound from Gencon Indy. Gencon was an amazing convention to attend. Our booth was a success, and we ended up giving away 250 promo comics and all of the Lulu brochures we took with us. We talked to a lot of Lulu creators, and even had Fred Hicks demo "Don’t Rest Your Head" in our booth! We also met a lot of people that loved the idea of Lulu.

Pictured: Lulu RPG Books
The best story of the convention however was the story of Capes. Capes is a superhero roleplaying game that is written by Anthony Lower-Basch and until the con, wasn't published through Lulu. Due to a miscommunication issue, his books didn't show up to the convention, and he was left without any product to sell. Fortunately, he knows Clinton, and he came to the Lulu booth.



Pictured: Left to Right, Clinton Nixon and Fred Hicks Tony's wife went through the publishing and ordering process and within minutes, the orders were placed with the Mega Super Fast Delivery option. On Saturday, the books showed up. I don't know about anyone else, but to me, that is one of the coolest things ever. I spent the rest of the convention showing people who stopped by the booth the book and telling them the story. "Your printer couldn't meet their 2 week turnaround time? Let me tell you about how fast we can get a book to you." I used the caveat that people should try to give themselves more leeway than that whenever possible to make sure they get their books in time, but it was a huge selling point for the people we talked to.

Leah here - Just a quick note for you Role Players out there - Lulu has a booth at GenCon Indianapolis this weekend - Booth #1242. It is staffed by the ever-awesome Nick Popio and Clinton Nixon. Be sure to go by and say hi!

Since I'm sure you guys think that we're all VERY serious, here's a nice videoclip of some downtime in the booth at HeroesCon:
Lulu is Everybody Disco Dancing!

Leah here. Annie and I have finally recovered from San Diego Comic-Con - the only convention I've ever been to that I would actually use the word ginormous to describe (and yes, I know, it's not even a word). Comic-Con was a lovely time for Annie and I. We saw tons of Lulu creators, caught a couple of cool panels, had a business lunch, snagged some freebies, and bought comics - and of course talked to everyone we saw about Lulu.

Pictured: Aang, Leah, June, and Kiki
Wednesday was preview night, and we went to check out the layout and put some Lulu Creators #6 and Lulu TV flyers out on the freebie table. We wandered around and figured out where all the cool Lulus were: Paul Friedrich and Eric Knisley, Blank Label Comics group, Steven Cloud, Maverix Studios, Billy Tucci, Donna Barr, and so many others. I even saw Candykillers for sale at the Doma booth (with their super-cool Astronaut Jesus toy).



Things that probably could only happen to be at Comic-Con:

• Annie got her picture with She-Ra, and I got my picture with Voltron (pictured above)
  
• We got free Avatar: The Last Airbender shirts at the Nicktoons panel (oh man, I absolutely love that show)
  
• There was a giant snake - walk in its open mouth, and you can see props from the upcoming Snakes on a Plane movie
  
• I got smelled by Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance (trust me, the story is really mundane, so I think I'll just leave it sounding weird)
  
• A goth cheerleader got her fishnets caught on my bag and we had to struggle to break free of each other (yeah, I have no idea what was going on)

I was on my way to Artist's Alley to talk to some artist friends, Andy Lee, Chris Moreno and Nigel Sade (you know, the pirate), when I noticed I was behind two guys - "Talk to us about Cyanide and Happiness" printed on their shirts. I assumed they were the creators of the same-named webcomic I regularly read (they were) and remembered that they've been selling tons of their Cyanide and Happiness book on our site. I stopped them, gave them some free Lulu stuff, probably high-fived them, and we went along our merry way.

Pictured: Blank Label Comics crew - (left to right) Kristofer Straub, Dave Kellett, David Willis, Paul
Taylor, Howard Tayler, Steve Troop (partially obscured, with Melonpool puppet), and Brad Guigar
The Blank Label Comics panel on Friday morning was totally Airwolf! They had an introduction with Dave Kellett's new puppets chatting with the BLC'ers themselves, plus hilarious jokes, good Q&A, Lulu-name-dropping (thanks Brad for that!) - pretty much everything you could want. Kristofer Straub and Dave Kellett did a great job co-moderating, and the BLC guys really know how to put on a panel. They really have a lot of fun together. I think the way they treat their webcomic collective as a business is smart and pretty innovative (only a few others built like it). One quote I remember from the panel "The people that I know creating syndicated comics are now starting to get day jobs. The people I know doing webcomics are all beginning to quit their day jobs." That information struck me as something to ponder. Though I forgot who said it (I think it might have been Brad Guigar), it's an interesting shift to think about. They were completely mobbed following the panel, and Paul Taylor sold out of his Wapsi Square book. Oh well, I know where to get it.


I'm thinking that next year we really should have a booth at Comic-Con - it's such a big convention, and there are so many Lulu supporters there now, it would almost be silly not to. We'll probably organize some times for Lulu creators like any of you guys that have books, to come and use our booth to showcase your work and your products. I'll have to check into how that's going to work, but if you're interested, please feel free to contact me at comics@lulu.com.

Man, just processing that much sensory overload took a few days of recovering once we got back to North Carolina, so that's why this blog post took so long (that and my car threw a rod on the highway - nothing says fun like a basketball-sized hole in your engine, am I right?). Anyways, I enjoyed seeing everyone, and I'm looking forward to my next convention, Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, October 13th. The next convention for the comics and Role-playing-game group is GenCon Indianapolis. Nick Popio and Clinton Nixon will be attending GenCon, and they'll be in a big Lulu booth - if you're there be sure to stop by!

I guess that will be it for now. See you guys at the next convention!

The Lulu Comic Subversives in the Lulu booth at HeroesCon
from left to right: Joe Komenda, Annie Broadwater, Nick Popio, Leah Riley and Jason Adams

Even though we've been back for at least at week from HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC, the glow of fun hasn't faded. HeroesCon is a very indie friendly convention, and this year, with its growth, it really was the best one yet. I've been going to HeroesCon for a couple of years now (since 2003) and this year they did a great job of organizing the convention, the aisles, and getting some big names to pull in a varied audience.

The cool stuff at the Lulu booth
The Lulu booth was pretty popular, due to two things - 1) we had so many cool comics, RPGs and novels on our table to show people and 2) We had a lot of free stuff. We were giving away Lulu Promotional Comic #5, Lulu stickers (there at the bottom of the picture) as well as finger puppets (because we love toys) and some Lulu buttons we had.

( More pictures and Lulus behind the cut )

Danielle Corsetto - Future Lulu? We have our fingers crossed!
There were tons of interested parties who are planning to put their latest work through Lulu - including the illustrious and awesome Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots. Her drawings were just excellent and I'm excited that she wants to use Lulu to make her book. I also talked to Dove McHargue and Julie Collins-Rousseau (Trailers) professors at SCADwho were both interested in what Lulu offers to professionals and students in the comic creators field.


Since there were so many of us there at HeroesCon, we might actually have more than one post about it. Overall, it was very successful, and I really look forward to attending next year. We hope to see you there.

Coming up next, we have Clinton talking about Origins. And next week (on the 18th) Annie and I head off to San Diego Comic Con to get over-whelmed, spend a lot of money, and of course, talk to tons of people about print-on-demand publishing.

This weekend is crazy-busy for all of us here at Lulu. If you're going to HeroesCon or Origins, then come by our booth and chat! We'll give you some free stuff in exchange for putting up with us (and maybe talking you into using Lulu).

HeroesCon
Booth #420 is the haps!
With awesome people like
- Leah - graphic designer at Lulu, and Willrad webcomic artist/creator.
- Joe - product manager at Lulu and Feral Chicken webcomic artist/creator
- Jason - marketing dude at Lulu and Random Signal Podcasterer
- Annie - executive assistant to Bob, Lulu TV operator, and avid comics reader - going to be volunteering at the CBLDF booth part-time
- Nick - Lulu community leader and forum operator and RPG-nerd - going to be dressed as Ichigo from the manga Bleach one day at the con.

Origins
Clinton Nixon, the renowned RPG self-publisher and Lulu engineer is at Origins RIGHT NOW. He's hanging out at the Indie Press Revolution booth (IPR) with a Lulu hat on. Go by and say "Hi!" and check out his newest RPG The Shadow of Yesterday, awesomely hardcover printed by Lulu.

See you guys there! And next week we'll have pictures here for those of you who don't end up going.

---

I'm also going to start ending each entry with a quick intro to a comic (or RPG) on Lulu. So here's the first one:

Gunnerkrigg Court

Tom Siddell recently published the first collection of Gunnerkrigg Court on Lulu. The comic has garnered fans like Neil Gaiman (who links to their website and the new book in his blog). Mr. Gaiman claims Gunnerkrigg Court is "a semi-gothic funny-sweet school story with mysteries and robots and so forth". Mysteries! Friends! Fun! Robots! I just dare you to try and keep away. To check out their book, click on the thumbnail to the left.

Wizard World Philly was just two weeks ago, but we're still recovering! With over 30,000 attendees, Nick and I were crazy busy meeting people and spreading the Lulu gospel. We took a two pronged approach this year, with one of us walking around talking to creators, and the other in the Lulu booth.



No, not ''that'' booth! A table! ''That'' booth is a phone booth we were walking past and... well. That's me on the left, getting a hug from Nick. The other folks in the booth are (l-r) Ryan, Mae, and Steve. Photo by Jared Axelrod, who is also the author of the excellent Lulu Book Tales From The Uncanny Valley.



For three days, we prowled the aisles of Artists Alley, and we were amazed at the number of people who not only knew about Lulu, but had Lulu books! I went to the Action Philosophers table first, mostly to geek out and squeal with girlish delight - imagine my surprise when Fred Van Lente points out his Lulu title, TRANQUILITY! After that, I felt unstoppable - I feared no creator! How many people did I talk to that day? I have no idea. Dozens. I was drained and exhausted at the end of the day, but it felt great.




I wandered a little farther on and ran across Blank Label comics' Brad Guigar. I met Brad at Philly last year and we chatted briefly about Lulu. We were both in the right place at the right time, because now nearly all of the Blank Label artists publish ''something '' with us! He was selling a wide array of books that he now publishes through Lulu, including the excellent Evil Inc, shown on the right.



Of course, there was a great deal of foot traffic by the table, and by the end of the first day Nick and I had given away more than half of our promotional comics! We seriously underestimated how eagerly people would be snapping the up, and by mid-Saturday we were out. We compensated for this by giving away more hats, shirts, and Lulu-branded mousepad/notepads.

Overall, a truly excellent convention! Will do again! AAA+++!!!

Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the pleasure to attend Balticon, a SF convention held annually in, by some cosmic coincidence, Baltimore, MD.

Neil Gaiman!

Even though Balticon is first and foremost a science fiction convention, there was a small contingent of webcomic creators present. The guest of honor this year was superstar of both SF and comics Neil Gaiman (who is also, of course, the creative consultant of multi-media graphic novel Fas Ferox).


I there not only to spread the good word of Lulu, but I was also a program participant on the podcasting track.
See...



That's me (Jason), second from the left, in the orange shirt.

These podcasting panels were the perfect venue to brag about Lulu Radio, which, if you didn't know, is the offical podcast for the Lulu creator community - hosted by yours truly. At the far right end of the table is Paul Fischer, host of the Balticon Podcast. He is currently helping Lulu author Ronnie Blackwell turn his book Serve It Cold into a podiobook (that's an audiobook released as a podcast - clever, no?). The woman on the far left, the one everyone is intently listening to, is Mur Lafferty, host of the podcasts Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should Be Writing, and author of |Lessons From a Geek Fu Master, seen here. (And here's a close up of me for good measure.)



Recording Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman - a podcast-radio drama

Here's the all podcaster production of ''Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman'', by Nelson Bond and adapted by Mur as an audio drama. Standing next to me (stage right) , is yet another Lulu author, Jared Axelrod, author of Tales From the Uncanny Valley and the host of the podcast The Voice of Free Planet X.


Final verdict - Balticon 40 was totally Airwolf!


Next up - Wizard World Philly report from Nick and Joe. After that, almost everybody goes to HeroesCon.

This weekend I was lucky enough to attend Toronto Comicon, sponsored by Paradise Comics. With big name guests like Dave Sim, George Perez, and Jill Thompson, this is one of the biggest conventions in Canada. There was even an exclusive web interview with Stan Lee! (As a side note- OMG Gail Simon OMG! Will you sign my copy of Killer Princesses? Gah! I am such a fangirl.)


Pictured: panelist and amazing artist Raina Telgemeier of The Babysitters Club

Saturday, the con held a Women of Comics symposium with a series of panels and guests that discussed the ever changing and growing role of women in the industry.


Since this was the first time Lulu Comics has ventured into Canada, I was able to meet a whole bunch of new and wonderful creators. I’ve been reading Danielle Corsetto’s (pictured left) webcomic, Girls With Slingshots for ages, and it was wonderful to see her in person. And how could you not love Willow Dawson and her comic Violet Miranda? It’s about girl pirates!

Also, don’t forget that FREE COMIC BOOK DAY is coming up this Saturday, May 6th. If you know anyone that would like a free copy of our newest independent anthology Lulu Creators #5, just have them send an email to comics@lulu.com, with the subject "Free Comic Book Day!" and their address in the body. I promise that we won't use the addresses for anything but sending them a free comic.


That’s it for now, but be sure to keep your eyes open for Jason at Balticon on May 26h.

We're combining our powers to create one mighty post about two conventions we've gone to in the last couple of weeks. First up Clinton went and checked out I-Con (which was 3/24)

I-Con Update:
Clinton recently spent the weekend at I-CON, a 6,000 person science fiction convention on beautiful Long Island, NY. Besides having a panel on electronic publishing there, he met with lots of authors and creators and talked with them about their projects, including Jared Sorensen, a soon to be Lulu author, and the creators of Dark Refuge. It was a fantastic time, and the organizers of I-CON did an excellent job.

Now onto the coverage of HellCar Con (which was 4/1)

HellCar Con Update:
Pictured: King's Barcade sign - this way to Hellcar!

Leah, Joe, Nick, Jason and Katie all went to HellCar Con, since it was so very close to here (in Raleigh, NC). I went early to King's Barcade (site of the summit) and set up a booth full of sample books and some random swag (free orange cups anyone?) and had my wish for coffee fulfilled. HellCar Con was interesting in that it was more of a conference of people in the region who are creatively inclined discussing different aspects of the local scene, how to innovate our work and businesses, and how we can work together.


Pictured: Leah setting up shop at HellCar

I met several people who were interested in Lulu and asked a variety of questions - one guy, Greg Carter, even gave me a print out of his book Amy's Blues that he's interested in printing via Lulu (and it looks totally awesome).


Pictured: Jason (left) and Joe man the booth at HellCar Con

The schedule for the convention was a little hectic, with overlapping talks and a variety of topics like . I shared a talking session with Tracy S of Bonded Llama Studios about self-promotion and self-publishing - which ended up being in the next door Poole's Diner while everyone ate. It went really well, and the food was great. Overall, I enjoyed the HellCar Con and advise everybody to get involved in local creative groups - it's a great way to get advise and encouragement when you're pursuing your interests (and make cool friends).


That's pretty much it for me for now. Next up is the new promotional comic and Annie's trip to the Great White North (i.e. Toronto ComicCon starting 4/28). Check you later space cowboys!

The winners of the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize have been announced, and Zach Miller wins the comics category!



Totally Boned is the first collection of strips from Zach's webcomic Joe and Monkey, the ongoing adventures of two regular guys (well, to be precise, one regular guy and one regular monkey), and a kleptomaniacal robot.

Listen to my recent interview with Zach and find out why ducks are so dang scary!

Congratulations Zach!

The finalists in the Lulu Blooker Prize, world's first literary prize for blooks (books based blogs, webcomics, or other websites), have been selected. The list was officially announced on March 8, and it has received quite a bit of attention, everywhere from blogs to traditional media. The announcement has been covered extensively by the BBC (What can we say? The British love Lulu), and state-side, by the US News and World Report.

The contest was open to blooks published anywhere, not just by Lulu. There were 89 total entries in three categories - fiction, non-fiction, and comics. There were a lot of excellent submissions, and our committee of independent judges really had their work cut out for them! (I'd also like to extend special thanks to Andrew Neal at Chapel Hill Comics for his part in selecting the comics short-list.) However, in the end, they managed to whittle the list down to 16 titles: 6 non-fiction, 5 fiction, and 5 comic. Though we promise we showed them no special consideration, several Lulus still made it into the short-list, and now we're going to talk about them, because it's awesome!

( Lulu Blooker Prize Finalists behind the cut )

All of the short-listed books are now in the hands of the finalist judges, Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing fame, Robin Miller of Slashdot fame, and Paul Jones of iBiblio fame. The winners will be announced on Monday, April 3, 2006. For more information please visit www.lulublookerprize.com.

So, if you have a webcomic that you've got printed into a book, keep your internet tuned to the Blooker Prize website and enter for the 2007 Blooker Prize contest, which starts soon (don't worry, we'll keep you updated). Also, we'll be sure to put up the winners here on April 3rd, so you can pat them on the back.

Covert Operative Report from NYCC by Brad Guigar - member of Blank Label Comics, creator of Evil Inc., Greystone Inn, Phables and many other comics.

Pictured - The NYCC Crowd!
New York Comic Con was a first-time con, and after horror stories of the Las Vegas con, I don't know if anyone really expected this one to do well. It's New York, and it's February, but man was it a show. The turn-out was so far beyond what the presenters expected that the NYPD and the fire marshalls showed up and threatened to shut it down on Saturday.

Literally, there was "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS" tape across the entrance and cops were only allowing people to enter as others exited. Media were unable to get in, some pros were blocked, fans waited in lines for hours. It was an amazing sight.

( Read more about NYCC and check out the group of pictures we got behind this cut )
**********************
Pictured left: Clinton Nixon and friends
That's about it for NYCC. I know it's a little late getting this up, and I don't have a really good excuse for it. Maybe I was hypnotized by that building block Batman? Anyways, our next convention is I-Con, which Clinton Nixon (pictured left) is attending. Keep your eyes open, and we'll see you later! - Leah

Lulu Comic Subversives Convention Schedule 2006
*NEW* Lulu Comics Livejournal

The Lulu Comic Subversives have been up to a lot. In fact, we've expanded our ranks, and now have a full six staff members actively attending conventions, crashing panels, and being big geeks. Here we are:
list

• Annie Broadwater - specialties: knitting, mainstream comics, married into RPGs, any cute comics, manga
  
• Joe Komenda - specialties: drawing webcomics (Feral Chicken), product details, goth comics
  
• Leah Riley - specialties: drawing webcomics (Willrad), robots, organizing conventions
  
• Clinton Nixon - specialties: writing RPGs, self-publishing RPGs, ukuleles , programming Ruby
  
• Jason Adams - specialties: marketing, podcasting (Random Signal), board games,
  
• Nick Popio - specialties: brooding, RPGs, LARPs

We're doing our best to talk to everyone who's interested in the Lulu concept and how it's a great asset to independent and small press comics and RPG creators.

Comics, graphic novels, roleplaying games, manga - you name it, and we're reading it and talking about it. Graphic novels and manga are one of the largest growing markets in the publishing industry since 2001, and they're pretty much blowing up here at Lulu also - I've been building a group storefront for all of the comics on Lulu and it's getting pretty darn big - check it out here.

If you're a Lulu who's attending a comic or RPG convention feel free to say "Hi!". We always enjoy meeting people that use our site, and we cover all of the conventions we attend on our Lulu blog so you could end up making an appearance. We've also just added a Lulu Comics livejournal that duplicates the Lulu blog posts we make - you can add us as your livejournal friend (we really hope you do). As always, if you can't meet us in person, you can always hang out in the comics forum or RPG forums with us. See you later, space cowboys.

Last Thursday (3/2) most of the Lulu Comics Subversives met up with Paul "I'll have what she's having" Friedrich and Eric "I sure could use some pie right now" Knisley to hang out, discuss the upcoming year, and eat a lot of sushi. I just want to note, so that the other departments at Lulu don't get jealous, that we did not get FREE lunch on Lulu (so there, Katie, stop giving Henry a hard time). Here's a great picture that Eric took (and I sliced in half) so you'll know us when you see us.



Sadly, Annie was out that day, but she was there in spirit. Eating edamame.