Pictured: Aang, Leah, June, and KikiWednesday 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, PaulTaylor, 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!