C2E2 2013
Who all's going to the show? And where will you be?
Russell and I will be manning the Reading with Pictures booth (#1330) over by Marvel and the ALA. I'm also doing a live reading on Sunday 1:15-2:15pm of brand new RWP stories!
Russell and I will be manning the Reading with Pictures booth (#1330) over by Marvel and the ALA. I'm also doing a live reading on Sunday 1:15-2:15pm of brand new RWP stories!
Comments
Attendance definitely was up. Saturday was a nonstop madhouse, a flood of people that just would not stop coming. It made getting through the aisles impossible at times; I even had a very minor anxiety attack when trapped in a crowd that stopped moving forward. Friday's attendance was strong but reasonable. Sunday wasn't as populated as Saturday (so, a lot of one-day badges there). But Sunday was Family Day, and it definitely was a success.
I didn't see many people in AA because I simply couldn't get out there while the floor was open. I did a bit of shopping (see my FB page for proof) and met with a few pros and one editor (who actually sought me out, which was a great feeling).
My sales were off Friday compared to last year and off Saturday too, which was really disappointing considering the size of the crowd. But Sunday? Sunday I ROCKED. I had a $300+ day on Sunday, which to me is the threshold of a great sales day. (By comparison, I did $145 business on Fri and $211 Saturday. And that's just my personal books, because we sold RWP's copies of RWP.)
And as for the RWP sales? WE ROCKED. MASSIVELY. We sold a case and a half of hardcovers, easily 40-50 books. The panels Josh did for librarians and teachers were huge successes, and people flooded over to buy books after each one.
ONTO THE SALES:
Strawberry Shortcake #4:3 copies
SS Digest #1: 26 copies
SS Digest2: 23 copies
SS Vol. 2#1: 23 copies
One Last Thing: 9 (respectable for a mini comic)
My art/cards: 12 pieces for $80. (@marvinmann, I owe you $5.)
RWP softcovers: 4 (RWP was out of these, so I sold my own if someone demanded one)
RWP HCs: 3 (I sold three of my own because we didn't know Josh's square password)
And one Batman book that I found in a dollar bin and sold for $5. Booyah.
Convention season is off to a strong start, and C2E2 was my second convention of the year. I was working the Reading with Pictures
booth (#1330) over by Marvel and the American Libraries Association
(ALA) along with fellow comic creator Russell Lissau (Strawberry
Shortcake), and Gabriel Bautista (Elephant Men). As well as the return
of our internet, Aliza, who was helping us throughout the weekend.
Despite being in a bit of a funk the entire weekend (for reasons I
have yet to fully understand), the weekend was an amazing success – both
socially and financially.
FRIDAY:
Friday morning the group got up, packed the car, and left for the show
to set up the booth space. Reading with Pictures (RWP) had a fantastic
location, which got a lot of traffic. We were selling through the last
of the RWP hardcover stock (the softcovers for volume 1 having sold out
last year), and sales were strong and steady throughout the day.
Russell Lissau, Trevor Mueller, and Gabriel Bautista run the Reading with Pictures booth at C2E2
In addition to the anthologies, I was also selling my all ages books
Junkyard Chase and Albert the Alien. Overall, sales were strong and the
fans were very receptive to trying a new book.
After the show, the group joined up with several other creators and
went to China Town for dinner. A little stir-fry place with poor service
but delicious food was the topic of the day. And despite it taking
forever to get our meal, the server did bring us a few free appetizers
and meals to make up for it.
Dinner in China Town
After dinner, we headed back to my place for much needed sleep. The major events of the weekend were yet to come!
After dinner, the group stands outside the restaurant. Photo by Russell Lissau
SATURDAY:
Waking up early, the group headed to the convention and set up the
booth. I had a very important meeting set up with an important creator /
editor, and it was very fruitful (announcements forthcoming, once I can
talk about them). Gabe and I talked some business post meeting, and
plans were made to really blow out some future projects we have in the
pipeline.
The show was almost sold out on Saturday, so the convention center
was wall-to-wall people. In addition to the plethora of attendees, some
of our comic creator friends were in attendance – including Rival Angels creator Alan Evans.
Alan and Tracie Evans, Trevor Mueller and Beth Noonkester stand in front of the RWP booth
After a brief walk around artist alley, it was back to selling at the
booth. A long day resulted in lower sales volume – which was also the
case at NYCC last year – but still a ton of fun. And, the sales were
more than made up for the next day.
After the show we grabbed Bryan Glass (Mice Templar) and headed to my
favorite sushi place in the city, Niu. The group enjoyed a good dinner
and relaxing beverages – followed by more much needed sleep.
SUNDAY:
The final day of the show was kids day, and man oh man where there a lot
of families at the show. And those families were buying! We sold
through the RWP hardcovers, Russ sold a ton of Strawberry Shortcakes,
and I sold through a solid chunk of Albert the Alien.
During the afternoon, Josh and I had a live reading of new RWP
material. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue, we had to read from
the Albert the Alien books instead. This went over really well with the
audience, who laughed at all the right spots and enjoyed all of the
jokes through. Between the stories, Josh talked about some of the other
stories appearing in the Graphic Textbook (RWP vol 2), and how those
stories can be applied to an academic environment. The reading was a
huge success, resulting in several families coming back to the RWP table
to purchase all of the copies of Albert (and learn about the newly
launched webcomic series)
Russell Lissau, intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista laugh it up at the booth
Meanwhile, back at the booth, the gang was having a fun time selling
books and hanging out. And even posing for pictures with fans. Gabe was
in full form, and providing sketches for kids – and selling commission
sketch cards.
One of our many fans poses behind the booth with the creative duo
A fan who wanted a sketch of a character we didn’t know. So they decided to sketch it for us
Intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista try to sell copies
of the book to Trevor’s fiance. She already owns copies of everything,
however….
At the end of the show it was time to clean up, and get home. The
weekend had been a lot of hard work, but a ton of fun and rewarding in
every sense of the word. I can’t wait until the next C2E2!