So this was the second year Reed Exhibitions held the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). Last year was okay; it was the first year I ever had a table at a convention. I mostly ran around handing out page samples to different publishers. That paid off so this year I decided to keep my butt planted at my table the whole time. I'm glad I did because it was pretty amazing.
The show sold over twice the amount of tickets than the year before (they sold something like thirty five thousand tickets?). Friday and Saturday were nuts. Just nuts. The floor was swamped with people. Sunday was a little slower but I was ready for a slower pace by then. There was a great vibe to the show and the word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive. I feel confident that the it will just continue to get bigger and better. The staff was great; best I've seen at any show. Hats off to Mike Negin. He was in charge of Artist's Alley and was a constant presence all weekend, always checking to make sure we had everything we needed.
Met lots of interesting people. Stephanie, from Nova Scotia, gave me some great advice about web comics. Got some great advice about podcasting from a group of guys - I can't seem to find the business card they gave me at the moment. Their podcast has everything to do with nerd stuff. Or was it geek stuff? Met a few vets as well. One of them was an even bigger buff about World War II planes and than I am.
Costumes ran the gamut, as usual. Some of them were awesome for all the right reasons and some of them were awesome for all the wrong reasons, hahaha. Either way, they were all great. I commend them all; it takes moxie to dress up like some of them and go out in public. There's a great collection of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/c2e2/ The Monarch's henchmen from The Venture Brothers were my favorites.
Meanwhile, my goal for the show was to try and get a lot of work done (I'm behind on my work due to being sick for a week and a half) but I learned quickly that it was completely unrealistic. There were just too many people and the whole point of being there is to be social. I did do a few sketches that I was pretty happy with and I've got a list of commissions to start on once I get issue 2 of INSURRECTION finished.
I've learned a tremendous amount from these past two years and I'm really looking forward to next year. I'm hoping, actually, to attend another show later this year. Maybe Baltimore. I'll have lots of friends there and everyone seems to really love that show. Emerald Con in Seattle is the other show people really seem to love but it's too close to C2E2 currently.
It looks like there might be some nice opportunities coming out of the show this year as well. More on that if and when any of it becomes a reality. Meanwhile I've got lots of work to do. I don't know how I'm going to finish issue 2 of Insurrection on time but I'm going to try. STRIP MAGAZINE UK, the magazine I'm illustrating RECOVERY INCORPORATED for, is officially hitting the stands in May of this year. I'll be doing the cover for the third issue of the magazine so I'll be squeezing that into my schedule as well.
Back to work (when will I sleep again???)...
