Long Beach Comic Con and the Neuropsychosis World Tour

Hey lo. Last weekend I finished up the Neuropsychosis World Tour with the Long Beach Comic Con. The Con was a fun experience and my first at a big Convention's artist alley. It was completely different from A.P.E. I felt it had a similar vibe to it as an Anime Convention. I did poorly sales wise, but did very well as far as making connections and learning stuff was concerned. I made one connection that may get one of my short stories into print, so that was pretty cool. I was surprised though, because I expected A.P.E. To be the show that I did poorly at. Aside from my exhibiting I found some cool new comic stuff, visited with my neighbor from A.P.E. Josh the artist from "Assholes", and got a drawing from the amazing Dean Yeagle. I also got a hold of Mobieus' new Arzack series which will probably be written about here later. Long beach seemed to be a big cosplay show, which is cool, of course that might be due to the fact that it was on Halloween weekend. All that plus a weekend with my cousin equals a great time.
With the first Neuropsychosis tour finally wrapped up, I can reflect. It was a good learning experience in how to promote your book. I learned that you need to have a single sentence in which you can entice someone into picking it up. After looking around I decided that I need to go with some form of print house for my comic as the 'zines just aren't attracting people, in fact most people figure them as freebies. So that was the Neuropsychosis World Tour. See ya on the next go round.

A.P.E. Was the Shit

This year I decided to broaden the scope of the promotion of my comic, and so I decided to do two new conventions. The Alternative Press Expo (A.P.E) and Long Beach Comic Con. I just finished A.P.E. And it was a blast. A.P.E. Is a quirky little con, put on by Comic-Con International. In San Francisco. And it is a really fun show. It takes place at the concourse event center, an old wood framed Looong convention center that looks like it was once a shipping depot or an abattoir. Which makes it quite suited for the very self aware “indie” event that it is. The event is a very laid back convention, in fact it doesn't start until 11:00 and most people don't really show up until 1:00 (at least where I was). Also this is the first con that I've ever been to where there have been a number of people drinking, there was even a bar on site. This all led to A.P.E seeming more like a party than a con. Bur the biggest thing I liked about A.P.E. Is that about 90% of the exhibitors are artists. Not that I mind toy sellers and companies but this is the con that I feel is the most about comic books and their contents.
The drawbacks are that it is a mostly artist con in San Fransisco, you probably know where this is headed. This means that there was the blight of smug artsy types to contend with, but for the most part it was comic book readers (note reader not fan) and artists sharing their love and shootin' the shit.
You ask me how I did, well sales wise it was not my best con, but it was better than my recent ones, but nearly everyone that came to my table talked with me and actually looked at my stuff (believe it or not this was a victory). Many people took my card so hopefully that will pan out into some online readers. But I did meet some cool people and traded for some good books (that's a cool thing about art exhibitors we don't tend to by each others stuff we trade), The people around me where cool, and I will probably write about their stuff in future posts. So all in all A.P.E. Was a good experience and I will be doing it again next year.

How to Fix Comic Con

Okay how to fix Comic Con is a little extreme of a title. As I don't feel that San Diego Comic Con International really needs fixing. It is by far the most well organized Convention that I've ever been to. But having Just come back from my ninth Con (which I thought was wonderful) I figured there are some little bits that could be addressed.

First, Growth can no longer be Comic Con Internationals' Business plan if they want to run a fun show. The convention is just too damn crowded. It has become largely unmanageable, It's already outgrown one of the biggest convention centers in the state, and even if it moves (I hear you Anaheim) it will outgrow that too, and while the crowding has not created a bad atmosphere, yet, I can't help but see it on the horizon. Every year I experience more pushing and bad attitudes. While Comic Con has put a cap on the amount of admission sold, I think they need to decrease the amount sold (I hear you in the back yes I realize that this may mean I might not get in too, but that's fine if it means it'll be good when I do) . I know many people want to go and in recent years Comic Con has amazingly become the thing to do. But what good is a really popular con if no one can enjoy it or get into anything. Which leads me to...

Clear the panel and viewing rooms after panels. Panels and viewings create huge lines many of which do not all make it into the panel. Now I feel First come first serve is fair, however I believe that when people are waiting up to three hours to go to a panel they deserve a proper chance to actually get in. The people inside the room have already enjoyed a panel and they need to move on for the next group. I know someone's saying “but, but what if they want to see both.” Well to that I have to say too bad. Comic Con programming is all about tough choices. Many interesting panels are at the same time as well as following each other. And one has to decide just what is important to them. It's just not right for someone who has spent long amounts of time in a line to not get at least an honest chance. Which leads me to my next point...

Have a knowledgeable staff maintaining the queues. Most of these points that I'm making are from a more observational point of view. But This one is personal. My brother and I were trying to get into the screening of the season finale of Doctor Who. We where following the line to it's logical end getting directions from the very helpful, usually friendly staff to where the end of the queue was. At least until the end of the line when we asked a staffer where the line to the panel was. Now we didn't ask “where's the Doctor Who panel” that would be absurd and unfair to the staff to expect them to know the minutia of the Convention. No we asked “is this the line for room 6E” as that's how the staff refers to the events. The staffer said this is the line. Looking around nothing was wrong. Everyone had sonic screwdrivers and costumes etc. Now when the line lets in where does our part of the line go. A showing of the highly un-re watchable JJ Abrams Star Trek movie, in room 5A. I guess all that mattered to this Woman was keeping people in lines and fire code at bay. Because she either didn't listen to the people she was hired to help or she didn't know what was going on or worst yet... Didn't care. Needless to say We didn't make the panel. I'm actually surprised we were only Ten people away from getting in. We may not have gotten in if we were in the right line but We'll never know. This cannot have happened to only my brother and I. Especially since there were people with Sonics in our line. So I felt I needed to add it. I do have to say that every other staffer I encountered over the week was a pleasure. Speaking of staff though.

Ease up on the badge checks. This is the basic Setup. You need a badge to get into the convention center (unless your in the pre reg line). And you need a badge to get into any of the con's venues. So in other words you can't get in without one. You can't enjoy anything without one. Why then do they need four badge checkpoints in the entry foyer?

Next not really a fault but an observation promote comics at Comic Con. All anyone hears about in the run up to Comic Con is what movies and TV shows are being promoted there. Movies and TV are fine by me as long as their one of the Genres that fans care about (sci fi Fantasy), everyone forgets that Genre film has always been a part of Comic Con . However I've noticed more and more of the film and television companies other slates are getting in. I'm not talking about Twilight as most con gripers like to, as much as everyone likes to hate on it Twilight is Genre. I'm talking about stuff like Glee and Hawaii 5.0 fun shows but where do they fit? Conversely the Comics have Done it to themselves. The comic companies barley even promote their panels. My brother and I walked into the great Jeff Smith's (Bone RASL) panel. No one who wasn't there seemed to know about it. How many people reading this know about “the Comic Arts Conference”. Didn't think so. It's a series of panels at Comic Con that are about all of the interesting topics in Comics today. Such as gender in comics, comics as art and literature and other such things. But it barley gets promoted. I only learned of it because it has a cool T shirt. On the bright side the Eisner awards were full as usual, but how many people there weren't industry? I don't know While I love genre film and some TV (I did try to get into a Doctor Who panel after all) Comic Con is the biggest Comic Convention in the United Stated shouldn't they, and we, be using to, say, promote comics?

Now by this point I'm probably sounding like a bit of a curmudgeon, But I really do love Comic Con. Where else are people wearing costumes, talking about comics Sci-fi and fantasy, and people offering free hugs to everyone in sight normal. I meet a lot of people and have a great time whenever I go. And none of these things that I have mentioned are complaints except for my panel experience. These are just ideas that can make this already great con even greater


Next in my series on San Diego Comic Con International: Why Comic Con shouldn't go to Anaheim.

The Lure and Peril of Web Comics

Hello Again.
Recently I have decided to take Neuropsychosis to a place new and different for the series. Online. That's right soon Neuropsychosis will be a web-comic at ComicGenesis.com. I have come to this decision after realizing that, while I don't personally care for reading comics on the internet, That is where I will reach an audience that appreciates a work like mine. The internet been an interesting place for comics over the past decade. It is the place where things that are different are the norm. I've also noticed that it seems more people read comics in serialization online than from trips to the comic shop.
Looking back I find it interesting that I actually thought about the internet as a forum for my comics back in the late nineties, When I'm sure there were already online comics, but I had never really heard of any. But due to the combination of my lack of knowledge in making websites and my own observations of the attentions spans of the readers of my friends' online comics I opted to go the old school route and print 'zines. Since my comic unfolds slowly (to say the least) I wanted nothing to do with online delivery. That is until I read Mega Tokyo. When I noticed how popular this comic was and having read it myself (admittedly in print not on screen still have problems with that). I realized that there is in fact an attention span amongst online readers. Here was a comic with all my values of storytelling not just vacuous video game based gag strips that I always saw as "shining examples of web comics". So I decided that I should give things a shot by putting my comic on the old "inter-web".
The Internet version of Neuropsychosis will begin with, "Attack of the Killer Cheeps and continue in order as I keep making them. It will be a twice weekly single page upload going up on tuesday and thursday nights. It will be on time because the work will be done long before the post date.
Now those of you who like my 'zines or don't want to wait until the web version catches up to where you are, rest assured i am going to keep making them. I like the idea of Making a comic from the moment of writing to the moment of sale all by myself, It is very rewarding when you meet someone at a con who buys or obtains my work. I also love it when I buy a 'zine from someone at a con. I feel that this is something that should not be lost.
So come on over to my comic online and I hope you enjoy....

David

I believe that the Url for my comic will be

Neuropsychosis.comicgenesis.com I'll let you know if it ends up different.