I Heart Comi . . .Waitaminute!

Well NYCC is over and I’m glad to be home. As always after a con, my studio is acting as a satellite campus for the Betty Ford Clinic. I used to try and get right back to work after a con, but experience has taught me that this is pointless. Cons are a lot of work (and yes fun), and you really need a day to recover -especially with the 6 hour car ride last night. So I’m just going to sit here and detox if that’s okay.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner Robot 6 (over on CBR) has resurrected the “I HEART COMICS” series. And in one of those ironic little twists that just make me laugh, they asked me to write one of the opening articles. Because, as you all know, there are two things I “love”, and they are comics and stupid fakie Hallmark holidays.

I was fairly rushed in writing it, but I think it came out okay. A week later though I am thinking that I could have done better or taken a different angle. Luckily I have a blog. So at some point I’ll get to that.

NYCC was pretty decent. I want to say it was awesome, but it was more “meh”. This year was an experiment of sorts involving me, my art rep, and some of the other artists he works with. It was chaotic as hell and my pages took a real beating, but it was fun. When I was sitting down at the table it was fantastic having Bob and Kim from ComicArtHouse handling the money and the details. Business was booming and I met tons of Robo fans. I had half the pages with me listed at $20 or less (and half of that half at $10), and that was a big hit. I just need to sit at the table all day next year, not have to pack my stuff up every day, and have enough space to not be sitting thigh-to-thigh with the guy next to me. But I knew it was going to be like that, so I’m not complaining. I’m just saying it blew about as bad as I figured it would. Luckily Bob and Kim, and the guys and gals they represent are good people. So it was kind of like being stuck in an elevator, but with people whose company you enjoy. If that makes any sense.

Friday we took it easy, deciding not to hit the town, but instead to grab some Chinese take-out and watch Tropic-Thunder. TF was hysterical. I can see how it offended several demographics on several levels, and frankly I didn’t care. TF was a variation on a convention tradition that sort of kept happening by accident last year. We would get back to our hotel rooms for a little pre-drinking drinking and there would be a Schwartzenegger movie on -Predator, True Lies, and so forth. Basically, good friends, a few drinks, and some first class terrible acting and you are in business.

Saturday was party night and I hit a few. And I think for the most part I’m done with them. You go to these parties hoping to meet new people, do a little networking, and get shit faced on the cheap if you’re lucky. The last part is easy enough, but the rest is tricky. In my experience people just break off into their familiar cliques or hang out with the people they work with and are not so interested in socializing with new people. Things are usually loud and crowded and sort of boring, in a socially awkward kind of way.

Not that I didn’t meet a few new people and they were nice. But overall I think I’ll take Chinese and a movie with my buds from now on.

I wrapped up the con on Sunday with a reunion and some shopping. I briefly got to see a dear old friend who I haven’t seen in ten years or so. We only snatched a few minutes -my table was busy and she had her young kids in tow. But it was a lovely few minutes. =)

I also got my shopping for Dorinda and the Widget done with the help of my pal Lauren. Lucky for me Lauren lives in Boston, so she kept me awake and semi-lucid for most of the ride home. The Widget is on a HUGE DOCTOR WHO kick. She’s blasted through all the new stuff and had her first exposure to Tom Baker’s version of the Doctor this weekend while I was away. Dorinda said it was well received. So I bought her a “Sonic Screwdriver” which came with “psychic paper”, and a “Doctor Who in Your Pocket” key chain that blurts out all the Cybermen and Dilek catch phrases. I wasn’t originally going to buy her the Screwdriver since it wasn’t cheap -I was going to buy it for myself (dorkdorkdork!). But I knew it would disappear from my desk within seconds, so I got us both one.

The Eleventh Doctor

FRZZZEEERRKKKK!

“Are you laughing at my sound effects? I will ruin your day, you robotic bitch. Shut the fuck up.”

RANDOM SPLENDOR