Post 268-Dallas Comic Con

So, I have some pictures HERE of some of the goings on at the Dallas Comic Con yesterday and today. Luan took them with my camera, so lots of fun and such. Gambit looks like a real bad 'a' in this picture here, could be the leather jacket, could be the foot on the wall, but I get a real Marlboro man vibe from the shot!

First off, I have to say thank you to Mark Walters for helping me get one of my goals: being a Guest at a comic book show! Seriously, it was a first, and always, I had tons of fun at Dallas Comic Con. People kept talking about the fact that Wizard World TX leaving has opened the door for other conventions, and in a way it felt like a weight has been lifted. I went to this show with only the goal of having an enjoyable time, and I had a fantastic time! Unlike trying to work on getting people to buy things so I would be able to make up the hundreds in table costs at a big show like Wizard, I was able to make table costs in the first part of Saturday. I chipped in for the Space Gun table, which I didn't sit at this time, but more on that in a bit. But I ended up making much more profit because of low overhead, and that's the beauty of shows like Dallas Comic Con.

As I was saying about tables, Luan got us tables before David Hopkins had gotten me table space next to him by talking with Mark, so I ended up sitting with David Marquez at a table on Saturday with David Hopkins to my right. I could say any number of things about the seating arrangement with two David's, but none of them sound good.

David Marquez could only be there Saturday, and was a great neighbor. We had fun meeting some interesting folks and chatting about art. On Sunday I had the whole table and my neighbors to the left was Nick Derington and his wife. Great great people. Nick is a huge influence and a mentor of sorts. I just wish I lived closer to him so I could hang out with him more because I end up learning a lot every time I talk with him.

Kristian could not make it for the understandable reason of deadlines, but I still haven't seen him since CAPE, so hopefully we'll get to hang out at STAPLE!

Getting to sit with David Hopkins was a great treat, and I'd love to make a habit out of it. He's hillarious and tells great stories, then mix that in with Paul Milligan travelling to us from the far reaches of Oklahoma. He had to use a bob sled and escape heavy border guard presence to illegally enter Texas from the no-mans land known as Oklahoma. Sorry to those of you who are from or live in Oklahoma. My only encounters with the state are the trips my family used to take from Texas to Pennsylvania. Oklahoma was always the worst stretch of the trip. Followed by the horrible radio stations in Ohio, though trips to Waldo for fried balogona sandwiches made it worth it. Scoff if you will, but those sandwiches are a taste of Heaven, but by eating them you might end up somewhere else for gluttony.

I ended up selling a bunch of paintings, and did really well financially at the convention. I'm pretty much done doing prints and sketchbooks for now. The overhead is very low for paintings and the profit margin makes them highly worth the time involved in creating them, not to mention the fact that I have so much fun.

Also, I ended up having more people come up to me than ever before because of the interest in paintings, and a great group of people who were surprisingly knowledgable and great to talk to.

I'll probably talk more about things later, but I have to say I had a ton of fun. I didn't get up and move around too much, so I didn't get to see everyone there. Saw Thomas Jane in the bathroom and with the beard he reminded me of Boogie Nights, so it kind of startled me. Talking with Greg Thompson was great, I haven't talked to him in person before, but we used to e-mail many years ago, so it was great getting to talk about things.

Again...FUN! I just wish that they'd do a 3 day convention over the summer, but I understand that Fridays at a Texas show end up being a waste. People just don't want to leave work...case in point, WW:TX. I know that some people may one day feel bad, like we're playing Weekend at Bernie's with the corpse of WW, but it didn't bring anything new to the table. They really should have organized it with locals instead of bringing in staff from out of state...oh well, as long as we have great conventions like Dallas Comic Con I'm a happy man.