C2E2- Or Why Saturday Rocked

First, let me inform you this is not a traditional review of the comic-con, what they had there, how it differed from last year or others, or why I was happy/disappointed with the experience. I went to the convention with a very specific reason in mind. It wasn’t to see all of the amazing stuff throughout (which I didn’t have time to do), or go to a bunch of panels (I went to one), or to get cheap light sabers for my kids (which I did). It was to promote myself, get an understanding of the industry, and meet some like minded individuals, whether as established graphic novelists or beginners like me. We arrived later than intended (by we I mean myself, my artist/cousin, and fellow writer/note taker/sister) and immediately met up with some other fellows we knew who were also attending and began immediately whipping out our portfolio and talking about our story shamelessly whether they wanted to hear it or not.

Lunch time came fast, and while we sat there eating our salads and talking about the weird things kids do, we started to peruse the panel lists for the day. Really, we should have come better prepared with a schedule of events and what not, but the fly by the seat of our pants approach enhanced the day’s outcome I do believe. (On a side note, fly by the seat of our pants is a very weird phrase when you think about it. And I really wish I could fly by the seat of my pants. I wonder if butt wings are necessary, or if it just happens?) After attempting to watch the costume contest, which when you are 5’2” tall and in the back is really impossible, we took the trek to the Archaia Comics panel all about writing indie graphic novels. In that one hour panel, I learned quite a lot about the industry, and what to think about when submitting a proposal. Things that as a beginner in the field I never would have thought about, like page size, and color scale for printing. (Another side note. If my cats keep popping holes in the fabric of my couch, I am going to murder them and fry them up for dinner.) The culmination of the day came when we were informed at the panel that Mark Smylie would be doing portfolio reviews at the Archaia Booth.

I had done some research on the possibility of getting anyone actually in the industry to review our work, and it seemed like the possibility was pretty slim . I had no hopes of it actually happening for us.  (OK so I may have had an extremely slim hope of it happening, just like the daydream that they would immediately pick it up, it would become an immediate best seller with a high budget movie to follow, leading us to become multimillionaires in a matter of a year, but hey, who doesn’t have dreams like that?!) I was happy to show our measly 4 completed pages, 3 more inked, and a sketchbook of script and sketches to anyone that happened to look in my direction. (I tried to get R2D2 to look at it, but he just made some beeping noises and flirted with my cousin.) So anyway, we made our way down to the booth, got an appointment with Mark to take a look at our stuff and spent an hour in unbridled excitement over the opportunity we just landed. We wandered, we talked to a friend in Artists Alley, I called my husband, we fretted, we were flushed, nervous, excited and scared. In short, we were everything a newbie would be in this position.

Finally, the time came to go back to the booth. We got there a little early and were able to sit down with him early as someone along the line didn’t use their whole time. He takes a look, says “Oh, post-apocalypse, huh? We are actually looking for something like this.” The amount of air that filled my head at that moment could have powered a hot-air balloon. He then went on to tell us how we could improve the work and artwork for a submission, talked about the story and gave us some advice on that, and 45 minutes later someone else from the booth came over to tell him they were getting backed up. 45 minutes?! No way, I thought. It was over much too soon, even though we had overstayed our welcome and were getting glares from others standing around waiting, large portfolios in hand. The rest of the day was spent wandering around, not really paying attention to the comic-con itself, (which I’m sure was awesome. Please C2E2, don’t leave us in the hands of Wizard World alone!) babbling about everything he said, what we could do, and telling anyone who would listen that we actually got a portfolio review. Including the 3 paragraph text I sent my brother-in-law who had already left so I wasn’t able to babble in person. I am sure we annoyed some people, probably got some aggravated looks, but for all that I examined all of Mark’s body language while he talked to us, everyone else could have disappeared for all the attention I paid them.

Now maybe Mark Smylie really is just that great of a guy to be able to talk to all of us trying to break into the industry in a helpful manner, or maybe he actually saw some potential in us. I don’t know. Either way, I am still a little high on energy, my regular freelance writing gig is taking a big hit, as are my finances, as I devote more and more time to the graphic novel. We are beginning to self-promote, get a web-site started, work on the facebook page, and write and draw so that we can submit the first chapter, summary and all that good stuff by the fall. The name of the graphic novel you ask? You are on the edge of your seat you say? You can’t wait to see some of it? Well, I won’t keep you in suspense then. Head on over to our Nyctalopia Facebook Page and “like” us. The first 4 pages that we showed are up there for all to see. Leave some comments, tell us you loved it, or tell us why you didn’t. All we ask for is that you play nice and be constructive in your criticism. Or I’ll send my cats over to your house to pop holes in the fabric of your couch.