NEWS:

07.26.04 - Terrence Marks:

Here's my Comic-Con report. Organized loosely by subject. I don't care much for chronology; you get a better impression from a continuous narrative on each subject than from a list of what happened each day. It's in no particular order, which is why I haven't mentioned my boothmates or neighbors yet. Stan Sakai An older Asian man came by our booth, late Sunday. He pointed at the Grootlore books and said "I used to have these back when they came out." Then we all looked at his badge. Leonard, Thomas and I said - in unison - "Stan Sakai!". I was taken aback. Part of my brain was saying "Get him to draw something. Or give him a comic. He's Stan Sakai". and another part was going "What can you hope to give Stan Sakai? He's been doing this since before you were born. Why do you think you have anything he'd need?". But while those two were fighting it out, I was marvelling at the fact that Leonard, Thomas and I said his name at the same moment, with the same intonation, same pitch. I mean, if we had actually practiced it we couldn't have got it better. It genuinely surprised me. I looked at Leonard for a moment. By that time, Stan had taken a look at a few of our comics and walked away. Modern Tales I remember the Modern Tales booth....They were about three booths away from us in the same row. I remember trying to talk to Glych at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise. I remember trying to talk to Charlie Trotman at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - but I didn't have much to say other than I really liked her work six years ago and hadn't any idea that she kept it up until I saw her at the Modern Tales booth. I remember trying to talk to Shaenon Garrity at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - but I didn't have much to say to other webcartoonists while I was there. I mean, I should've been able to talk comics or something but it just wasn't the weekend for it. But nobody really came up to talk comics with me so I guess it's even. I remember trying to talk to Scott McCloud at the Modern Tales Booth and not being able to get a word in edgewise - which wasn't so bad. Leonard told me I should go introduce myself. I waited politely for the conversation to pause and tried to come up with something better than "I'm Terrence Marks. I'm with The Nice. Leonard sent me. I'm going back to my booth now". Individually, the Modern Tales artists, I'm sure, were great people. I was on booth duty for most of the con and didn't get to go over there. And they didn't come by to hang out; their booth seemed like a more happening place anyhow. There was one guy who kept singing and hollering about his comics for the whole weekend; that got tiresome after a few hours. If they were right next to us, I think that the con would've gone better for us. Because if somebody only had fifteen minutes to spend in our row, they'd probably spend five minutes looking at the Bolt Gallery (more on them later) and ten minutes crowded around the Modern Tales table, trying to talk to somebody but not being able to. Greg Dean I've been reading Real Life since before it was cool to read Real Life and it's one of my favorite comics. I never saw Greg Dean, even though I'd've liked to. He's always struck me as the kind of person I'd get along with. And he probably knows who I am, or at least he used to. But anyhow, his booth was on the opposite side of the floor. I never had enough time to walk there and back, so Isabel went over there to get a Greg Dean sketch for my book and got one. So thanks, Greg.

07.28.04 - Terrence Marks:

So I've said a bit about what it was like being a congoer. But what was it like being a dealer with The Nice? It was pretty cool, actually. I got to meet a lot of fans. Most of the people who bought our books were familiar with our comics, which was neat. So thank you to everybody who stopped by to say hi. We had a big "Namir Deiter" banner hung over our table, because we were the only ones in our group who had a banner (and we'd look kinda blank without anything there - we're definitely going to have to do more decorating next year). I didn't get to spend much time at all hanging out with my boothmates, Mark, Leonard, and Thomas. We were too busy selling things to talk much. I worked my sales skillz as I had never worked them before. Perhaps a more low-key sales approach would've worked equally well, or at least let us hang out more. I was too busy and too tired (after the first day, at least) to think of anything really clever to say to anybody. At the end of each day, we went home and went straight to bed. As a result, my con stories might be less exciting than some of the other folk. We should've all got together and gone bowling or drinking or something - we'd have more stories at least - but after ten hours of working the con I wasn't up to it. Thomas had some really neat ideas for a CCG, which we only managed to get to as the con was closing down on Sunday. There were about three or four people who had heard of Unlike Minerva but had no idea that I was doing anything since then. Captain Packrat came by and it wasn't until about three days later that I realized he was the webmaster of Twilight Agency - sorry, Captain. D.A. Graf, their writer, also came by, but we weren't around. There were rumors that Maritza Campos was there, but those proved to be false. A certain other webcartoonist (who values his privacy) stopped by and I really appreciate that he did. And there was the Tall Tails booth which will have its own entry, probably Friday. Gremlin Trouble was diagonal from us, same as they were at Califur. I went over and said hi, which I didn't get a chance to do at that other con. It's rare that one can make up for the regrets of the past, even the small ones. But I got a sketch and Gremlin Trouble TPB #1, which was on my list of things to pick up for the longest time. It's neat seeing other comics by married couples (and they thought the same thing about Isabel and me). Gremlin Trouble itself is over so I'm waiting on whatever they put out next. Haibane Someone came by dressed as a Haibane. I've read some of the manga, so I'm a bit embarassed that he had to tell me what he was dressed as. I never saw the Haibane Renmei anime, though. He had a MegaTokyo lanyard. We talked HR for a bit. I didn't get his name though. But "Haibane who never learned how to sew" was a damn good costume. I'm thinking of doing an omake called Brisbane Renmei at some point, just so people can figure out how to pronounce it. Someone else came by on Friday, said they'd be back wearing a sandwichboard for us to draw on. And he did (yes, yes, chronological style would've made that anecdote a bit more compelling...). Isabel drew Tipper on the back, right between the Cardboard Tube Samurai and the Shirt Ninja. If I were clever (and knew how to draw) I would've drawn Carl as the "Karateka with Oven Mitts" or something like that. And since the sign was on his back, he wouldn't've been able to stop me until I was done drawing. But no, I didn't think of it. And watch, next year I'll wind up drawing on the signboard between two other comics and not be able to think of anything good until a week later. But them's the breaks. Friday- more random con stuff!

07.30.04 - Terrence Marks:

There was a giant Pikachu. Costume was about 6 feet tall and had a similar diameter. He was led through the halls by a businessman who was wearing a badge that said "Pikachu Escort". Isabel and I were making "Pikachu Escort Service" jokes for the rest of the con. Unrelatedly, we had a number of Zortic frisbees. They started out at $2 and prices went down from there. The guys from Unshelved were across from us. And whenever things got a little slow, we'd start tossing a frisbee across the aisles. Usually got people's attention after a few throws. But I never even considered a comic strip about libraries before (No, Kokoro Library doesn't even count). But I strongly recommend it. I'll scan my "Frisbee O' Doom" sketch real soon now. We were also next to Cartoon Militia who were damn cool. Being that we were right next to them (if they wanted to get out, they had to go through our booth), we got a chance to talk during the con. They also sold CDs and if I liked punk music at all, I would've picked them up. I should've, actually. They had a Pain albums and I remember hearing them back when I was in Gainesville. Cartoon Militia is affiliated with Springman Records in a way I do not understand. But I picked up all their comics and haven't been disappointed by any of them yet. Cool people. I'd sit next to these people again. I'd buy them drinks. I'd go hang out over at their house. Cool people. Anyhow, around Saturday afternoon, we had a chance to go to the Keenspot table. It was sparser than I had expected. I went up to it and someone recognized me. After a moment, I asked who he was and he - well, my wife was behind me making frantic "Don't ask who he is. He's Josh Lesnick. You should recognize him" hand signals. And yeah, in retrospect, I should've recognized him. But I got to say hi to him and get a really cool sketch. Meant to say hi to Gav, but never got the chance to. Dropped by later on, got to talk to Troutman for a while. He insisted I draw him something, so I did. I intend to learn how to draw eventually. Dollar Manga had a booth there. We picked up Kazan and Sarai. I like Kazan. It has a darker shounen feel to it, like Togari. And unlike most shounen manga, it's not painfully stupid. Sarai was painfully stupid, but we'll probably get more because it's only a dollar and I'm hoping they'll explain things. It won't explain anything, but it's still only a dollar. And no, we didn't go back to get more. Didn't have any money left over by that point. On Monday - even more!