Convention Report: Summit City Con 2012

This past weekend was spent in Fort Wayne, IN for a one-day show called Summit City Con. It was a smaller show, but well attended and with a huge volume of artists and creators for fans to come out, meet, and buy their books / art.

FRIDAY
My good friend and fellow creator Russell Lissau (The Batman Strikes, Strawberry Shortcake) picked me up at home, and we quickly headed over to Laura Harper’s to pick up some additional copies of Reading with Pictures for the show this weekend. After that, we were on the road to our destination.

The road trip was tons of fun, as it’s always great to catch up with friends – even though I’ve seen Russ just about every weekend since April.

Eventually we arrived in Fort Wayne and parked at the hotel. We checked in, then headed out to grab dinner at a local restaurant called Don Hall’s Gas House. The place was packed, but Russ and I were able to grab a booth towards the back.

Prime Rib was the dish they were best known for, so Russ and I ordered our fill and supplemented them with some homemade onion rings and asparagus.

Enjoying an adult beverage at the Gas House

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and met up with fellow friend and creator Steve Horton (Amala’s Blade) and all headed to the pre-con party at a local pub. Unfortunately all they had was beer (I’m not a beer drinker), but they had some great company and Russ and Steve found some brews they could enjoy. After some fun socializing with the other creators attending the show, we paid our tab and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

SATURDAY
Steve, Russ, and I got up early and headed over to the hotel restaurant for some delicious breakfast, then to the convention center to set up our tables. We were positioned at the tail end of the main isle, a prime location for grabbing traffic.

The table set up

The crowd this year was primarily interested in superheroes and all-ages books. We got a lot of support for Reading with Pictures – including for the kickstarter campaign live until May 17 this week – and even some press interviews.

The crowd was very energetic, appreciative and impressed with the turn out. And we were too. I was admittedly nervous about attending a one-day show, not knowing how well I would do sales wise. But honestly we did incredibly well, and even made some new friends along the way.

Also, Albert sold like a fiend. Which always makes me happy.

By the end of the day the floor started to clear out, and everyone I knew had had an awesome day. For a one-day show, it exceeded my wildest expectations in terms of sales and performance. Plus, there’s always that fun factor – of which we had tons of fun.

After the show floor closed, we packed up and headed back to the room. Russ went to meet up with an old college friend of his, and Steve and I walked to a local Irish pub for a post-con dinner.

Prom was apparently going on downtown, so people were running around in tuxes and fancy dresses while we walked to the pub, triumphant and exhausted.

After dinner Steve drove back home, not living too far away from the show, and I went back to the hotel room intending to go out for the post-show party. However, I ended up falling asleep instead, having been hit hard by the early morning work out schedule I’ve been adopting for the past 2-3 weeks.

SUNDAY
Russ and I got up and walked around downtown, looking for someplace open for breakfast. We didn’t mind not finding a place, since the weather was so nice out. Plus, we got to see some “walk of shames” from prom the night before.

We eventually settled on going to the hotel restaurant again, and this time ordered some delicious waffles with hot syrup. Just what we needed before the long drive back to Chicago. We took a slightly different route this time, and got to enjoy some beautiful countryside.

Summit City was a great show for a one-day outing, with some energetic and fun crowd who were appreciative and eager to check out new comics. There was a larger all-ages crowd, which worked out well for me, and also a strong superhero following at the show – but that didn’t stop people from buying indie books.

A great time, and I think I’ll be returning again next year!