Convention Review: C2E2 2013

Convention season is off to a strong start, and C2E2 was my second convention of the year. I was working the Reading with Pictures booth (#1330) over by Marvel and the American Libraries Association (ALA) along with fellow comic creator Russell Lissau (Strawberry Shortcake), and Gabriel Bautista (Elephant Men). As well as the return of our internet, Aliza, who was helping us throughout the weekend.

Despite being in a bit of a funk the entire weekend (for reasons I have yet to fully understand), the weekend was an amazing success – both socially and financially.

FRIDAY:
Friday morning the group got up, packed the car, and left for the show to set up the booth space. Reading with Pictures (RWP) had a fantastic location, which got a lot of traffic. We were selling through the last of the RWP hardcover stock (the softcovers for volume 1 having sold out last year), and sales were strong and steady throughout the day.

Russell Lissau, Trevor Mueller, and Gabriel Bautista run the Reading with Pictures booth at C2E2

In addition to the anthologies, I was also selling my all ages books Junkyard Chase and Albert the Alien. Overall, sales were strong and the fans were very receptive to trying a new book.

After the show, the group joined up with several other creators and went to China Town for dinner. A little stir-fry place with poor service but delicious food was the topic of the day. And despite it taking forever to get our meal, the server did bring us a few free appetizers and meals to make up for it.

Dinner in China Town

After dinner, we headed back to my place for much needed sleep. The major events of the weekend were yet to come!

After dinner, the group stands outside the restaurant. Photo by Russell Lissau

SATURDAY:
Waking up early, the group headed to the convention and set up the booth. I had a very important meeting set up with an important creator / editor, and it was very fruitful (announcements forthcoming, once I can talk about them). Gabe and I talked some business post meeting, and plans were made to really blow out some future projects we have in the pipeline.

The show was almost sold out on Saturday, so the convention center was wall-to-wall people. In addition to the plethora of attendees, some of our comic creator friends were in attendance – including Rival Angels creator Alan Evans.

Alan and Tracie Evans, Trevor Mueller and Beth Noonkester stand in front of the RWP booth

After a brief walk around artist alley, it was back to selling at the booth. A long day resulted in lower sales volume – which was also the case at NYCC last year – but still a ton of fun. And, the sales were more than made up for the next day.

After the show we grabbed Bryan Glass (Mice Templar) and headed to my favorite sushi place in the city, Niu. The group enjoyed a good dinner and relaxing beverages – followed by more much needed sleep.

SUNDAY:
The final day of the show was kids day, and man oh man where there a lot of families at the show. And those families were buying! We sold through the RWP hardcovers, Russ sold a ton of Strawberry Shortcakes, and I sold through a solid chunk of Albert the Alien.

During the afternoon, Josh and I had a live reading of new RWP material. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue, we had to read from the Albert the Alien books instead. This went over really well with the audience, who laughed at all the right spots and enjoyed all of the jokes through. Between the stories, Josh talked about some of the other stories appearing in the Graphic Textbook (RWP vol 2), and how those stories can be applied to an academic environment. The reading was a huge success, resulting in several families coming back to the RWP table to purchase all of the copies of Albert (and learn about the newly launched webcomic series)

Russell Lissau, intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista laugh it up at the booth

Meanwhile, back at the booth, the gang was having a fun time selling books and hanging out. And even posing for pictures with fans. Gabe was in full form, and providing sketches for kids – and selling commission sketch cards.

One of our many fans poses behind the booth with the creative duo

A fan who wanted a sketch of a character we didn’t know. So they decided to sketch it for us

Intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista try to sell copies of the book to Trevor’s fiance. She already owns copies of everything, however….

At the end of the show it was time to clean up, and get home. The weekend had been a lot of hard work, but a ton of fun and rewarding in every sense of the word. I can’t wait until the next C2E2!