New York Comic Con debrief
Four days of comics insanity
Two weeks onward and I’m still recovering from a whirlwind weekend at New York Comic Con.
There were a lot of firsts: the first time I’ve gone all 4 days, the first time tabling, the first time taking 3 kids at the same time, the first time meeting Captain/Peggy Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, and of course the first time meeting a lot of awesome writers and artists!
It can be overwhelming for a first-timer, especially if you only have one day to visit. Thankfully, I was able to spread out everything I wanted to accomplish over 4 different days.
Which was key, because this year was a big balancing act for me, as I alternated taking family and friends around the show and being a fan, with meeting as many writers and artists as I could. I loved seeing all of the first-timers’ faces when they stepped inside the Javits Center. As a 10+-time attendee, you take for granted how overwhelming it is, between the giant Goku and Luffy inflatables, booths, cosplay, and the throngs of people going up and down the convention floors.
Pro-tip for future attendees: Make sure you either bring a sturdy bag to hold your many purchases/freebies or make your way up to the show floor first to grab a free (and big) Dragon Ball Daima bag. Those ran out almost immediately on the first day.
While I love the big displays on the show floor, nothing beats the energy that permeates Artist Alley.
It’s the mixture of fans interacting with creators, collaborators getting to hang out or meet for the first time in person, and artists creating commissions on the spot.
The highlight was of course spending several hours at the Blood of Atlantis pop-up with artist Francine Delgado. Having worked with Fran remotely over the past year, it was so nice to be able to hang out in person and tell people about our comic!
I worked on honing our elevator pitch when creating the Kickstarter campaign pagw, but it’s definitely a lot harder to pitch when you only have a few moments with a potential reader.
That 1-2 sentence description and your cover is basically all you have to convince someone to take a chance on your story. When the “Indiana Jones meets Dungeons & Dragons” line immediately connected with someone, they were much more willing to buy. But when they had to think about it and page through the book, they usually passed.
But that’s OK! No comic is for everyone, and as a new series standing side-by-side next to characters with decades of history, stories, and fandom, the key is to just take it one reader at a time.
Thanks to everyone who came over to meet us and to grab a copy of Blood of Atlantis! And a special shout-out to Justin and Alicia from The X-Wife Podcast, who brought their Kickstarter copy of BoA to get signed.
If you missed us at NYCC, don’t worry! You can get a double-signed copy of issue one, a double-signed NYCC print, and an exclusive sticker at my online shop. Or if you want to read digitally, you can download a copy on Global Comix or Amazon.
Amazing Journey back issues
True believers unite (#1) | My comics origin story (#2) | Comic event series (#3) | The comics of Kickstarter (#4) | Single issues or trades? (#5) | From prose to comics (#6) | Adapting a celebrated fantasy series into a comic (#7) | Charting a career in comics (#8) | Comic book spoilers (#9) | Lessons from Kieron Gillen’s masterclass (#10) | Comics marketing 101 (#11) Designing memorable characters (#12) | The importance of comic book shops (#13) | Finding community at NYCC (#14) | Writing issue number one (#15) | Announcing Blood of Atlantis (#16) | Comics marketing 102 (#17) | Comic social media (#18) | The convention scene (#19)