This past weekend I headed up to Niagara Falls for my second big con, this was going to be different, this was the first time I would be away from my wife and daughter. I'd been invited to come along and share an exhibitors' booth with the guys from @blackholehuntersclub, @shaneamato and @rickylima, not only would we be sharing the table but crashing together for two nights in the gorgeous, "Niagara's Best Inn". I wasn't nervous about staying with the guys, Shane and I talk regularly on fb and I knew we were going to have a good time while we were there. I was also more confident with this con since I've gotten to know some other vendors and comic artists ( @NikZezos, @MikeRooth @KeithArana and Jason Loo creator of @ThePitifulHumanLizard) so there would be some friendly faces there as well.
My approach to this con would be all about attitude, I wanted to be positive the whole time I was there, I was not going to let a lack of sales or interest get me down, I would pitch and pitch and make friends and sell some books.
The first day of the Con was mostly about set up we had great vendors on either side of us Tony and his wife and kid Maxx were great to hang with and to the other side of us was a guy who was selling special variant covers of certain books and I was able to get a copy of Squarriors no.1 which I hadn't been able to get my hands on in Toronto. I also traded a copy of Homeless G-Men to they guys from Hypnotic Dog studios who do a book called "Insurance" and also get a copy (with a sketch for Lucky) of Dan Holst Soelberg's new book, "Shadow Abuse" - if you are a fan of Edward Gorey you have to check out this guy's stuff, it's fantastic, traded one of my sketch covers for this great "Odin's Ale" shirt by HeavyMentalDesigns (@KeithArana).
Insaurance, Shadow Abuse and Squarriors
The first day of the con was slow but I did sell a couple of comic packs and got commissioned for a sketch by a guy named Chris, who I had drawn before at GTA Comic Con, Chris is a really nice dude who gets artists at all the cons to draw pictures of him doing all kinds of crazy stuff (my drawing is on instagram @madcraftyshay). We went for Tacos and checked into our hotel, a real rat trap and like the title suggests - the sink was in the hallway. Didn't sleep well the first night, there was too much on my mind.
SATURDAY - this is the long haul day 9.5 hours. the line up was massive and wrapped around the building which gave all the vendors some hope that Saturday was going to be huge for sales. I pitched and pitched, getting your pitch down to get people to stop and come hang with you is incredibly important you have to have it down pat, if you've got your pitch you can improvise and respond to whoever is looking at your books. I pitched and talked so much that I started to lose my voice - if that happened I'd be screwed. Sales were slow that day and it was discouraging, lots of looking and chatting but not a lot of money being spent. Remember, no one has heard of me or my comic - I have to convince folks that my book is worth buying. This time I added a free sticker to every purchase, it didn't seem to help much. The day ended and this was the night to go out. We headed over to @BigBComics to check out a cool display of Captain Canuck comics and older Canadian comic books, they were great hosts, then it was off to the Fallsview buffet with @ChrisYao, @KevinHickey and @KevinS.Boyd and Jason Loo to jam down as much food as possible since I'd gone the whole day eating almonds, granola bars and drinking vitamin C infused water. Food and drink at cons is expensive most vendors try to avoid buying any food. After dinner it was time to hit a bar and meet up with some other comic artists (if you're interested to know who was there pm me, this ain't about name dropping). I felt like an idiot after being introduced to these guys since my voice kept cracking and dropping out completely, I probably sounded like a prepubescent teenager. We also found out that a hooker had been killed in our hotel, we were not surprised.
SUNDAY - SPEND THE MONEY DAY
I always give out my comics to creators that I respect and this time I gave out books to Phil Hester, James O'Barr, Yannick Paquette and Rafael Alberquerque, I always hope to hear from any of them either for criticism or to maybe try and talk about getting a blurb for the back of one of my books. I sold a bunch of copies of "Crypto Zombic", people in Niagara Falls LOVE horror and violence. I put out my Jason vs. The Punisher print and had people vote on who would win the fight, it added an intereactive element to draw people in and then pitch my book. Sales were not great this day either but I did buy myself a couple of presents anyway.
I bought these two awesome pages (from artists who live in the GTA, yeah travel to Niagara Falls to buy art from your neighbour) from Ken Lashley and Leonard Kirk, it was great talking to Lashley who has one of my books but hasn't read it yet. It was nice to be remembered, and I'm going to learn a ton from studying the work. I like buying pages more than I like buying comics.
Ken Lashley Black Panther page
Leonard Kirk X-Factor page
The con started to wind down, sales were not great for anyone really but I came out of this one, wearing this cool shirt
Heavy Mental Designs
I did my accounting at a great brew pub and knew that the money was not going to be good, I did pay for my table and my hotel room but all of the other costs, travel, cabs, food, beer, presents made it a loss for me. I wanted to make money at this con, but I learned more about attitude and sales that will help me at the next one.
And of course I sold a comic to the guy sitting beside me at the bar.
thanks for reading
A.Shay Hahn
My approach to this con would be all about attitude, I wanted to be positive the whole time I was there, I was not going to let a lack of sales or interest get me down, I would pitch and pitch and make friends and sell some books.
The first day of the Con was mostly about set up we had great vendors on either side of us Tony and his wife and kid Maxx were great to hang with and to the other side of us was a guy who was selling special variant covers of certain books and I was able to get a copy of Squarriors no.1 which I hadn't been able to get my hands on in Toronto. I also traded a copy of Homeless G-Men to they guys from Hypnotic Dog studios who do a book called "Insurance" and also get a copy (with a sketch for Lucky) of Dan Holst Soelberg's new book, "Shadow Abuse" - if you are a fan of Edward Gorey you have to check out this guy's stuff, it's fantastic, traded one of my sketch covers for this great "Odin's Ale" shirt by HeavyMentalDesigns (@KeithArana).
Insaurance, Shadow Abuse and SquarriorsThe first day of the con was slow but I did sell a couple of comic packs and got commissioned for a sketch by a guy named Chris, who I had drawn before at GTA Comic Con, Chris is a really nice dude who gets artists at all the cons to draw pictures of him doing all kinds of crazy stuff (my drawing is on instagram @madcraftyshay). We went for Tacos and checked into our hotel, a real rat trap and like the title suggests - the sink was in the hallway. Didn't sleep well the first night, there was too much on my mind.
SATURDAY - this is the long haul day 9.5 hours. the line up was massive and wrapped around the building which gave all the vendors some hope that Saturday was going to be huge for sales. I pitched and pitched, getting your pitch down to get people to stop and come hang with you is incredibly important you have to have it down pat, if you've got your pitch you can improvise and respond to whoever is looking at your books. I pitched and talked so much that I started to lose my voice - if that happened I'd be screwed. Sales were slow that day and it was discouraging, lots of looking and chatting but not a lot of money being spent. Remember, no one has heard of me or my comic - I have to convince folks that my book is worth buying. This time I added a free sticker to every purchase, it didn't seem to help much. The day ended and this was the night to go out. We headed over to @BigBComics to check out a cool display of Captain Canuck comics and older Canadian comic books, they were great hosts, then it was off to the Fallsview buffet with @ChrisYao, @KevinHickey and @KevinS.Boyd and Jason Loo to jam down as much food as possible since I'd gone the whole day eating almonds, granola bars and drinking vitamin C infused water. Food and drink at cons is expensive most vendors try to avoid buying any food. After dinner it was time to hit a bar and meet up with some other comic artists (if you're interested to know who was there pm me, this ain't about name dropping). I felt like an idiot after being introduced to these guys since my voice kept cracking and dropping out completely, I probably sounded like a prepubescent teenager. We also found out that a hooker had been killed in our hotel, we were not surprised.
SUNDAY - SPEND THE MONEY DAY
I always give out my comics to creators that I respect and this time I gave out books to Phil Hester, James O'Barr, Yannick Paquette and Rafael Alberquerque, I always hope to hear from any of them either for criticism or to maybe try and talk about getting a blurb for the back of one of my books. I sold a bunch of copies of "Crypto Zombic", people in Niagara Falls LOVE horror and violence. I put out my Jason vs. The Punisher print and had people vote on who would win the fight, it added an intereactive element to draw people in and then pitch my book. Sales were not great this day either but I did buy myself a couple of presents anyway.
I bought these two awesome pages (from artists who live in the GTA, yeah travel to Niagara Falls to buy art from your neighbour) from Ken Lashley and Leonard Kirk, it was great talking to Lashley who has one of my books but hasn't read it yet. It was nice to be remembered, and I'm going to learn a ton from studying the work. I like buying pages more than I like buying comics.
Ken Lashley Black Panther pageLeonard Kirk X-Factor pageThe con started to wind down, sales were not great for anyone really but I came out of this one, wearing this cool shirt
Heavy Mental DesignsI did my accounting at a great brew pub and knew that the money was not going to be good, I did pay for my table and my hotel room but all of the other costs, travel, cabs, food, beer, presents made it a loss for me. I wanted to make money at this con, but I learned more about attitude and sales that will help me at the next one.
And of course I sold a comic to the guy sitting beside me at the bar.
thanks for reading
A.Shay Hahn
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