I feel like I have been on a small comic book tour since the end of April. Starting with Comic Fest in April I have been appearing at promotional evens more or less every weekend until this past weekend when my last event for the next few months was Denver Comic Con. The previous weekend in Albuquerque I was asked frequently by artists who would be attending both shows what to expect from the Denver Comic con and honestly I didn’t know what say. I wanted it to be good of course because this was the first large scale con in Denver but previous Denver events had me worried about potential turn out and enthusiasm for the show (outside the creator and retail community that is). I have to say whatever I expected it to be, even my wildest best wishes were far surpassed by how amazing it turned out to be.
To say the least the whole weekend was amazing. So many people came out to the convention center the fire marshal had to come down to make sure they weren’t over capacity and they weren’t just looky loos or star chasers. People were beyond enthusiastic to be at the con, check out the art and the goodies and talk to the artists. Sales were amazing (so much so I finally got that iPad I have been dreaming of) but that wasn’t even close to the best part. It was the atmosphere and the energy that was on display all weekend. I had so many wonderful conversations with old fans and new fans and people just passing by who had a cool shirt or costume. Denver showed up in force to support the medium and the culture and blew the roof off the joint. My friend Robert Elrod put it the best, “for a second there we were rockstars,” and we felt like it. Never have I felt so supported by the community for my stories and art than I did this past weekend. We sold out of our new Creephouse Comics book Never Send a Monster and a ton of Teenage Love Zombies books and I gave out nearly all of my postcards for the comic.
The Webcomic Pioneers panels both went off without a hitch and we had a pretty good turn out for both panels. Throughout the weekend I was told numerous times that our panels were extremely helpful and asked what is next for the Webcomic Pioneers. Well of course you will all know first. Also, because of our organizer Robin Dempsey I was able to meet the hugely inspirational and the extremely gracious Chris Oatley of one of my favorite sites and podcasts, Paper Wings Podcast. Of all of the amazing things that happened this weekend being able to meet and tell him how inspirational and informative his podcast has been was near the top.
As an artist you spend a lot of time questioning whether or not people are connecting with your work and this weekend was a resounding yes. It made me feel amazing as an artist and a story teller and made me feel proud to be a Coloradan. A tremendous thank you to everybody who came out and supported Creephouse Comics or just stopped by to chat and an even larger thank you to everybody at Comic Book Classroom for providing me with what is easily some of the best couple days of my life.
