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Not a lot of drama in this one, though I guess there’s murder alluded to, which is always nice.
The milk also reveals itself to be soy milk the moment after you start drinking it. UGH.
OK I will admit to having a little bit of a chip on my shoulder here, having made a couple of games that were dismissed even before they took the plastic wrapping off the review copy. Man, we busted our butts on that owl game…oh well. Better luck next time, right?
Oh! This comic guest stars two winners of the contest I had at Supanova this weekend where people had to figure out every game that was in the Old Video Game Jokes mini comic I made for the show. Congratulations guys, immortality and instant Internet fame is now YOURS!
OK OK I am being harsh.
But just a little bit.
Once again, the giant chip on my shoulder takes over writing duties on the comic. Oh well!
One of the most aggravating moments of a visit I made to the Game Developer’s Conference a few years ago was in a session where Ralph Baer came and talked about how he made video games.
He wasn’t talking about how he made a video game – RALPH BAER MADE VIDEO GAMES. HE LITERALLY CREATED VIDEO GAMES.
If you work in the video game industry you literally owe this man your job.
It just really ticked me off that I was the only guy in the (small) crowd that gave him a standing ovation. Sheesh. Show some God damn respect, you stupid video game industry.
I mean, if people figured out how criminally easy it is to become a game reviewer, then what would make me so special?
OH WAIT
Wow.
Maybe it’s just a side effect from it being my first con I spent as an exhibitor instead of a visitor or worker, and I’m full of fresh faced enthusiasm, which will be worn down to a bitter stub over the years, but I had an amazing time at Supanova!
“Doing” the con has been on my to-do list since I started Funny Webcomic, but work commitments kept me from this for the past two years. I was determined to make up for lost time this year, and boy howdy did I make good on that promise.
First of all, this is what my table looked like:
Pretty neat, huh? Yeah. Big thanks to Brad Daniels of Groovy Gravy for letting me share his Artist’s Alley table. Groovy Gravy is a good book, the new issue has a new three page Plant-Man + Flowerin’ story in it. I’m kinda bummed since I lost my freebie copies but I hope to buy another copy soon.
The first day was a “preview” day, meaning that crowds were very light compared to the upcoming weekend. That being said, I don’t think I ever really spent more then thirty seconds without talking to people that came by the booth to check things out. I gave away a lot of flyers, too. It was always cool handing someone a flyer and seeing them laugh at one of the comics on it. A really nice success came on Sunday afternoon where someone walked by, clearly not interested in being sold something, and within 30 seconds of me handing him the flyer he had a good laugh at the sample comics and bought a Funny Book Comic. SCORE.
I quickly hit upon the idea of drawing sketches of any character people request – as long as they wear a pot plant on their head. That usually got a chuckle and they turned into the big surprise hit of the show for me. After I made a few to keep looking busy I had some on display (Wolverplant, Guy Gardener as The Green Plantern, Homer Plantson…I did a sketch of Pikachhu and that was a big hit with female audience members.) people would come up and ask if they could get one, too. And they gave me money. YAY MONEY. Big thank you to everyone who came for a sketch, I hope you liked them! I did a ton of them for people including Ghost Rider, Black Cat and even someone’s pet dog.
Two copies of the mini were lost due to me handing people it to look at, and they just walked off with it – maybe they thought it was free. I ended up having to make a quick “Comics about old video games: $2” sign to place on them to stop this happening again. Live and learn!
All in all, I had about an hour, tops, where I wasn’t crazily busy drawing, talking to people about Funny Webcomic, or selling books. The time whizzed by so fast. I miss the insanity!
It was so awesome to meet everyone who stopped by our table to say hi – especially so when it was someone who has already read the comic! I was so fortunate to have great table neighbours – particularly the aforementioned Brad, and Anthony Pike who does cool cartoony comics that were a lot brighter and happy looking than a lot of the dark gloomy fare on offer, and the amazingly talented Paul Mason who does a comic called The Soldier Legacy, which has a lot of Jack Kirby (and in my mind, some John Severin) in its DNA. Big hellos to the friendly and talented folk at Ultima Java who I’m sure will be hosting their own table at the next show.
So…
I’ll be back next time. It’s way too early to go to the interstate shows, but I think this is a good base to start building another local show appearance. Thankfully the awesome folks at Supanova announced that they are starting a new show in Gold Coast next year, and another show in Brisbane in November!
I’ll definitely print up some more Funny Book Comics, but I need to find a local printer or some way to eliminate the crazy shipping costs from America. I want to get the second Funny Book Comic out by then, too, so I have something new to sell. If anyone out there can suggest a local printer, I’m all ears.
This con has energized me so much for this year. I really feel like 2011 is going to be a turning point for Funny Webcomic. I have a lot of great plans for this and I really can’t wait to see what’s around the corner.
I hope you’ll be along for the ride.
YES I KNOW HIS NAME IS DAVE SIM NOT SIMS. I couldn’t make the joke work if it was buildings talking to each other about which version of the Bible to read every Sunday.
I really do love Dave Sim though. I can’t overestimate how much of an influence on my life he’s had. If it wasn’t for him there’d be no way you’d be reading this comic today – in fact there’s a LOT of comics you wouldn’t be reading today if it wasn’t for this guy.
Oh sorry I guess they’re called Interactive Fiction now, whatever.
I think I was playing Jack The Ripper back in the day and one time my character was in his room trying to find a way out without getting killed by an angry mob outside and the only object in the room was an ocarina. Now being twelve I had no God damn idea what an ocarina was and the stupid game never told me and I spent so many turns trying to eat it (I guess I thought it was like an orange?) that the mob barged in and killed me.
Stupid text adventures.
I really feel bad for the artists on that game having to draw everything at that weird forced perspective angle. Ick. This is one of the few classic games where I think a first person perspective would be better.
Blow The Cartridge #3