Comic-Con Diary 5: Thursday

Sales were up today - we managed to make enough to pay off my share of the booth costs, once that comes due. Very exciting! Anita marked down some of the older shirts, so they sold briskly, plus the watches sold unabated (I think we've sold at least eleven of the original twenty!). Usually, getting back the booth fee doesn't happen until Sunday for us, so Anita and I were psyched! I think Scott, Bill, Derek, and Ted all reached that point today as well, so it was a happy sales watermark for all.

Anita went over very early to set up and man the booth, so I slept in and made sure to eat a better breakfast this morning. I had a terrible headache the night before, partially due to the high-volume booths blaring away, but partially due to my erratic eating schedule. Michelle and I chatted over breakfast, I prepared lunch for her and Anita, and we took a cab over to the convention center since we were running late. Any time the ride saved us quickly disappeared when we took the long way through the dealers' room to reach aisle 4800. That meant I stopped to pick up the con-exclusive T-shirts at the Peanuts booth, and Michelle stopped at Steve Rude's booth to chat with him. So... we didn't get to the table until 11:30!

Anita left to help out at the E-ville Press table, and Michelle took off to explore the exhibit hall, and I stayed to man the booth for about ninety minutes. There was a flurry of customers just after Anita left, but then it got pretty quiet. I got a request for a drawing, so I started to work on it until Michelle came back to hold down the fort while I went to a panel.

I had wanted to see the How To Tell A Story panel, which featured a several science fiction authors, including David Gerrold and Walter Koenig. Unfortunately, it turned into How To Wait In A Huge Line While The Talk Goes On Without You. The line moved well after about fifteen minutes or so of waiting, but by the time I was allowed to go in and sit down, there was literally five minutes left. I ran into the Skellys again, so we waited in line together and chatted - they got even less time in the room than I did! The three of us wound up having lunch in the autograph area with Steve (Sam & Max) Purcell, so that was really nice.

I have to say, I was never much of a panel person, and the current scale of the con is doing little to change that. Do you really want to compete with over 100,000 type-A people who are willing to wait for hours and hours in line for one panel? Almost every premium, exclusive or event now involves a huge line or some sort of lottery in order to have any chance at it. I'm beginning to think the whole idea of a panel event needs to be adjusted.

Why not have all of the appearances taped, and when all is said and done, everyone who attended gets a free DVD of the events that happened on the day(s) that they purchased? Or sell a DVD of all the events to people who couldn't afford to go at all? Or post high-quality versions on YouTube? I know that the Comic-Con organization is a non-profit one, but it seems like recorded events would bring in a lot of money to help pay for even more cool guests, or pay any fees that the guests might like for appearing in the tapings. I know that it doesn't solve the desire for all of the guests to meet their favorite nerd luminaries, but the vast majority of the attendees can't meet a lot of the guests anyway. But I digress.

Lunch being over, I started sweeping the exhibit floor, looking for cool swag. I tried to stay on an even keel - I bought five Tezuka Moderno figures at one booth, which pretty much finished off the series of characters that are out/I wanted. I picked up Bwana Spoon's new Gargamel figure at their booth, the two Peanuts shirts, and a retro Snoopy lanyard. The rest of the time, I was chatting with friends or taking pictures of upcoming merchandise, or the costumed regulars. I walked around until the thirty-minute warning, then returned back to the booth to help put the merchandise away before the dealers' room closed.

A group of us representing both the Red Window and E-ville tables went out to dinner to celebrate our good sales day. Most enjoyable! Everyone else is either in bed or pretty close to it, so I'll sign off for tonight. Talk to you more tomorrow!