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!

Comic-Con Diary 4: Preview Night

Wednesday started out calmly - Anita and Michelle brought some the hotel's free breakfast food back to the room as I got cleaned up and ready to go. Once we were finished eating, I stopped back at the front desk to check on the Happy Beaver t-shirt order. Happily, they'd arrived - I brought the box back to the room to check 'em out. They looked great! We all donned the new shirts so we could wear them at the booth.

I started over to the convention center first, so the ladies could get cleaned up. The pin-boards were there, but we didn't have any push pins yet, so I focused on re-folding and sorting the new shirts. I had most of them done when Bill, his fianceé, and his mountain of new books arrived! They started unpacking and setting up their section in short order. It wasn't long after that when Anita and Michelle arrived. I checked on some missing chairs at Freeman's exhibitor service area, but we were due to get them later in the afternoon. I took a lot more photos on the way over and back, while the others continued setting things up.

Once the booth was ready to go, my next errand was to get the empty luggage back to the hotel. Michelle and I took one of shuttle bus lines from the convention center to the Holiday Inn By The Bay (the pink line's last stop). There was a mix-up with our hotel's bus, so it took us a while to get back to the hotel. I took a short nap while Michelle returned with snacks for Anita.

I roused myself just in time for a barbecue at the hotel. I don't know what the free meals and elevated courtesy are about. It's a Marriott at Comic-Con. All they really have to do is exist, so I'm not sure why they're trying so hard. I mean, they sold out. As a manager, I'd say their job is done, but I'm glad they're so nice (I digress)!

I snagged a few extra burgers and dogs in classic college-student fashion, bundled them up (with some condiments) in plastic wrap, and cabbed it back to the Con. I ran into David and Jennifer Skelly in the pro registration line, which was cool. I thought I'd make it back to chat while they were waiting for badges, but they were already in by the time I'd dropped off the food and bought a few copies of Who Is Rocket Johnson?, the latest comic compilation by a gaggle of Disney story artists. As long as Dave and Jen had already succumbed to the dealers' room, I figured I'd check it out, too.

So I staggered about in an overstimulated haze until the room closed at nine o'clock. Along the way, I ran into my buddy Brant Bridges of Sideshow Collectibles, and checked out Go Hero's awesome Buck Rogers prototypes. I bought three copies of Who Is Rocket Johnson?, the exclusive Peter Parker / Spider-Man Mighty Mugg, a couple of wooden Pedro the Mail Plane toys from Japan, some Flintstones and Land of the Lost figures from Funko, and yet another vinyl Anpanman toy. I'll try to take pictures of them at some point this week.

We discounted some of last year's shirt designs, so we sold out of the Dirty Beaver t-shirts completely. Some of the other shirts sold fine (including the new design), but the biggest surprise was the Happy Beaver watch - six of the twenty are already gone! It'll be exciting if we sell out of them - I'll be sure to make more for APE if we do.

I'm pretty thrashed, so I'll wrap it up here. More tomorrow!

Where I'll Be At Comic-Con

Michelle, Anita and I will be with Scott Morse and Bill Presing at the Red Window, Inc. booth - #4800. Print out the handy map (above) so you can find us when you get overstimulated!

Bill Presing's New Blog!

Bill's started a blog called Daily Peril, and it's sure to be loaded with plenty of tasty artwork. Be sure to stop by and give him support!