Comic-Con Diary 6: Friday

Things started off on a hectic note this morning. I overslept, so Michelle and I rushed to get to the convention center in time to set up the table for the opening crowds. I forgot my badge, so I had to cab it back to the hotel, then back to the center again! Rrrrghh.

The crowds outside were crazy - I wove my way through them as best I could until I got bogged down in a mass of people outside door D. If you've seen the sequence in Empire of the Sun where Shanghai is being evacuated... well, a little like that. I don't do all that well in crowds, so the oppressive mass began to get to me. Fortunately, I realized that the crowd was primarily guest-tag wearers, so I slipped out and ducked into a far less congested door just a little further down.

Mattel has a couple of convention exclusive toys that I wanted, so after checking in with Michelle, I headed over to their booth to see if I could snag a Giganta figure set, or maybe the Lightning Storm McQueen. It took me a little while to realize that there was a single line for two purchasing stations, but I found the end of it and settled in. To their credit, the Mattel folks repeatedly announced that you would need tickets to purchase any of the exclusives - and that required waiting in yet another line in the autograph area. It was certainly better to learn that at the end of the line than at the register, but I decided it was too late in the morning to wait in two lines for toys that might still sell out (for the day) before I got there. I bailed and went back to the Red Window table. Maybe tomorrow!

Anita definitely needed more dealers'-room-wandering time today, so I manned my end of the booth and Michelle helped Scott and Bill out until Anita arrived. Sales were still good, though the older, cheaper T-shirts continued to outsell the new version (I think the bright orange was a great design idea - it allows the beaver to be printed on the shirt with only two colors - but bright orange clothing may have too much of a prison-jumpsuit vibe for most shoppers). The watches continued to sell well - we may have misplaced a couple, but all of the rest sold today - the first item I've sold out at a convention!

Once Anita arrived, I got to hit the dealers' room for about ninety minutes. My camera crapped out early in the day, so I was a little more vulnerable to the spending bug. Over the whole day, I picked up one of Sideshow's companion sets to their vinyl Jabba The Hutt figure - it contained secondary creatures (like Salacious Crumb) that'll accent Jabba's throne nicely. I picked up two more vinyl toys from Super 7, a small Sculpey® monster from a table-ful of similar characters, a Frankenstein Jr. bank (Funko just got it in today), Toynami's con-exclusive Santa Robot figure, and a blocky resin figure of a design-y scientist whose name escapes me at the moment.

Sadly, I didn't get back to the booth in time to see my friend/famous animation blogger Jenny Lerew, whom I'd been looking forward to seeing again - I think it's been quite a while. I tagged Anita, and she got to run off and play. I minded the store and took pictures from the table.

A lot of old animation friends dropped by to say hello and buy swag - I drew a few quick sketches, too. When things were quiet, I focused on a larger sketch that a friend of Steven Ng requested. He wanted Toy Story characters combined with Kiki's Delivery Service characters, which was more than a little intimidating. Miyazaki's drawing style is beautiful, but it's not a particularly forgiving one. If you're not a strong draftsman... it's gonna show. Big time. Fortunately it went rather well, and my 'patron' was very pleased! Instead of payment, I asked that he make a donation to the Sierra Club. Aren't I wonderful?

Michelle went to a painting/drawing lecture by Steve (Nexus) Rude - happily for her, she got in the front row, and had none of the problems that I'd experienced the previous day. She really liked it. I do think she wound up going up to the room a little over an hour early, so I guess that's the moral of that story!

Anita came back as I was finishing the sketch, so we tagged out again - once she was finished helping Bill with his cash box's handsome tally, I was able to go shopping and chatting again. As with yesterday, floor traffic was noticeably better in the late afternoon, so I was able to relax and complete a sweep of the whole dealers' room (if you don't do anything else, I think you could do it in two full days). I picked up some of the swag I mentioned earlier, and drooled over some original art - an old Peanuts Sunday strip I read as a kid (if you've got a good memory, it deals with Snoopy and a crossing signal). Only $55,000! Sigh.

So that was the day! I wandered and shopped until the dealers' room closed, then the three of us went back to the hotel room. Michelle whipped up a tasty spaghetti dinner from the groceries we'd bought earlier, and I watched a little television before uploading (and tweaking) the day's pictures from both of our cameras.

I only missed one picture because of my battery problem. Or maybe I should say... costume. I call him "Warhol Spider-Man".

I'm sitting there, reading a free book I got from the Minx table, when this guy walks in. It's an African-American guy in a Spider-Man suit. So what, right? It's Comic-Con.

But instead of the old-school red costume with blue accents, this guy has a turquoise costume with hot pink accents. He's not wearing a mask, or carrying one. He comes off looking like a Spider-Man for another planet, maybe in a parallel universe. It's like one of those Warhol prints with four Marilyn Monroes on it - the shapes and forms are correct, but the color is straight out of a broken television set, or when you throw the Photoshop 'Hue' slider all the way to the other side.

The suit is professional-looking, but it's tight. Like I-don't-think-he-was-wearing-underwear-tight. You could pretty much see... everything.

It would've made a hell of a photograph!

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!

Comic-Con Diary 3: The Set-Up

Anita and I napped for a little while to recharge our batteries, then headed over to the convention center to pick up our exhibitor badges. That went more smoothly that it's ever gone for me in twenty years of Con attendance. Arriving on Tuesday is the shit.

Anita went to do some homework concerning when our chairs and pin-boards would arrive, while I stayed with the swag. I wandered around a little (not too far) and shot some nearby construction. For the most part, the floor was pretty quiet, but everyone was in a flurry of activity, scrambling to get their booths ready for the following evening. Cartons, wooden crates, carpeting, and electrical cables sprawled as mid-sized cranes loomed over the collage of half-built heroes.

I swapped places with Anita and headed over to Freeman (the booth supply rental company) so I could put a couple more chairs on my credit card. Everyone was great there, but the center wasn't selling anything to eat or drink yet. Off I went to get sustenance, especially water. There was hardly anyone inside, but it was muggy both inside and outside the center.

I picked up a couple of big bottles of water at a pizza shop, and a medium frozen yogurt from the fabled Pinkberry. Celebrities speak in dulcet, reverent tones of this southern California delicacy, and we both agreed that it was quite good - I got crushed Oreos® on top, but it was unnecessary. It was a sweet yogurt with a strong citrus flavor. Was it four dollars good? We're used to spending too much for everything during Comic-Con, so it was hard to be objective.

I went through the convention schedule, and marked off potential events to attend. I'm the most excited about the Spaced panel, and the fact that Paul ("Pee-Wee") Reubens will be autographing this week. I'm going to try to pick up DVDs of Shaun of the Dead and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure for them to sign. Keep your fingers crossed!

There was only so much we could accomplish today (the T-shirts won't be here until tomorrow, and the pin-boards haven't shown up yet), so we chatted with some aisle buddies and headed back to the hotel. After that, a quick trip to Ralph's to get groceries for the next few days, and dinner fixin's for tonight. Anita's whipping up some tacos, and I'm blogging until Michelle gets in - she should be here in about forth minutes. More news tomorrow!

Comic-Con Diary 2: Arrival

Well, here we are in San Diego! Not exactly an epic journey, since the flight is just a little over an hour. It was exactly how I like my plane trips, though - nice and boring.

We took a cab to the Marriott Residence Inn - we're not talking The Ritz here, but it's cozy, Anita likes it, and they serve free breakfasts until 9:30 (we partook)! Anita is pretty particular about her accommodations, so I'm happy she likes the hotel. Plus, there's free wi-fi in the lobby - that makes blogging a little easier. We'll see how my diary goes when the Con kicks into gear! Last year, I only posted once, so I'm already ahead of the game.

Anita's napping in the room. We're on the ground floor - we decided to upgrade a little so Anita's sister Michelle could have a real bed instead of a sofa-bed. She has back trouble, so hopefully she'll be more comfortable - hotel mattresses can really wreak havoc sometimes! There's two bedrooms with a little TV/kitchen area in between, and we got a good deal on the upgrade. Personally, I imagine the head of every hotel chain around here must buy a new boat or something after Comic-Con. Convention housing is pretty steep these days!

The new Happy Beaver T-shirts are still in transit - it turns out the printer got the days mixed up and thought his deadline was a week later than it actually was. OOPS. Well, everything's printed up now, and it'll all be overnighted down here for tomorrow morning - just like last year. Sigh. I was really hoping to avoid a last minute scramble. I guess I'll have to budget more time for the APE T-shirts.

I'll probably head back to the room and spruce up a bit before we go over to the convention center to pick up our exhibition badges and start setting up our table. I'll try and keep you posted!

Comic-Con Diary 1: Waiting For The Plane

Here we are at Oakland airport, waiting for our flight into San Diego. The Super Shuttle didn't have a lot of schedule options, so we had to leave horribly early for our already horribly early flight. Anita didn't bother to go to sleep, as she's not a morning person, and wouldn't have been able to rouse herself at 3:30 AM! I only slept a couple of hours myself, as the list of errands to do before bed seemed to keep getting longer and longer! We're all set now, though - even though our flight was cancelled (!), we got an earlier one. At least we won't have to wait at the airport for so long!

The Vanishing Beaver!

I'm happy to report that I have fewer of my Happy Beaver vinyl toys remaining than I'd originally estimated! My guess-timate was around two hundred and fifty (250), but it turns out there's actually only one hundred and seventy five (175) left! So if you want one, you'd best snag it at the Red Window table (#4800) in San Diego, or git to orderin' one online!

Dylan Sisson's New Vinyl Toy!

Check out Idle Hands, a nifty ten-inch vinyl toy that'll be premiering at Comic-Con! It's the creation of Dylan Sisson, and you'll be able to get any one (or all) of three colorways at the Toy Tokyo booth (#5237). See you there!

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!

Comic-Con Diary: Before You Know It, It's Over

Anita had a show on Wednesday, so she was to arrive that evening. I was pretty blissed out - I was finally going to see the toys that I'd worked on for well over a year. I was so excited that I left the suitcase containing some of last year's T-shirts in the trunk of the cab! At first I panicked - I hadn't looked at the name of the cab company... how many yellow vehicles were in San Diego? Just one company, as it turned out!

Fortunately, Scott (Morse) reminded me that I'd asked for a receipt, so I contacted the carrier and waited for the cab to return from his current fare. On top of that, the exhibit hall was going to open an hour earlier than I'd realized! While I was waiting, I met with the Gentle Giant folks at their booth to pick up my toy shipment. But it'd been delayed, and it hadn't arrived yet. I had nothing to sell at all!

Happily, the cab returned well before the hall opened. I scrambled to set up my portion of the Red Window table with some back stock of T-shirts left over from last year. Bill (Presing) and Scott were already set up. Not long after I finished, the hall was opened to the public.

It was not the Wednesday I'd experienced three years earlier, when I was able to stroll the aisles and cherry-pick my favorite items, clearly viewed in early-bird fashion. Nope - this was more like a typical Friday, with crowds scurrying like children trying not to run at a public pool. Anita arrived later on that evening, and we took turns running the booth. Anita took charge and made it clear she wasn't happy that the toy shipment was late - she made quite an intimidating impression on my Gentle Giant contact!

It soon became clear, though, that the toys weren't going to arrive that day. Fortunately, the T-shirts sold quite well, and of course Bill and Scott's work sold briskly. I was too glum to sell much, so I navigated a couple of aisles before preview night ended. Anita's sister Michelle arrived at the hotel from Chicago that evening, and we prepared for the next day.

Thursday's T-shirts continued to move, but the countdown to the beavers' arrival became agonizing. I kept myself occupied by more shopping, and Anita was a good sport and held down the fort. Finally, around 1:30 or so, they arrived! Eagerly, we tore into the boxes - there'd been some shipping damage, and several of the boxes were crumpled. But no matter - they'd arrived! They were there! And I thought they looked great.

The second half of Thursday was a good selling day - the toys and the shorts moved well. Buoyed by the toys' arrival, I stayed at the booth more and signed the outgoing vinyl. Anita and Michelle helped everyone, and I tried to drop off one of the beavers at the Sideshow booth. Frank Kozik loved the finished toy, and stopped by several times - what a great guy! I shopped more, as sales had been good.

Friday, on the other hand, was a different story. The T-shirts continued to sell well, in spite of the dwindling sizes, but toy sales dipped, which surprised me. I'm not sure if most visitors spent their money in the first two days, or if panels were keeping folks from the dealers' room, but I think I sold half of what I'd sold on Thursday.

Fortunately, I continued to run into old friends that I now see once a year or so - people I'd worked with at The Simpsons, Tiny Toons, college friends and ex-Pixarians as well. It was great to see everyone, and of course they were all very excited and supportive about my new toy. A Funko representative was interested in making "Happy Beaver" into a bobblehead, so I gave them my contact information.

I figured that things'd pick up on the weekend, as those are the biggest attendance days of the convention - and Friday, Saturday and Sunday had sold out for the first time in the twenty years that I'd been attending. But it wasn't to be.

T-shirt sales dwindled along with the size availability, and the weekend toy sales narrowed further. I got restless at the booth, and began to wander a bit more. Sunday was especially dry, so I got a bit mopey at con's end.

The oddest encounter was with someone from the TokyoPop booth who wanted to know the story behind the character. I tried to explain that I'd simply made a toy that I liked and wanted to see on a shelf, but she pressed until I admitted that I didn't have a story for the beaver.

"Let me get this straight," she said. "You went to the trouble to make this figure. You spent the money to rent out this booth. And you don't have a story?"

I started to feel like the hucksters in that TV commercial who've whipped up a massive, synergistic marketing campaign around some slug characters, but don't have a script for the film project they star in. But I'd always looked at the project as more Hello Kitty than Charlie Brown. Does she expect a dramatic arc from Hello Kitty? That's what I should've said (heh).

Still, I'm very satisfied with what I've done, and I have to remember that I'm still making a name for myself in this arena. Plus, everyone who saw the toy liked it, so that was encouraging, too. There's online sales, work sales, and a distributor in the future, so I'm not worried about being stuck with boxes and boxes of toys. Also, it's good that I got overly optimistic, too - that's not my usual take on things. There's a confidence beneath it that I'm glad to see.

Comic-Con Diary: Arrival

I'm entering this into the Sheraton Suite's free computer - that's the good news. The bad news is that (thanks to Internet Explorer) almost every bit of text on Blogger is showing up as little squares. Nice.

At any rate, I got into San Diego at 9AM, so I've been milling about downtown, waiting for my room to become available. I've picked up a Cy-Gor figure at the local Suncoast for a co-worker, gotten a haircut to make myself more presentable, and found a cool Japanese retro Tony the Tiger T-shirt at the local Urban Outfitters. Pricey but awesome!

I also bought a universal memory card reader, so hopefully I'll be able to illustrate my diary posts with pictures quickly, rather than having to wait until I get back home. I should be able to pick up my first hundred beaver toys later this afternoon. I'll document the occasion Bill-Presing-style as soon as I can! More to come...