Charlotte, NC
Thursday, June 3 is set up day.
It was humid that day in Charlotte. It was humid that day in the convention hall. And if I failed to mention, it was humid that day in the Charlotte Convention Center as we were setting up.
At the last minute, I called my friend Garret Webb (seen here above) to help me with the set up duties when I learned that my planned help, well, wouldn't be there to help. The booth is a standard 10' x 10' footprint with 2 eight-foot tables with skirts and 2 folding chairs supplied by the convention center.
The front table where writer Merrill Hagan and myself sat to greet the attending masses was pretty well covered with book racks, prints, comics, sketches and free buttons (not pictured).
What I see in the photo above represents a lot of things I didn't have (nor had the notion of having) before last 6 month's effort to have the first copy of "Unstoppable Tuff-Girl" printed and a booth at HeroesCon: An original independent comic book (duh); 2 book racks; 1 DVD spinner rack for more books and cards, 1 vinyl banner; printed black "Tuff-Girl" hoodies; 2 hooks for hanging things like tee-shirts on hangers from the back scaffolding; 1 toilet paper roll floor stand for use as a make shift table top arm to hang things like tee-shirts on hangers, 10 boxes of various sizes to store and transport books and stuff; 2500 pin back buttons for promotions; 1 glass jar to hold the free promotional buttons; 4 business card holders, 100 laser-print posters, 18 sets of 12 ink-jet prints; a set of bed sheets and a table cloth to cover things between show days; a table top spinner intended to display a sculpture of Tuff-Girl; and about a half dozen other miscellaneous things.
Knowing what a struggle for attention it is for small independent start up publishers in a field dominated by Superman, Spider-Man and the like, I'd say the Monster Enterprises booth and Tuff-Girl received a bit less than moderate reception over the weekend. However, folks who stopped at the booth generally seemed pleased with our offering, most welcoming a free button.
We exchanged books with Tom Bancroft ("Mulan", "The Lion King", "Opposite Forces" comic), who was complimentary about our book. We also traded a few stories about our respective days with Disney.
http://tombancroft.blogspot.com/
http://www.funnypagespress.com/
http://tombancroft.deviantart.com/
Merrill passed a copy of UTG #1 to comic writer Mark Waid ("Kingdom Come") who said that he spotted our booth and was interested in what he saw.
Michael Neno, a contributor to Juan Oritz's "Silver Comics", was pleasantly surprise to see copies of Silver Comics" at our booth, although we only had up to issue #7.
http://www.nenoworld.com/
http://www.silvercomics.org/
Here are are 3 thing I learned:
1) There's no air-conditioning during loading and breakdown because the loading gates are open to the outside.
2) Kid's safety scissors can cut flesh.
3) The maid will not clean up your room if you leave a "do not disturb" sign hanging on your hotel room door knob.
No comments:
Post a Comment