My First Stumptown (as a seller)

Stumptown Comics Fest: 2009. Third year attending, first year selling. First time EVER selling my work for reals.

Saturday:
Rolled out of bed after such a long day working on the print. I hopped on the Max and arrived at a little bit before 10am. I stood in line for a little while before realizing that exhibitors can go right on. Got my badge and found the PNCA tables. Tables. Two. Two whole big tables for Lacey, August, PNCA stuff, and myself. No one else was there. I spread out my comic on half the table and showed many different formats. Lacey showed up just a little after I did and set up. No one else was there still. Daniel came with the PNCA pamphlets but there was no one coming with a set up. NO ONE! We had a couple comics spread out across a full table. Some people stuffed a half table with more than we were offering. It was a rather silly looking display. Very weak. But we still sold. Lacey would edge a comic along every now and again. She sold minis. I was selling mine for $2 so it sold really easy. People were impressed by the format and the colors and how unusual it was. I made a lot of on the spot sales. Sure I got the, "I'm just doing the rounds" line and the "I'll come back later because it is big and I don't want to crush it" stuff. And about four people did come back and buy it. So great. It sold. It sold well. I made about $45 the first day and about the same the second. It was a nice little return and it felt good to get my stuff out there.

I saw Keith Knight speak about the comics business. Jeff Smith was giving his lecture at the same time so Knight's was a tad vacant. Which actually worked out well for me because he recognized me afterwards and we talked and he bought one of my comics! Farel bought one. Jesse Reklaw bought one. Greg Means, who edits Papercutter, bought one. He was apparently showing it to other people all over the place. Some people came to my table looking for it because they saw it around.

I traded some and gave some away with chocolate. I'm not all that attached to it.

August took his sweet time showing up. Lacey and I had our pitches down. We would do one and the other and pimp each other out and trade off. It was a nice little enthusiastic show. August was shy or whatever and we didn't really sell anything when we left the table. I sold one when we took a half hour for lunch. You gotta make eye contact and smile and talk and talk and talk and show off the wares. I got some great reactions when I opened the whole thing out to its unfolded glory.

Jason (Dagit, not Powell) stopped by to support me and he got a comic. That was nice. He invited me out for drinks with him and a couple friends later on.

A lovely lady with the last name of Yanow and I chatted a lot.

Jim had a cozy little nook, he bought a comic. Bryan over payed but I bought one of his first, as well as 1-4 of BT's Otto Zeplin comic. I stopped by Farel's table a bunch. He had a lovely set up and was one of the honored guests.

Talked to Martine Workman, who was delightful and lovely. Dame Darcy was there and I was giddy. I love her work!

Kenan Rubenstein loved my comic so much and we traded. He had this epic calendar style format and the comic unfolded over a year and you turned the pages like a calender. It was really nice. He was super nice. He had a sort of fold out comic like mine, just smaller. He really loved Lacey's work as well. A lot of people did. The people that connected with it really loved it. It was awesome.

Thom and Dom showed up and sat at our table and brought some of the late afternoon energy. They also payed paper money for my comic. So awesome! I love being supported by my friends.

We stayed all the way through till 6pm, when things shut down. I had invites to the Cosmic Monkey party but I decided to chill with Jason instead. I met them at Lompac at 7:30. I rode my bike there as it was at 23rd and Raleigh. We had pitchers. I had fish and chips. Me his friends Sandeep and Chris. We drank and talked and laughed and were loud and I think some of the other patrons didn't like us. But we were making fun of them. Well mostly this one girl and guy. The guy wanted nothing to do with this girl but she was pawing him and sitting in his lap and all but throwing herself at him. He just sat there and ignored her and pretended like she wasn't there. It was kinda funny. We finished up there (I waved to my friend Michael on the way out, he was far from us and probably didn't notice me because I was with math majors and forestry chris). We went to the Matador for a nicer drink in a nicer place. I don't know how it happened but we left at 1:30am. It became a sudden long night. Sandeep lives a block from my place and Jason and Chris were crashing at his place so we all walked to the Goose Hollow region together. I really should have payed better attention to the time because 2am and 7:40am wake up do not go together.

Sunday:
UHG! So horrible getting up. It was a slug and a trudge and crawl. I stuffed some stuff in my face that made up some semblance of a breakfast and was late out the door. I got there right at 10:00. Not early but not late. Not late as I was the first one there again and Lacey the second. I brought blankets so now our setup looks a lot nicer and a little less pathetic.

I managed to make some rounds to creators and really talked to people. Talked to Jon Chad and he had some awesome format comics. One was about descending into caves. We traded. I talked to so many people and got such a wide variety, some of what happened is going to blur together. Most of the Greg Means stuff happened today I think. Today was fueled by sugar and adrenaline. Bought the set of Ouija Board Interview comics from Sarah Becan. She came by and got my comic as well. He talked and it was lovely.

Karen stopped by. She got my comic for free because, well duh, I couldn't have finished it without her screens. Farel gave her a print to give to me. He also gave her one. What an awesome fella!

Madeline was there and picked up a comic. So awesome! She said someone mentioned to her that she was walking with an awesome comic (when they saw her with it) and she hella name dropped me as her friend. Ha! She is so cool.

Talked to these lovely fellas with a castle set up display for their comics. We traded. Will Iversen and Dan Bouse I believe they were.

It was great to feel like my comic was being shown around and considered awesome. I traded a lot. I wanted a wide range of people to have it. And it seemed like they were eager to take it. Greg said cartoonists thought it was awesome. Some bought it as an inspiration for printing. It was, well, wonderful. I was this ecstatic feeling. I sold really well. I am at about 10 copies right now. I sold around 46. Gave away or traded maybe about 20. Hard to say. Didn't keep the best of track.

A guy gave me a card asking if I was interested in an internship. He said I seemed to know what I was doing. Lacey sold all of her comics and had a strong interest from local bookstores who might carry it.

Now I just need to think of a new, cool format. Or keep doing it like this. Make a niche for myself as the massive format comic girl. Cheap and creative. It also helps to talk and smile and network and introduce myself.

I was in a daze. Flustered and stuttering and it was so hard to get my pitch but I still sold. In the end I made $93 and Lacey made around $172. Pretty awesome for our first go.

August showed up for barely 2 hours. It was frustrating having to have to trade off the whole day. You don't want to stay at the table the whole time.

Oh and one of the models at school was selling her comic, Erika, she was really cool.

There were just so many awesome people who were psyched. I've used the word awesome a lot of times but that was what it was: AWESOME! My friends came and supported me, strangers liked my work, editors and professionals dug it.

Now I just need access to a screenprinting studio. Gotta get into the comic GAME YO!

Went back home on the Max with Lacey. Gabe made dinner. I am exhausted but have to pull up the stupid freaking Illustration assignment that was impossible for me to do half of it (how can I take pictures of the same inanimate object at noon and 3am when I'm at school or printing or selling my wares?). Argh. I'll do as much as I can but my heart just isn't in it. I WANNA SELL MORE AND PARTY! So much went down this weekend. I wish I could write it all but it is hard. I met so many people.