Komikon!

Christ, yesterday was fun. :) Extremely exhausting but so, so much fun. Trizh and I got to the venue at around 1:30 pm (a couple of hours late, we know) so there was already quite a big crowd there. We were at the Indie Tiangge area, toward the back of the Bayanihan Center. I can tell you, as it was my first time selling at Komikon I was extremely, extremely nervous. I worry a lot about the reception of my work (as do all people who create work, I think) ; I expected to sell around five copies, max.

After arranging and re-arranging our booth several times, we finally decided to go with this arrangement. We got seated next to the guys behind Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents (Noel Pascual & AJ Bernanrdo) and they were some of the nicest guys I've met. Not only do they have a kick-ass best-selling comic, they're also extremely down-to-earth (I'll do a separate post on my loot) and helped us get comfy, given that we had a lot of things to sell and not a lot of space. :) On the off-chance that you guys are reading this, thank you!

The Pantig clan (Joelle + her brothers--both blood and water) dropped by too and were nice enough to lend us their support. We had a great time talking about the comics and the stories and the great indie turnout.

Above is Noel & AJ's booth--so pretty! They were selling Volumes 1& 2 of Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents + giving away a sampler of the third volume (which will be available soon). This is one of the funniest, most well-drawn comics I've read, ever. Perhaps the best P75 spent on a comic in my life. :)

Trizh and I can be extremely scatter-brained so we had money envelopes for us to keep track of what we were doing--copies that were selling and how much we were making, etc. Yesterday definitely exercised (whatever) speed-math skills I retained from second grade. Talking to people while calculating how much they owed us and then scrambling for change and for markers to sign copies with when asked was lots of fun despite requiring brain gymnastics. Selling your own work at these kinds of venues really pushes you to get out of your comfort zone and I like that; it reminds me a bit of Musical Theater classes I took as a child.

We were able to meet so many nice people who seemed so interested in our work and that made me so, so happy. I think I was especially ecstatic because I'm not a comic book artist; I'm a writer and selling something literary at a graphic venue like this was a hooj risk. But I suppose hooj risks are worth it when they go right because all copies of Mundane, Mundane sold out! Trizh did really well too--I think she sold more than half her loot by the time I left (which was around 6:00 pm, an hour before the event officially ended). I know the photos I took are sort of crap and that's because I didn't have a lot of time to take photos + we were using a point-and-shoot. But my friend Coppi, who took the official photos used his DSLR so official photos will be up soon over at MoarBooks.