Well if you didn’t already know, I’ll be making my first public appearance as a guest at this weekend’s Webcomics Weekend. Activities start this Saturday and finish up on Sunday leaving us time to bar hop Friday evening. What I’m most happy about, next to getting the chance to meet and network with some of the net’s most prolific cartoonists, is that I’ll finally get the opportunity to meet TL (Bullfinch) and Dgriff (ZF Comics). I’ve made a friendship with each of them and I consider these guys two of the best strippers not to have yet made it big. So it’ll be an honor to get to know them better.

Let me know if any of you will be there. If so, I’ll be happy to trade you a sketch for a beer. See you guys there!

Well, let me first mention that my trip to New England Webcomics’ Weekend was a relentless success. Except for not being hired at Halfpixel, or getting caught in a love triangle with Danielle Corsetto and Meredith Gran, everything that I hoped to accomplish did. 

A ton of my favorite WebComicers were there and then some. I managed to get a picture taken with many of them, so that’ll be included within my next couple of posts. Looking at some of the other posts about NEWW, I realized that I didn’t travel the furthest to get to New England, but I imagine I was probably in the top 10. The road trip from Georgia to Massachusetts was a big undertaking. I estimated driving about 2000+ miles and the 18 hours there and back were no joke. Once returning home and spending time with the Mrs. and girl, I passed out about 6-7pm on Monday to wake on Tuesday morning (since I take the squirt to school every morning) believing it was Monday. This state of mind occurred most of the day as I went to work, got home, etc. without realizing it til late afternoon. Today is Wednesday and I’m still a bit sleepy, but apparently doing better then some of the other Comicers out there. Many of the people that attended, came home with the case of the Con Cruds (a form of cold that can only be passed in closed environments, from geek to geek).

(Courtesy of Z.F. Comics) Dawn, Tim, Casey, Chuck, Me (on bottom)

One of the individuals that caught this illness, was one of my two main reasons for attending this meet up. A recent addition to the STCommunity, I got to first meet Dawn Griffin of ZF Comics. Every bit as cute, sweet, and lovable as her comic, meeting Dawn was not only a top priority, but it was an honor and a privilege to get to know her better as well.

I met the second of the “3 Amigos” next in the form of Tim Collins from a little comic you might know as Bullfinch. My long considered Webcomic B.F.F., Tim and I formed an online friendship about 6+ months back when we were both even more green then we are now. If I had found out Tim was unable to attend, there woulda been a good chance that I would not have gone. Knowing he was coming was a large part of why I considered the trip in the first place.

While this trip was about meeting more established Webcomicers, getting my chance to meet Tim and Dawn in person changed, in my mind, my feelings of “I’d like to go” to “I’ve gotta make this happen”. In the next two posts, I’ll talk to you all about all of the pros I’ve met, pictures I’ve taken, and sketches I’ve received. This first post, however, is dedicated to the important friendships I’ve solidified, and a couple that have just begun.

While I expected this trip would be about us “3 amigos” I partnered up with 2 others that, in their own way, made this trip not only unforgettable, but made me feel lucky to have gone. I got to first talk to Chuck “Don’t call me Zach” Egan of Surviving Retail, within an email to figure out a hotel room I could stay in for my trip. While I ended up having to switch slightly my boarding plans, I made sure to stay in the same hotel as him (since the original plans had him roomed with (previously mentioned) “Wacko” and “Dot”. Chuck is a tall, thin, quiet, friendly, dude that’s easy to get along with. Imagine me then reverse it, you’ve got Chuck (except I’m a dude too).

Chuck rode up from Philly with his other roomate, and young lady that I’m still convinced doesn’t like me named, Casey Conan. Unlike the other four, Casey doesn’t have a webcomic. She’s “only a blogger”. Strangely she’s a pretty (and pretty too) good artist, but just seems to lack the confidence to take that particular step. She’s wonderful writer with her own blog called BarGeek. She has the best write up (that I’ve seen) of the N.E.W.W. located here, so check it out.

So with Voltron united (yup, I’m the black lion), this concludes my first of 3 posts pertaining to N.E.W.W. 

-C.

Welcome to my final installment of my N.E.W.W. wrap up. Thanks for hangin’ in there with me. Much like STC, I’ve noticed this ended up being very detailed and long. So, hopefully (considering my schedule) you’re okay with the way I’ve chosen to do this. 

I saved the best for last. Below are some of the sketches I received from the con. I got the chance to do a few of them, but hated each one I did. Sharpies are not for me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these.

Tim, Chuck, Dawn, Casey

As you probably already know, I spent most of my time with team “Geeky Voltron”. The second night, we decided to do jam pieces and drink beer. Sketchin’ with other comicers and drinkin’ beer together is the closest thing to perfection I can think of. Top right: Tim, top middle: Chuck, bottom left: Dawn, bottom middle: Casey.

Paul Southworth

This one was a cool surprise. Paul is on of my artistic idols and his work on Ugly Hill is amazing. I was really stoked to get some of his stuff.

I’ve got a lot of respect for Joel. He’s got a clever sense of humor and even though he’s somewhat new in the business, has really seemed to have figured out the business of this comic on the net thing. Perhaps this was one of his first ever con sketches? A collectable.

Perhaps the nicest dude in comics? Great actor too. He almost seemed as happy to meet me, as I was to meet him. Either way, meeting/ hangin’ out with Krishna was terrific. I still feel guilty for the terrible sketch I made for him.

Meeting R.K. Milholland was unexpected and awesome. I probably learned the most from talking to him then anyone else. While this was a quick sketch, it’s the one that got a reaction from my daughter.

Meeting Chris was also unexpected. Creating 1 panel comics is not easy. He sure makes it seem that way. He’s also a surprisingly quiet guy. It’s nice to meet a big timer for that’s so modest. …either that or he’s a serial killer.

And now the Show Stopper, the Head Liner, the Main Event!

Scott, Dave, Brad, Kris

When I met him, Scott was still waiting on his t-shirts to come in. Since he was waitin’, I offered give him some of my bristol board to do sketches on. I gave him that and one of my pens. He seemed unsure about taking my offering, so we compromised with a sketch. When asking me about what I wanted him to do, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the HalfPixel guys could do a jam piece for me. Each guy went in order; Scott, Dave, Brad, and Kris showed up later. I offered each other guy money to do it, and they all turned me down. A lot of it was them maintaining an image, but these 4 were honestly amazing guys. They managed to keep their spirits and energy level high their whole stay. They answered my questions and seemed to really care.

Most of the time, meeting idols of yours don’t match your expectations. Everyone exceeded mine. Not included above; Danielle Corsetto. I ran out of time before getting to get one of her sketches. Purchased her books that she sketched in, however. Thank you to everyone I talked to, hung out with, and didn’t mention. Every minute there, made the drive worth it.

-C.

Many of you already know of Dawn Griffin, creator of ZF Comics. I’ve recently come across extremely busy times with a new job, school, STC (of course) and a couple of new commissions that I’m having a hard time providing the added content to the site that you’ve gotten used to. So I put the call out to a couple of my comic buddies. Below is a write up of something Dawn’s been working on for the last several months.

Adventures in Kid’s Book Publishing

If you’re a cartoonist, you have probably thought about illustrating a children’s book. I took 2 kids book classes in art school that I loved. A decent writer/cartoonist can create a kids book, it’s just getting a publisher to pick you that’s the pain. That, or knowing you will have a long, rocky & expensive road of self-promoting, while trying to draw/write NEW books for your series. It’s tricky.

Well, about 3 years ago, my mom approached me with a script from a coworker of hers who wrote some stories, but needed an artist. I figured, what the heck. The story was cute, it had a moral, and was relevant to little girls today, plus she had a good 3 or 4 other ideas for future books. The writer & I tooled away with character designs and over a couple months, I hammered out the first book, “Abby’s Adventures: Picture Day”. Abby loses her tooth the morning of her school picture day, and innocent cute hilarity ensues as she tries to find ways to hid her gaping hole in her smile (including sticking a mini marshmallow in there, lol). We were both very happy with the final piece and packaged it up for publishers, optimistic and probably naively so.

Then reality sunk in. Big publishers do not want a “package deal”. Publishers want writers to send in their work, and illustrators send their samples, & then they get to play puppeteer and match ‘em all up. This of course leads to some writers not being very happy with how an illustrator depicted their character, but at that point, the writer has no say. The old “You want it published or not?” deal. (My writer has friends in the business with this very issue- 8 of 11 books she’s not happy with). It’s very similar to some of the headaches that comes with being picked up by a syndicate. “You want to play in the big leagues, you gotta play by our rules– we know best, not you”.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and out of the blue, my writer stumbles on a small publisher who loves the book, the series. She has 2 girls, who adore Abby and want MORE! Just from 1 book! A flurry of reformatting the book, size adjustments, logo changes, and other revisions.. And POOF. It’s on amazon.com and target.com, and listed with Barnes & Noble. And I have a pile of stories to illustrate, haunting my every spare moment. The thing with a series is, you cannot leave people wanting more for too long, or they lose interest. So, these next books in the series need to be cranked out ASAP. All I have to say is thank goodness for coffee, red bulls, and my flex-time work schedule. Oh, yeah, and my love for cartooning!

“Abby’s Adventures” is still in it’s baby phase. It could take off with the right promotions and advertising… And if I can friggin’ get these new books done quickly enough. We’re finding some promotional ideas will only work once we have a fanbase, and others are simply too expensive and time-consuming. It’s all about baby steps, and word-of-mouth at this point. But it’s a start, and there’s nothing more flattering than a rave review from a 5 year old who wishes Abby were her best friend!