Okay everyone, at long last, here is my post about the VA Comic Con that was last week (Nov. 21 & 22) in Richmond, VA. This post might be fairly long and it will be loaded with pictures. Click on all the pictures for a bigger version.
The Virginia Comic Con
Brett Carreras put on a fantastic show. I have been a vendor/artist/participant at previous VA Comic Con shows before but usually those shows are only for a single day several times throughout the year. However, this was the first TWO-DAY con Brett had ever put on before and I definitely wanted to be a part of it - especially since the show is only a 1.5 hour drive away from my house. And because of the close distance of the con, this show afforded a very unique opportunity for me and my wife, Judi.
Since I started Capes & Babes, Judi has only been able to share in my con experiences by listening to me talk about a particular show, looking at various photos or - as was the case with the Baltimore Comic Con 2008 show - meet several of my artists friends. She has not been able to actually GO to a con with me before. At least not until now.
This is my table set-up for the first day of the Con.
That’s my wife, Judi, behind the table.
Since Judi is loosely based on Joey, she wanted to go all out for this con so she went out and found a pait over coveralls AND a tool belt. She didn’t need to worry about the tools since HER TOOL COLLECTION WOULD MAKE BOB VILLA JEALOUS…
In various podcast where I have talked about my Con experiences, I have mentioned for every show, I try to incorporate something new on my table. The VA Comic Con was no different. For this show, I decided to see how buttons would work so I had 1.5″ buttons made up of Joey, Marc and Roy from Pure Buttons. I had 50 buttons of each character done. I thought they came out pretty nice:
Something that is missing from my table display is my t-shirt display. Usually, I also sell a t-shirt with a single design but as careful as I was packing my stuff up in my wife’s van, half way to Richmond, my wife asked me the fateful question: “Chris, where’s your t-shirts?”. Sadly, they were exactly where I left them… in the living room. I had my t-shirt bust which I use to display the shirt but not the actual box that had the t-shirts in them. After much consideration and debate in the car, I decided that I wouldn’t display the t-shirt bust if I didn’t have the shirts on hand.
Added to that, since my wife was only going to be able to attend the Con on Saturday, I would just bring them to the show on Sunday. I was a little worried because the t-shirts sold VERY WELL at the Pittsburgh Comic Con and I was really kicking my butt for for forgetting a potential money-making product. I decided then that I would try and make a pre-con checklist so that wouldn’t happen again. For this con, it wasn;t so devastating since the travel time was minimal - but if it was Heroes Con or some other show that requires a 7+ hour drive, that would have been a potential make-or-break disaster.
THE TABLE SET-UP
Ever since my first appearance at one of his shows, Brett’s always been very supportive of Capes & Babes. In fact, even when I asked him about the 2-day show, he didn’t have any space available in Artist Alley but asked if I would be interested in purchasing a spot in the dealer room. It was a little more expensive but again, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. After I gave him my check, he told me where he would be placing me. It was a prime spot right next to the Comic Book Certification guys (CGC). I think that helped quite a bit as Artist Alley really was an Artist Room with artists jammed together like sardines. I never would have been able to have the same set-up as I usually do.
Dan Nokes & I did a Panel the first day…
On the first day, Dan Nokes and I did a panel about independent creators/publishing. It was just him and I going back and forth discussing the differences of publishing in print and “publishing” online. It was only for 30 minutes (every panel that day was 30 minutes) but I was told by many people who attened the panel that it was quite informative & they enjoyed it a lot.
Bowling Night
The only sad part about the show was not being able to participate in “Bowling Night”. The bowling alley across the street from the Con hotel had a bowling night for all the invited creators. But since I was driving my wife home that night, I wasn’t able to attend. I heard it was QUITE fun and I’m sure it was but given the two choices - spend a day with my wife behind my Capes & babes table or go bowling, bowling will lose every time. As much fun as I’m sure the creators had that night, I still think I had way more fun spending the day with my wife and letting her experience what I’ve been experiencing these last two years at various can. She had an absolute BLAST!
THE SECOND DAY…
Still with me? Good.
The first day, I took a bunch of photos. You can check them out here or here. And as I mentioned before, I brought my t-shirts this time. I also decided to re-arrange my table a little bit differently. I decided to turn my 5 foot tall foam core cut-out of Roy “backwards”. What this meant was, as you entered the dealer room (and there was only one way you could enter) you would immediately see Roy - as demonstrated below:
The only difference to the front of the table was that I had my T-shirt bust I mentioned earlier set up in the corner where Roy was the day before:
If you’re interested in seeing all the details of exactly how I organized my table,
click the link above to see detailed notes of how and where I placed everything.
No panels for the second day but I met a ton of great people throughout the weekend. Here are some random things/people I remembered from last weekend:
The girls in the red costumes with the black masks. My wife got such a huhe kick out of the fact that you two absolutely LOVED capes & Babes - especially Roy!
Cyclops was a blast to take to - especially as I watched him put his mask back on since he really couldn’t see my Roy sketch in his book all that well! 
The two girls in colored wigs. You were a blast to talk to as well.
Rob… had a great time talking to you about your anthology project. Hope I was able to “pay it forward” with what ever little advice I could give you. Now go scratch up Drew’s car as revenge! LOL!
The security guy that talked to my wife for quite a bit about his tattoos. Man, he sounded JUST LIKE Seth Grogen Rogen (I must have been thinking about the old New England Patriot’s QB from the 80’s, STEVE GROGEN when I wrote that…)! but the guy absolutely sounded just like Seth Rogen!
Dan Nokes… I thought our panel went REALLY well. It was a lot of fun. Let’s do it again some time.
To the CGC guys for being gracious about switching places with me. I really do appreciate it guys.
John Gallagher (Buzzboy) - thanks for letting my wife put my two friend’s freebies on the corner of your table. Folks, John’s one of the nicest, gracious guys you can meet in Webcomics or comics - period. Go check out and support Buzzboy - tell him I sent ya! Thanks again, John!
And, of course, my wife. I am SOOOOO glad we were able to do this show together - even if was for just one day. It was a lot of fun having you there and getting to watch you have so much fun and talk with people who really seem to love Capes & Babes.
And lastly, to all of you who took the time to come up and talk to me (and my wife), who decided to take a chance and spend your money on the Capes & Babes book, or who liked my art well enough that you bought a commission from me. Thank you so much for all the kind words from people who previously bought my mini-comics or the book and told me how much they loved it.
As a long time convention goer myself, I know the risks (and rewards) you get when you decide to hand over a $20 bill to someone you may not have heard or recognized before. It is my sincere hope that you found that $20 purchase to be well worth your investment.
Thank you all so much and I look forward to seeing all of you again in 2010!
Sincerely,
Chris Flick
