Capes & Babes, a webcomic by Chris Flick

Did any of you go to the Baltimore Comic Con 2010 show this past weekend? I had a table there and this is a brief little re-cap of my experiences Saturday and Sunday…

I want to first start out by saying I had gone to the previous 7 Baltimore Comic Cons as a fan – when it was the ONLY Comic Book Convention in town. I even went to the post-poned and delayed 9/11 show years ago when air travel was sparse and the show joined forces with SPX… It’s only been the last three years that I’ve had an artist alley table so I think I’m uniquely qualified to say this year was the biggest I’ve ever seen the show… bigger names, more artists…

I will also go on the record and predict that within the next five years, I would be SHOCKED if they don’t expand show to three days, ala Heroes Con. If you saw the crowds that were lined up AROUND THE ENTIRE CONVENTION CENTER on Saturday morning, you know there is a demand for such a thing. But Baltimore can be expensive – at least in terms of parking around the Convention Center, so we’ll see.

The First Day (Saturday):
Actually, my Baltimore Comic Con started about a week before as I took up my good friend, Tyler James’s advice and offered pre-con commissions for $20 as I was increasing my price by $10 this year. Three people took advantage of that so I had a lot of work to do leading up to the show. Plus, since I only have a single book to sell for now, I knew I needed something “new” on my table so I decided to put a sketchbook mini-comic together and sell that.

The combination completing a couple of freelance gigs I had that week, working on the commissions and putting the mini-books together made the week extremely hectic for me & I didn’t get everything done until about 2:30am Friday night.

I live 90 minutes outside of Baltimore so the plan was to get up and be out the door by no later than 7:00am Saturday morning. That would have put me into Baltimore by 9:00am at least – with plenty of time to check- in and get my table set up.

I woke up late and didn’t get on the road until 7:45pm – but closer to 8:00 once I got through the McDonald’s drive thru. Made it to the show by 9:30 but now I was rushing and trying to scramble to get my badge and check in. Not good when you’re a solo act and you’re lugging a 5 foot foam core werewolf around.

But I was able to finally get everything set up by 10:15am. Very inconvenient for my tablemates but they were EXTREMELY understanding – and kind of impressed I was able to set up so fast. You would think, though, that such a bad start would be indicative of how things would go for the rest of the weekend – but no. The worst part of the show was that delay. Everything else went as smooth as silk.

• The pre-con sketch idea was a fantastic idea and people were commenting on them as I had them prominently displayed in my book in the center of the table. Pre-con sketches give you the ability to have artwork ready for your customers and still hand out and smooze people as they walk by your table.
• I was selling the mini-sketchbooks for $10 a pop, but was also offering them free with a book purchase. That went over EXTREMELY well for Saturday – although in hindsight, I should have just knocked $5 off the sketchbook and sold the book & sketchbook combo for $20. But still, people were buying the book on Saturday.
• Apparently, Todd MacFarlane was signing all day on Saturday & was located right around the corner from where my table was so that might have explained the huge amount of foot traffic we seemed to have had in Artist Alley that day. I mean, it looked like a Mall during peak Christmas Shopping Hours.
• Usually, I sell at least 1-5 t-shirts at Baltimore but I could not get anyone one to bite on those. I only have a single t-shirt design but I couldn’t move them at all. I hate to take the shirts off my table because they can sell… it’s just very unpredictable sometimes. I’ll have to see if I can figure out a package deal for the shirt as well.
• My sketch cards seemed to be pretty popular too. I think they will pretty much be a staple at my table for now on.
• Over the course of the show, Tyler & I were talking about buying a bulk order of protective binders that people like to put posters and other things in while at a con. I thought this might be a great idea for commissions… once I finish a commission, I’d put it in a protective sleeve and put it on a mini easel on my table to show it off. I did this for a commission I did for one of those black comic book covers and I had a couple of people inquire if it was for sale and were disappointed when I told them it had already been sold. I would add $5 for the protective sleeve.

The second day (Sunday)…

On Saturday, I had made my table fee back on Saturday and paid for my hotel room as well, so Sunday was going to be all gravy. Unfortunately, it ended up being the tale of two different days. Meaning… Saturday was my “book selling day” while Sunday ended up being my “Commissions Day”. I didn’t do any commissions on Saturday but I sold a ton of books. I didn’t sell any books on Sunday but did quite a few commissions (and a couple of sketch cards too).

All in all, I had a great, exhausting time at Baltimore but as always, the best part of the show is all the after hour networking you get to do with other creators. I had a great dinner Saturday night with a former marvel inker that’s trying to work his way back into the biz after leaving it for a while, a husband & wife web comic team, and a few other independent/small press creators.

After dinner, I hung with Tyler and Dawn Griffin in the upper section of the Pratt Street Ale House and talked “shop” until close to 12 midnight Saturday night. After the show on Sunday, I lingered in Baltimore for a few extra hours so I wouldn’t have to deal with Maryland/Northern Virginia traffic and had a great dinner with my table neighbor, Rob Anderson (who I already knew) and a writer friend of his. We again ate at the Pratt Street Ale House. I highly recommend the Iron Man Angus burger!

So that was MY weekend. How was yours?