Sleeper hit?
Oh where to start? How about "best convention ever?" So much has happened in the last two days. I want to tell you everything, but I'll just try and hit the highlights so as not to lose you before my big news. Rest assured, it's worth it.
The crew from Cloudscape (our Vancouver comics collective) drove down to Portland in two cars. In attendance were ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
japanese_cowboy, spikecomix, mothos, and Severine. Many wacky hijinks took place. The convention was great- lots of truly amazing comics, lots of people I knew of or had met on the internet, and so on.
Stumptown is a really great convention. I've decided to continue my embargo on name-dropping because I don't want to sound stuck-up or like a drooling fan-boy or leave people off of my list. Suffice it to say I met artists I admired, found out in some cases that the feelings are reciprocal, and walked away with stronger friendships, new people to keep in touch with, and lots of awesome books. I said once before that conventions are if nothing else a great way to get a sense of how you truly fit into the industry. I fit a lot better now than I did two Stumptowns ago (the only other time I've gone). I'm still a minor player, but ain't nothing wrong with that. I'm a player.
But now for the big news. For this I'll have to name drop, but I think he'd be okay with this so here goes.
Scott McCloud was two or three tables down from me at the convention. After waiting for a while I chose my moment and went over to show him a copy of Lords of Death and Life. I'd met him once before at a book signing in Vancouver last year so though he didn't recognize me on sight he did know who I was. I hoped that, since my book was somewhat inspired by Understanding Comics, he might think it was kind of neat. More than that, he thought it was brilliant. He flipped though it, lavishing compliments on it, making comparisons to the web version of the comic which he has obviously read, and then turned to the growing queue at his table, stretched out the accordion fold and said, "Look, everybody! If you're going to do a comic based on Pre-Columbian picture books, this is how you do it!" He then proceeded to spend the next day and a half showing off my book to everybody who came to his table and pointing out where my table was.
Needless to say, I sold out of the fifteen copies I'd managed to cobble together before the convention. I sold my second last copy to a girl with Mayan ancestry and my demonstration copy to a friend of hers. People talk about how indy conventions often have a "sleeper hit" that by the end of the convention everyone is talking about. I... I think I may have been that sleeper hit.
Oh there's more I could tell you. There was the little girl (about four years old?) who thought the life-sized cardboard cut-out of Connie Sakura I had at my table was the coolest thing ever and kept trying to have conversations with her ("why is she so bored???" said she) There was the wallet my friends and I managed to return to its rightful owner after she left it on a streetcar seat, there were the suprising number of people who thought they'd probably heard about Fablewood... I can't even tell you the best thing that happened at the convention (What? Better than Scott McCloud's shout-out?!?) but chickens that aren't hatched, you know. Stay tuned!
P.S. If you're reading this and you already know my secret better-than-shout-out news, Shhhhhhh!! ;-)
