I wrote the following earlier today on my Facebook wall:
In two days, I will be returning to Heroes Con after being away from the show for the last two years due to new jobs and other factors.
Because of that, I had been in a bit of a nostalgic mood this afternoon. Without again writing a huge detailed post, I did a small webcomic for four years for a web site called Community MX. The strip was called “CMX Suite” and it featured a bunch of real life people who were the main characters of the strip. These people were authors that wrote tutorials for the web site and all of them enjoyed seeing themselves depicted in cartoon form. But when you create a strip featuring characters based on real individuals, over time, it can get difficult creatively because you never want to insult or inadvertently hurt someone’s feelings. That never happened but I was feeling the creative constraints after a few years so I decided to take my four year web comic knowledge and create a new strip composed entirely of fictional characters.
That was Capes & Babes.
Capes & Babes made its online debut November 12, 2007. It would have been November 11th – my wife’s birthday – but that day fell on a Sunday and I wanted to maintain a strict Monday – Wednesday – Friday schedule so the 12th it was.
One of my webcomic goals was to eventually get an Artist Alley table at a convention. I had heard a lot about a particular show 6.5 hours from my house called Heroes Con. So, a few months into creating Capes & Babes, I decided Heroes Con would be my very first show I ever attended as an artist. I’ve been to plenty of conventions as a fan but never as an artist.
Heroes Con, June 2008 was going to be that show.
Back then, a six foot table was $200 but I was able to offset that cost by splitting it with a writer friend who had just released a graphic novel with a European artist. I, myself, didn’t have much to sell so a three foot table was just about perfect for me.
In 2008, this is EXACTLY what I had and sold at Heroes Con:
1) I had 123 Capes & Babes strips created and online but I decided to take the first 80 and put them into four Xeroxed mini-comics – each containing 20 strips. I sold them for $2 a piece or all four for $6.
2) I had a portfolio featuring some previous super hero illustrations I did either for me or for friends online. My commission price for that show was 9×12″, full color, no minimum amount of character for $20.
3) I had a black t-shirt with a saying my wife and I came up with and a design I created. The T-shirt said: “I drink plenty of flavored water… it’s called COFFEE”. One shirt but plenty of sizes ranging from S-XXL. I sold them for $10 a shirt.
4) I had a 4×6″ printed postcards and business cards I handed out for free.
5) I had a small dish of free candy but quickly learned wrapped candy is a far better choice than the M&Ms I originally offered.
6) I had a very small behind the table banner I got from a local sign shop near my house. I originally thought I got a great deal but a few months later, after I gained more convention experience, I realized I had actually overpaid for it. But you live and learn.
That was it. I didn’t even have a table skirt. I also didn’t think there would be any way I would make any money since I was a completely unknown artist promoting a completely unknown webcomic that featured a werewolf hanging out in a comic book store. But that didn’t matter. I was there for the the experience and if I somehow managed to make $100 (my half of the table) I would have been thrilled.
I ended up making much more than that. Not a ton but I made enough to cover the $200 I originally shelled out for the table and to now justify this newfound convention bug that had bitten me. And bitten me hard!
This year, I will be returning to heroes Con and my table is AA-2010. I thought that to be pretty funny since 2008 was my first show. Not EXACTLY simpatico but dang, it’s pretty darn close, isn’t it???
After two years away, I am SOOOOO looking forward to returning to Charlotte, NC and seeing old friends and fans of Capes & Babes and hanging out with them at the Heroes Drink & Draw, submitting my Deadpool Horror Show original piece to the art auction and hanging out at the Westin with friends and pros alike!
Here is the Facebook photo album I also included from that trip back in 2008:
