HeroesCon 2010 report.

(Mike Mignola exclusive stolen from the HeroesCon blog.  I would post photos of my own but I forgot batteries for my camera.)

I had a really great time at this year's HeroesCon.   I am still creatively energized but physically exhausted by the show.  I go into these shows with four goals; 1) expand my audience as a cartoonist/writer, 2) expand file under other's audience, 3) expand my network of comics pals and 4) have a good time with my existing comics pals.  I totally exceeded my expectations on three out of four of those goals.

As Shannon Smith cartoonist/writer/self-publisher I had a great weekend.  Possibly my best ever.   My Indie Island table stayed pretty busy.  It was never crazy but it was steady.  I kept expecting a lull during which I would I could leave my table and check out the rest of the show but the lull never came.  It was steady open to close both Friday and Saturday.  I sold a lot of books and did a good amount of sketches.  I'm not saying that I had customers lined up to the back of the room but the folks that did pull out the cash usually bought multiple items.  My Brush & Pen book just keeps on selling.  I need to knock out another one of those suckers immediately.  I had a good amount of repeat customers.  I was worried about that because I missed last year but folks remembered me.  That's very nice.  Thanks comics buying pals!  Hope you liked the books.  I also had a handful of copies of the Shiot Crock book I edited and contributed to on hand.  I did not really promote it or anything.  The copies I had were really just for contributors but I did show it to a lot of folks and the response was really great.  I'll post a more official announcement about the book soon. I also had a one pager in the Dollar Bin's new anthology that debuted at the show.  I was very happy with how it turned out. 

As Shannon Smith file under other critic guy I was very busy.  I had a lot of folks bring by books to submit for review and a lot of folks come by that just wanted to say hi and talk about comics.  Lots and lots of positive feedback about file under other as well as some interesting ideas I may or may not ever have time to look into.

As far as expanding my network of comics pals goes, I should have done a lot better.  I was just too busy.  I had a long list of folks whom I wanted to say hit to but I only managed to scratch off a few names.  It was just too busy.  Several of my favorite cartoonists were sitting right there on the same beach of Indie Island and I did not manage to even look at their books or say hi.  Soooo many guests.  Oh well.  Next year.

As far as hanging out with my pals goes everything was great.  Most of my pals were right there on the same chunk of Indie Island.  Rob Ullman, J. Chris Campbell, Josh Latta and Brad McGinty were nice enough to let me follow them around and even crash in their room.  I had a nice dinner with those fellas along with Ben Towle. Later on we met up with the Dollar Bin gang and a bunch of other folks to watch a bunch of cartoons that Brad had made.  That was a knee slappin' ha ha funny good time.  I also got to hang out with Patrick Dean, Robert Newsome, Sally Bloodbath and a bunch more of my favorite folks I've met through Fluke.   Everything was super laid back and fun.  Everything just took care of itself all weekend.  No stress.  No worries.  The hardest thing I had to do all weekend was show up.  So thanks guys.  I really appreciate it.

Extra super mega thanks to Shelton Drumm, Dustin Harbin and all the HeroesCon gang for having me as a guest.  Everything was so smooth that I really did not need any assistance but every time I did interact with the Heroes Con staff I was treated like a king.  Thanks team HeroesCon!

Random links I found or was sent:

Some thoughts from Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.  I got to speak with Tom a little as the strolled through Indie Island.  Such a nice guy.  Some of my pals got to hang out with him a bit Saturday night.  I'm totally bummed that I had to leave early and missed that.  Tom gave me and the Shiot Crock book I edited a mention.  Thanks!

The Comics Reporter's collective memory list.

Photos and report from Michael Neno.

Jamie Cosley's mini report.  Jamie was on my list of folks to go say hi to but every time I went by his table he was pretty busy.  Next time.

Ben Towle has one, two, three reports.  I  sat a few tables down from Ben.  Love his books and follow his blog so it was really cool to be able to have a nice quick dinner with him and other pals.   I plan on making a request at my local library for them to stock his new Amelia Earhart book.

Comics Worth Reading: Day 1.  Day 2.  Wrap up. Johanna Draper Carlson is another name on my list of folks I would have liked to have said hi to but failed.

The Beat: Part 1.  Part 2. Part 3.  I actually did manage to say hi to Heidi so that was cool.

AdHouse has a Flickr set up and a report.  Chris Pitzer is another name I failed to check off my say-hi-to list but I did get a look at Joey Wieser's new Cavemen in Space book.  Really nice.  Joey came over and say hi all by himself so I did not have to do any work at all to check him off my list.  Hooray.

Second Period's tumblr has some photos.

Pink Kryptonite has field report full of words.

John Kivus has a bunch of good stuff here.

Henry Eudy's report.

Rob Ullman's haul. (I'm jealous of a couple of things there.  I hear those Nathan Sorry books are good.)

Josh Latta has posted a report which contains the best photo of the show.  

Rich Barret has a report up.  I don't know if I met Rich or not but I sure did hear a lot about how good his Nathan Sorry comics are.

Roger Langridge has a post up.  Scroll down below it to see some awesome Muppet/Thor art. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith