My First Comic Convention As An Exhibitor!

I was finally The Guy Behind the Table!

This past weekend, one of my long-held dreams came true - I was an exhibitor at a comic convention!

I attended my first comic convention in 1992 ( the first OZCON in Sydney, Australia), with dreams of immediately being offered a job drawing comics, the way Rob Liefeld (one of the hottest artists in the industry at the time) was at age 18. It didn’t happen, but that convention was where I first encountered independent creators selling comics that they had written, drawn and printed themselves. This was incredibly inspiring to me, and I thought “YEAH! I want to do that one day!”

Well. Many years have passed since that initial inspiration, with a move across the world, career stuff, getting married and becoming a parent, happening in the meantime - all stuff that took priority over making my own comic. It’s all good, I’m not complaining in the least! It only made last Sunday’s experience all the sweeter!

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The convention was at the Grand Vista Hotel in Simi Valley, California, which was an easy, 30-minute drive on a Sunday morning. It was a good one to start with, I think, being only a one-day show, and relatively small. I had a table right near the entrance to the banquet hall that served as the main dealers’ room.

There was a lot of bustle as my fellow exhibitors and I got our tables set up, as one of the organizers would walk past, periodically warning us “30 minutes ‘til doors open!” then “10 minutes, folks! 10 minutes!” I noticed my hands were shaking with anticipation! Would anyone buy my comic, or had I just been kidding myself this whole time? Would anyone even stop at my table?

The doors opened and the punters filed in! It was very interesting finally being on the other side of the table, watching the body language and behavior of people as they walked past. Lots of people did multiple laps of the hall, passing my booth two or three times, cruising and perusing, until they finally stopped and said hello. Some notable interactions of the day:

The Good

• My first customers (squee!) were a dad and his 7 year-old son, who told me this was the first comic convention either of them had ever attended! Since my table was right at the front of the hall, it was the first stop they made. I thought it was absolutely wonderful that they were also my first customers at my first convention as an exhibitor! They bought my mini-comic for $2 and then, having read it together and enjoyed it, came back later in the day and bought my first issue! This was the highlight of my day!

• I had a great conversation with two young animation students who had just graduated from college last year. They were worried about the state of the industry, both for the present and the future. I told them I shared their concern, and that it was a very tough time right now even for experienced animation professionals. I encouraged them to hang in there, keep drawing, keep working on their own stuff, while we all just wait and hope that the industry returns to a point of stability sooner, rather than later.

• It was great to meet some fellow indie creators and trade copies of Steamroller Man for a copies of their comics! An artist whose booth was across from mine came over to give me a piece of Steamroller Man fan art that he drew that day! I was quite touched by that, and gave him a signed copy of issue one to thank him! His name was Kevin Tran and you can follow him on Instagram here.

  

  Steamroller Man fan art by Kevin Tran.

The Bad

• One guy asked if he could take a look at a copy of issue one, and then proceeded to READ THE ENTIRE COMIC, laughing at the jokes on many of the pages, only to then put it down and walk off without buying anything! I didn’t want to be the “this ain’t a library” guy, so I just smiled politely, but this is terrible convention etiquette! Folks, please don’t be like that guy.

The Weird

• The 19- or 20-year old who looked confused when I pitched my comic to him as “like The Tick”. He said “you mean… the cartoon?” It was then that I remembered that the Tick cartoon came out in 1994 - before this guy was born! I also realized most of the cultural touchstones and influences on my comic work are 30 years old (and I was actually referring to the original comic, that was even older)!

• Another teenager who saw “Simpsons Director” on my banner, said he didn’t watch the show and only knew about it because a YouTuber he follows uses Simpsons clips on his YouTube channel. Frankly, as someone who works on the show, I found this a bit unnerving. If this is a sign of the future of entertainment… yeesh!

• A man and a woman came to my table, and seeing that I worked on The Simpsons, asked if I’d sign and draw on some Simpsons POP! Vinyl figures. Assuming they meant a couple of figures, I said “sure”. A couple of hours later, the man came back alone with a bag of THIRTY boxed figures for me to sign! I politely refused, apologizing for what I assumed was a misunderstanding on my part. I signed and drew on two boxes for him. Then about thirty minutes after that, the woman came back, alone, with another two figures for me to sign, acting like she hadn’t been at my table earlier! I’m not sure what was going on there, but I’d guess that they were hoping to immediately flip the signed figures on eBay when they got home, or something. The fact that the woman denied being part of the couple made her seem very suspect indeed. Weird!

  

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I tried to be polite, upbeat and positive to everyone who came by. Even though I’d been seated for most of the day, I was really exhausted by the end! I think perhaps it was due to trying to keep my energy high and be “on” all day. My ultimate dream is to have a table at San Diego Comic-Con, which is four full days, with the highest attendance of any comic convention in the world. It’s intense, and I honestly don’t know how people do it! It’s definitely something I’ll have to work my way up to!

Good, bad or weird, I have no regrets whatsoever! Every interaction was fun or interesting in its own way, and it was a great first convention experience! I even made more sales than I thought I would, for an event of this scale!

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I was so glad I got to share this experience with one of my sons, who accompanied me as my “booth buddy”. He kept me grounded, entertained in the lulls between customers, and also served an invaluable role as my “young-people’s-lingo” interpreter (such as the “like The Tick” moment, detailed above). The day would have been much less rewarding without him.

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I hope you’ve found this post entertaining and informative! If you know someone who might get something out of this post, please share it with them, or Restack it! Next week, I’ll do another post about some lessons I learned from my first tabling experience!

Keep Rolling,

Matt