JAVILAND Episode 6: Comic Book Convention Survival Guide

This episode focused on comic book conventions: why exhibit?/How to find the right show for your comic/What to expect/etc.

I was joined on the show by regular caller Ted Seko, as well as Kevin Cross. Also joining us for the first time on the show was Krishna Sadasivam, which was a very welcome surprise. I pointed out the recent episode of the Art & Story podcast, Episode #65: The Big Detroit, as a great example of analyzing a weekend convention appearance. Art & Story is hosted by cartoonists Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd.

I've been exhibiting at conventions myself for 10 years now, so I was glad to have a chance to share many of my experiences about the ups, and downs, of these shows. Krishna, whose been producing a succesful web comic for 10 years, hasn't exhibited at shows, so he had some good questions that helped drive the conversation.

My main mantra on doing comic shows is that they are (or should be looked at as) fun and exciting experiences. Of course they function as venues for one to network and promote, meet fans and make some money selling our products. But if you go in with the idea of making the event as positive an experience as possible, you will look at the results beyond just how much money you made.

Joining us in the chatroom were Steve Romo, Terran, Vertigo X, Tim Fischer and Frumph. You can listen to the episode using the Talkshow.Com player on the right (click on Past Episodes line) or go to JAVILAND page at Talkshoe.Com.

New television interview!

Here's a cool segment that was filmed at the studio where I do my radio show, PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO!

JAVILAND Episode 5: Building a Comic Imprint:XOMIX COMIX

This episode turned out to be even better than I could hope for. Due to some scheduling conflicts, some of the usual callers couldn't make it. So me and regular JAVILAND caller Ted Seko were going to go 'solo'. But then Jerzy Drozd entered the chatroom to listen to the show and joined the call after I asked him to participate in the roundtable.

Jerzy is the co-host of the excellent ART & STORY podcast, in which he and Mark Rudolph discuss issues relating to the craft of storytelling and creating comic books. These guys really get down to many of the details in creating comics: character creation, approaches in drawing, getting over slumps in one's own work, etc. Can't recommend their show enough to other creators as well as aspiring cartoonists.

So once Jerzy joined the call, Ted and I felt we could have a third person in which to interact off of. We talked about the reasons Ted and I came up with the Xomix Comix imprint, as well as other comic imprints we've used as inspirations. (anyone out there remember ATLAS Comics?!)

Also discussed in the episode was 'collaborating with others' and how your vision fits with someone else's, and when it can make sense to join another artist on a joint publishing venture.

Many thanks to Ted for our years of collaborations, and to Jerzy Drozd for really giving some great insight and perspective to this episode.