·
Issue
#2 On the Shelves…
·
Digital Webbing Issue #2 Preview
·
Can you hear me now?
·
Outkast Interview
·
The New Website
·
Go Shopping
·
Feedback!
·
San Diego Comic Con
Well I’ve been putting this off for long enough. I really needed to
get out an update since soooo many people have joined the mailing list. I feel like I need
to produce.
Although if the new people were chomping for news they could have bided
their time reading old updates… Nah.
Issue #2 On the Shelves… (or not?)
So first things first. I’M PUBLISHED!! That was a pretty weird feeling
actually.
Sure, having the preview issues printed where nice. And people could
read and give feedback on the ashcan. But having a full color book out on the
stands was what you and I have been waiting for. It has been great
receiving e-mail from people saying that they enjoyed the book and can’t wait
for issue #2.
A few of these messages I actually PUT into issue #2 which comes out
was out on the shelves Wednesday,
September 18, 2002. It looks great! I’m sure many of
you have already seen it. I hope that you like it as much as #1. I don’t think my
style has changed or that it’s much different. I think the biggest thing you’ll notice are
the colors.
They’re absolutely gorgeous and Beth did a great job. You’ll see a book
with ONLY Jason’s pencils and it’s nice to see some consistency
throughout. I
hope your shop is carrying the book! If it’s not then I need to know.
Digital
Webbing Issue
#2 Preview
Please go to www.DigitalWebbing.com they’re a great site for comics
and they’ve got a really nice preview of issue #2 that they posted for
me. I wrote
it all up, but their layout was pretty cool. You should really check it out before it
gets archived.
Can you hear me now?
I will be making an appearance on the Comic Book Radio
show. My
interview is scheduled for Saturday, October 5, 2002 @ 3:00 – 5:00 pm. I will be talking with Jason “Cows” Colgin
and I’m not exactly sure what he’ll be asking. The schedule is subject to change (of
course), so keep an eye out on www.ComicBookRadio.com and make sure you tune
in!
Outkast Interview
Bucky
Carter will post my interview to his website pretty soon. www.ComicBookInsider.com He stopped by my
booth after reading the book and he loved it. But there is more on our meeting below in
the San
Diego update…
The New Website
I’ve been chatting with Matt Armstrong for a while now and I finally got a pinup from
him. Well
he’s done quite a few websites and said he do mine for FREE. That’s HUGE! You can’t beat
that. Maybe
you’ve seen his site or his pinup. Hopefully in about a month we’ll see the new
streamlined look of the site. I will try to throw in enhancements when I
can.
Go Shopping
Maybe you’ve looked all around for CiCi and your shop
won’t carry it or the nearest comic shop is a few hours away. You can order it
directly from me through the website. The page isn’t fully automated yet, but I
hope to change that pretty soon. Right now it just computes a total for
products and you can check your postage with a handy little link. It’s not like I’m
an Amazon.com or anything, but I will try to send out your order as quickly as
I can after receiving full payment.
Pinups
I REALLY wanted to get this stuff out on the site. I put a few out,
but they are only listed in the “site map”. I still need get all the ones from
San
Diego out there.
Feedback!
I hope that I hear from more of you in the coming
weeks. It’s
not like I’m getting a ton of e-mail and I really want to know what you
think.
So anyway, don’t get me started on the critics or else
I’ll never shut up and tell you about how great San
Diego was.
San
Diego Comic
Con International 2002
Wednesday, July 31,
2002
I was attempting to learn Flash 5 on the way to
San
Diego. I was doing pretty good and cruising through
the tutorials at a mad pace. All the while worried about my Dell being
turned into a puddle. The guy next to me kept on drinking and
nobody said “excuse me” or anything. They just kept passing drinks back and forth
over my laptop.
HELLO!?
People?!
I’m trying to work here and we ARE on a plane. At least alert me
before you hand a drink over me and my laptop. SHEESH.
I get in and had to grab a bag I checked. I usually don’t
check anything, but I needed a bag for my clothes (the one I checked) and a
bag for my display folders and CDs, etc (the important stuff I took with me on
the plane).
I SHOULD have called or at least have attempted to call
the shuttle.
Because if I did that, I would have found out that there was NO shuttle
to the Sheraton Suites. So of course I went right to the commuter
pick-up area like I knew what I was doing, and waited. And waited. And waited. I think for about
25 minutes and then the Sheraton shuttle came by. I asked him if he
went to the Sheraton Suites also. He proceeded to inform me that there was no
shuttle and they only take airline personnel to the Suites. So the guy who
walked away before I got to the steps of the bus was already heading over to
the cab area.
We ended up sharing a cab and at least the fare was a little
cheaper.
I get to the hotel and the lobby is on the 12th floor. How weird is that? I grab a room and
my roommate, Tony who is also from Denver, wasn’t there yet but showed up
shortly after I did.
I was touching base with, Jonnie
Allan of AKA Comics, who was heading down from the LA
area. He was
going to give me a hand with all of the comics I had stored at my in-laws,
Mike and Cheri.
Tony and I get unpacked and decide to head down to the Con
to pick up our exhibitor badges. With that out of the way we can get in and
scope the place out.
Jonnie is still waiting on his printer to get him his posters that he
was bringing down.
So he was out of the picture. It was Cheri to the rescue, because she
still had all of my boxes in the car and she met me a few blocks away from the
Con site and picked me up and we looked for a place to unload. We found a spot
and phoned Tony to meet us there so he could guard the goods as I played “pack
mule”. There
were 600 CiCi Previews, 600 CiCi Color Samplers, 600 CiCi #1’s, comic display
rack, 10 x 5 foot rolled vinyl banner in a tube. Not to mention all
of Greg Weich’s stuff that we needed to hand out.
We got all that stuff to the booth and all set up just
before they started to let the crowds in around 5:15 or so.
Whew…
I don’t think I sold a damn thing that night, but it was
good to be all set up and ready for Thursday.
By the time things shut down I was starved. Tony and I took a
shuttle back to the hotel and we looked around for something cheap to
eat. We
thought we’d find something better than McDonalds so we headed in the opposite
direction, but asked around and didn’t find anything until we got to
7-11. We
ended up just getting snacks and figured we’d find something else a little
later. By
then it was 10:00 and I was tired of looking. I think I had a
few chips and headed to bed.
Thursday, August 1,
2002
I got up pretty early and was able to work out at
6:15 am. I got back to the room at 7:00. Showered and made the 8:00 shuttle. Got to the con pretty early and I was able
to wander around looking for animated cel buyers. I purchased Grrr
from a great place.
They were the only people at the con licensed to sell Invader Zim plush
toys. I hung
him up on my booth as my “mojo”. I must have had 10 people a day ask me where
I got it and for the life of me I couldn’t remember. I had heard people
say they were selling them at “Hot Topic” in the mall. Like I even knew
what a Hot Topic was OR where the mall was for that matter. But I just
regurgitated what I had heard, so I’m guessing Hot Topic was busy after the
Con.
I sold about 20 copies of the book, which is pretty good
for a Thursday.
I met Joe Benitez. It was great
meeting him after talking on the phone quite a few times. He’s doing his own
book and had a preview issue that he was selling at his booth.
Talked with Casey Seijas at the Wizard booth and he
assured that he’d look at the book when he got back to New
York. I had sent him a press kit a few weeks
earlier and he never got to it. Well I’ve called him several times since
then and I’ve never heard from him again. I’m debating on whether or not to send him
issue #2.
Yeah, I guess I will.
Tony and I got back to the hotel and I thought I was going
to grab something to eat, but it was already so late that I needed to head to
Kinkos. I had
made a mental note that the 7-11 was right next to it so I found it pretty
easily. I
ended up using the inks from the Dave
Finch piece and put some white text in the black boxes to the
sides of CiCi.
It was pretty much just an announcement / reminder that CiCi was coming
out the following Wednesday and people needed to be aware. Plus that Finch
piece is pretty cool so I figured people would grab it up. I printed 3,000 of
them and had to pick them up the next morning.
At least that Kinkos had a FREE Internet network drop so I
could synchronize my e-mail. I was amazed. I just plugged my Dell in and it just
worked! That
was so cool.
I was able to get out of there around 10:45pm which was good because that Kinkos closed at
11:00. Yeah, I thought they were open 24 hours
too. I
grabbed some yogurt at 7-11 and a few other things. I think a
burrito. The
saving grace for me the whole trip were these protein bars that I picked up at
Costco that I packed in my suitcase. I got a pack of twelve and those were pretty
much all I ate the entire trip. I had one for breakfast, one around lunch,
and one around 5:00. Those saved me, because I didn’t really
leave my booth to go grab some lunch.
Just before bed I was able to e-mail people I met and get
a jump on following up. I didn’t get a ton of business cards on this
day, but enough to quickly follow up with each of them and get their info
entered into my Outlook Contacts.
Friday - August 2,
2002
As the Kinkos’ people gathered up my order I was able to
plug in and synch-up my e-mail. So even though this Kinkos had strange
hours, their free Internet was pretty nice.
Let’s just say I didn’t really need to work out that
morning (even though I did the same routine as yesterday). Those 3,000 sheets
of 11x17 paper were rather heavy. And of course I had my laptop with me
too. Even
though I only had to effectively go 5 blocks with them. It was a
challenge. I
missed the bus by about a minute and I saw it drive away and pass me as I was
trying to flag it down. About two minutes later I flagged down a
taxi so I was out about six bucks for what should have been a free ride to the
Con.
I’m glad I printed them and lugged them all that way. They were a
hit. There’s
nothing like free stuff to give away. Plus the flyer looked pretty damn good
thanks to Dave. So there was free stuff at my booth and I
also put the posters up on the free tables. Again another nightmare, but it was
compounded because the “overseer” had to check if I could put my preview
issues up there.
So I go back an hour later and find out that the posters were passable,
but Monte’s cover was too risqué for the free table. So I lugged a box
of preview issues up to the free area twice only to find out that they
wouldn’t take them.
I had brought a few of the postcards that I had printed
way back, but they were gone by the end of Thursday.
I met so many people that I forget when I met them, but I
can’t forget who.
Another boring night again. I just planned to go to Kinkos and scoop my
e-mail, grab dinner at 7-11 and then try to follow up with all the people that
I met that day.
I was able to get all of the business cards entered into my contacts
and reply to everybody I met. It was nice to get that out of the way.
Saturday - August 3,
2002
Same morning routine and out the door around
7:15 or so. I was greeted by a
locked door at Kinkos and they didn’t open until 9:00 am on Saturday!! I was soooo pissed. All that e-mail
that I “sent” would still be sitting in my OutBox the whole day. I needed to walk
it off so I ended up walking to the convention center that morning. It didn’t take me
that long and I still had to wait to get in. As I was heading in I remembered about Mile
High Comics superior network drop and decided to go bug Lynne. She gave me all of
the appropriate IP numbers after I waded through XP to find where to PUT those
numbers. Although I mistyped one of the IP addresses
so nothing worked.
I tried a whole bunch of different things, but time was running
out. I
decided to go back into network setup and check the numbers and I found the
error, but by then it was too late and I had to head to my booth. I figured I’d be
able to synchronize my e-mail at the end of the day.
I think I was at my booth all day. I remember two
guys came by my booth. One was Jared and I forget the other
guy. They
came by and they absolutely loved the book and had great questions about
everything.
They were asked and answered. Many of the questions are actually answered
in issue #2, #3, or #4 but of course they will be some left unanswered. They asked about
the original Cynthia. All I can say is that all hell will break
loose when they meet. It will definitely be tense, and that’s all
I’m saying about that. I told them about upcoming characters and
events that will happen. Since I’ve been writing or jotting down
ideas since 1989 there’s quite a bit from which to draw. Jared sent me a
great review and I ended up putting it in a letter’s page in issue #2 called
CiCi:Mail.
I ended up giving away the 2000 preview issue (the gray
“ashcan”). I
really wanted for the story of #1 to be in people’s hands and hope for more
feedback. At
first I only gave the issues to people who actually to show some
interest. And
then about half way through the day I plopped them out in front and people
could grab them.
It was actually pretty nice because people actually asked if they were
free even though there were huge signs written on the table saying they
were. In some
cases I was passing out the posters and had to mention that the comic was free
too. Speaking
of free stuff, I really couldn’t take the chance to hand out the
stickers.
Some Con Nazi came by my booth and I was handing them out. He took one and
looked at it.
Then came back and told me that if there are any found stuck to the
premises that I would be fined $75 an hour for them to be removed. So essentially I’d
get tagged for $75 for the first one removed. So I guess I would have to hope that an
hour’s worth of stickers got stuck, but I didn’t want to take that chance.
Bucky, from Outcast Studios, stopped by my booth and told
me that it was one of the better titles he’s read in a long time. WOW! That was pretty
cool. I wish
I could quote him directly, but I’m waiting for that via e-mail soon. He was pretty busy
lining up interviews, but I hope I’m in the top few on his list and I’ll try
to get those results published soon. I think I ended up typing up a 7 page
interview that covered quite a bit. I even threw in the origin of CiCi’s
name. That
interview should be online soon unless it has come and gone and I missed
it. I’ll put
it on the site for those who are interested.
Throughout the day video cameras were racing by and I’d
yell at them and say “Shoot my booth”. They’d stop and take a look and say “yeah,
this looks pretty cool”. So hopefully those crews don’t edit those
shots out and leave them on the cutting room floor. One crew stopped
and shot the booth and asked if I had time for an interview. “SURE! I’d love an
interview”.
It was for some documentary about the comic convention. It wasn’t
Mark Hammil’s “mockumentary or else I think I would have
recognized him as the interviewer. It wasn’t him. The camera guy was
asking all the questions and the sound guy would move around to get the
optimal angle to filter out all the noise. This interview took quite a while. For the life of me
I forget what I talked about. I’m pretty sure it was just about my
experiences in the industry and if I could give some advice to others who are
trying to do the same thing (which is what this site is about).
Saturday wound down and met up with Tony so we could head
to the costume show.
First things first, I had to sync-up my e-mail. Done and
done. It’s
easy when you get those IP addresses typed in correctly. Tony had gotten
special press passes so we were in the press booth. We didn’t actually
see the show, but we saw people exiting and posing for photos. While I was
waiting for the contestants I ran into Glenn Schmall of the Nan Desu
Kan (www.ndk.cc ). That has come and gone this weekend and I’ll
update you on that in a later e-mail. He recognized my logo and name on my
badge. He
said “You’re Parker
Smart”. Immediately I thought I was in trouble and
that I wasn’t supposed to be in the press area even though I had an
appropriate badge.
I recognized his name since we had e-mailed back and forth for a while
to get me a booth at the Kan.
I guess I looked pretty official, because I was wearing my
Sequential Tart shirt. So everybody just
assumed I was there for the SequentialTart.com website. I suppose I was
there for them in a way because I offered to write up an article on the
costume show, but they had me do a “getting to know” piece about myself for
their site.
Glenn and I chatted for quite some time and I told him
that I was disappointed with Princess Mononoke and that I loved Akira and
Ghost in the Shell.
He gave me a list of movies to see including Cowboy Beebop and Gin
Ro.
There were some great costumes including LuLu from Final
Fantasy X, Wonder Woman, Knightwing, TRON, and a Cenobite. There were others,
too many to mention.
At first when Tony mentioned this event to me I thought I
was just going to pass. But in the three other years I’ve been I’ve
never really done any of the Con events so I figured what the hell. BUT!! This was the BEST
night of all, because Mark Hammil showed up with his
“mockumentary” crew.
He was doing his thing and getting video of the contestants and
interviewing a few of them. But that died down after a while and I was
able to talk with him. I told him “forget Skywalker, you ARE the
Joker!” He
signed the back of one of my Spilled Milk stickers. I gave him a few
copies of CiCi and he said he would read it and that his kids would read it
too. That was
too cool.
Kickin’ back with the Joker.
Nothing could really top that so I decided to head back to
the hotel.
Tony was going to stay for more of it, but my contacts were killing me
too. I think
I went through a bottle of drops just that night. LOL On my way out they
had the Anime movies going and I walked down the hall to see what was
playing. As
it turns out Gin Ro was about half way through and I stopped in to see a
little of it.
Great quality and a ton of violence. I had seen that Darth Vader looking guy on
posters and stuff so now I could place him in a movie. That was
nice. I’ll
have to rent that sooner or later.
Sunday - August 4,
2002
On Sunday morning I think I blew off my workout and slept
in a little until about 7:00
am. I got the early
bus and headed down to the Con. I met up with Lyne at Mile High Comics and
she let me synchronize my e-mail. I think I had about 50 messages to go out
that were following up with people that I met on Saturday.
Today was the day to contact retailers. One of my first
stops was with Fran of Comic Resources, because I gave her a few of the comics
on Friday.
She absolutely loved the book and I ended up signing her copies and got
the painted Moore cover signed by Monte who was up
on the art auction blocks working on a “jam” piece. She stayed at the
booth for a little while and looked at the issue #2 folder and flipped through
the others.
She said that she will definitely “pimp” the book at her store. That was so
cool! Thanks
Fran! I wish
I had her contact information, but I’ve been having trouble finding it on the
Internet. I
don’t know if they have a site or not. If anybody knows where I can find “Comic
Resources” or is it “Comic Book Resources”? I think I may just contact Diamond, they
should know.
When I made my rounds I ran into “Cows” while talking with
Atomic Comics.
But you already read about him above. Don’t forget to tune in on October 5th to listen to me babble on whatever Jason asks
me.
It took me about until 1:00 pm to go through all the retailers and hand out comics and
talk shop a little.
So many of them said “Have you talked with CrossGen?” So I made it by
the CrossGen booth shortly after 1:00
pm. I talked with one
of the VP’s and he talked about a half hour on how he couldn’t take my book
from me since it wasn’t an “official” submission. I’m not exactly
sure how they work and I asked him if they look at stuff that’s already on the
shelf. That
way if they come out with something similar or exactly the same they might be
able to say FIX it before it comes out. Although I guess timing is everything. I
actually like the fact that this new movie is coming out with these
microscopic killing machines (the one with Lucy Liu). It might make
future issues more understandable and I won’t have to explain that much.
Then I ended up talking to Jeremy with Dark Horse and he was glad
to accept a copy of the book. He couldn’t say if that they would pick up
the title, but he thought the production value was excellent and said he’d
read it. It’s
always nice to have a contact with Dark Horse that’s for sure.
I stopped by Dreamer Design and was able to talk with J.D.
Bruce for a while.
He helped out with a ton of Do’s and Don’ts when lettering. He’s just the
finance guy so what does he know? He actually knew quite a bit. I also got to talk
with Robin Spehar although I was bummed that I
missed his full contact juggling with the blue acrylic balls. The only reason I
missed that was because I stumbled across Todd McFarlane looking at
portfolios.
YES! THE Todd McFarlane!! I knew I HAD to
make this happen.
Since I’m pretty tall I was able to watch the review over three other
people that were in front of me. I took a few pictures, but I wasn’t sure
when everything would be over so I tried to ask around. First, I talked
with Al Simmons and he thought Todd was doing about 10 reviews and they were
on number 5.
I chatted with Al for a while and then had some fan take our
picture. I
wandered around the booth area for a while and was basically just reading
badges and stumbled across Wanda. That was NO coincidence. That had to be
Todd’s wife.
I waited my turn because she was talking with somebody else. I eventually got
to talk with her and gave her my comics and a few of Graig’s Civilian Justice
cards. She
was able to look at them and we flipped through the comic and I was able to
tell her about the story. That was really cool, because she liked the
concept and said she would read it. So if she likes it then Todd would HAVE to
read it. I
then made my way to the review stand. I couldn’t believe that there weren’t more
people crowded around. I think once you get three or four people
deep that you can’t tell who is sitting down. Through attrition I eventually made my way
right to the front and was kneeling down by his table. I made sure that I
had my comic and the cards right on the desk in plain view. Every once in a
while I’d ask a question and then if there ever was a lull I’d chime in and
say what I liked about a particular piece. So needless to say I was very visible. After his
reviewing session wrapped up it was utter chaos, but I eventually was able to
ask Todd for a picture with him and at that time I asked him if he would look
at my book. I
tried to use Graig’s name as a tie in and then had to launch right into my
book. He was
really nice and said he’d take a look at it, but I haven’t gotten that e-mail
back from him and I probably never will. But I figured I’d give it a shot and at
least I had my picture with him.
I was only at my booth for about an hour on Wednesday from
4:00 – 5:00. But I weighed the factors of
people actually returning to give me feedback and talking with retailers,
CrossGen, Dark Horse, and Todd. So I was barely at my booth.
Monday - August 5,
2002
I ended up getting up late but worked out anyway then I
was ready to go.
There was a problem with the bill that I had to wait for Tony because
he got the quote.
I guess it was a difference of $70.00 which would have been $35.00
between the two of us and with 20/20 hindsight that would have been worth it
to try to get home early. I tried to get on a few flights, but there
was a killer thunder storm in Denver so a lot of flights were
delayed. So
even if I got to the airport early I don’t know if I would have gotten out on
time. I got
caught up on a lot of e-mail and making sure I followed up.
Thanks!!
I’ll try to run down the numbers for the series in the
next update, but I’m out of steam for this one and I’m sure you are too.
____________________
Parker D Smart
Creator / Writer
President - Spilled Milk ® , Corp.
psmart@SpilledMilk.com http://SpilledMilk.com
Copyright © 2001, Spilled Milk Corp., All rights
reserved.
The
standard removal policy if you should ever need it. Just reply to this
message with the word remove in the subject and you'll be deleted from the mailing
list. You
might make it in ALL CAPS or else I might not take you seriously
J.