Find me when I’m doing a convention appearance or a signing. The next appearance I have planned in the Twin Cities area is Fallcon in October!

The funniest experience with that was at a tiny little local show where this young girl came up to my table. I don’t think she knew or cared who I was. She was just there with her parents and bored. She looked at my stuff and made it clear that she wanted to draw something. She asked for paper and something to draw with. I gave her a sheet of the bristol paper I was doing sketches on and a pencil. She proceeded to draw and generally hang out at the table while her parents did other things.

When her family finally collected her and left, she came running back to give the the drawing she’d done. It was of an anime character I was unfamiliar with, and I don’t think it was given to be because she was a fan of my work or as any personal gesture. I think it was just the product of an hour of her boredom and giving it to me gave her something to do with it.

If nothing else it gave me a funny story – and I still have the drawing in my studio!

I’m also curious, do fans often try and hand you fanart? Do you like it when a fan brings a piece of their art as a gift?

I remember one of my earliest conventions at which I had a table – it was before I’d “broken in” to do work for DC Comics or any other major publisher. I had a Batman drawing I’d done on the wall behind me – it was my response to a lot of Batman art I’d seen that didn’t strike me as having a lot of mood or atmosphere. It was 90% black with just a moon and enough edge-lighting on Batman to make out the shape of his cowl and cape. This young kid was waling buy my table and the sight of that drawing stopped him in his tracks. He looked up at the Batman drawing and his eyes got big. “Do you… draw Batman?” he asked me. I replied, “I drew THAT Batman, if that’s what you’re asking, but I haven’t worked on the comic book yet, no.” “Oh,” the kid matter-of-factly replied, and walked away without saying another word. I thought it was pretty funny at the time, and I *still* think it says something about fans and conventions – but don’t ask me exactly what that is!

Suggestions I would have for anyone new to exhibiting at conventions:

The polite thing goes both ways. Even if you’ve had a long or bad day and are tired, hungry, grouchy, whatever, anyone taking the time to stop at your table deserves a friendly hello and a moment of your time.

Signage can be a big help – label what you have for sale and have signage for what services you’re offering (e.g. sketches) with prices. That said, be patient when fans inevitably don’t notice those signs and ask you anyway!

Display vertically! Don’t just cover the top of your table with your stuff – that’s hard to see from more than a few feet away. Use the front of your table or have a standee behind you to display more of your work. Racks that can display comics or prints vertically on your table top help, too!

Keep your table family friendly. Even if your work isn’t aimed at kids, families come to the show and it’s just a courtesy not to assault them with adult images as they walk by. Plus, sometimes the adults who might be interested in your work have kids in tow as they walk around the convention. Keeping the R-rated stuff in a portfolio makes it available when you want it while making your table more accessible to everyone else.

Bring drinks and snacks to keep behind the table. You’re going to be there a long time, and if there’s food and drink available at the convention it’s sure to be more expensive than what you can get at the grocery store.

Be sure to have business cards and/or some kind of freebie at your table with your web site URL on it. Some people will stop at your table and show a lot of interest but don’t have money to spend at that moment. If they have any interest in your work at all, you shouldn’t let them walk away without something letting them find you online later.

I’ll be at Gally1 again next year. Hope to see you there!

Although I’m not a big fan of his current stuff, I feel like I should help promote (via facebook, twitter etc) whenever I can his work. He’s such a nice person and he didn’t have to do any of that at all! Least of all explain why he left Catwoman – which I’m sure he’s been asked a zillion times, or even offer to do a sketch.

I wish I could financially support more artists – unfortunately that’s just not an option for me beyond buying comics here and there and occasional it comes out of my vacation to a con budget prints/sketches lol – I do try to retweet and repost when things come across. There are so many wonderful artists out there that people should know about.

I started following you, Christopher, a while back after someone reposted a Doctor Who related item on facebook. I saw the Young Justice meetup occur at Gally but as I wasn’t familiar with the comic that I didn’t want to intrude. I didn’t know the proper etiquette on that one. lol

In fact I’ve been meaning to pick up the Masters print from your Etsy store you posted on Facebook a while back.