Marc Nathan puts on a darn fine show.
The Baltimore Comic-Con is a pretty special thing. Is creator friendly, family friendly, and comics friendly in a way so many shows aren't anymore. I set up there, selling a little thing you may have heard of called Love and Capes. I did pretty well, and in a pretty cool way. It's hard to tell exactly, because so much of conventioning and selling are fluid concepts, but it seems like more people who attended the Baltimore show actually read the book, and wanted more.
With most shows I do, it feels like I'm always at ground zero, trying to sell the book to a new audience. "Have you heard of Love and Capes? No? Well, let me tell you about it." In Baltimore, people came up saying "I got issue one and need the rest!" Now, that could be because the book has been around for a year-and-a-half and I did the Free Comic Book Day issue, both of which make the series a little more noticable. Whatever the reason, I'm just glad it happened. I think I sell better at Baltimore than I do at any other show, on a daily average.
Plus, it's just so pleasant. There are a lot of creators I only see at Baltimore, and I actually get to talk to them. I was set up across from Kyle Baker, and chatted with him quite a bit. I got to hang out with Steve Conley, writer and artist of one of my favorite books, Astounding Space Thrills, and is one of the current artists on IDW's Star Trek book. I spent some time with John Gallagher and Rich Faber of Buzzboy, which is always nice. I got to have dinner with Mike Manley, Echo, Scott Cohn and Jamar Nicholas, among others. And I got to meet some new people, like Jann Jones and Art Baltazar.
I even got to do a panel, which outside of Mid-Ohio-Con, I don't do too much. I helped out at the Kids Love Comics panel, where I taught some kids about lettering. Yeah, I was surprised they picked my station, too.
Baltimore itself is a great location for the show. There aren't many shows that have that great mix of a good show and a lot to do in convenient walking distance. San Diego is just so frellin' huge, that getting to the Gaslamp District, which is just across the street, takes an act of God and a reservation for dinner made yesterday. Chicago plants its show out in the relative middle of nowhere, with two restaurants and a McDonalds to choose from. But Baltimore, like my much-beloved Mid-Ohio-Con, manages to find a location where there's a lot to do in proximity to the convention.
Paul Storrie and I had a nice drive to and from Charm City. No accidents or traffic tie-ups or anything like that, and lots of conversation. Paul did pretty well at the show, too.
The only down beat at all was the absence of Mike Wieringo. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the tribute panel. Among other things, it was two hours at the end of Saturday. Ringo and his career deserve those two hours, heck, deserve more, but it was a long time to be away from the table for a lot of people. And I didn't manage to find the pros' wake that night either. Baltimore's only a two day show, with a lot of things set up before the show started and before Ringo's untimely passing, so finding a way to give him his due and still do right by the show is a balancing act. But there was a lot of money raised for the ASPCA in his name, and he was definitely missed.
The show's a couple weeks later next year, so I have to wait a little bit before I can make my hotel reservations again. But I'll be doing so as soon as I can.
Next show for me is WizardWorld Texas, and then Mid-Ohio-Con will close out my 2007 Conventions.