I've been promising to recap my Free Comic Book Day for a little while now, but the busyness of business got in my way. But, for a brief time, I'm caught up. Having gone into darkness on Twitter and Facebook so that when I go see Star Trek: Into Darkness tonight without being spoiled as to who Benedict Cumberbatch's character is (my money is on Keyzer Soze, though), I'm a little less distracted. This year I returned to Newark, Delaware for Joe Murray's Captain Blue Hen event. Joe runs a great event, and he met every rider on my contract of services. Thankfully, my contract of services is a lot less intense than Beyonce's. Mostly it's "I like Pepsi and take me to see Iron Man 3." I flew into Baltimore on Friday, drove up to Newark, and then set up at the shop. The next day was Free Comic Book Day, and there the fun began.
The difference between this year and every other is that now I'm a Pony Artist™. I wrote and drew an issue of My Little Pony and that changes everything. Since Free Comic Book Day is such a kid heavy event where they can pick up such kid-friendly titles as Spongebob Squarepants, NFL Rush Zone and The Walking Dead (wait, what?), I become a lot more interesting to those kids having worked on Pony.
So the coolest thing was drawing for the young kids, the kids whose faces light up with a quick head sketch of Rainbow Dash. A couple of them even drew pictures for me. It's just awesome. I have a great job on a bad day, and on a good day it's magical.
I also taught a drawing class over at the next door art center, too. I love that Joe is able to turn the event into an experience like that. It's not just free books, but a whole experience.
I also pre-drew a bunch of MLP sketch cards thanks to some sage counsel from Joe and his staff. That gave me a new saleable item and helped keep things hopping at my table.
Afterwards, we all went out to dinner. I got to hang out with the crew, and especially my friends Jamar Nicholas and Dan Parent. It's so great talking shop and business theory and life philosophy with them. Truly some of the best times!
I'm definitely looking forward to next year!
