FREE COMIC BOOK DAY WRAP-UP!
What a whirlwind of a weekend. Not only did my brother get married on Friday, but I was also recovering from food poisoning and attended my first Free Comic Book Day as a comic creator.
I arrived with my wife Erin and eldest daughter Elora at 9:40am at Heroes Comics in Fresno to see a long line that stretched around the parking lot. Clearly, they’d all heard that the writer and artist of the SuperFogeys was going to be inside. “Oh, blessed day!” they could be heard shouting to one another as I made my way up the walk.
I started setting up immediately, right next to the phenomenal Derek Fridolfs, another local comics artist and inker on lesser-known titles such as Batman and Detective Comics. I’d actually met Derek years ago when we were both part of a local, independent comics group that never quite got off the ground. One day, I just know he’s gonna break out in a major way.
The guys at Heroes were especially cool to me considering they had Derek in their corner. They allowed me to sell Th3rd World books and did their best to not let me feel like an impostor. Here’s a picture of Heroes owner Dave Allread posing with his buddy, the Space Pig.
Erin took all the pictures you see here. She was kind enough to linger for a bit so Michael DeVito wouldn’t rip my head off for not having evidence of the day.
My first customer of the day was actually my Mother-in-law, Lynn. She bought three copies of the third SuperFogeys collection. I was grateful for that because who really knew if I was going to be selling any more?
I needn’t have worried. My favorite part of the day turned out to be telling people who had never heard of me what my comic was about and seeing the smile on their faces. I got the same reaction every single time. Most of those times they would then go on to buy one or more books. I was sold out of SuperFogeys books in 3 hours!
I also did free sketches, but after seeing the phenomenal work Derek was turning out in 60 seconds flat, I didn’t even attempt to do sketches of any characters I didn’t create, and, thankfully, no one asked me to.
I drew more Space Pigs than anything. A couple Spy Gals. Some Captain Spectaculars. I even drew two Captain Emos, oddly enough.
John Norton, local author of the very funny webcomic George, stopped buy to purchase a 3-pack and requested a Dr. Rocket/Captain Spectacular combo sketch. John was super nice and managed to drag a friend out. Kudos to him. Also got a chance to meet SuperFogeys super commenter Skeptible. I didn’t even know he was local! Great meeting both of you!
After sticking around about a half hour after I’d sold my last book I finally packed up and left. It was kind of awkward telling people that I did a comic book that they couldn’t buy or see! Apologies to those of you that stopped by after I vamoosed. Next year, I’ll have lots more books. That’s a promise.
Big thanks to Dave and the guys at Heroes for hosting the event and supporting an independent company like Th3rd World. Couldn’t ask for a nicer retailer, really. Thanks to Derek Fridolfs as well for putting up with my constant interruptions as I quizzed him about inking techniques and the biz. Dude’s got some serious talent.
Now if I can only get out to a con or two this year…
SUPERFOGEYS CHAPTER 2 REVIEW UP AT “THIS WEEK IN WEBCOMICS!”
Jackson Ferrell runs my favorite webcomic blog, “This Week in Webcomics.” A couple weeks back he ran a nice and fair review of SuperFogeys Chapter 1. It deserved a lot more attention than it got. I thought Jackson did a great job pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of Chapter 1. If anything, he was too nice!
Well, to my surprise he’s followed that review up today with a great write-up on Chapter 2! Once again, Jackson does a great job identifying the chapter’s strengths and calling me out on the weaknesses. Please do give it a read if you haven’t already. Be sure and leave a comment if you do! (After all, it’s not there’s sweet webcomic reviewing money to be had.)
“SORRY, FIDEL” T-SHIRT UPDATE
Shirts will be shipping soon! Like, this week! Also available soon: A Dictator Tot shirt! Details soon.
See You on Thursday with SuperFogeys 207!
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