You can skip all this yada-yada below if you like and skip right to the photos on my Flickr site (along with all the yada-yada anyway).
Me and J. Chris Campbell of Wide Awake Press drove up to Richmond, where we stayed with our very hospitalitatious chum Rob Ullman for the night. Then the three of us drove up to the wild metropolis of Bethesda, Maryland!
I had with me my first minicomic (DHARBIN #1) and a print of the much-viewd (thank you!) “26 Cartoonists” strip I did a few months ago.
Lessons I learned:
1) Don’t make a minicomic with a giant oval on the front which you MUST draw on for each copy. This slowed me down like crazy, as I had to stop and sketch on every single one. Not to mention that, sans sketch, it’s a pretty dull cover, which means that people aren’t really likely to pick the book up and discover the more interesting interior. Plus if you sell some to a store, you have to draw on ALL of them, which is also hard.
2) Price everything higher, so that you can wholesale it to dealers and still make a profit. I priced my mini at $2.25, forgetting (despite long experience as a retailer) the wholesale market. Future iterations will be an even $5.
3) Prepare better, as in making signs, being ready for stuff, pre-sketching on stuff, having little things to sell cheap for impulse buys.
4) Thank Chris Pitzer more profusely for being such an excellent host, tablemate, and not the least, publisher. You can thank him in my stead by going to the AdHouse Books site and buying SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST before the first print sells out. I finished it last week, and it was AWESOME.
All in all it was a great show, and I’m excited about all the on-the-job training i got as a young cartoonist. I will be beginning tomorrow on new stuff for DHARBIN #2!
Dad blast it! I need to reprint some anyway–can I send you one, Liz?
Man oh man oh boy oh boy… the world sure would be a better place if I had Dustin's new minicomic. Let's see. What could I do to get a copy? I could walk to Charlotte? Nah, I would need new shoes. Oh, I could promise to review it at file under other. Yeah, I could do that!
I never picked up a copy of your mini because I never was able to get away from the table except to go to the bathroom! What a bummer!
Man, I want a copy too.peace,Herc
p.s. Dude. That’s you in the new American Elf strip right? You’ve been immortalized! Now, don’t expect to live forever but I’d still say that makes you at least half immortal. Kind of like Perseus in Clash of the Titans. Now all you need is a robot owl and a flying pony.
Nice. You going to be selling these at the store? I’d like to get a copy.
I’m not gonna look at these fotos of the-show-I-was-going-to-go-to-(!)-but-fell-sick!
Oh! I opened the site, oh darn!
Shannon: it IS me. I would be happy with just a robot owl.
Rich: I’m trying to reprint some of these things, but the dadblamed printer has run out of toner again. I’ll get some for the store, though.
I thought you might like a link to my photo of you with your Nerdlinger award. There are a couple more photos that have you in them that I haven't uploaded yet.http://flickr.com/photos/cynnova/2923778608/
Sweet! Yes I would absolutely love one. Let me know when you reprint them so I can give you my address (though actually… I guess you already have my address from my Heroes Con registration… but if you want it again lemme know!).
I want one too!!! I still need you to sign your Superior Showcase to boot! I’ll try to remember to bring’em with me to the store tonight!
R-
I also know how to spell “dadblamed” correctly now! Thanx DHarbin!
Ah, me public!
Man, I need to get me some of that DHARBIN mini action.
Good seeing you again, Dustin. And even though it slowed you down, the Sarah Palin sketch is well worth the two bucks.