I drove down early in order to get into a good parking spot. As it happened, I did get a good spot near the building, right beside a set of stairs. The unfortunate part was that it was nowhere near a point that would let an attendee into the Convention Center. Hoofing it was in order to get around to the other side of the building. But since I was there early, I decided to be Pollyanna and look at it as needed exercise and thus a good thing.
Killing time until registration opened was easy enough. I hopped on the Convention Center’s open wifi to deal with some emails, and then strolled out to the Grand Plaza in front of the building. Some food trucks were set up, so I got myself a breakfast burrito. There was a bit more jalepeno than I usually like, but other than that, very satisfying.
Getting through registration for the professional attendees took some time, as the badges were pre-made and in alphabetical order. The booth workers had to sort through their set of boxes to find your badge. (Their methods for the San Diego convention are much faster.) But when you’re getting in free as a professional, I suppose a minor wait is just and appropriate compensation.
This year, I had volunteered to help at the booths that two organizations I belong to have at the show. So, they were my first destination.
Or rather not quite. I stopped at the DC booth, to scope it out. DC’s booth wrangler, Fletcher, was there keeping an eye on things, so I greeted him. He’s a great guy, who oversees the booth operations and usually knows who is where. He’s done me a couple of favors in the past regarding special hand-outs, so I like stopping to chat with him and wish him well for the weekend.
Then on I went to the GLAWS booth. The Greater Los Angeles Writers Society had taken space to do some outreach and also to allow some members to sell their own books. I decided not to try the selling myself this year (partly because a writing reference book just isn’t a “hot cake” seller), but I would do the work of attracting interested passing writers to sign up for our mailing list.
After a session there, where I talked up the virtues of GLAWS to a couple of interested writers, I headed outward toward a panel I wanted to attend. On the way, I stopped by the booth to connect with Facebook Friend Travis Hanson. I got a chance to look at his work (illustrated books aimed at the younger audience) and chat with him. It turns out that he lives in the Riverside area, so I told him that he ought to consider attending CAPS meetings. He chuckled and said that Stan (Sakai) had been urging him to do so as well.
That conversation made me a little bit late for the panel I wanted to attend: “Insights into Indie Publishing.”
Above, left to right, the panelists: Casey Kahoe, with his Crack Dog; Dani Dixon; Dale Wilson; and Melissa Jarvis. The last panelist present, my friend Geoff Thorne, was seated to the far left, so he didn’t make it into this shot. So he gets his own shot.
I’ve known Geoff a long time, by way of being fellow customers of the Golden Apple Comics Shop.
This group had some good and useful insights into the business side of creating comics independant of the major companies. This was all useful information for me as I work on my non-fiction project, Paper Movies. I took notes, and I certainly will incorporate them into the book. After the panel was over, I waited to chat with Geoff. I wanted to show him the sample pages of Paper Movies I’d been working on. He liked what I was doing with the combination of graphics and text. Getting that feedback was great.
After that, I was back on the Exhibit Hall floor for a time at the CAPS booth. This was the first time CAPS had taken a booth for outreach purposes. It isn’t in a terrible location, but it also isn’t exactly where comic book creators are likely to see it. Even so, while I was there, an aspiring creator did happen by, and I and Pat McGreal had a nice chat with him, encouraging him to come visit us at our regular metings.
Then I headed back upstairs for a couple more panels.
The first was a panel titled “A Story Is a Story: Storytelling Across Diverse Formats”, with panelists Jane Espenson, Frank Beddor, Amber Benson, Patrick Rothfus, and Ashley Edward Miller, moderatoed by LeAnna Herrera of Mysterious Galaxy bookstore. They had some interesting observations about preparing their stories for different media formats. I got a few good notes and ideas to include in Paper Movies.
From there I went on to another panel that seemed to have a similar approach: “Awfully Big Adventures: Storytellers Who Find One Medium Too Small.” The panelists all happened to be women (which fact amused me), with a male moderator.
The panelists were Ann Nocenti, Jane Espenson, Gale Ann Hurd, and Amanda Conner, with Geoff Boucher moderating. He asked about their experiences working in different media. Each spoke of what they liked in the various media they’ve handled, staying upbeat about what they’ve done. They all certainly reinforced the idea that it is an advantage for creative people to be ready to adapt to a new or different way of delivering your story.
Although there was another panel after that that I had considered attending, which had been about digital comics from Thrillbent, I was tired and my feet were starting to hurt. So I decided to head out.
On the way out of the exhibit hall, I passed a booth that had multiple types of dragons: statue dragons, dragons decorating mugs and chalices, and plushy dragons. They were quite striking and I stopped to look them over. I had not intended on buying any trinkets or indulgences at the convention, because I really need every penny that comes to my hands right now. Even so, the price on the plushies was quite reasonable. And I had just been paid for a writing job. But I was going to be good … until at the far end of the display case from the pedestrian aisle, I spotted a real charmer. I tried resisting… but I failed. So he came home with me.
He’s the latest addition to my dragon collection (which I’ve decided to post images of on my Graphics blog, in their own gallery). He doesn’t yet have a name, but he’s a quite cheerful fellow.
I got home, freed my feet from the shoes, and got some sleep after a good day.
