Letters to Holly

Wednesday, June 8

Summer Doings

Yep, he's sleeping through the night. Victory.

For Father's Day, I bought a new video game. It's my first Father's Day present, and it's a game I've wanted for a while. I played it last night for an hour. The main character seems to move faster than the camera, creating a dizzying rate of motion and a fear that I'm becoming too old for this stuff.

The Doom Gallery has, as they say, blown up. I bought the domain name cookingwithvillainy.com through Blogspot and discovered domain names for their blogs are only $10 a year. That's a bona fide steal.

We are preparing for a reunion with my family this weekend and the deputy's baptism in July. Your Sister revels in organizing, and now that she's relatively well rested, she's eager to tackle the specifics of hosting a baptism party. She considered renting another bounce house for the attending kids, but there aren't enough of them to justify the high rental cost. Maybe we'll set up sprinklers for them to run through.

I hope we get to bike Saturday. I got that jonesin'. I was scheduled to give blood that morning, but the continued dithering and hard sell by the local organizer soured me on it. His repeated calls to confirm and micromanage vexes me. I'm protesting by sitting out this local donation drive. I can go to another location if my sense of civic duty starts to itch.

As a result of meeting with a longtime -- and I mean, elementary school -- acquaintance at HeroesCon, I'm thinking of organizing an anthology comic to sell at next year's show. She seemed excited for it. But indy anthologies are common, and we'd need a really, really great idea to gin up submissions.

Picture of the Day
Barnes & Noble expanded their comic selection recently. The photo shows the new comic shelves on the lefthand side, right next to mainstream magazines. This is kinda a big deal for the industry after decades of comics dwindling in mainstream outlets in favor of comic stores. Those stores compete directly with the Barnes and Books-A-Millions and Borders (soon to die) over the graphic-novel and manga markets, but enjoyed the advantage for single issues (or floppies, a term used derisively for a format some see as outdated).

This is the display stand in the Asheville B&N, and those comics represent what used to be stocked in convenience stores in spinner racks. I still want a spinner rack for the living room. I'm stymied in every search. I don't see this new initiative hurting comic stores so much. They stock many many more singles each week, and they allow customizable pull lists for customers. Making such a list guarantees you won't miss an issue and allows you to pop into the store when you want, without fear of sellouts. 



Monday, June 6

HeroesCon 2011

I went to HeroesCon with the Doom sketchbook and came away with fewer than I hoped but of a better variety than I expected. Saturday is the big-money day, and many of the more recognizable star artists were already working on commissions or in panels. I couldn't get their attention, or they had to decline. Understandable. Luckily that allowed to troll the independent artists, an ilk I like to pretend I'm now a part of. Many folks were nonchalant about doing a sketch for a theme book until they got the full sales pitch; once they got the joke, they were in.

The Chef Doom artwork is here. It's gotten some good responses on other sites.

It was a great crowd as always. The Greenville comic people asked me about joining them next year, and I will if I can make at least two books before then. It's very feasible.

The show also offers collectible shopping, and the vendors are taking a bath on Star Wars items. The market has bottomed out, and what were once top-dollar toys are dirt cheap.

Costumes! These in no way represent the number of costumes on display. These are what I could get between waiting for Doom sketches. I spent the majority of the day hovering over tables waiting for the sketches. Closer to the end of the day, I was invited to scoot and come back for the book. I did that, and I was able to see the whole convention.


Captain America, Harlequinn, Batgirl

 Cobra!

 Firestar

 Kick-Ass and Hitgirl

Superman

I had dinner with online friends and got home right at 11. I slept like the dead.

Speaking of, we may have finally trained the sidekick to sleep through the night. We are almost drunk on a full night's sleep.