Arsenic Lullaby- Tooth Fairy, smaller comic cons, pencil lead, and the Japanese empire?

...I have a bit of a cold, I'm going to make this short and try not to ramble.

FIRST- the tooth-fairy illustration...ain't done yet...BECAUSE...

I haven't forgotten about it or got stuck overthinking it an spinning my wheels, I realized as I started getting going that I was just about out of the lead I use.

I have about half a stick of the .5 mm blue (that I rough things out with) and 3/4 of a stick of the red 2mm ( that I refine the illustration with)

that's about enough to get on a roll, run out and lose all momentum.

Y'see different leads have different hardness-es. Those are both really soft, meaning they don't dig into the paper and you can make long fluid lines without much trouble. The lead I have left is harder and digs into the paper.

It'd be like the difference between drawing with a ball point pen and drawing with a toothpick. Blown up to full sized, this'll have a lot of long curves and trying to do those with a hard lead that digs in is not only a pain in the ass...it just isn't going to go as well.

The soft lead I use, I have to order online and it gets shipped from Japan...because traditional art is a bigger thing there than here, I guess. That's were the demand for this stuff it so that's where the suppliers are. I'm guessing because Manga type Comics are mostly done with traditional techniques and are based there, is the reason it's still popular. Sadly the day may soon come when the Nation of Japan as a whole, stares into the middle distance for a moment, blinks and then remembers it was a feared world power for the first 6000 years of it's existence...then puts down it's anime, manga, and Hello Kitty creating and goes back to slaughtering it's neighbors and expanding an empire with ruthless bloodshed and region destabilizing policies. When that day comes...I don't know where I'm gonna get my lead.

Anyways...once the lead gets here, I'll finish the f*cker.

Moving right along...Comic cons are obviously a big part of this industry. and as I look over the direction our culture is evolving towards, it's perhaps a part that can blunt of the impact if there is a comic book crash. See...communicating online has stretched out the distance between ourselves and the people we are able to befriend. Where as we used mostly only have friends a short drive away, most of use now have some or many friends in different states and time zones. Events like concerts, ball games, festivals and Comic cons have become important not just as events themselves but as reasons and excuses to meet up occasionally.

So as much as the comic con operators are able to use their brains and make sure their comic con is an "event" and fun, and not just a series of lines to stand in to pay 50.00 and up for an autograph. They can ride the wave of our learning to connect, in person, with internet friends.

Imma repeat part of that -- as much as the comic con operators are able to use their brains and make sure their comic con is an "event".

That means a wide variety of guests, panels, contests, and things to do..., and nudges all attendees to find new things to like. I've said this before, and it goes for comic book stores as well, if they come through your door and don't leave with something they didn't know about before they entered...they will soon realize that they didn't need to come through your door, they could have ordered it online. It may seem against conventional wisdom, but the shows I've seen grow the fastest were the shows with no rhythm or reason to their floor-plan. If everything is just everywhere, that makes attendees look around at stuff they weren't looking for specifically...and often bring some home...and often are very pleased they did. Going to your con resulted in them finding a cool new thing they would never have know about otherwise. THAT experience gives your con value. Kapeesh?

My Fall Comic Con schedule is as follows

https://www.facebook.com/events/2297831466914617/?active_tab=discussion
Burgh Comics con
Bonan Business Center
540 N Commercial St, Harrisburg, Illinois 62946

http://www.cincinnaticomicexpo.com
Cincinnati Comic Expo
Sept 20-22
Duke Energy Convention Center
525 Elm Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

http://www.grcomiccon.com
Grand Rapids Comic Con
Nov. 8-10
DeVos Place,
303 Monroe Ave NW,
Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As there was...I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here...some confusion in the spring, I will say again that if you don't hear from ME that I'm going to be at a specific comic con, then it's because I'm NOT going to be at that comic con. I plug the hell out of my appearances, here on social media, on my website. If you don't hear me say I'm going...than that's because I'm not going. If It's under a month away from a con and I haven't said so...but they have, by all means let me know so I can blast them everywhere, to everyone, for using slimeball tactics.

SPECIAL NOTE about one of the shows I mentioned above. I love love LOVE a big Comic Con. The bigger the better. Give me lots of chaos, competition, crowds...bring that sh8t on...Arsenic Lullaby will come out holding the clean end of the spear every time. BUT...I do hold a place in my heart for smaller shows.

Rewind to years gone by, before the MCU started and comic cons grew into a giant industry. ..and before Arsenic Lullaby had the reach it does now and the reputation ( such as it is) it does now. Most shows were little shows, and the amount of info you could get about any of them was an even bigger crap shoot than it is now. I'm talking about a different landscape. Any ambitious up and comer could still get a table two weeks before a show started, and get it for less than 100.00. I would pack up a car with my gear and merch and drive 4-6-8 hours to a show with ONLY enough money to get there. All the money I had to my name would just about cover the gas. NO money to get a hotel, eat or get home. Just enough gas to arrive and a trunk full of issues of a comic book to sell, no one had ever heard of...and complete confidence in the knowledge that would be all I needed to succeed and get back. ...I kinda blows my mind thinking back on those days.

I suppose I still operate with shear force of will being my sword and shield, but I have more of a safety net these days.

...most of the shows back then were small, 500-1500 attendees, and often in cities where there wasn't a big presence of comic book stores. These shows actually existed to fill that gap, and many still do. That's an important role. You never know where the next big talent is, or the next store owner will come from. So, smaller shows that keep the medium alive in areas where there are no stores, is a favor to all of us.

Burgh's Comic con is one of those. It's in Harrisburgh IL, which has no comic book store of it's own. Scott Reed @burgcomics is the man who started and still runs it and has been doing so for 10 years now. That's no small feat, creating something from scratch and keeping it going for a decade...try it once. I met Scott a few years ago at another smaller con, and we keep in touch on social media. He's a good egg, and genuinely loves comics. He asked me to be a guest at his show's 10th anniversary and I said "hell yeah".

He even had me do their commemorative poster!

It's not all friendship and nostalgia. You can get a lot of positive results from shows like these. The attendees are going to make sure they see everything there is to see, they genuinely appreciate all the pros who show up, if they like your stuff they don't dick around about buying it because they don't three other shows to got to the same month AND they f*cking remember you. These shows are great for all the opposite reasons really big shows are great. That's if you're a pro...if you are someone thinking about going they are great because pros are less stressed out and thus more friendly. They didn't have to drag their gear up and back trying to figure out which of the 12 service doors to go in, they don't have to trek though a building the size of the super dome to find their table and they don't have to wait in line behind 200 other pros to get a question answered.

Uhm...anyways. That's all for now, I'm going to take some cold medicine ( vodka) and get some sleep ( spend three hours trying to pick something to watch on netflix before saying "screw it" and watching Deadwood again)

Later