New Denny O’Neil article at bleedingcool.com-

#6 – Whoever Knows Fear…

…one way to create characters is for the writer to ask and answer four questions.

*What does my character always want?

*Who or what does he love?

*What is he afraid of?

*Why does he involve himself in extreme situations?

Check out Denny’s blog to find out more!

Thinking outside The Black Box

Last night I recorded a podcast with my friends Shawn Pryor, Jon Carroll, and Martheus Antone Wade for an upcoming episode of The Black Box. Not sure when the air date will be, but as soon as I know I’ll post it here. We had a great time talking about self-publishing and the ups and downs that can come with it.

I’m hoping to start my own Comic Whore podcast in the near future, but it’ll at least be after the holidays. Got enough on my plate right now to keep me plenty busy!

Like writing more Comic Whore updates for Mondays. If you have any ideas, questions about self-publishing/promotions, or things for me to pimp please send them on. You can reach me at lin (at) linworkman (dot) com.

Type at ya later,

Lin

Tags: Bushi Tales, CGS, comic books, Comic Whore, Dave Beaty, DC Comics, Dennis O'Neil, Denny O'Neil, Diamond Distribution, digital printing, free, Indy Planet, Jetta, Ka-Blam!, Lin Workman, Martheus Antone Wade, Memphis, Memphis Mafia, MSCA, Nicki, Phoenix Cactuscon, print on demand, promotional items, self-publishing, writing comics

There really aren’t any comic conventions here in town anymore. There was a good show here back in the 80’s and early 90’s, some smaller dealer shows at a couple hotels here, and the local sci-fi con would have an occasional comics guest or two. To go to a comic-con you had to drive a few hours or fly.

Luckily the local sci-fi one (MidSouthCon) increased their comics programming the past few years. Steve Rude, John Jackson Miller, Mike Norton, Mark Waid, Len Wein, John Ostrander have all been comic guests there, and Gail Simone is scheduled to be their comics guest of honor this year. But, they aren’t a full blown comic convention, and never will be. They like sci-fi and fantasy literature and art, but some of the powers that be kinda looked down on comics in the past(and what are a lot of comics but sci-fi/fantasy stories and art, right?), and even down more on self-published comics (luckily that has changed a lot recently). I’ve tried to become part of the local comics and con scene, and so have several of my friends, and that seems to have helped increase comics programming and guests.

But do you have to just settle for what’s around you and what those cons want to do or be, or can you build your own comic-con?

A few years ago my friend Tim and I were on a message board discussing the lack of comics at the local convention(s).  He joked and posted that he could throw a better comic convention in his back yard. All we needed to do was get a few card tables, a port-a-potty, invite the local creators, and offer some free barbecue to get some bigger name comics guests. We joked and jaughed about it being BYOT (bring your own table) and calling it “TIMMYCON!”. It just got silly and crazier from there. What was really crazy is that folks started thinking we were serious! We started thinking about actually doing it- but needed a better location than Tim’s back yard.

That came when our friends Todd and Patrick with the haunt we volunteered at got wind of our crazy scheme and offered us the haunt lobby to use one Saturday. It was about 1500-2000sqft and plenty big for our joke of a free comic show. We put the call out to all our friends, made up some promo postcards and dropped them off to all the local comic shops, put up a few posters at the haunt and around town, and in all spent about $20 or so promoting it (the $20 was for shipping on about 1000-2000 free ClubFlyers.com postcards). Saturday came, and so did the rain. “Great…” I thought. “Nobody’s going to show for this.” I was wrong.

Over the course of the day we had close to 200 people come through our doors! We had about a dozen tables including local comic creators, the local Star Wars Fan Force (Tim was the president of the group then), a toy collector/dealer, and a local comic shop (the owner and his son were both named Tim!). The show was a lot of fun, and we all thought it great to do it again sometime. So we did…

The next year Todd and Patrick asked us if we’d be interested in combining the haunted house’s kids’ day (which benefited Youth Villages), and moving it next door into the recently vacant dollar store.

The space was great (needed a bit of cleaning and decorating- no biggie), and we split it down the middle with Youth Villages.

This time the weather was perfect! We did some more postcards and posters to promote it, added a few more tables and artists, had a couple 501st members in costume, and put up a small art show.

Youth Villages ran an ad in one of the local papers, set up some games for the kids, hosted a costume contest, had a moon-bounce, did some face painting, and had some of their volunteers escort the kids and their parents through the haunted house where the kids got to trick or treat with some costumed characters of a kid friendly version of the haunt.

The haunt had almost 1000 people go through it ($3 ea.), and we had at least a third of that come through our half of the event, which was free again.

Then along came an idea to do a learning con called “Con-Sequential”…I’ll tell that story another time.

Since then I’ve seen more folks start some small shows that have become successful and have quickly grown in attendance, size, and length of show time. Around Comics’ Windy City Comicon in Chicago, IL and Comic Geek Speak’s Super Show in Reading, PA are two that come to mind.

CGS had episode celebrations (ep100,ep200,ep300) that started off being held in a local comic shop, and then expanded to an extra empty shop bay, and then became too big to be held in a comic shop or mall.

So they had to move to an event center. Not a bad problem to have.

CGS and AC started off small with local folks, local creators, and fans of their podcasts. They have grown and are now offering bigger and better guests and events for their fans in just a few short years.

So maybe if you can’t go to the con, the con can come to you.

They have proven it can work, and be fun, too. Just takes some time, effort, help, and planning. The budget part is up to you. Start small, have fun, and grow it is my suggestion. Delegate, do frequent follow ups, and try not to get in over your head or wallet. (That discussion will come up again when we talk about Con-Sequential…)

San Diego, New York, and other big cons have their place and can be fun, but I’ve always tended to enjoy the smaller shows. You get more face time with fans and creators, and they tent not to hit your wallet so hard, especially if you can do a local one or do a short road trip to one. Just make sure you have something new to sell and promote each year you set up.

This year I plan to hit Shadowcon and Midsouthcon in Memphis, CapeComicon in Cape Girardeau, Cactuscon in Phoenix, and the Superman Celebration in Metropolis. Hope to see you there!

Lin

Tags: Bushi Tales, CGS, ClubFlyers.com, comic books, Comic Whore, comics, Dave Beaty, free, haunted house, haunted web of horrors, HauntedWeb.com, Lin Workman, Memphis, Memphis Fan Force, Memphis Flyer, MSCA, Nicki, Phoenix Cactuscon

Hope you all have a great Halloween. Here are a few things to do this Halloween…

Comics and Collectibles Signing and Sale

From Donnie at Comics and Collectibles-

Our very own Memphians Curt Franklin & Chris Haley will be here October 31st autographing copies of the first collected edition (LBFA V.1 Under Pressure) of the very popular and good web-comic letsbefriendsagain.com . Come by and support two hard working young fellows who will no doubt make their mark in the industry. They will be here from 12-4 and you will get an extra discount if you are in a Halloween costume! For reals!

To promote this occasion we are having a special contest/drawing type thing. Purchase a copy of these guys’ book and we put your name into a goldfish bowl. The winner will receive FREE OF CHARGE: 1 copy of the Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus V.1 HC that retails for $99.99. You heard it right, so buy this thing & help out some swell local talent!

For more info email C&Cs at comiccollect@comcast.net or call at (901)683-7171.

For fans of Sivad…

Tom Foster is having what he calls his ‘’3^rd annual Sivad tribute art show’’ this Friday and Saturday night at 525 S. Main, with “free Sivad masks to the 1^st 100 attendees!” Showtimes are 6-9pm October 30th and 31st. Not sure of the admission price (or Vincent Price!), but it should be part of the south main arts district trolley night- which happens the last Friday of each month on Main in downtown Memphis. Very cool!

Haunted Web of Horrors!

Open rain or shine this weekend! For info on the best haunt in Memphis go here. (I may be biased, but it’s true!)

I got to run around and take pics and scare a few folks last night. I’ll post pics on my site.

Oh, and if you picked up a copy of the Daily Helmsman newspaper (U of M) yesterday one of my photos from the haunt was in it!

Scared Silly!

To check out some of my Scared Silly toons you can go to my site- LinWorkman.com or buy some merch featuring my horror inspired toons here.

Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Limb

Tags: comic books, Comic Whore, comics, free, Halloween, haunted house, haunted web of horrors, HauntedWeb.com, Lin Workman, Memphis, self-publishing

There’s a new Denny O’Neil blog available-  Network King

Click here to check it out discussion on springboards.

New photos of my art show are up on my site- linworkman.com.

And we now have banner ads running on the Comic Geek Speak site and CGS forums.

Feel free to use them on your site and link them back here- http://www.comicwhore.com/   

Lin

Tags: art show, CGS, comic books, Comic Geek Speak, Comic Whore, Dennis O'Neil, Denny O'Neil, free, Lin Workman, Memphis, self-publishing, springboards, writing comics

Ok, so we’ve talked about how to make the most out of a convention, but what do you do if your well thought out plans just don’t seem to be working? Well, if you can think quickly on your feet you improvise.

This time around I’m going to share some con stories about what did go wrong for me at conventions and what I did to make the best of those situations.

Being able to improvise and change your game plan as needed is a big advantage for small press. Yeah, the big boys have more money, but you don’t have to run every idea past your boss or discuss every decision with a committee. YOU are the boss and can make choices on the spot.

A few years back my BT partners Dave and Micah and I were at Anizona, an anime convention in Phoenix. We were set up in artists’ alley, which was located in a hall just outside of the dealers’ room. We were there promoting our comic Bushi Tales and had brought along some Bushi Tales logo buttons to hand out over the weekend. They were very nice, professional looking promotional buttons and we were handing them out for free. Well, we were trying to hand them out. We would offer someone a button and say, “Hi, would you like a button?” Most would ask what it was for before declining, some would try to avoid eye contact with us, and others had looks on their faces like we were trying to give them an S.T.D. or a hand full of dog doodie! Dave was beginning to get a bit frustrated, so he handed me the basket of buttons and said, “Here, see if you can give any of these things away.” I put on a big ol’ smile and tried my best, but didn’t have much better luck at it. He suggested maybe it would work better if I stood out in front of the table. I did, and when the next couple walked by I said, “Here ya go.” and handed them each a button. They asked, “What’s this for?” I replied, “You need one of these to get in there.” and motioned behind me towards the dealers room doors. “Oh, OK!” they said as they put on their buttons, thanked me, and proceeded through the double doors. Dave shook his head in disbelief and said, “That’s shameless.” “Yep!” I replied and continued to hand out buttons until they were all gone. The next day everywhere I turned I saw someone wearing on of those Bushi Tales buttons. OK, I was a little dishonest, but they got a cool free button out of the deal and by thinking on my feet I got a con full of people wearing my comics logo and web address on them. Lemons into lemonade, or buttons into billboards if you will.

Later that year we were at the Emerald City Con in Seattle, WA. It’s a really great show and we had a great spot in artists alley. Near us we had guys like Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway and Tim Sale- who was just two tables down and always had a line of fans. The first morning after the doors opened we saw a heard of Tim Sale fans making their way to line up in front of his table to get autographs and sketches. Once Tim arrived, he sat down and was knocking out some great sketches and signing books left and right. He’s a local creator and had his mom and dad hanging out at the booth with him. A few hours later they left to go get some lunch and the fans dissipated for a while. Before Tim and his parents came back the fans started lining up again in front of his table. This time instead of the line forming from his table and towards the entrance it now was forming in front of our table. Before we knew it we had a wall of people in front of our table. We watched as potential customers walk on by. Well, we watched the top of their heads pass by. Dave looked at me and said, “Well, there goes our sales for the day.” I looked up and down the line of fans waiting for Tim’s return and said, “Nope, we’ve got a captive audience.” I picked up some of our freebies and started asking them all, “Have you heard of Bushi Tales? Would you like a button? Would you like to check out a copy of our book while you wait? Did you get a postcard?” Dave and Micah joined in and we started making some sales, educating them on our comics, handing out some promos, and meeting people. It also gave us some time to work on a couple sketches, and people waiting stood and watched us draw.

We could have given up and cursed Tim’s name while just sulking in our chairs. No, we took an unexpected situation and turned it around to our advantage. That’s the kind of opportunity you have to keep an eye out for.

Apparently the Wizard staff at the 2005 San Diego Comic Con didn’t know that. Not going to beat up on Wizard Magazine- they’ve done a couple positive write ups on some of the projects I’ve worked on and I thank them for that. I do think the way they ran their booth that year left a lot to be desired. I’ll explain.

It was my first time to attend Comic Con, and we had just got out of the Kevin Smith Q&A in the big Hall H. Kevin was going to be signing at the Graphitti Designs booth so we made our way through the sea of people on the con floor and took our place in line. The line was already a good size- between 100-200 people. It was down one aisle, turned, down a couple booths, and back up the next aisle past the Wizard booth. Our place in line was on one side of their booth. While we stood their we looked at some of the books they had out to sell, did some people watching, and picked up a couple free promo comics they had scattered out on a folding table next to us. We noticed someone behind the booth start to raise his voice and become very agitated. Apparently he was mad about us standing in front of his booth. Well, not us personally, he was mad about 200+ people blocking his booth. He said a few more things about the crowd surrounding his space and left to go find some con staff to take care of the situation for him. While he was gone Dave tried to get the attention of the remaining booth staff to buy one of their Wizard art books. They were too busy talking to themselves and ignoring the line of comic fans around them to be bothered with actually selling anything. Finally getting frustrated with the lack of customer service Dave gave up and said, “Screw it- guess I don’t need to spend my money here.” At one point we saw the head of Wizard, Garub Shamus, open the door to the V.I.P. portion of their booth, stick his head out, look around, and then disappear back behind the door. A few minutes later the irate booth manager returned with the con staff in tow. They asked us to move a couple feet away from his booth so people could get to it. We did, which put us all in the middle of the aisle. Apparently this didn’t completely satisfy him, and the fire marshal arrived to disperse the crowd. We were all given tickets and told to line back up in order upstairs- which is a whole other con story for another time. The point to this con story is the people in charge of Wizard’s booth didn’t make the most out of what seemed like a bad situation. They didn’t see the line of comic fans surrounding their booth as a captive audience. None of their staff or volunteers asked us if we read Wizard or subscribe to it. Nobody offered us any issues to read while we were standing there. No one told us about any specials they might have been running at the con. Nobody picked up the freebie comics off the table and passed them out down the line. The people behind the booth wouldn’t even make eye contact with us- well, I think the booth manager did, but it was because he was giving us the “stink-eye”. He was so busy trying to run off the people he thought were preventing him from making potential sales he missed the opportunity of making any to the fans who were already there. I’m sure it didn’t buy him or the magazine any good will, either. It was several months before I even thought about picking up a copy of Wizard. How many others in line felt the same?

When you get the chance, make lemonade.

Up next- I’m  going to discuss creating a show of your own, and what some of the pros and cons of that can be. When you can’t go to the convention, why not have to con come to you..?

Lin

Tags: anime, Anizona, Bushi Tales, buttons, Cheeks, comic books, Comic Whore, comics, Dave Beaty, Emerald City Con, free, jackalope, Kevin Smith, lemonade, Lin Workman, Phoenix Cactuscon, postcards, print on demand, promotional items, S.T.D., San Diego Comicon, Sean Galloway, self-publishing, Tim Sale, writing comics