So this week I decided that it might be a good idea to leave the house once in a while and meet other people in cartooning and related industries. Cartooning is a wonderful profession for homebodies like me, but even we hermits like to mingle occasionally.
Mike Lynch (who filled in here at the blog my last vacation) recommended the Licensing Show coming up this summer and I was really excited about it and had already begun making plans to attend, but it turns out I had forgotten about some curriculum writing for school my wife had committed to the exact same three days of the convention.
I was really bummed out. I had planned to head into the New Yorker and use my not inconsiderable bulk to maybe scare Mankoff into a buy or two, have lunch with the cartoonists, walk the show with Mikey and just generally enjoy a cartoony couple of days.
I was grumpy for most of the night but then found some other conventions that looked like possibilities. The National Stationery Show in particular looked promising, but, again, to quote Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark, “bad dates.”
But I am determined. The MoCCA Art Fest is a possibility, SPX looks like it has some potential, and I might even venture out to Comic-Con, but wherever I go, I’m only going to go to one convention this year.
Anyone have any advice?
Yeah, lotsa things going on in NYC. The licensing and stationery shows are good for making contacts. For meeting colleagues, I would suggest the MoCCA Fest. And there would be some small press people that might be interested in cartoons. One caveat: The Fest showcases (mostly) indy comic books, as does the SPX. I've found that most of the small publishers there are not interested in your work unless you are showing them graphic novel-type work. The majority of people there are self-publishing their work.
I went to the stationery show a few times, but I was like a considerate hiker: I left no footprint behind. It turns out that you need to have the confidence and moxie to introduce yourself to strangers, which I don't.
I can report that you'll need comfortable shoes, and a light pack for carrying your samples. I felt like a shark — well, a toothless one — in constant motion. Lots of booths, and an unrelenting current of visitors sweeping me along.
You know it's weird, I can be a very quiet reserved person, but I can also turn on "The Mark Show!" when I need to. A skill that comes in helpful for stuff like this…
I'm really itching to get out to something, but the MoCCA and SPX small comic stuff doesn't intrigue me all that much. Comic-Con, while similarly outside my normal cartoon circles, sounds like more fun.