Every year, my local comics shop, A-1 Comics has been hosting a “Small Press” Day, where indie artists hang out, visit with customers, and maybe sell some of their books. Even before I had self-published anything, I remember the shop telling me I should come check it out.
Usually they had the day coincide with Free Comics Day, and that way, there’d be a guaranteed crowd of people coming into the shop. On top of that, A-1 tends to run a nice sale on the same day, too.
This year, they decided to run a sale, but have Small Press Day separate from Free Comics Day. Before the event, I was emailed and asked about contact info for some other indie guys like myself. I wrote back that I could try and get some of my other artist friends to come up to Sacramento to join us as well. I emailed a half dozen self-publishers, and sdome bigger name comics artists, to see if any of them might care to come up to the signing and hang out for a few hours. Primarily bay area comics folks.
None of the bigger name folks were able to make it. Two of the indie artists said they were coming, but only one ended up making it, Matt Silady.
Matt had gotten a masters in creative writing at UC Davis, so being a Davis man myself, and both of us sharing a love of comics, I’d met him email-wise through a couple of friends. I officially met him at APE-Con 2005. At this year’s 2006 APE-Con, I had mentioned to Matt that Elizabeth would be eight months pregnant come San Diego time, and if he might care to come down and help us watch the table, I’d be happy to give him some table space in return, to shop his Homeless Channel comics.
Right before he came up for this A-1 signing, he said it was all worked out that he would join us for San Diego, and that sounded like a lot of fun, and I was looking forward to seeing him.
I was amused to see that in the promotion, A-1 had listed me for “Tabloia” (my comic), and ALSO “guitarist and vocalist for Weird Harold.” That tickled me.
A couple days before the signing, A-1 sent me a list of the attendees, and I was surprised to see Ron Lim and Thomas Yeates were also listed.
Other artists listed to show up were my friend Daniel Cooney (Valentine), my friends, Tim Watts and Michael O’Connell (locals who do the web comic, “The Nice Guy”), Zac Henderson (Project i.O), and Leigh Dragoon (Spidric). Leigh I’d met at APE, because Sam Kieth had gotten in touch with her about having her do a book in his Ojo series, so she came and introduced herself to me.
My friend Mike Hampton (Captain A**Hole) also wound up being there.
I got to the store, and saw that the set-up was kind of tight. There were tables lain out at the center of the room, by the register, but we had to really squeeze to fit everyone in. I’d been told to invite whoever I wanted, and we would squeeze everybody in, but now I saw what they meant by squeezing everyone!
I knew most of the gang there, and it was fun seeing all these guys again. As you’ve been in the comics industry for awhile, you begin to realize that you’ll just see all the same folks at all the gatherings, and there’s a sort of camaraderie in all that.
I was told Ron Lim would be there early on, but would have to leave early. Thomas Yeates would be arriving later.
I wound up being seated by Ron, who is always a pleasure to visit with, because he’s so friendly and energetic and upbeat. We talked a little about how he’s changed what he draws based on how he’s seen colorists treat his work. He spent a lot of time on a background once, and was dismayed to see the colorist had just applied one neutral, flat color to the entire background, thereby pushing it back out of the viewer’s notice, and wiping away anyone’s chances of appreciating it. Ever since, he’s compositionally kept his backgrounds much simpler, presumably to keep the focus on the subject matter in the foreground.
Before I knew it, Ron had to leave, but right around that same moment, Thomas wandered in, and since Ron’s seat was now the only one available, down sits Thomas with me!
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of classic adventure literature, and I suspected these were the kinds of books Thomas enjoyed, since so much of his comics work is based on or an adaptation of the classics.
I’d recently read the first maybe four or so Tarzan books, and so we talked about how well-written the series was, particularly the first seven novels. How if you haven’t read them, you picture Tarzan books as just being these jungle adventures of tiger-wrestling, swinging on vines, savages with blow-guns. But they’re actually heart-rending, intense, and often very violent, well-written stories.
Thomas said he’d recently read The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and was surprised how much he’d enjoyed it. This was another book I’d recently read.
I had copies of “Ojo” with me, and so Sam Kieth got brought up. Thomas was flipping through the book, and I told him about the process of me trying to draw like Sam. We went through the pages, and Thomas would say, “Is this your page? This is amazing, how you captured the ripples of the water!” And I’d say, “Uh, no, that’s Sam’s page.” And it seemed like that happened a few times, and then Thomas quit asking if it was my page. In the past, people had said, Oh, the art blends nicely, etc. etc. But now I thought, Man, that Thomas has a good eye. He’s really caught me. Shucks. And what can I say? Sam does some amazing work.
Thomas was on a Wally Wood kick. He’d brought a checklist of Wally Wood comics, and the shop had one in particular that he picked up, and we flipped through it together. Thomas was in awe of a sort of living fluid in the story, and how the esteemed Mr. Wood was able to capture the essence of this.
Generally speaking, I assume local signings at comics shops will just be sitting around for an hour, or a couple hours, and not selling anything, and then just going home. But I really enjoyed myself at this local signing.
During the show, I asked Matt Silady about sending my comics out to reviewers. He really keeps up on the industry, and on whose reviews are being read, and whose reviews influence readers. He had some good advice to give, and I take his advice very seriously. He said that many reviewers, you need to send your books out well before the book is actually released, so that the review can coincide with the release of the book. Then he said, send them out again when the book is out. The idea is to get people thinking about your book when it’s time to order, and again when it’s out. And if people can keep seeing interviews or reviews or mentions of your work, over and over, they’ll eventually have to take note. Or maybe they thought your book sounded good from the start, but then forgot (because so many comics come out every month), so you want to keep reminding them as much as you can.
Afterwards, Matt joined Elizabeth and I for a quick bite to eat before he drove back to the Bay Area. Matt is a person who, however much time I have with him, I wish I had more time to visit. I’m looking forward to sharing the booth with him at San Diego.