So this sketch pretty much represents my feeling for the FanExpo. Me being the girl, my art being the cat. It was a bit of a bust. Don't get me wrong, there were thousands of people walking around, there were some pretty big corporate displays like Lego, Marvel and Ubisoft with displays and demos and freebees, there were some pretty amazing A-list celebrities, but all of that didn't add up to a great weekend for us in Artist Alley.The organizers moved Artist Alley from one long wall along the back of the room to a shorter wall along the side of the room. We were 3 rows from the farthest corner of the room. The main feeling was that once people started at the opposite end of the Artist Alley, got to the half way point, they either got tired or ran out of money so they turned around and didn't make it to the final few rows where we were. We were also quite close to the CTV area (a TV station here in Canada) so I think people saw that and figured 'Boring, I'm here for comics not TV' and turned around. We were also close to one of two giant TOWER OF T-SHIRTS! towers so people saw that and probably figured they'd seen one, they don't need to see another.
So overall it just wasn't as successful as last year's FanExpo. I would like to thank those who did stop buy to chat or buy, especially those of you who remembered us from past years and always seem to buy something new from us. Thank you! You made my weekend.
Something else I think messed me up was autograph hunting. I haven't been the one who goes out for autographs from the celebs, I sit back and watch the table while Andrew does that. There's never been anyone who I just really, really wanted to meet. Until this year. Yes, I scraped up the courage from somewhere and got Alan Tudyk's autograph on my Tucker and Dale image.
I was taking a walk and happened to see he was there a day early so I thought better do it now before I lose sleep with anxiety and anticipation. So I got in line and the volunteer announces that the line is now closed. I was the last one. What?! So I joke to the guy in front of me, 'Does that mean I'll be the one he remembers out of everyone today?' And he says 'Yeah, when he's lying in bed tonight he'll be thinking of you.' WHAT?! And the volunteer jokes that I should toss my hair and be all flirty. Double what?! Like I needed all of that to make me any more nervous. But he was very kind, shook my hand, seemed to be amused by my piece (I gave him one with my autograph on it :P) and signed it as well as the photo that I got for the price of the autograph. As I walked away I thanked him for not cancelling to which he smiled and nodded a 'You're welcome' kind of thing.
I also got Norma Reedus and Jon Bernthal (from The Walking Dead) autographs for my Mom since she's a huge fan of the show. That should be a fun addition to her birthday presents! Sarah Wayne Callies who plays Lori just showed up out of the blue at Norman's table while I was lining up but I didn't have enough money on my for her's too. Talk about awkward. She's twiddling her pen as I'm standing there waiting for Norman, NOT getting her autograph. But she did compliment me on my owl t-shirt.
So all that autograph stuff had me on edge for three days. Right now I'm suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I keep flashing back to how much of an idiot I may or may not have made of myself. I haven't even looked at the few photos I got of me and them since they were taken.
So that's sort of it in a nutshell. We hung out with some convention friends (Ghoul Friday and Mummy's Little Monster, I'm looking at you!) I bought some great new art to freshen up our art wall. I'm not quite inspired to jump back into my own art right now but I'll give it some time.
I have a lot of merch left over so I'm planning on opening at etsy.com store. I figured people might trust that more than just buying directly from me. Worth a shot I guess. I also might try the tumblr thing and start one of those. Like I don't have enough places to update when I have something to update with, but what's one more, eh?
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