Supanova is over and I’m left with a house littered with books and art materials, and a slight residual fuzzy glow. Here are some highlights from the convention:
– Meeting Mike Cooper aka Dr Mike 2000, wizard author/artist/creator of Universe Gun and participant in the last three 24 hour comic challenges I organised. Love this guy’s work- like a mix of Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, and Isaac Asimov. A unique take on superheroes set within a fully fleshed out alternate reality sci fi world with an innate sense of timing and pacing. The best comics I’ve read in a long time, and lucky me, there’s a collaboration in the works. I’m really excited about this one- stay tuned!
– Meeting Darren Close, Ozcomics legend and Killeroo creator. Rushed for time but managed to do a comic swap and looking forward to reading more about Rufus, and chatting to Mr Close in the future. Personal IP FTW big fella.
– Sitting opposite RD Genari, author of Battle for Skeptron, wrestler and BJJ artist, and sales gun extraordinare. I need a publicist like this guy! Total gentleman to boot.
– Getting commissioned to recreate JD Cody’s characters. Thinking a watercolour comission would be a good idea at a convention was a bad idea. This took me about two hours (with some digital touchups for my own amusment.) Next time I’m using brush and black ink.
– Meeting Loopy Dave, talented illustrator well beyond my painting and drawing skills, who gave me his art book as a gift. Lovely guy.
– Meeting for the first time the illustrious Tim Mcewen. He bought a diary comic collection! What a guy.
– Doing push hands and being generally goofy with Jutta instead of trying to sell comics. For me, selling my work and getting in people’s faces feels weird. I don’t like it being done to me either. And although that means my sales might be a lot lower than they could be, it also means I can sit back and watch those people who see something they like and come over to have a closer look. Sometimes to buy, sometimes just to browse, and sometimes just to smile ever so slightly before walking off. And that’s pretty good for now.
– Picking up con swag:
One of the best parts of being at Supanova was playing the anti-salesman, and sitting back instead of engaging people, watching them look over my work and keep working in a daze of sensory overload, or move in closer to have a better look. Kids are brilliant at this- they don’t have the fear of being roped into a sales pitch and having to part with hard-earned money and so if something grabs their attention they’ll look with unabashed curiosity. They engage and if they like it or don’t you’ll know very easily. Most of my kicks for the weekend were stolen in this way, by watching, and soaking in those moments of someone connecting to an image, and getting some degree of connection or pleasure in some small way. This made those moments when someone reeeally enjoyed my work stand out even more. One lady who was so into cats she bought every postcard of mine with Persia on it (all 6 of them) and asked me to sign each one, and was happy for me to practice my ‘art’ signature in varying ways across cards, rendering each one a unique piece of history that no on will probably ever notice, if not or this blog. Then there was Josh aka JD Cody, author and Creator of Josh And Trixie, two star-crossed lovers in the forms of canine gentleman and lady. Josh spent long minutes looking over my diary comics, laughing and getting such joy out of them that I was completely renewed and my faith in the possible reception of my work restored. Josh was such a beautiful guy that I gave him a free Storybordello sampler and chatted for a while beofre saying goodbye. Still high from this, he appeared a short time later asking me to do a commission of his characters. For some reason I decided to tackle an A3 watercolour in under an hour, plus pre-painting character sketches. I can’t say it’s the best thing I’ll ever do but Josh seemed to like it, and I’m happily contented that people like JD Cody exist. There really is a niche for every kind of thing out there.
