E-7: Still Crazy After All These Years

It’s a show that’s designed to kill you.

Over the five days I spent at San Diego Comic-Con International I was exposed to nasty viruses, long hours, indifferent people and death threats. Comic-Con doesn’t care. It has become an unyielding force of pop-culture nature, running over everything in its path. It's too good for you. Why put up with it?

Because I love it!

I got to see old friends like Mike (the bunny-eared, faux Cowboy leader), Rodney, Phillip and Elizabeth, Dustin and Sandra. I was happy to see Chris, a friend who recovered from a severe pancreatic illness. I made new friends: Christina, Tara, Alex and Liz. And they all think I’m cool! Much has changed in my 20 (sob!) years as a comics creator.

Once again I was at the Bare Bones Studios booth E-7 giving away “free action figures”, but I didn’t feel the desperate pressure to sell my comic book this year. Since Pretty Vacant: London Calling was crowd funded on Kickstarter, I believed that Comic-Con 2014 would be a cakewalk. I couldn’t have been more wrong...

I only brought three days worth of clothes. There were problems with hotel and convention staff. Carlos was his usual unreliable self. I lost my voice late Friday due to a lack of sleep that made me vulnerable to a cold. And I foolishly lost a day of sales trying to help Robert sell out his Shadow Prophesy (“the worse comic book ever”). I had come to the point where I either give up or double down.

I chose to keep going.

I used my hotel's coin operated laundry room to wash my clothes. I charmed staff where I could, and bypassed staff when I couldn’t. I ignored Carlos when I could, and tolerated him when I couldn’t. I gargled salt water and used ginger candy and cough drops to regain my voice. And best of all, the lack of a ‘Doctor Who’ panel this year allowed me to sell my last two comics to a lovely pair of sisters from Australia, Kelly and Sarah, on the show’s last day!

Liz was on the waiting list for a Comic-Con booth, and now she's one of us!

We have become so used to convenience, it’s a triumph when one physically can last the difficult marathon that Comic-Con has become. The show is no longer about comics, but it still treats comic creators well (the VIP room had English breakfast tea and free wi-fi). We’re moving towards a digital world, but there is still magic in the old fashioned comic book, typified when Dustin, the super-cool game app creator I wish I did not envy, admitted he was envious of me and Pretty Vacant: London Calling.

Comic-Con aged Sandra overnight!

As Mike dropped me off at San Diego’s train depot the following Monday and sped off to his new condo in Dallas, I was the last of my group of friends to leave. Battered and bruised, but not beaten, I boarded the train with thoughts of relief and determination to make next year’s Comic-Con experience even better…

Whether there’s a ‘Doctor Who’ panel or not.