Yesterday was Geocaching and today I headed north to Apple-Seed Comic Con in Fort Wayne. Don’t panic, I wasn’t tabling or doodling for cash and fame. I was there to check out the Con, learn something, and get inspired. Apple-Seed Comic-Con is held in the same place as Brickworld Fort Wayne. It’s not one of those Mega-Cons that call themselves “Comic Cons” but deal more with celebrities and autographs. It was essentially an Artist Alley with a few vendors (including a company selling gutters- for your house, not your comic). This makes it nice, but also can make it a quick trip through the vendor hall. I arrived fairly early and I stopped by and chatted quickly with some friends (never wanting to keep others from buying their stuff) and then went to a session I was hoping would help me with a project I’m working on. “Secrets of Drawing Comics THEY Don’t Want You To Know” presented by the wonderful Kyle Latino. This was worth the price of admission. After drawing a comic strip for a little over 6 years now, the transition to drawing a full page is a little scary. The hard part about a strip is getting your idea out in three or four panels. The problem with a page is… it’s a page and there are so many things that can go wrong and so much space to go wrong with. While I’ve been reading page after page of comics for over 40 years, making the magic happen is a little harder. Kyle’s presentation I believe has got me on the right path… only time will tell if I really listened and learned.
As for the for Artist’s Alley, there were some wonderful things to see, and I’m sorry that I didn’t feel right talking to everyone. As with many cons the pitch heard most was “It’s a story about a zombie apocalypse…” For my purpose, not all ages enough. I thought I would plug a few of the folks I saw and chatted with (kids- understand that not all of these creators deal with zombies, nor are all them appropriate for elementary students): Chris & Gin, Andy Korty, Bri Rudd, Kyle Latino, G. Pike and Ron Braun. I do hope they all had a successful show, and maybe I’ll join them next year! SO I checked out the show, learned something, and got inspired to take that leap of faith fiddle with a full page… what’s next? I do know I’m planning on attending (as either a teacher or a creator) Kids Read Comics in the middle of June… I won’t be tabling, but Cecil and I will be there wandering Ann Arbor in search of comics, creators, and knowledge.