MSP ComiCon 2015

The first annual MSP ComiCon (formerly SpringCon) was a big success. The reason they changed the name was in part because WizardWorld came to town last year and - like they do - scheduled their big pop culture/media convention near the date of the small, local, comics convention. Last year, when my friends outside of the comics community asked if I was going to "Comic-Con," they meant WizardWorld. It was a pretty big deal in the Twin Cities; the closest we've ever got to something like San Diego with all the movie and TV stars there. But it was grating to have to explain that no, I wasn't going to that show; I was instead going to the actual comics convention in town. The one that had been around for decades.

SpringCon has always had an excellent reputation among comics fans and creators and has been gaining wider attention locally in the last few years, but it was being held back by its name. As popular as comics are these days, all those fans and interested people didn't know what SpringCon was. So this year it became MSP ComiCon and when I was asked by civilians if I was going to "Comic-Con," that was the one they meant. That's a success, but so is the fact that people turned out in droves.

Here's a picture of the line to get in fifteen minutes after the show opened. I heard that it took another hour for it to finally shorten and that fits what I saw inside the building. The floor was packed all morning on Saturday.



It slowed down Saturday afternoon and Sunday, but overall the attendance was record-breaking. And even more encouraging than that were the kinds of people who were walking around and enjoying themselves. Comics readers have become a steadily more diverse crowd over the last few years and it really struck me at the show how true that is. There were people of all ages and races and I saw a lot more groups of just women and girls than I have in the past. This wan't a surprise; just very very reassuring.

Kill All Monsters did pretty well Saturday morning and I was pleased to donate a copy to a library in Wisconsin. Even though sales dipped Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I got a lot of questions from people who've already read it and wanted to know when the next volume is coming. It was really great to be able to tell them about the Dark Horse Presents story in July and the hardcover omnibus scheduled for next year. Saw some very excited faces about both of those things.

David did well with his new mini-comic, a fantasy story about an heroic goat who recruits a middle-school boy to defeat a powerful evil. I can't wait for the second issue.



And Diane did extremely well with her face-painting. She'd mastered Groot and Rocket Raccoon and those were popular, but she's also able to make up stuff on the fly, especially if she has a reference. She maintains a constant line of both kids and adults and she's thinking about maybe bringing in a partner to help meet the demand.

All in all it was an awesome show. The volunteers of the Midwest Comic Book Association were fantastic as usual; always welcoming and often checking in with creators to bring a drink or a snack or anything else a table-bound person might need. Couldn't ask for a nicer show.

SKJAM! reviews Kill All Monsters

Kill All Monsters got a nice review from the man known as SKJAM! I met him at SpringCon last month where he picked up a copy of the book and I'm thrilled that he liked it. He offers a nice recap that doesn't spoil anything and finishes by recommending the book for kids who enjoyed Pacific Rim or this year's Godzilla.

He also mentions having some difficulty getting into the opening scene, which I think is totally fair. Starting in the middle of a fight and then letting it play out for a while with zero exposition was a gamble. We answer a bunch of world-building questions by the end of Volume 1 and folks all seem able to put it together as the volume progresses, but I do get that we're asking readers to play catch up during the opening pages.

Thanks so much, SKJAM!

Godzilla and SpringCon: A Perfect Weekend

So, a few things.

First of all, Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the US. I'm eating bratwurst with friends and family, but also remembering fallen soldiers like my father-in-law. Hope you're able to do something similar.

It's nice to have a day off after an extremely busy May. Between C2E2, SpringCon, and just work in general, I'm excited to not do very much today. I started a new day job in December and it's been tough to get back in the creative groove. This blog has suffered and my fiction writing has suffered, but I guess that's expected. Cartoonist Jake Parker wrote a really encouraging blog post about how to ramp up creatively after a major life change, but points out that it usually takes about a year to recover after starting a new job, having a baby, or moving to a new city. I hope it doesn't take me that long, but it's good to know that I'm not alone in struggling.

I'm going to try to update at least once a week, which is way less than I used to, but if I want to get any fiction written then I've got to be a less prolific blogger. I'm finding Tumblr super useful to quickly share weird, fun stuff, so this blog is going to be more about updates and longer pieces like the Bond series that I promise I haven't given up on.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a post up last week, because the weekend was too full of fun. Friday night, David and I saw Godzilla (Diane had a previous commitment) and it's probably the most fun I've had at the movies since seeing Star Wars about thirty-two times in the theater in 1977 and '78. The new Godzilla isn't a perfect movie, but it's awesome and we engineered our experience to pull the maximum amount of fun from it. We finished our massive marathon of the entire series (minus a couple of impossible-to-find entries) about a week before and then made it to our local screening of the original 1954 film. We were eating and breathing Godzilla by the time we saw the reboot.

This Weekend: Kill All Monsters at SpringCon

I'll be at SpringCon this weekend with lots of Kill All Monsters books and prints. If you live near enough to plan to travel there, you probably already know about SpringCon, but just in case you don't, it's a fantastic, two-day show that's all about the comics.  Guests this year include Jeff Parker, Adam Hughes, Bill Willingham, and a ton of other great creators. My wife, Diane will be back too, making everyone's faces more superheroey or Pokemony or whatever else people want to put on their kissers.

One of the things I'm most excited about is that I'll be on a panel with my pal Otis Frampton and a couple of guys I haven't met in person yet, but am looking forward to getting to know: Erik Burnham and Anthony Hary. Here are the details:

Sunday, 1PM to 2PM: LOCAL BOYZ MADE GOOD! 
Meet a crew of hot local creators on their way up and discussing how they got that way. Featuring Otis Frampton (Oddly Normal from Image), Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters), Anthony Hary (Fifteen Minutes), and Michael "Kill All Monsters!" May!

So if you're in the area, come by and say hi. And if you're there on Sunday, please come to the panel and ask hard questions like, "Who would win in a fight: Skullbot or Mechagodzilla?" Then I'll ask you which Mechagodzilla and we can have a whole conversation and totally take over the panel. It'll be fun!

SpringCon killed all the monsters

SpringCon was great. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's the larger of the two Minnesota conventions put on by the wonderful folks of the Midwest Comic Book Association. FallCon is a one-day show in October, but SpringCon runs Saturday and Sunday, usually in May. The Minneapolis/Saint Paul area has a great comics scene and the MCBA goes out of its way to treat creators like royalty, so there's always a lot of participation. Both conventions are fantastic, family-friendly shows and highlights of my year.

My wife's out of town for a friend's college graduation, so David and I hung out together all weekend. David made the second issue of Hulkasaurus, his series of mini-comics about his own giant monster, and I had several copies of Kill All Monsters left over from C2E2. KAM did very well and I sold out early on Sunday. A surprise hit for me was Hunt the Winterlands, a fantasy anthology of prose stories that I contributed to a year or so ago. I've had it at a few shows since then and sold some copies, but it sold like hotcakes this time.

David sold most of his copies of Hulkasaurus #2. A couple of other friends of mine were also exhibiting with their kids who also did very well all weekend. It's great to see children getting into making art and comics so early, and even greater to see the local community support them so much.

David had an iguana puppet at his table, which is the model for a giant monster in Hulkasaurus, so he had a great time using it to attract people to the table. Or just playing with friends:



As usual, we sat near Grant Gould who's always amazing with kids. He and David did an art trade, with Grant's drawing one of David's favorite characters and David's drawing something Grant had mentioned earlier: a dinosaur/scorpion hybrid.



Otis Frampton was on the other side of our table nearest me and I had a great time getting to know him a little better. He's a super-talented artist and was also really welcoming of David. My good friends Jessica Hickman and Darla Ecklund were nearby as well and David and I shared a couple of meals with them.

I also enjoyed finally getting to meet Ron Marz, who was visiting an MCBA show for the first time, and Trevor Von Eeden, who is - no lie - the sweetest person in comics. I had the privilege of being in the audience at San Diego Comic-Con last year when he received the Inkpot Award. Getting to hear him accept it and talk about his career was a highlight not only of that panel, but of the entire convention for me. Getting to tell him so yesterday was a highlight of this weekend. Comics people are the best people.

In addition to talking to people - and I know I'm leaving out so many of you; I'm sorry - I bought a bunch of comics of course and a couple of pieces of art, including this Godzilla silhouette by Jennifer Menken.



One final memory of the show was how humid it was. We had unseasonably hot weather at FallCon a few years ago and it was appropriately dubbed SweatCon. This year, I thought that MoistCon would be appropriate until the torrential rains started coming down on Sunday and it turned into something more like HurriCon.



Not that that "dampened" anyone's fun. It was a great time and thanks again to the MCBA for hosting!

Kill All Monsters at SpringCon

As I mentioned yesterday, my next convention appearance will be at SpringCon in Saint Paul/Minneapolis. That's always a fun, creator-focused show with lots of opportunity for fans to interact with legendary talent from the Golden Age to today. This year's group includes people like Howard Chaykin, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Phil Hester, Dan Jurgens, Ryan Kelly, Pablo Marcos, Ron Marz, Amy Reeder, and Trina Robbins.

There are also lots of great, not-as-legendary creators from the thriving local scene, which is where I come in. I'll be there with some copies of Kill All Monsters and some great prints that Jason made of the book's wraparound cover. Mark your calendar!

SpringCon and fur bikinis

If I wait until I download the pictures from my camera, my SpringCon report will never happen, so here are a couple I snagged with my iPod on Saturday. The one above is right before the show and David's stapling his copies of Hulkasaurus. You can also see a Transformer (we make it fight Godzilla on the table) and the pile of candy the convention always has waiting for creators. That's Darla Ecklund in the background, but more on her in a minute.

David sold three copies of his comic before the show even started (and he continued to outsell me the whole show). The first sale was to the awesome Sam Hiti. Sam is extremely supportive of young artists and for several years has had a protege or two at his table. They've left the nest now, but Sam's enthusiasm for David and his book show that he still has a huge heart for kids who cartoon.



Saturday morning was very busy and the line to get into the show was enormous even a couple of hours after we opened. The crowd thinned out a little as the day progressed, but it never got small. There were always lots of people around and even when my table was slow, there was plenty of people-watching to do. Sunday's line wasn't quite as long, but it was still impressive and the show buzzed and hummed all weekend.

I sat between my friends Grant Gould and Darla Ecklund. Grant always draws a crowd to his table with his great Star Wars art and his awesome sketchbook covers. Darla had a great show too and was working on some samples for an upcoming pirate festival she's going to in Wisconsin. She and a writer friend will have a table where Darla will sketch you as a pirate on a special card and her friend will write an excerpt from your "legend" on the back. It's a cool idea and even though her friend wasn't at SpringCon, I asked Darla to draw me.



I didn't sell a ton of comics, but everything I had for actual sale was material that's been out for a while. I did give away all of my Artist Alley preview ashcans, so that (and David's experience with his book) made the show successful for me.

Well, that and that I met Bill Willingham without turning into a slackjawed fool. He signed the first two Fables collections for me and I think I managed to not be awkward as I pointed out that I wrote one of the review quotes on the back of Volume 2. He was awesome.

The only disappointment about the show was that Jessica Hickman couldn't make it. One of her cats was ill and needed care, so Jess took care of that. But our friend Uko Smith, who drove in from Ohio, and I were able to catch up with her after the show on Sunday and grab some Mexican food. One of the things that always makes a show for me is sitting next to Jess and laughing as we brainstorm crazy ideas for future projects. We didn't get to do that at the convention this year, but we sure did it at dinner. Jess, Uko, and I came up with a great idea with the working title Fur Bikini. That's all I can say about it now, except that Jess went home afterwards and - inspired by the project - drew this.



And that's all you need to know.

Hulkasaurus: One more thing for SpringCon

My son David will be at SpringCon with me tomorrow with a very limited number of copies of his own comic, Hulkasaurus. It's a 12-page booklet containing a giant-monster story and a back-up feature introducing a creature he plans to use in future issues. Only a buck. Get 'em while they last.

Get your new Kill All Monsters at SpringCon!

FedEx cooperated and my copies of the Artist Alley preview ashcan - featuring six, all-new pages of Kill All Monsters! action - are sitting on my dining room table. I'll have them at SpringCon tomorrow and will be giving them away FOR FREE. So if you're in the area, stop by my table and I'll hand one over. Until I run out anyway.

Don't forget, in addition to KAM, the preview book also has new material by Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall, Kelly Yates, Richard Case, Chris Kemple, and Randy Green. What's more, that new material has names like Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl, MonstHer, Annie Ammo, Red Vengeance, and Dollz. This is going to be so cool, you guys.

SpringCon reminder

If you live in or around Minneapolis/Saint Paul, don't forget that SpringCon is this weekend. I'll be there with  - FedEx willing - something exciting, new, and Kill All Monsters related. More details once I have the items in my hands.

Hope you can stop by!