Store Signing with Matt and Kelly Sue

I got to sit in on a Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick signing at Asheville’s Comic Envy (the retail helicarrier of flatbear), and it was a ball. I offered free sketches with a polite solicitations for tips and donations for a charity named later by the House DeFraction. I cranked out about 30 drawings (most of which you can see here).

(Quick aside for other artists: I’ve had a tip jar for three events now in two years, and people are far more generous and grateful than you might presume. The hefty sums I’ve accumulated are more a tribute to their good natures than my skills, but it speaks to our communal enthusiasm about original pop-culture art. Try it at at Free Comic Book Day or a random mid-week appearance at a local store. When you’re done, spend some of that money at the store. Everyone wins. I got to hand over a tidy stack of cash to our guests for charity at the end of the day.)

This was a solid epilogue to HeroesCon, preventing the usual sad crash after a show, and I got to talk comics all day. In fact, any time I got a little sore (from horrible posture) or anxious about the backlog of art to make, I said this to myself: You’re sitting in a comic store and drawing all day. What else would you rather be doing? Head space re-calibrated, I smiled my way through Deadpools, and She-Hulks, and Hawkeyes.

Comics, people. COMICS.

(Second aside for artists: if you’re drawing at a store event, bump the new walk-ins to the front of your sketch list. Put the regular customers with pull lists to the back. Draw their pictures when you can and put them in the pull folders. The next time those customers come to the store, the art will be waiting for them. You also might encourage the walk-ins to become regular customers. I think three people made pull folders yesterday to pick up their art later.)

Our special guests were very encouraging when I showed them my trade (which you can buy here and coming to Comixology any day now) and set me in a proper direction now that it’s printed. I cannot thank them enough for sharing the day. And let’s here it for Comic Envy for throwing a whale of a New Comic Day.

At the end of the day, I felt like I could have pulled a second shift. I was elated. Then I stopped by Five Guys Burgers and converted my wife The Countess to their fries, and we sprawled about the house like we were in an opium den.

A good day.

And The Deputy turns four today, and he got a proper Spidey mask, and we’ll never see his face again.