• Home
• About
• Archives
• Cast
• Link to Me
• Store

Dallas Webcomic Expo

My first convention as a presenter was such a wonderful experience. It was so nice to meet people people who had already read Life’s a Witch. But it was also very nice to see folks pick up the flyer and chuckle.  (I hope some of you are reading this now! Welcome!)

Here is the photo album of most of the wonderful things that happened to me at DWEX.

Keep reading below if you want ALL the details! (very long)

NB: I have not put any ratings next to any of the links in this post. I am confident that all are SFW, but pre-teens shouldn’t click w/o parental consent. Just covering my bases, folks!

The first folks I met were Rebecca Hicks of “Little Vampires” and her husband James, and Chris Jeffery from Cartridge Comics.  Rebecca came immediately over to me and said hello.  I had no idea who she was and then I saw the “Little Vampires” logo go up. *SQUEEE!* (I do that a lot.) I’m glad she came over because I’d have been too intimidated to go up to meet her.  She said she had to meet me because I made her draw dancing people (one of the exercises in the Sketch Out!).  She and hubby are comic con PROs.

I felt an immediate kinship with Chris Jeffery as we were listening to her. As this was a first con for both of us as comickers, I hung on to every word Rebecca spoke and I’m sure he enjoyed Rebecca’s tips as much as I did.

I was very excited to finally meet Barry Buchanan of Don’t Feed the Geek in person! (SQUEEE!) I don’t remember how I first met Barry online, but we’ve been comic buddies nearly ever since.  We twitter, email, chat to each other in other artists drawing streams, etc. about webcomics, technique, and “what do you think of THIS idea?” As an added bonus, I got to meet his wife and daughters who I only knew as characters in the strip.  After meeting  them in person, it’s no wonder that I like his family-oriented strips best. What wonderful material he has to work with! (Special *wave* to Mrs. B, Emily and Gracie!)

The convention itself got off to a slow start. Not TOO unexpected to my mind, but what do I know? (Note to self: Ask Rebecca!) It picked up a bit in the afternoon and stayed decently steady until just before closing time.

I was thrilled to finally meet Scott Kurtz of PvP in person. (SQUEE!) He was sitting directly across the room from me and I kept staring like an idiot. I’m a fan of PvP webcomic and I have wanted to meet him for a very long time. I was too nervous to go up and speak to him, so I figured I’d just talk to his new intern, but I only knew her online name from Scott’s drawing streams, “CubeWatermelon” (or something similar…I had shortened it to “Cube” in my mind).  But as soon as I opened my mouth, I couldn’t even remember that and said, “You’re CLAM, aren’t you?” Oh MY GOSH!!  Talk about making bad first impression!  SCOTT heard me and chuckled and made a “bivalve” joke. They were good sports, but I was mortified. I did manage to buy a copy of  How to Make Webcomics, which Scott Kurtz is one of the authors.  He was wonderful and signed the inside of my book and did a sketch of Skull. I was so happy.  My husband went over to meet him too and gave him my business card.  (There was NO way I could have gone back.) I did speak with him from the audience at one of the panels, tho! I have another chance to make a fool of myself in front of him in December when he’s expected to be here in Austin.

My very first sale of the day was a copy of “It Came from the Spare Bedroom” to none other than Lonnie Easterling of Spud Comics!  (I hope he doesn’t come to beat me up, demanding his money back.)

Okay, a BIG HIGHLIGHT of my day:  There I was minding my own bidness when this nice looking fellow in a yellow shirt comes striding toward my table. I smile the generic welcome smile for strangers when it clicks! This is CARLOS CASTELLANOS, one of the creators of Baldo!  He grinned the minute he saw my smile change from “Hello, Stranger. I’m friendly…” to “OMG! It’s YOU!”  He had another man with him…it was HECTOR CANTU! The writer of the Baldo strips!  They were both so nice. (SQUEEEE!)  I spoke with Carlos more because I “know” him from twitter.  (Carlos swears he found out he was coming to DWEX because I twittered about it.  He got the twitter before he got the email!) He was so wonderful, he made me feel like he was a fan of MINE.  I got both their autographs in two strip collections,  and a sketch of Baldo and the whole clan by Carlos. Then he said, ‘Do one for me, now!”  (He DOES know I draw digitally right? RIGHT?) I drew Zelda for him and it ended up being in the same pose as on my sign. HAHAHA Dangit! One of these days, I’ll learn how to draw on PAPER!

Later in the day, Carlos comes over again to chat (SQUEEE!) and we’re comparing notes. He says something like, “Well you know, I just had a long chat with Bill Hinds who’s been wandering around.” When I drew a blank, he said, “You know, Tank McNamara…” YES! I know Tank McNamara! *faint* It took Carlos AND Michael to get me over to him to be introduced. He also made me a nice sketch of Tank and said I was his ego boost of the day! YAY!

Here is the pic of me between Carlos and Bill Hinds. This was such a great moment for me.

Here are some highlights not mentioned above:

• Brian Powers of Lil Toons was at the table on my right, shared with Barry Buchanan. Here is Brian with the cutest PR department ever.
• On the other side of me was Amanda and Jessica of Salt the Holly and But Not Really.
• Sidney Winchester of Quazar451. He’s one of the first friends I made in web comic land.
• I don’t have a picture (WHY NOT?!! I’m an idiot, that’s why!) of my meeting with Mark Largent of The Wannabee Pirates. This is one of the comics that rode to school in the children’s lunch boxes.

I was too shy to chat with:

• Boomer Cardinale of Tubularman, even though he was only 3 tables down from me. I did speak to him indirectly at one of the panels, though!
• Randy Milholland of at least 3 different webcomics. This is a weird situation. I don’t read his comics, but I know his name. I didn’t follow him on twitter until after this weekend either.  But I knew OF him and wanted to meet him and chickened out.

Since it was the first time for DWEX, it was a very low-key tone. I’d say a good start for a beginner like me.

If you’d like to read some other reports of DWEX, try these:

• Nate Bramble’s Recap. (Also check out Hermit Hill comic while you’re over there.)
• Lonnie Easterling’s day at DWEX.  From the perspective of a show attendee.
• Chris Jeffery had a spot by the front door. Here are his thoughts on DWEX.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.

Copyright Life's a Witch |