I’ve mentioned this on the comics and my twitter, but last weekend was my first con experience, and it was a pretty dang good one: the Anime NebrasKon. I went with a couple of friends, one who was splitting an artist alley table with a friend, and the other who was just going for the hell of it (and who cosplays and was in a couple sketches for different panels), and I’m glad I did because if I had gone completely solo I woulda been so lost I dunno what I’d have done.
Sure, I enjoy anime/manga when I have taken the time to find stuff I like or watch/read stuff people have suggested… but the main reason I went is because I wanted to get an idea for what I’d need to do to get myself and my comics ready to hit some conventions in 2010. Since my part of the midwest really doesn’t have many dedicated comic-cons, but does have a ton of sci-fi and anime cons, I thought those would be a great/practical place to start. And I think I was right, because I have a wealth of ideas that I now need to put into motion so that I can have them ready by Feb/March of 2010.
Since I had a great time and bought stuff, I figured I’d give you a few links to check out so that they can hopefully get some more hits, more exposure, and maybe more moneys if you find something you like (and yes, I did meet all these people at one point or another, have pretty awesome conversations with them, and they are totally deserving of the money they are asking for these products).
First are the friends whose artists alley table I sat under/behind a good deal of the weekend while not at panels or wandering around enjoying the badass cosplay outfits: SpringDragon Studios and whatever Cori’s studio name is/was. They were really cool and I think it was both of their first cons. But they had some awesome artwork displayed, sold some good stuff, and hopefully had a good time as well.
Next are the people I bought stuff from… the first does an excellent webcomic called Red-Zone, which is a manga styled comic done in chapters. Right now she’s finishing chapter 7 and is posting side-continuity sorta content on her site. Her book has Chapters 1-6 in it and I sat on the floor and read the entire thing from start to finish at the con… it was freaking amazing.
The other person who’s comic I bought and really enjoyed works as DreamGear Studios. The comic is called SoulBinder and he’s gonna start posting it on that there website later this month. I bought it at the con and read thru it a few times and really cannot wait for him to start posting it. Why? Because the print version is black and white (and was very inexpensive and totally worth it)… but the webcomic version will be in full color!!! He said he’s pretty far along on the second comic as well, so that’s pretty badass.
And lastly, the people who weren’t just at the con, but were guests and who did some awesome panels: studio (and webcomic) Otako-No-Yen! The comic has been going for several years now, is written by Richard Townsend, his wife Shannon does all the artwork, and they had some of the best panels and were two of the funniest people I met this weekend. One of the first things I did once I woke up from my post-con coma was to read their comic from start to finish, and then bookmark it and subscribe to the RSS feed because it’s just badass.
There were a bunch of other great presenters at the convention and if you’re intrigued by the links I posted already, you can go to this page of the NebrasKon site and click thru to all the artist/dealer sites you want. If you’ve got time to spare, I suggest that you at least click thru some of the stuff I mentioned above, and if you’re really looking to kill time, the artist links are worth a peak. Anyway, I had a blast and just wanted to share some of the cool stuff I found with you all. Maybe I’ll snap some pics of the me and my merch… or maybe I’ll just make you buy it to see how badass it is yourself.
