Hello all. I know I said I would make blog entries every day, but it has been impossible for various painfully problematic reasons. An enormous amount of difficulty has gone on since arriving in San Diego, the least of which includes:
receiving a flea bag hotel from expedia.com
almost not getting a hotel to replace it
finally getting one at almost $200 per night
lack of wi fi Internet access
and finally, my hard drive will not boot up on my ibook (it seems to be damaged)
Other things have gone on as well that have been extremely aggravating and challenging, and downright upsetting even. But, with my own courage and with the backup of loved ones, I have managed to salvage things and have been at each day of the show. I've met nearly one hundred different artists, writers, and editors, as well as company heads. It's been very exciting, educational and uplifting as somebody who is trying to break in.
Other challenges include the amount of walking that one must do in order to get to the convention and traverse the area of the whole convention. I have arthritis and joint problems so each day it is very important to get proper rest and nutrition as well as sit down time, taking breaks, etc. in between meeting people. And given the problems that I had with my back (see last entry) it has been a true test of my will to make sure I hit the mark that I need to hit each day.
Due to various problems, I've had to work on samples while being here in San Diego each night at the hotel.
And so I will not be making a real presentation to editors until Sunday. In fact, I may not go to the show at all Saturday, except for an hour or so, because there is too much to do and it's more important to have everything in place on Sunday.
The various people I will be meeting with on Sunday will include editors at DC, the owner and the art director from Viper Comics, the art director for IDW Publishing, ONI Press and some others. It seems like IDW is actually more than a little interested, but we'll see. And, of course, there are the existing graphic novel deals that Joe Kelly and William Harms and I are looking at doing.
A real highlight for me yesterday was talking more with B. Clay Moore, author of The Expatriate and Battle Hymn. He and artist, Jeremy Haun, really liked the five pages of black and white art that Ethan and I did for that backup story in Battle Hymn Number Five. Due to my computer problem, showing them what the final color work will look like is not possible. I have, however, found a Kinkos in downtown San Diego close to the convention center - I'll be able to make at least one page of color final art there to show them what the rest of the story will look like. Apparently, we have a deadline of three weeks, so it will be fine.
I've met a lot of folks so far who have all been fun, gracious, and informative. Considering all my trials and tribulations on this trip, I've really managed to roll it into some great public relations for myself and the studio. It's reassuring to know that in an industry that's made up of lots of money and lots of pressure and competitiveness, that these people are still able to be friendly, fun, and conversational. It's a strange dichotomy. You can feel the competitive tension in the air here, but at the same time, you can feel an almost fanboy level of eagerness and a real desire to be creative and fun. It's very infectious. That's all for tonight. I have tried to recap the last few days as much as I could. I'm going to try to find a way to record audio at the convention using some kind of phone-based audio blogging service. If I can do this, I will place links to those audio blogs in future posts. Thanks a lot for your support. I can feel it all the way over here. See you tomorrow.
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