I also sold the heck out of my comic book. This was what my table looked like Saturday morning:

Saturday morning, before the convention started.

…and here’s what it looked like Sunday morning, after Saturday’s brisk sales:

The day after.

I sold out of all of my trade paperbacks and several comics by Saturday night, leaving me only with comics to sell on Sunday.

Sales-wise, I did much better this year than at last year’s SPX. Part of it may have been luck, but I think these factors helped:

• Color. This year, my table was absolutely drenched in color. I had Ka-Blam printed comics, Ka-Blam printed trade paperbacks, Ka-Blam printed flyers, color signs, and color business cards.
• Better cover art. The covers of the two 40-page comic books caught attention and advertised the Lore, Vol. 1 trade paperback. I’m happy with the cover art for Lore, Vol. 1, but it’s passive. The 40-page comic covers show far more conflict, contrast, story and dimension. Plus, they gave passers-by a glimpse of characters not shown on the Lore, Vol. 1 cover.
• Handing out free stuff. I brought older Pocket Editor and Lore comics, tucked a color business card into each one, and handed them out like trick-or-treat candy. After I ran out of those, I handed out the full-color Ka-Blam flyers. After I ran out of those, I handed out my full-color business cards. After receiving a freebie, some attendees stopped to look at my table to see what else I had. Some of those visitors would then make a purchase.
• Free sketch with EVERY purchase. In the past, I lacked the confidence that I could draw fast enough. I would offer a free sketch for trade paperback purchases but not for comic book purchases. This time, I drew several sketches in advance and had them ready-to-go so that I could offer a free sketch with every purchase:
  

  Sunday Sketches

  Even then, I had to keep drawing through the convention and Saturday night to keep up. However, I always had at least two sketches ready to offer a customer.

• Vertical displays. At previous conventions, I used only two plate stands to display my work. The rest of the comics would lay flat on the table, nearly invisible to passers-by. Not this year. I bought three extra plate stands from Bed Bath & Beyond, and I used them to prop up everything. This made my work more visible, blasting everyone with Ka-Blam color within a 10-foot radius.
• Complimenting attendees who wore cool T-shirts. SPX attendees this year wore some of the coolest T-shirts I have ever seen. One girl walked by with a “Self-Rescuing Princess” shirt. As a video game addict and *huge* fan of Legend of Zelda, I had to compliment her on her awesome shirt. We struck up a conversation, and I showed her the Lore, Vol. 1 page where Missy did her own self-rescue. She got a laugh, and within minutes I got a sale.

Many thanks to Pam Bliss and Suzanne Baumann for being excellent roommates and for the pro tips, John Bintz for the tech tips, Carla Speed McNeil for the business tips, Shawn P. Murphy for taking pix of me at my table, and Roberto Ortiz for the VFX discussion. Also, congrats to Denise Sudell for winning this year’s SPX posters! And thanks to everyone else who helped make SPX 2010 one of the most fun convention experiences ever. You are all the best.

My “day job” is visual effects. I wrapped up working as a character rigger on Animal Armageddon in April. This summer I worked mostly on commercials. I created this skull-shaped, symmetrical water splash for this Tanqueray commercial:

I used RealFlow, LightWave 3D, and a ton of Python scripting to create the skull-splash.