Okay, so maybe ComicCon hit me a little harder than I thought…
I fully intended to get the first page of the new Showcase story out yesterday, but I had forgotten how much essential recovery time after a convention was required. Don’t get me wrong, ComicCon Cape Town was a resounding success, I’m sure it will continue to be so in years to come, but holy cow are we out of practice when it comes to conventions. It’s been three or four years since the last full-fledged pop-culture convention took place in our city, and we’ve been so eager to get back to it that I don’t think we fully appreciated just how much energy it takes.
That said, I had a truly fantastic time being there. While I wasn’t running my own booth, I did spend about 95% of the convention at The Dragon Wagon, selling my fiancé’s TTRPG dice; I’m totally okay with this, I’ve always been more at home behind a table and greeting people as they go by. Sure, it means I have limited contact with my fellow attendees, but it does help prevent my introverted brain from being overwhelmed. In any case, I still saw a bunch of old friends; some were from my former workplace, and we could reminisce about the past traumas of that crapshoot; one of my best friends still based in my hometown, showed up unannounced and surprised us; I even had a few strangers come up and tell me that they follow my comics and this blog, so shout-out to all of you for letting me know that people actually read this stuff!
Also, a big congrats to my fiancè herself, MittelElfCat, for winning Best Wig at the regional cosplay competition, and for her TV news interview that allowed her to show off her Geralt cosplay to the nation, love you hun <3
The most astounding thing was how well our stock was doing; most of the more expensive dice sets were gone before the end of Thursday, and we dwindled down to almost nothing before we even got to Sunday; never underestimate the allure of shiny math rocks to those in the D&D crowd. To say that we made an absolute killing is an understatement; I won’t give specific numbers, but let’s just say that we made more money in four days than I usually make in four months. I don’t know exactly how to feel about that, but it shines a harsh light on my day job, that’s for sure…
All this to say, the Con wiped us out in the best ways possible, and coupled with a sudden spike in workload at the day job, I’m still getting myself back into the swing of things with drawing. On top of that, I made a last minute decision to swap out which story I would be presenting first for this next issue; it wasn’t the one I initially had in mind, nor one that I even had lined up for this issue, but it’s the one I wanted to tell the most. Plus I already had a breakdown of it prepped in advance, so we’re going with it.
Hopefully I’ll be able to kick off this story tomorrow, if I get a chance to breathe at all today.
May the Fourth be with you.
Ciao for now.