Comic-Con International 2019 has come and went. Arsenic Lullaby was there and we did quite well...of course
In the words of Steve Dahl "we don't need luck, we have talent".
Entertaining facetiousness aside, I need to thank some people. I know this part is usually boring, but i'm gonna put it in a way that may give you some insight as to what goes into being successful at a show with 160,000 people coming through the door, most of whom have never heard of you and are there for some plastic trinket made by a billion dollar corporation...who is also there with the intent of doing well.
This is something you younger creative types need to learn and the rest of us need not forget. You cannot do this alone. You can't. I write and draw Arsenic Lullaby...that does not make it a one man operation. Imagine a magician. The show he puts on does not begin and end with sawing a woman in half. Someone has to book the venue, someone has to build the box the woman is in, someone has to make the posters, someone has to make the costumes...all those things take a skill set, and the higher the level of skill for each, the better each of those things turn out. Maybe he can do one or several of those things...he can't do them all, and each task that someone else can do gives him more time to improve on what he is best at...AND that task is then being done by someone who excels at that specific task. Instead of one guy doing two things, splitting his concentration...there are two people each doing a single task with full effort, and getting better at them.
Unless that magician is the only magician on earth anyone will or has seen...he is in competition. and that means every element I described is in competition.
Arsenic Lullaby is able to compete and thrive at Comic-Con because of the people who make it happen, often times by shear force of will.
Also...that magician's ego will only get him so far.
Let's just go back to the actual con and actual me. Sure by mid morning Thursday my ego has swelled to that of Zeus and is bullet proof and laughs in the face of any competition, even that of Marvel and Sony themselves. It looks on them and laughs at their foolish hubris for trying to peddle their half assed washed up ideas in eye shot of my brilliant work.
But that's Thursday mid morning. Wednesday twenty minutes before the show opens when the reality of my indy book and ideas being in direct competition with any and every pop culture corporation that is in attendance, most of whom have properties with 50 years of brand recognition and millions of dollars to piss away...one can get to feeling like General Custer at the little big horn. Having people around you who are unshaken and believe in you and your work...that is something you can't put into words the value of.
So...a big thanks to Emma, John, Josh, and Christine. somewhat smaller thanks to Robin, Mitch, and the smallest thanks of all to Jared.
But do let us not forget that this very email you are getting and the website that it's generated from, the web store, and pretty much anything electronic that happens is due to the efforts of webmaster Joe. So...thanks to him to..I guess.
I don't have one single picture of the booth or any goings on...because I just didn't remember to, or have time. At this point I'd mock the exhibitors who did with a "HA...sure they posted plenty of pictures...becausee they had nothing else to do! LOL"...but Michael Kingston ( publisher of Headlocked ) always manages to post some pics and that guy's always busy. So..I dunno...I just didn't think to get any.
NOW THEN...thanks to all of you who came by the booth! I'll apologize here if I didn't get to talk much. Most of the show I was barely keeping up with sketches and signing books. If you had to wait in line I'll apologize now for that as well. This is what happens when you bring brilliant, imaginative, incalculably entertaining work and your only competition is watered down, used up corporate garbage, bwahahahahaaaa why'd they even bother showing up?!...or more accurately this is what happens when you have great help and great readers. I'll also apologize to my crew and any of you who I was short with or a dope to. This is a stressful show, there's a lot to try to keep straight, I'm usually working on no sleep and occasionally...after the instance...I'll think to myself "wtf did I say that like that? That wasn't cool". If you are a reader, I suppose it gives you a good story about how I'm every bit the weird jerk you hoped I'd be.
ANYHOO...I did a lot of sketches. A LOT...like well over 300, and so most of them were quick, but I did do one in particular I'd like to show off...This gentleman had a specific request and was able to leave his sketchbook with me for a day so I could do it after the show. That's really the best way if you're looking for something detailed.
He wanted Galactus, it was the theme of his sketchbook. I looked through it to see what other people had done ( which I shouldn't do because my competitive nature leads me to putting in more work than is expected). There were some really really good sketches of Galactus...so I drew...this
Galactus, His homework/ship, the Silver Surfer, and a city skyline...so suck on that the rest of you.
Two things of note about this. Before this gentleman came to me with the request, a different fan came up and gave me a gift, which is smiled upon. He gave me this cool sketchbook that he made featuring his own work as the cover!!!
...he does not have a name of website on it and I cannot remember his name ( hey...I mentioned I have a lot to keep track of at this show, and I'm not for sure he told me his name). So...if this is you, email me so I can give you a plug! I remember he had a friend with him...who did not have a gift for me...which is frowned upon. If that was you...I expect two gifts next year.
Gifts, people...bring them.
...
and so, I was able to use it to sketch out the Galactus illustration first on something besides the back of pizza deliver menu.
You'll notice the sketch is divided up into squares...this is an OLD old school technique for blowing something up. Normally I'd use a scanner and light table. But in a hotel room on a hard cover sketchbook that's not an option. So what you do is divide the sketch up. one line down the middle horizontal, on line down the middle vertical ...then repeat as you see fit....then you divide the larger paper the same way and seeing the position of things in relation to the divided paper of the sketch helps you draw them up onto the larger paper following the same position...that was probably confusing...here...
as long as I'm posting, heres' a handful of other sketches we got pictures of for some reason...
...that's all for now
OH! at the end of this month I'll be at 
https://www.burgcomics.com/?p=894
...you can get a whole issue of my comic Arsenic Lullaby on Comixology!
my own website with more of my work is here
https://www.arseniclullabies.com
you can find more of my work on Instagram here
https://www.instagram.com/arsenic_lullaby_official/
also now on webtoons!
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/arsenic-lullaby/list?title_no=316350&page=1
the tags list on Steemit is generated by code...which puts tags up there based on ONLY popularity of use. You will notice that #comics does not exist there...yet. So I ASK THAT YOU USE #comics ON EVERY COMMENT YOU LEAVE ON MY BLOGS