Amazing Arizona Comic Con Print

[image src="http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/phoenix_button.png" align="right" border="image_border" link="#http://thomz.com/blogall/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/phoenix_final_pre.png" alt="" title="" lightbox="false" ] I'm attending Amazing Arizona Comic-Con in Phoenix next weekend. I've never been before, and I'm really looking forward to going.

As is my tradition, I did a limited edition print of my characters taking in the local sites. Click to enlarge it.

Freelancing: Being Your Own Travel Agent

As a cartoonist, I spend a lot of time as my own travel agent. Conventions are part of my business, but that means managing hotels and airfares and rental cars. Some cons bring me in, and that’s wonderful. But not all of them do. And you have to do the math:

CON PROFITS - (TRAVEL EXPENSES + HOTEL EXPENSES) = ACTUAL PROFIT

It’s in your best interest to get your expenses down.

When I fly, I fly almost exclusively Southwest. First, bags fly free and I have to bring a lot of stuff to sell. Second, you can rebook your ticket with no penalties past the change in cost. That’s good for when you want to book something but leave the possibility of changing your mind. If I need to cancel flying to Convention X but I know I’ll be going to Convention Y later, I can take the cost of that first ticket and put it towards the second.

Most of the flights have layovers, which I know not everyone likes. They don’t bother me, and an extra three hours of travel time to save $200 seem worth it, especially when I can work decently in airports.

The math here is complicated. How many people are going? How much stock do you have to bring? Is it driving distance? What’s the cost of gas right now? For me, being in Cleveland, Chicago and New York are definitely driving shows. DragonCon in Atlanta is the far end of my travel time, but I usually go with Amy, which means weighing two plane tickets and bringing freight against a rental car and gas prices. Usually those numbers works in favor of the driving.

Selecting an “official” airline also means you’ll rack up some Frequent Flier miles. (What? You’re not a member of a Frequent Flyer club? Join now!) I usually manage to get a free flight every year or year and a half through my Southwest Rapid Rewards account. [1. Super pro-tip: Here in Ohio we have Giant Eagle, which allows you to buy gift cards and accrue rewards for discount fuel purchases. So, at it's peak, you can buy a $50 Southwest gift card and save 20¢ a gallon on gas. If you know you're going to spend $400 on a flight, this way you'll at least save $1.60 per gallon on your next fill-up. I did this with Best Buy cards to get my new iPad, and I've been driving free gas for the last few weeks. If somewhere near you has a similar program, take advantage of it]

When possible, I book my rooms through Hotels.com. Again, picking a dance partner here has some advantages. After every ten stays, you get a free night, and I’ve used that more than a few times. Cancellations are often free, and they have a price matching program where if you see a better price, you can call and they’ll match that. It can be a hassle to monitor that stuff, but I just dropped my DragonCon hotel down $150 doing it, so it’s worth it.

You may need to stay in the con hotel, so that locks out some choices. And there are places like Comic-Con in San Diego where you’re locked into the Hoteloween system. But not every show has the same nighttime social needs. And maybe you know you’re going to spend your nights in the hotel drawing commissions. So you can look to hotels that are a little farther off-site.

For DragonCon, we stay at a hotel half an hour away. Driving back and forth isn't as easy as walking from the hotel, but for one night at a con hotel we can cover our entire stay at the off-site hotel. And since every dollar I don’t spend on expenses is a dollar profit, it’s the difference between slightly better than breaking even and turning a profit. Add to that free wifi and free breakfast at this hotel, and there’s no question which is better for us.

I rent a fair number of cars, too. You don’t need them for every show, especially if you fly in, but if you’re going to drive to Charlotte, you might want to put those miles on someone else’s car, especially if it has a bigger trunk.

Here I haven’t found a ton of benefit to the frequent renter programs. I am a member of Hertz’s which is free, and allowed me to set myself up as a business. That means I don’t have to pay for extra drivers on the rental if they’re driving for my business. And I do get some free days of rental or free upgrades every now and then.

But, when I’m renting in a convention city, I swear by AutoSlash.com. With AutoSlash, you make your reservation and then they continually price the best offers and send you emails to change. So, if you book a one week rental for $200 at Hertz and then Enterprise offers a lower rate, AutoSlash alerts you and by replying to the email, you switch. Pretty cool!

AutoSlash does great with airport-based rentals, less so with suburban locations.

Past all that, I recommend taking advantage of free cancellation policies. If you want to go to Convention X, book your room, grab your car, as long as you can cancel them without penalty. I booked my MegaCon room a year out this year. You'll get the best prices, and the chance for better prices, that way. Far better than waiting until a couple of weeks before and lamenting the high prices and few choices you have.

More time means more options and better prices. And better prices mean lower expenses!

Akron Comicon 2014

This past weekend was the Akron Comicon. They were gracious enough to have me as a guest for a second year, and man I just really like that how. It's a smaller show, vaguely reminiscent of the old Mid-Ohio-Con from it's hotel days. But it manages a killer guest list (including Gerry Conway, Graham Nolan, Tom Batiuk and more) in an environment where everyone is still accessible. It's so engaging that I actually went to a panel I wasn't on, the Gerry Conway one. I can't remember the last time I actually attended a panel. Traffic was good, attendees were awesome, and the show really takes care of its guests. The Quaker Square area of Akron is a lot of fun to hang out in, too.

Among the many things that happened there this show was that I got to see someone take a commission I did of Spike playing guitar from a show last year and put it on their actual base guitar. There were an amazing number of costumed attendees for a smaller show. And I got to reconnect with old friends, like some of the crew of the U.S.S. Lagrange, as well as spend more time with greats like José Delbo, who taught at Kubert. Sadly, I never had José as a teacher, but it was so cool discussing tools and techniques with him.

And I got to spend the show next to Paul Storrie, who I don't get to see enough of. I'm glad he made it out for the show. It's something you should think about doing next year, too!

Happy Halloween!

I'm down at Wizard World Columbus dressed as Rick Castle for the convention. Come on down and see me if you can. And whatever you do, have a great Halloween!

New York Comic-Con Wrap-up

New York Comic-Con was last weekend and it remains one of my favorite shows. The separate artist alley works really well for me (your mileage may vary, of course) so sales were good and I got to meet a lot of fans old and new. I think NYC might be my biggest sketching/original art show. Of course, at four days long, that may skew some results. I think I also did the most "networking", for lack of a better term. I had more discussions that could result in actual work than I've had in a while. Not that any of them will materialize, it's very much throwing stones in a pond and watching the ripples. But not every show has such a pond.

I did a kids' drawing panel on Saturday that went really well. I like that NYCC remembers to have stuff for the younger set. I didn't see any panels and barely got onto the main floor. Things were really rocking in the Artist Alley.

The best part, as usual, is hanging out with friends. In particular, I got to spend a ton of time chatting with Andy Price, Pony artist, Trek fan and fellow Kubie. After four days, we didn't kill each other, so I consider that a friendship made.

Plus, I just love New York. There's so much to the city and you can have exactly the experience you'd like. It scales to your expectations. I really have to go visit one of these non-con times.

I have to shout out to Mike Negin and his con crew. They're aces, and take really good care of us artists.

If you'd like to hear more about this, New York Comic-Con was the subject of the latest episode of Comics, Assembled! as well.

Backlog: The Cincinnati Comic Expo

I've got a brief break between conventions where I can catch up on my adventures at other conventions. A few weeks back, I was at the Cincinnati Comic Expo. I've been lucky enough to have been a guest of this show from the start, and it's great to see a show grow so well and so right. From a one day show to a three day event, it built slowly rather than having it's reach exceed its grasp. I got the chance to spend lots of time with my good friend Paul Storrie, have a fantastic dinner with Marv Wolfman, and hang out with friends old and new. Sales were good, which always makes things better, and the show took great care of me.

New York Comic-Con 2014 sketch roundup

I had an absolutely amazing time at New York Comic-Con this past weekend. Big thanks to Mike Negin and his incredible staff of volunteers. I'll write more later, of course, but I wanted to share my commissions from the show. Enjoy!

That NY/NJ State of Mind

So, this is too long for a tweet and I had to share. I drove to New York for New York Comic Con today, because, you know, I'm a man of the people. And, as I'm waiting in the line of cars to enter the Lincoln Tunnel, I see some guy on a motorcycle clearly angry at a van he's next to. Maybe the van didn't let him merge in. I can tell you having just gone through that gauntlet, the zipper concept of "one side goes and then the other" is lost on these commuters.

Anyway, the motorcyclist pounds the van a couple of times. And then the van driver gets out, smacks the guy in the helmet, and drags him and his motorcycle into the median and waves down a cop.

What happened after that, I don't know. The traffic opened up and I went through the tunnel. But out of all the New York things I've seen, that may have been the New Yorkiest.

My Disney-Marvel Team-Ups, Infinity Style

I've been fascinated by the Disney Infinity figures, not because I play the game but because those designs are just so freakin' cool. (Please, Disney, put out an art book of these designs!) They do a remarkable job of scaling every character to a similar shape and style so that they can all work in the same universe. So, I got it in my head that I wanted to draw some in that style, with a little bit of a my style thrown in. Along the same time, I started thinking of Disney/Marvel pairings that were just too good not to draw. And hence we have these drawings.

I'll be selling the originals of these along with one digital color print. I'll have them at New York Comic-Con, and then they'll be available on my site and at other shows (like Wizard Columbus and Akron Comicon).

I don't think I'm done with these, either. I have some other ideas for pairings that are in my head.

Two Weekends, Two Appearances

This weekend I'll be at Nyancon in Mentor, Ohio, talking writing and drawing My Little Pony and Love and Capes among other things. I don't get to do a lot of shows that are this local, so I'm looking forward to it. Then, next week, I'll be in New York City for the aptly-named New York Comic Con. I donated a hand-colored classic Wonder Woman piece to the charity auction, which you may notice has become the new header for the website, as well as doing a kids' drawing panel. And, of course, the aforementioned talking writing and drawing My Little Pony and Love and Capes. I seem to do that a lot.