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!

Color is Part of Storytelling

I came upon this over at Comicbookmovie.com… [blockquote sub_text="James Gunn" blockquote_border="border_top_bottom"] I believe color is a part of what made Guardians successful. When so many huge, spectacle films have the beige color palette of Saw, the brain becomes thirsty for color. We were that Technicolor pitcher of water at the edge of the summer desert. [/blockquote]

I can't say how important I think this is. One of the things I really liked about the first Pirates of the Caribbean was it's warm gold and orange palette and how different it was than anything else out there. The next movie went to that more common desaturated blue and green and was a lot less fun and visually interesting. Same with the third one.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, one and all! While you're enjoying your holiday, I hope you also enjoy this year's Christmas Card!

Small Business Saturday Sale

I'm running a Small Business Saturday sale, all the way through Cyber Monday. You can check it out here!

A Christmas Co-inkie-dink

Every year I do a Christmas Card. It started back when I was in art school, and it's taken off to the point where its actually a pretty daunting task to do these days. There are people who tell me they have kept all the ones I've done and look forward to the new year's. It can be a bit of pressure. So, I was in Target looking to see what cards were out there in hopes of inspiration and I found this one.

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Which obviously reminded me of this one I did in 2011.

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These kinds of parallel development happen, I know. How many volcano movies can Hollywood make in one year? I like to think this validates a good idea I had a years ago. And props to this artist for actually drawing the reindeer.

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!

Big Damn Hero Six

I'm looking forward to checking out Big Hero Six. I hear great things about it, and it's a great way to blend Disney and Marvel. Every commercial so far has looked great. Amy pointed out a tweet from Nicole Campos reading: I'm not the only one who keeps saying "Big Damn Hero 6" by mistake, right?  Then Amy said, "You should totally make that happen." And she was right.

So, I present to you Big Damn Hero Six. One of these days I might make a print of it.

My Friend Jeremy

Jeremy Dale died on Monday night, way way too soon. He was only 34, and he had a lot more stories to tell and pages to draw. I met him and his wife Kelly at Heroescon years ago. At least I think I did. They’re those kind of people that, once they were in your life, it seemed like they were always there. We went out to dinner one night, and then kept going so many nights after.

We shared a ton of hotels over the years, and did show after show. We even split a studio for a week one time before DragonCon, when he and Kelly were kind enough to put me between shows. We both loved The Last Starfighter and 1776. 

It still doesn't seem real that he’s gone. I can’t imagine what the next MegaCon or DragonCon will feel like without him there. And I can’t imagine what it’s like for Kelly. She and Jeremy were so close that you rarely saw or mentioned one without the other.

I lettered his Skyward book and if nothing else, I’m glad that he finished his first piece of that story and that I got to be part of that. There’s still so much left untold, and it doesn’t make the loss any less, but it’s good to know that there’s a complete piece of Skyward out there for people to enjoy. I think he would have liked that.

One of my favorite moments with him was when we drove back from FanExpo. Jeremy and Kelly flew into Buffalo (because it was cheaper than flying to Toronto) and I picked them up on my drive so that we could cross the border and bring them back. He taught me that mentioning you worked on G.I. Joe sometimes makes those crossings easier, since so many people working now grew up on those books and toys. Especially helpful since Kelly famously can’t cross the border without looking suspicious.

That Sunday night after the show and back in Buffalo, we all went out to dinner even con-tired as we were. We weren’t ready for the trip to end.  We went to one of the places that takes credit for inventing Buffalo wings. Jeremy and I got some barbecue wings that were quite tasty, but barely spicier than ketchup. Kelly had one and reacted like the wing was one you had to sign a waiver before you ate. It was like something out of a sitcom, which was pretty appropriate because that seemed to be the relationship that Jeremy and Kelly had.

That’s what I’ll remember more than anything: laughing so long and so hard with my friend.

It’s tempting to try to find some meaning or lesson from these tragedies. I don’t know that there is one. Mostly it just hurts. But it does make me conscious of the fact that we don’t know how long we have to tell our stories or enjoy our friends, and we should do as much of that as we can.

That and, as my friend Eugene told me a few years ago when Dwayne McDuffie died, take more pictures with your friends. You may not like the way you look, your hair may be messy and you need to lose a few pounds, but it doesn’t matter. You won’t regret it. I went back through my photos and I don’t have enough of those.

The photo at the top of this is Jeremy photobombing me while we were at the Georgia Aquarium at DragonCon and I was trying to take a photo I could use for my next author picture. When I saw the photos, I was actually a little irritated that he did that.

Now I’m so glad he did.

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!

Disney Art Drop Wrap-Up

I did my last Disney art drops on Sunday. I'd had a couple days where I didn't get to place any, so I released my Jack Skellington, Up, and Frozen pieces all on Sunday. I found a particularly good hiding space for the Frozen one, behind the Nikon Picture Spot sign by the carousel in Fantasy Land. I was actually afraid no one would find it. In one of those moments of utter perfection, a young girl did right before she got to meet Anna and Elsa. Her mother emailed me about it (since I helpfully included my email and Twitter on the note inside) and it was just the sweetest thing ever. I'm so glad the art went to someone who so perfectly was the target audience.

It's the only feedback I've received, so far, but I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Doing these were so much fun and, whenever I can, I'll continue to do so. It just makes the Disney experience so much more, well, Disney.