INSIDE WONDERCON, THROUGH THE EYES OF THE SMALL PRESS

[MattBrady]

You see them at every convention – the bright-eyed small press creators with boundless energy, optimism and enthusiasm. Bryan Mero of Red Machine Comics (creators of Spirit Knight) is one such small press creator, and he kept a diary for us at last week’s WonderCon in San Francisco.

by Bryan Mero

Friday:

Setup was quick and easy. We need to find some more give-a-ways especially with our company or comic book title. Everyone we have met is very nice and helpful. When they hear that this our first Con they smile and say, “Just wait for Saturday.”

Friday was a bit slow in terms of traffic but it helped warm us up. Someone would come and ask what our comic is about and we end up tripping over our own words. With neither Troy (Gustafson), nor myself being a salesman type we struggled. But by the end of the day we were thinking of new ways to explain it and our philosophy.

The end of day one couldn’t have come too soon. We needed to strategize and talk about what makes our comic unique amongst all the others. We gave ourselves a break by watching Free Enterprise the movie and went back to the hotel for chips, cookies and Vanilla Coke. We talked about how to talk to people without being pushy and what the story really means to us and our goals in the future. It was a bit hard to sleep…I kept thinking about new things to say.

Saturday:

‘Busy’ on Saturday is hardly the word. The Moscone Center was packed from 10am until 7pm. After only selling 12 issues - with a free t-shirt per issue – on Friday, we were hoping to double that for Saturday. We didn’t realize our goal would be accomplished by noon and a repeating theme kept arising.

Our Spirit Knight title brought quite a few curious people by but it was a certain give-a-way that made us stand out from the rest of the crowd. Since Troy and I are Christians we wanted to write a comic that both Christians and the mainstream could enjoy without being cheesy or preachy. And since our character carries a hotel Bible we thought a creative thing to do was to have mocked up hotel Bibles on the table. I contacted Bibles.org and they ended up sending my 3 cases of free Bibles, which translates to somewhere over 70 Bibles. So I just put a sign up ‘Take One’ at the end of the table. People would walk by the table looking at our t-shirt, art, etc. and finally notice the Bibles and literally almost trip over themselves. We also saw plenty of double-takes and quizzical looks on people’s faces.

Once they figured that our comic was ‘spiritual’ in nature they would stop and come back specifically to talk about it. We met all types of people from Pastors of local churches to Christians that have traveled from across the state or across the country to attend. One comment repeated itself, “Where are the rest of the Christian comic publishers?” Of course I can’t answer for them. It is quite a commitment to be at these conventions. All I could tell them was that we are giving it our best shot and couldn’t think of a better place to be to launch our new series and new company.

Troy went and talked to Darth Maul (Ray Park) and gave him a free t-shirt. We are hoping he wears it sometime and our website gets noticed. The day was long and we were again exhausted. We sold almost fifty copies on Saturday and felt pretty good about being equals to our Small Press neighbors in our row. National Press Comics was on our left and the guys there were great to talk to, get advice and encourage our venture. Konsequential Studios was on the other side and they were very nice. Greg from Echo-3 checked in on us from the beginning, since his comics are spiritual in nature also, and made sure we were doing well throughout the day.

With the day closing it felt great to sell so many and make so many contacts. We jammed out of the Con and grabbed a bite to eat before the costume contest and Star Wars fan film festival. Both contests were great but it was a bit too late to stay out.

Sunday:

The last day of the Con had quite a few less people. Troy and I talked to Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca of Star Wars) for a good 10-15 minutes before they opened the doors. What a great guy! We were a kind of grateful to have less people since we were tired and wanted a tape recorder to say our story premise over and over.

The Bibles kept being distributed one by one off the table. We had cleared out two boxes worth and were ready for them all to be gone by the end of the day. At around 1pm a reporter from a new online magazine called ‘Pulp Magazine’ stopped at the table. He told me specifically that he was looking for something different and when he saw the Bible give-a-way he knew this was the story he was looking for. Not a Christian himself, he got hooked on the comic book version of the Left Behind series. He brought out the tape recorder and took some pictures and we just talked about our goals and the possibility of our genre emerging to the Christian and mainstream media. That was a fun interview and I can’t wait to see it online.

5pm came quickly and we packed up our things and had to grab the van for loading. Next time we will pack up early. The waiting for loading our stuff was close to an hour. By the time we got out of there we are tired and grumpy and ready to go home, see our families and sleep in our own bed.

Overall:

Overall it was a great experience. We sold over 80 copies of Spirit Knight and gave away over 50 Bibles. I doubt you can buy that type of advertising in any magazine with such impact. Even though I know our spiritual status might have turned some people off, the amount of people who stopped had positive things to say to us. We also had people wanting to donate extra money on top of their purchase. That was a great blessing to us. We made enough money to just cover the table. But most of all we made a lot of contacts and friends in the industry. I can’t wait for next year…we should have four issues ready and hopefully a bigger following. We are definitely going to have t-shirts and more Bible to give away plus other things like free buttons, magnets and more. Free stuff can really make your table popular and makes for good advertising.

WonderCon 2005 was very, very good to us!!

For more information on Spirit Knight, check out http://www.spirit-knight.com

[GeorgeG]

Sounds like a good experience.

Can I suggest a freebie? How about doing a bookmark in the form of one of those "Do Not Disturb" signs people use at hotels? Put your logo on it and whatever else, to keep that hotel theme going.

[Kirk Kushin]

Good luck with your project - it's really cool seeing a Christian project out there. Keep at it - going to cons is really important to the promotion of your project. Sn Diego is a must.

[BradE]

dime store comics for dime store christians

[skeletorjr]

One of the most meaningless insults I've ever read. Congrats.

[innocentboy]

big up.

[adwomack]

Originally posted by BradE
dime store comics for dime store christians

I have no clue what that means...... I'm guessing if you are trying to insult someone, then you at least better make it where someone could understand the insult.

No, wait, I've got a better idea, DON"T DO IT.

[Trevor Cates]

It does my heart good to see a Christian company standing up for what they believe.

Good thinking with the Bibles, I bet no one at a con has ever thought of that one before.

[mckracken]

wow, these two kids had so much energy! The bible give-a-way was a great Idea, I wish I had thought of it!!

I have been doing these shows from 1992 to 1999 promoting my line of small press comics... it doenst get any easier let me tell you.

wonderful to meet you two at the show, I have an awesome picture of the two of you guys from Sunday around 5pm... thank you for the "duck" Spirit Knight cover parody in my little sketchbook, you rock and I am sorry I had to stop your drawing before it was finished but security was closing in on me!!!

I attended the show as "a PRO" with a guest on Saturday, these two guys I had to meet them but did not buy their book till I returned sunday (late, like 3pm) I didnt spend much time at the show Sunday either but I did plunk down my deniro$ for their book... good stuff (and a free tee-shirt too???? Who the heck does THAT in THIS economy????? NOBODY else, thats who!!!!)

it was a great show... great pics too. they will soon be up at animationmountain.com/alan under:
WONDERCON 05 PICS <<<--link

currently theres nothing there but very soon... Ive been busy, extremely busy! phew... long weekend to boot... good show!

-Phil

[Klugarsh]

Hey Bryan, I also had a great time talking to you at the con. Unfortunately I learned a terrible lesson (which should have been so very obvious); Do Not use an unfamiliar camera on a job. None of the shots I took of you were visible.

I'm still in the process of transcribing three days worth of tape -all riddled with the din of the convention floor- and I came to your site for more inspiration, finding your link to this.

Thank you for your time, and conversation.

I'm thrilled the convention went so well for you. You're great guys.

-Der Klug