To date, most of the experiences I've had with cons have been attending them as fans.  In fact, prior to Connecticon, I'd only ever had a table at two other cons.  So unlike a lot of creators that have a fair share of cons under there belts I feel that I may not be the best person to judge just how successful a con is in regards to promotion is concerned (and seeing as how I dance a little metal jig every time I encounter the rare event of selling a single button, I certainly have no gauge as to how successful they are in regards to sales).  Still, given my limited knowledge of the con circuit, I feel comfortable saying that Connecticon is the con to go to for webcomic creators.

Here's why.  First off, not once did I have to go through my little speal about what a "webcomic" is.  Even those folks who told me that they don't actually read webcomics, still at least knew that they existed and what they were.  Now this might not seem like such a big deal, but trust me, for a me it was.  Not that I don't enjoy telling folks about what webcomics are and introducing them to this art form, but it's also kinda nice to be able to jump right into a discussion about them with almost everyone I met instead. 

Secondly, the staff at Connecticon treat webcomic creators incredibly well.  And not in a way that makes you feel like your "unique hits" count is tattooed on your forehead either.  Speaking as someone who has what can best be described as a modest sized audience, I never felt like I was "just lucky to be there", but rather that the staff was happy to have me there.  All in all, it was a truly wonderful convention experience for me, and short of an early apocalypse I will definitely be head back next year.

But before I go off and get ahead of myself by talking about next years con, let me share a few of the great experiences I had this year. 

Friday

The people that you meet...

For the most part I'm not a social person, so outside of gatherings my small group of friends I don't often head on out into the world and meet a lot of new people.  Which I think is one of the main reasons I enjoy cons so much, as it gives me the opportunity to meet a whole slew of new folks in a setting I feel comfortable with.  And that weekend was no exception, because aside from countless con goers, I also got to meet some really amazing creators during the very first day of the con.

Ben of Ansem Retort - Despite the fact I swore I'd be on top of getting at table for this con, I ended up making a mad dash at the last minute to send in my table fees at a time when I was pretty short on cash.  Which meant I could only scrape enough coin together to buy half a table.  Lucky for me this meant that I got to spend the entire con next to a young webcomic creator named Ben (who is better known online as Duke).

Despite the age gap between us (13 years in case you were wondering), Ben and I managed to get along quite well, and I'm thrilled to have made his acquaintance.  To be honest, I couldn't really imagine having better luck when it came to a con partner.  If you haven't checked it out Ben's stripe comic, please head on over there.  I haven't had a chance to completely read through his archives yet, but what I have read is damn funny stuff.

Jamal of Chugworth Academy - One of my neighbors at the con.  Jamal is the writer of Chugworth Academy.  As it turns out, the artist on the strip, Dave Cheung (who lives in Scotland), was unable to attend due to his flight being canceled thanks to a slight case of terrorism.  On top of which, most of the merchandise for the site was supposed to be coming with Dave.  So along with a few other snags, Jamal had kind of a late start the first day of the con.  Still, I think Jamal did a good job of helming the table and doing what he could to represent his comic (for which the site is currently down, so I linked to where you can at least read up on it a bit).

Dave of Paradox Lost - My other neighbor over the weekend.  I didn't get a much of a chance to talk with Dave over the weekend, but from the times that I did I quickly came to realize that he's what you'd call "good people".  Not only was there constant traffic milling around his table buying up print after print, but on more than one occasion I watched Dave take the time to check out other peoples work and give words of advice and encouragement.  Which as an artist myself, is something I really admire seeing other artists do.

Hawk of AppleGeeks - Speaking of admiration, one of the high points of the con for me was getting the chance to shake hands with none other than the artistic force behind one of my favorite webcomics, Hawk.  It was all I could do not to go into full force fanboy mode when he dropped by to say hi to Dave (btw, allow me to say thank you, Dave, for knowing Hawk and luring him so close to my table!).  During the brief time that I got to talk to him I was able to let him know how much of an inspiration his work was to me, and thank him for posting a colouring tutorial thread on the AG forum which helped me out a lot over the past year or so.  And as an added bonus I think I managed to say all of this without totally embarrassing myself, or coming off like a raving freak (I think).

I'd also like to mention that aside from being an incredible talent, Hawk is also a really cool guy to talk to.  Plus he helped put on hellova great Photo-shop panel later on that night (which you can read more about below).

Brooke (Otter) of A Girl and Her Fed - Now even though Hawk is one of the webcomic creators I've been dieing to meet to for a while now, the was one person I was looking forward to meeting face to face even more than him.  And that person is Brooke.

Not a picture of Brooke.

Brooke and I have been e-mailing back and forth for a while now (she even drops by the forum every once and a while too), and over that time I've come to think of her as a friend.  So it was a real kick for me to finally be able to put a face to the name (and contrary to popular belief, she is not a small furry semi-aquatic mammal...though she is kinda short).  And now that I've met her in person I can honestly say that Brooke is a truly lovely and funny person, who is a pleasure to hang out with.  She was also thoughtful enough to give me one of her amazing winged Speedy pins to give to my girlfriend (and of course thoughtless me didn't send her home with anything for Brown).

Photo-shop Panel...

Aside from getting to meet a lot cool folks, I was also able to slip away from the table long enough to attend a Photo-shop panel being presented by the aforementioned Hawk, Woody Hearn of GuComics (which was the very first webcomic I ever started reading), and Garth Graham of Comedity.  Now if you use Photo-shop, and you ever have the chance to attend a panel run by any one of these guys regarding that subject, DO IT!  I mean it.  These guys are, in my humble opinion, freakishly skilled when it comes to colouring.  Plus they also managed to make the whole thing extremely entertaining.  Oh yeah, and did I mention at the end of the panel they also had a draw for a freakin' Wacom tablet?!

(Sadly I don't have any pics of the panel, but Hawk does have a bunch on his flickr page, including one of me sitting dead center looking on...or the back of me anyway)

Granted the experience was kinda marred by one dumbass in attendance who apparently lives in a world where whipping (notice I didn't say tossing or lobbing) a dime at someone's face is a socially acceptable joke, but whatever.  I give Hawk a lot of credit for being able to recover from that incident with such class, and showing a lot of restraint in his reaction.

Saturday

Uber-Webcomic Panel / auction...

One of the big events on Saturday (at least for me anyway) was the Uber-Webcomic Panel and auction.  A few hours after the con started, all (or almost all) the webcomic creators gathered in the main hall to take turns coming up on stage and give a brief description of their work.  After which all the creator(s) then listed off what they were putting up for auction, and allowed the audience to bid, with all proceeds going to the Comic Book Legal Defense fund.  People were auctioning off prints, t-shirts, and other merchandise.  Others got a bit more creative and auctioned off guest spots in their comics, or in some cases dinner and / or drinks with the artists (some folks even stripped and danced there way to more and more money).

Now I'm not exactly fond of jumping up on a stage and taking to large crowds (I much prefer to talk one on one with folks when they come up to my table), but I decided I'd give the auction a shot anyway.  And even though I opted not to dance or disrobe on stage, I did put together a package of GT buttons, a t-shirt, a print, and a guest spot in the comic.  However, being a relative unknown I didn't expect the bidding to get very high, so I was pleasantly surprised when one of the people I met the day before quickly won the auction by almost instantly raising the bidding up to $40.  Which granted is a far cry from the $450 or so dollars that Mookie of Dominic Deegan brought in, but it's still about $39 more dollars than I figured I'd get.

Oh, and here's the fellow who was kind enough to put his hard earned cash towards Geek Tragedy auction.

Yes, you're seeing that right.  He is in fact dressed up as Waldo.  And yes, later on in the day I did in fact try to track him down at the con and spot him in amongst the crowd to give him his winnings.  I mean come on, how often am I going to get a chance to play a live action game of "Where's Waldo?" 

Dinner, beer, webcomics...

That night, after about twelve full hours of sitting at a table trying to pimp my site out to anyone who'd listen, I was dying to get away from the con for a while, and Brooke was good enough to invite me out to dinner and drinks with some of the other webcomic creators.  Not only did I get to spend a night laughing my ass off, and having the first (and what would prove to be only) decent meal of the entire con, I also got to meet some really cool people as well.

There was (and if I fuck up any of these names or leave people out I'm sorry) Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties (who I had the pleasure of meeting earlier in summer in Toronto), Christi Johnson of In the Puddle and her boyfriend (fiancé?), Darren Gendron of Dear Pirate and his wife (good lord do I ever need to start writing names down on my shirt or something).

I also got a chance to get to know James Hatton of In His Likeness (who is easily one of the funniest people I've ever met) and his wife Dani.  And of course Brooke, who from this point out shall forever be known by me as my ambassador or US beer. 

After dinner everyone headed on over to a party at the hotel, whereas Brooke, Jamal (who we met up with at the party) and myself all decided to head on up to the much quieter environment of the hotel pool and chill out for the rest of night.  And I have to say, after being around hundreds of people, and the constant hustle and bustle of a con, it was really nice just to sit back and quietly chat with a couple of really cool people for an hour or so.  Hell, we even managed to steer the conversation away from webcomics for a large part of the time.  Which, seeing as how we still had Sunday ahead of us, was a great way to cleanse the mental palette. Not to mention that fact that being able to hang out with people all night that could keep you laughing non-stop made for a stellar night in Connecticut.

Sunday

Okay, I'm mentally fried right now, so I'll finish off the last day of the con report (and do a thorough proff reading of what I've already wrote)  by Thursday.