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Josh Crawley
by Josh Crawley
While many people may have heard about the new Chicago Comics as well as entertainment Expo (C2E2), many people didn’t understand there was a retailer summit beforehand. What is a retailer summit, you ask? direct Market retailers (basically non-newsstand comic book sellers) get together as well as listen to publishers as well as go to retailer workshops that ideally assist us to assist you better. They’re likewise a great deal much better when they coincide with a convention available to the public, however more on that later.
Wednesday evening after work I went down to Chicago (Brook drove me down because of my cars and truck having some problems that makes it not-too suitable for long travel). The retailer summit was being held primarily at the Sheraton Towers in downtown Chicago, so that’s where I got my room. The events kicked off with beer & wine paid for by Dark equine at a satisfy & greet with publisher Mike Richardson as well as the notorious Jim Shooter. I didn’t really satisfy nor greet either of them, however after paying $11.99 (yes, really!) for a gin & tonic (since I didn’t understand about the free drinks) I satisfied up with my pal Zack. I satisfied Zack back in August at Wizard world provides Chicago Comic Con. He composes some excellent comics (check out !) as well as works for a retailer out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Zack then introduced me to his bosses, other half & other half superduo Cameron as well as Christina. After completing our drinks, we were all welcome to view a preview of the new Kick-Ass movie. That quite much put the cap on Wednesday night, since Thursday was chock-full of stuff-to-do!
And in general rebellious fashion, I did not inspect my new phone at the theater. I can turn it off, thank-you-very-much.
Thursday was a day full of listening to publishers plans, eating, a workshop (I went to the one aimed at making stores more youngster friendly), as well as numerous focus groups with publishers that were usually question-and-answer sessions, though sometimes publishing plans as well as Q&A had to be dropped for time. One publisher’s focus group was aimed just at retailers who don’t have websites, nor gain access to to the distributor’s website, it seemed. It would have been more productive buying an over-priced drink instead of wasting that time, however I didn’t feel like buying an over-priced drink. having went to all the groups as well as meals, I’d spent 8 a.m. up until 9 p.m. working. After that, I rode with my good friends (Ben Tiede had shown up by then, in addition to a couple other people whose names I forgot; sorry!) to a celebration at Challengers Comics + Conversation. It was excellent being able to walk into a comic book store, walk to the far side of the store, as well as pull an ice-cold Miller Lite out of a giant cooler as well as hang out with excellent good friends like will Pfeifer. Chris Neseman had desired us to go drink a few more places, however as occurs sometimes, plans didn’t pan out.
After heading back to the hotel, I bumped into Christopher Shy, as well as he introduced me to Leah (who I share some other shared good friends with). I had organized on drinking a bit bit more, however ended up heading back to my space as well as not being able to discover anything great on the hotel space cable.
When I woke up the next morning, I inspected out, got my breakfast, as well as took the shuttle to the McCormick convention center. one of the advantages of these summits is that we usually get free entrance to the “adjoining” convention. likewise nice is that we got to get in for the three expert hours preceding the shows opening to the general public. I took the time to assist my good friends set up their tables in artist alley (Steve Bryant, Jim & Mike Heffron), as well as I likewise grabbed a few minutes to satisfy Phil Hester face-to-face after months of emails as well as tweets back as well as forth. He was sharing a table with his often-times inker Ande Parks, who’s likewise a truly great guy, too. I’d like to drink with Ande sometime (I seem to recall Phil stating he doesn’t drink; I might be wrong).
I missed some signing times I wished to make with people on Friday during the second retailer workshop I went to, as well as that would be my one complaint: don’t hold workshops during the convention. It kills networking time. Anyway, after that workshop, I ultimately made it back to the top Cow booth for about the third time, where I got to satisfy Ron Marz face-to-face after months of tweets back as well as forth. I likewise got to satisfy Nelson Blake II, who’s likewise truly great. We chatted for a bit, as well as sadly, I wasn’t able to hang out with them afterward as I had to head back to Madison promptly after the con floor closed Friday evening. In all fairness, it wasfor some friends’ wedding event on Saturday, so it wasn’t as unfortunate as I may have made it seem.
(Oh, as well as right before making my method to the top Cow booth, I stopped by Tim Seeley as well as Daniel Leister‘s artist alley table. I got a Zartan sketch from Tim for my roommate.)
And that’s about the degree of a retailer summit. For the rest of the C2E2 convention, I kept inspecting my Twitter account for announcements as well as general tomfoolery.
While most people can’t go to a retailer summit, the C2E2 show was a excellent Chicago convention in Chicago you can go to, as well as I look ahead to costs more time with good friends new as well as old next year (and perhaps I’ll see you there), particularly since I understand a few of them owe me some drinks!
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of catastrophe of Westfield Comics, not to be confused with Josh Crawley, the keyboardist for Everclear.
josh@westfieldcomics.com
Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717