Convention - Paper Street Comics

CONVENTION UPDATES - We will be attending SDCC 2010!!!

Convention Highlights

Evercon 2010: A great local show in the center of Wisconsin was a huge success for Paper Street as we sold a lot of books, were interviewed by the local press, and Victor was asked to run two classes for local teens interested in self-publishing and creative writing - July 20th, 2010 (details will be posted soon).

Edge-Con 2009: Paper Street was proud to be a part of the first ever Edge-Con in southern Wisconsin. The people in the town od Edgerton were great and we met some great artists and publishers.

Wizard World Chicago Highlights/Blog

2009: The official word from Paper Street Comics on the 2009 Chicago-Con front was that it thoroughly rocked! This was the first convention that we decided to show our materials in a proper manner and we went with an eight foot table in Artist's Alley. A TON of prep work was put into trying to make our small self-publishing company look as professional as possible and I think the time spent was worth it.

We managed to sell 90 "Pencilneck" trades, 74 issues of "The Elite" (#1 & 2), and 57 issues of "The Legend of Red" (#1). I cannot say "Thank you!" enough to those who have shown their support for these issues. Before this con I was worried that we would be passed over on a continuous basis (remember, I'm coming from the middle of Wisconsin and the closest LCS is over 30+ miles away - so there is very little interest in my passion for comics up here) but there was a lot of great supporters for the indie scene as a whole and Artist Alley was a happening spot on the floor.

Know that I will be working twice as hard to make sure we not only publish the new issues we have in the works, but also finish up the series we've started (because several of you made threats that I will be severely injured if I show up next year without new issues for Red or The Elite).

Throughout the course of the four days I managed to meet a ton of cool people who were nice enough to listen to my pitch on the three different properties that we were pushing (a big THANK YOU to those who purchased after our talk), was interviewed by four different people on camera (one was fully dressed as a vampire), and had a lot of great feedback on the books as a whole. The greatest thing that I could have heard was mentioned by four different people in them buying issues on Thursday and Friday, reading them on Saturday, and coming over Sunday to say that they would purchase whatever I write from now on - there could be no greater "high" than that as a writer.

All-in-all this was such a surreal experience as I have only been selling issues to family members and immediate friends. To hear strangers supporting my work and coming back to buy more issues was like a dream come true. I plan on hitting up a couple of other cons in the Midwest in order to keep the momentum going and San Diego, C2E2, and Chicago-con 2010 are all on the eventual horizon.

VC 09

2008: Unfortunately the summer was already booked with previous commitments and that forced Victor to forego attending any shows.

2007: Another awesome year in Chicago. Mark Millar was there and, as always, it was a blast to see him and hang out with a bunch of the creators that we all admire. Victor spent time with Mark and was introduced to several other artists, making it the best convention yet. John Cassaday was cool as hell, we also met Erik Larsen, Jai Nitz, the Cannon brothers, C.B. Cebulski, Sal Loria, and several members of the Millarworld forums (Jim, Will, Pat, & Nick). One of the days I was walking around with Mark and Erik and we bumped into Rob Liefeld, giving way for the following picture to be taken. As mentioned – the best convention yet.

2006: The year where Victor had nothing to promote and no one to hang out with… Actually, a lot of shopping was done and some contacts were made, but Paper Street wasn’t ready to start promoting Pencilneck without at least two issues in the can.

2005: This would have been a bummer of a convention because Mark Millar wasn't able to attend (Get well soon man!). However, the show as a whole was a blast because of the guys from Across the Pond Studios. Stephan and his posse were there in full effect with CBG versions of "Armor X" and "Iron Ghost". After the show we had an awesome time at a side BBQ held at a friend’s house in Chicago and at the Hyatt bar.

2004: During one night at the 2003 convention Victor partied with the stars of the industry and realized that one is never going to impact and reach the real people if they are behind a booth at a convention meeting several hundred in line. A decision was made to use the money Victor had saved to secure a room at the Hyatt for the 2004 show.

It was a year fetching more pleasure than business. Every night was used to socialize with some really great people, including fans, professionals and other independent creators. Over the course of three nights, hundreds of dollars were spent entertaining and very little sleep was had. It was definitely worth it because Mr. Millar was there in full-force and we had a blast talking about all sorts of madness.

2003: Victor took a break from comics and went back to film and video editing after Pencilneck went flat. He bought a new computer to go with his camera and used them to create some of the videos that can be found on this website. These videos were then entered in Wizard’s Video Competition. The reasoning was that if Zeb could win this competition and get a gig writing for Spiderman, then why couldn’t Victor. However, there were not many people in the Chicago-land region that were willing to act, so his video-shorts were created using other’s work (i.e. Lord of the Rings/Dumb and Dumber video clip, etc.), which was not what Wizard was looking for in a finished piece. Check out these works in Victor's Video Gallery and let us know your opinion on them.

During the event Victor handed out DVDs of his work at every chance. While it didn’t lead to any big time studio work, Victor was hired on to make videos for several weddings. The key moment to this convention for Victor was attending the VIP event for Wizard and meeting his favorite writer, Mark Millar. It was there that he was invited to hang out and meet & greet others at the Hyatt. Good times.

2002: This was Victor's first attempt at breaking into the comic book industry. Four months before the convention he learned how to make a comic by reading a book from the library and thought that one could be rushed out before the show. It was an expensive lesson to learn. The script and idea were rushed and only one artist was available, so many (too many) compromises were made. The idea was to start the story with issue #3 and since the story was not called "Star Wars", it too did not go over so well.

All in all the experience was worth it. A big THANK YOU goes out to Ron of Apocalypse Comics for helping Victor with the production process and for providing booth space to sell issues. Most of the time at the convention was used exploring the floor, passing out portfolios and chatting with editors, artists, and other writers. However, we did manage to sell some issues throughout the event.