SPX, Day 2

I wound up going back to SPX for a second day, mostly to see some of the seminars, though I DID end up buying a few more books, too. (Who could have predicted THAT?) With a better idea of how to get there, the ride was much easier and quicker this time.

It was weird watching these seminars. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m on about the same rung of the comics industry ladder as many of the exhibitors at SPX (at least a few rungs lower than a good many of them, too) … but I’m also a good deal older. And my life experience has been in publishing … game publishing rather than comic, but A LOT of the lessons are the same PARTICULARLY since both are niche, fan-driven markets. So while they have a lot of comics-specific experience I don’t, I have a lot of practical publication and marketing and business-planning experience they don’t.

What made it weird was that so much of the talk on the panels swerved into the areas that I had some (or even A LOT) of experience in. So I was sitting in the audience wanting to get up and tell these accomplished cartoonists that they didn’t know what they were talking about … or that they were confusing art and commerce … or that they needed to plan for the market that EXISTS, not the one that they WISH existed. But mostly I sat in the audience and just bit my tongue.

The BEST of the seminars was the first one about “Time-Constrained Comics” … events and challenges like the 24-Hour Comic or Hourly Comic Day or other styles of testing one’s creative abilities. The panelists were a typical cross-section of cartoonists (which is to say that there was 1 charismatic guy, 1 ordinary guy, 2 painfully shy/socially awkward guys, and 1 Belgian that no one could understand) and they ALL had interesting experiences with time-constrained comics. The conversation focused a little too much on discussion of “journal comics,” but it never ceased to be interesting.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my SPX experience … and I’m giving serious thought to getting a table there next year. At the very least, I’m sure I’ll go back again as an attendee as often as I can.