Heavy Traffic

I have exhibited at a few Comic Conventions in the past decade but most have been in San Francisco, where I live, and all have been in California. When exhibiting out of town (so far, only at COMIC CON) there has always been a VAN to load my stuff into (driven by Rhode). But this weekend, for the first time, I will be exhibiting out of state, at EMERALD CITY CON in Seattle, so I had to pack my books for a FLIGHT, which I have never done before. My thinking was that making the kit as portable as possible would be the way to go, as the easier it is to take the show on the road, the more likely I will be to do it again in future… and I like that idea.

I recently bought a rolling trunk for away-teams to long shows out of town (such as Comic Con) but I don’t really sell much in two-day shows so, while I was tempted to use my new trunk for this trip, I opted for a roll-aboard carry-on bag stuffed full of my wares. This thing is designed to carry about 8 pounds of socks and undies but at the moment it is jammed with about 55 pounds of books and is definitely the heaviest carry-on bag of all time.

Other than the rolling brick, I have a small duffel bag and a folio-case containing my new vinyl BANNERS. It is strange that I have never made these before. Rhode and I usually hand-make the booth-decorations for each show, but having a more portable and durable display will be key from now on.. To make my kit complete, I still need to buy some lightweight banner-STANDS for those shows that do not provide a backboard. In the past, I have used an EASEL for this purpose but they are bulky and have a huge footprint that is inconvenient in cramped booth spaces.

If you are in Seattle this weekend (March 13/14) come by the EMERALD CITY con where I will be sharing a booth with TED MATHOT and DEREK THOMPSON. It would be nice to find out that I needed to pack more stuff to sell. Selling out would be a GOOD problem to have.