I’m involved with the Ottawa Comic Jam; I’m a regular participant and one of the Facebook group admins. So, when Suzanne, our admin, needed someone to fill in for her at her booth at the Ottawa Maker Faire this past Sunday, I was able and available to take over for a day.
The Faire was free, so I went on the Saturday to check out the exhibits and to see the location and setup. Having never “done” a booth before (unless you count being an elections official for a day), I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I’m introverted and apprehensive about showing my work; I’m nowhere near the level of artist several other Jammers are! But, Sue believed in me, so I figured I could give it a shot.
Now, I was told I could show “my sketchbook,” and I could “sell” a few things, so that got the ball rolling. I brought with me:
- a sketchbook with an hourly comic from this past February
- my Nexus 7 loaded with various art pieces I’ve been doing (including several Hawkeye Initiative pics)
- some Tao of Geek merchandise I’ve had hanging around (notably buttons and dice)
- a button press
My primary responsibility, of course, was to promote the Jam and hand out pamphlets for comic jams and making mini comics, but why not try to be a showoff? Suze was going to be at the table with me, so I wouldn’t get too lonely or overwhelmed. Besides, she’d be selling a few small comics of her own, so we could be attention whores together.
And so began my experience behind the table. What happened?
Talking. Oh my word, the talking. LOTS of people approaching the table, wondering what the Jam was about. Or they were just attracted to the word “comic.” It was actually pretty cool, meeting lots of people, handing out lots of pamphlets and doing lots of explanations. But seven hours of talking, especially over the noise (it was LOUD), and I was fairly hoarse for the rest of the day.
What was interesting is that I didn’t have a spiel prepared or anything, but I just managed to fall into one. Practice makes perfect!
I also talked to a fair number of people I know. Interestingly, most of them were from my university days. I guess it makes sense; the Faire had a lot of tech and engineering, and I majored in computer science. We were heading one of the few art-y booths in the Faire.
Art. People were impressed with the hourly comics (especially all those people who have cats – my first hourly comic features the cat staring at me at 6am), and ESPECIALLY the slideshow of art. A few people recognized the Hawkeye pics. A lot of people liked seeing K-9 pop up. One little girl liked watching the slideshow for when Beast showed up (she waited to see him one more time before leaving the table!).
The one confusing thing was people asking me if all the mini comics were my work. That, too, got into a spiel; the mini comics were Suzanne’s work, the comic books for sale were Suze’s, and the hourly comics, the slideshow, and the buttons and dice were my work.
Jam talk. A LOT of people were interested in the Jam, which is good! We’re aiming for the eventual day when the restaurant is entirely taken over by the Jam. The restaurant doesn’t mind; we’re paying customers.
I had a few people ask me if we headed workshops for kids. This is when I handed them Suzanne’s business card and said, “Talk to her.” I honestly didn’t know, but she’d be a better person to consult.
Another person was thinking, “This would make a good birthday party activity!” Which we were happy to hear.
It also occurred to me that, on the Jam pamphlets, there was no information for the Facebook group! I think we’re going to need cards printed for that.
Pamphlets. We ran low. VERY low. We had one pamphlet for mini comics left, so we left it open to the folding instructions and encouraged people to take photos. This is after we demonstrated the mini comics were one sheet of paper and how they folded. For the last people to show up to the table, I just told them to take that pamphlet. One less thing to bring home.
We just plain ran out of Jam pamphlets (and thus contact info!), but we still had some instructions on how to do a jam in comic format. The problem was, it was a two sheet set of instructions, but not double sided. Someone ended up taking a page 1 only; we had one page 2 left of those pamphlets.
The button press. Oh man.
The button press was good because it gave kids a creative outlet. Make a button! From something they drew! For a dollar! I made most of my cash with this little beauty. I now need to go find a circle punch, or a dedicated hand punch for buttons.
The downside is that people approached the table and that all I was doing was making buttons. I don’t blame them, when I had a button press and pre-made buttons for sale.
Merch. I sold stuff. I sold stuff! A couple of Onibuke buttons went, as well as a couple of sets of dice. I did have to explain the dice to people; they thought it was some type of game. I explained that the dice were for my past webcomic, and they could be used in Monopoly.
Business cards. It was a little awkward not having a business card for myself, when Suze and Suzanne each had one. I did have some cards printed up, but they were instructions for people to obtain t-shirts. Which brings me to…
THE SHIRT. Oh man. This was a hit.
I wore THE SHIRT that day, and it got laughs. A LOT of laughs. I had a lot of guys giving me thumbs up and saying, “I like the shirt!” (I suppose it doesn’t hurt that THE SHIRT is a very flattering piece of clothing.) You would get a lot of people reading the shirt, and then when they got to the end, they started howling with laughter, clenching their eyes shut. I handed out a few cards to women so they could get their own shirt. I even had someone take my picture wearing THE SHIRT.
I could get to like this. If this is my one takeaway, then that’s awesome. I liked being there, talking to people, showing stuff off. I want to get in on the act more often. I wish there were little cons and things like this in town when I was doing Tao of Geek, but at the same time, I’m not sure I would have gone to one as an exhibitor.
Stiil, I’m glad I did it.