Terrificon Wrap Up!
The view from behind the convention table. Plus media picks!
Comic conventions, in their own peculiar way, are exhausting.
Most (but not all) comic book creators are introverts. For the most part, we work alone in our home offices with little to no social contact beyond our families. I’m generalizing, of course: any individual comic book jockey’s mileage may vary but in my experience, it’s a similar lifestyle for many of us.
There’s a difference between ‘introverted’ and ‘shy,’ by the way. Many of my comic book friends are among the funniest, most talented and entertaining people I know. Just not the type to seek attention.
The point I’m circling around to make is that to take a person that’s perfectly content with their main social outlet being a daily trip to the grocery store (my own personal 30-minute excursion into the real world every day) and plop them smack dab in the middle of a comic book convention can be a night and day experience. Suddenly, we’re in a situation where making small talk with strangers is mandatory. The expenditure of social energy required to be ‘ON’ all day can leave the batteries drained by the time the show is over. The cycle of it makes me appreciate teachers even more, except they need to be on 9 months out of the year instead of one or two weekends a month.
Anyway, that’s the state I find myself in as I type these words after three days at TERRIFICON over the weekend. Tired, sure, and with my social batteries in need of a charge but also happy to have reconnected with so many people I only ever see on the traveling circus-like road that this career provides and grateful to have met several hundred new people over the course of the show. If you’re one of the ones that signed up for this newsletter, next time I see you I’ll (probably) remember your face but feel free to remind me your name and where we met previously.
TERRIFICON is held each August at The Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, CT. It’s Connecticut’s largest and most popular comic book convention each year. It’s my “local” show; I grew up in Uncasville and only live 35 minutes away. Often, I’ll see friends from all walks of life: my childhood, professional friends, celebrity friends, comic book readers that have become friends, fellow-parent friends…it’s like they all intersect at this show and A River Runs Through It.
Because everyone read a copy of Norman Maclean’s book after the last newsletter and gets that reference, right?
Terrificon is the first time in Comic Con history that New Pain Pro acquired its own separate exhibition space exclusively devoted to our growing backlist of comic books and graphic novels. Tom Nguyen flew in; in fact, he’s currently sitting a few feet away from me at my kitchen island as I type this newsletter.
My son Gabe and our talented friend Qu (mostly Qu because Gabe has grown up at cons and doesn’t really enjoy them anymore) worked the table over the weekend while Tom and I managed our own tables/signings/sketches and sales nearby.
All in all, the kids did great! They (mostly Qu) moved some books. HATE STINGS, DAYBREAK! and THE KEITH WILLIAMS SKETCHBOOK were especially popular, as well as the convention exclusive copies of NPC JUMP #1 and #2. Pop up signings by Daybreak! cover artists The Mysterious Fahna and Joe St Pierre were a lot of fun to organize and surprise readers with.
All in all, our crack staff made themselves some money, ate some Krispy Kreme donuts and gained a bunch of new readers for our books. Special props to TODD and JOEL for driving all the way from Iowa to Connecticut for this show, hanging out with us behind our tables and making each day a little more fun.
I suspect the New Pain table will return again next year, if not sooner. If you missed out, don’t worry. Our online store has you covered. In the meantime, we’ll be recharging our batteries for BALTIMORE COMIC CON next month.
FEELING INDUSTRIOUS?
I’ve settled in to watching Time Bandits and Bad Monkey on Apple +, they’re both lightweight, relatively enjoyable distractions during cardio sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Both shows feel a bit stale for similar reasons. The episode structure and comedy in Time Bandits is stylistically similar to other Taiki Waititi and/or Jemaine Clement offerings (Our Flag Means Death, What We Do In The Shadows for example). Which is fine, the show is still an enjoyable watch. It just feels a little formulaic at this point, almost like connect-the-dots writing instead of breaking new ground.
Two episodes in, much can be said for Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey. While the overall vibe of the show, the characters and the set up of the mystery are all pretty enjoyable, Vince Vaughn’s fast talking persona (which often hides the fact that he’s not this generation’s Marlon Brando) just feels a bit, “been there, done that,” by this point. There’s nothing wrong with that, I like Vince Vaughn well enough. There just won’t be any Emmy Awards coming his way.
Monday morning, however, currently brings new episodes of INDUSTRY on HBO/MAX/whatever it is now and let me tell you, friends, it makes an hour of cardio only feel like 57 minutes.
INDUSTRY isn’t a show for everyone. If you enjoyed SUCCESSION, you may like it but none of the characters are really people you’d want to hang out with. Everyone screams at each other using financial lingo I don’t really understand, no one seems to really enjoy their careers at Pierpoint where money is God and millions of pounds are won and lost on the stock market battlefields each day yet somehow, it’s completely enthralling and eminently watchable.
I’ve been waiting a while for the third season to begin and now that we’re two episodes in, I’m buckled in for the ride. It’s an intense show with some really excellent performances. Check it out if you like your entertainment served with a side of anxiety. If you’re watching it too, let me know in the comments.
THAT’S ALL…
That’s basically a wrap for this installment, fellas, aside from this quick plug…
If you’d like to check out the Kickstarter campaign for THE NEW PAIN TWO-IN-ONE featuring NPC JUMP #1-2 and THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE NEW PAIN UNIVERSE, there are a few days left before it wraps up. The projects are fully funded but it’s been a weird rollercoaster ride this time, hit particularly hard by a scammer backing the books under multiple identities then canceling the many pledges; so one minute it’s funded, the next it’s down $800. We seem to have gotten past that, knock on wood, but I guess I know what the characters on Industry feel like most days.
Catch you next time with more jumbled word salad to enjoy!
Your bestie,
Keith Champagne
Will likely see you there!
Definitely attending Terrificon next year!