ECCC & The Day My DC Dreams Died
My visit to Emerald City Comic Con 2024
Hey, everyone Greg here. It's March 5th, 2024 and in this post I want to tell you about my recent trip down to Seattle for Emerald City Comic Con.
Emerald City is the closest mega-show in my area. According to Google, it’s about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from my house in suburban Vancouver to the convention centre, although, given that I am a member of the tiny bladder club, it usually takes a bit longer than that for me to get down to Seattle. I also have dear friends in the area with whom I can stay and save a few pennies on accommodation, so it makes ECCC an appealing show to visit.
At this point in my career, I don't really have enough product to “table” at a show the size of Emerald City. That said there are lot of great reasons for someone like me to visit. My number one reason for going to the show was to connect with people with whom I usually only connect online. I also love to visit Artist Alley, admiring the work there, spending way too much money, and looking for future collaborators, especially variant cover artists.
In terms of meeting online friends and acquaintances in real life, it was a very successful show for me this year. It was an absolute joy and privilege to have lunch with comics industry attorney and awesome human Gamal Hennessy. I’m an active member of his comics connection community so this was great to get together with him again in real life.
I finally got the opportunity to meet GlobalComix founder and CEO Christopher Carter. Chris happens to be the programmer that I admire the most on the planet, and this was an unexpected treat. It was great chatting with Twitter and Kickstarter acquaintance and fellow writer, Eric Palicki, and I also got my copy of Words for Pictures signed by teacher and industry legend Brian Bendis. I've met all of these people online, but there's something special about face-to-face connection.
I got a lot of business cards this trip from potential variant cover artists and had a chance to chat with a number of people who I would love to work with in the future.
But not all of my encounters went as well as would have liked. For context, something to know about me is that I'm not really the kind of person who is impressed by celebrity or social status. I think it stems from the days when I worked in the motorsports community. You quickly learn that no matter how wealthy someone is; no matter how talented a person is; people are just people. For example, consider someone like Brian Bendis, who is a comic industry legend and an extremely talented, prolific writer. I admire his talent, but I'm far more impressed with him as a human being based on how I've witnessed him talk about his family and friends and how much he seems to care about the professional growth of his students. I suspect, for some people, this levelling worldview may come across as naive or even offensive, but I honestly do not mean any disrespect. It's just the way I view the world based on my past experience.
So I really surprised myself with how incredibly full-on-flustered-fanboy I became when I finally have the opportunity to meet creator Zoe Thorogood. I had gone to Emerald City in part with the specific intention of talking to her about the possibility of creating a variant cover for one of my characters for a future issue of The Lump Sum Saga. So at my first opportunity, I got into line with other people wanting to meet her. As chance would have it, the two people immediately in front of me were two young men cosplaying two of Ms. Thorogood’s female characters. Needless to say, following this fabulously flamboyant duo was a really, really, really hard act to follow. But I did eventually get to the front of the line and acquired a print I had seen previewed on Instagram. After Zoe signed this, as well as my personal copy of her book, It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, I was able to give her my business card, and we talked briefly about the possibility of doing a variant cover. To my pleasant surprise, she was actually open to the possibility of creating a cover for me at some point in the future.
If I wasn’t an excited mess before, I certainly was now. In my joyous fluster, I thanked her and began packing up to the side. It was at this point that her assistant asked, “Did we get payment for that print?”
I was mortified, because in my anxious panic I had totally forgotten to pay and had nearly walked off with the merch! We laughed about it, but at the same time, accidental kleptomania is probably not the best foundation for building a future collaboration. Ha!
Saturday - The Day My DC Dreams Died
Emerald City offers a plethora of expert and celebrity panels across the four days of the show. In the comic stream alone, there were over 40 panels and over 80 distinct professionals to learn from. The professional panels in particular make the show a great place to get advice from industry heavyweights.
During the Friday and Saturday, I was able to sit in on four excellent panels.
The New Digital Comics Landscape (GlobalComix, Omnibus, Manta)
It was interesting hearing each participant discuss the philosophies of each platform. I had never even heard of Manta before, so this was an unexpected gem.
Authentic and Effective Social Media Marketing
Lots of great advice here, mostly boiling down to “be authentic.”
Creating Your Brand
“What is the energy of what you are doing?” ~ Brian Bendis
Worldbuilding in Comics
From Brian Bendis: “Think how people think. If you ask a person to go to a party with you, they’ll ask… Who’s going to be there?” “Where does everybody poop?” “[Your character’s] journey will build the world. Especially characters with conflicting opinions.” Consider leaving easter eggs across issues.
“What are the sounds and smells?” ~ Becky Cloonan
By far, the most transformative panel for me was
Breaking [into] the Source Wall: How to work for DC comics
This session was one of the key reasons I made the trip to the con, as it represented the rare opportunity to speak with DC Batman group editor Katie Kubert. I recently went down the ideation rabbit hole and wrote at pitch - actually, it turned into a 16-page Marvel—make that DC- style script - for an 8-issue DC event and I wanted to see if there was any way I could get the story in front of DC decision makers. In reality, I knew the answer already, but when you have a story burning in your soul that matches the very unique zeitgeist of the moment, sometimes you need to take hopeful, big swings. I was looking for a pathway to pitch my pitch.
Sadly, shortly before the event, Ms. Kubert suddenly disappeared from the speaker list. However, initial disappointment turned to excitement when Marie Javins, the current editor-in-chief of DC Comics, introduced herself as the panel's MC.
To make a long story short, no, I did not find a way to pitch my pitch. But more importantly, it became obvious that I would never have that opportunity. One by one, the speakers discussed their pathways into DC and almost to a person, the pathway involved being discovered based on other work (that I can do) after several years - about 10 years was typical - grinding at the process. Even with “time served,” as someone who is approaching his 61st birthday, that is time I just don’t have. Getting to tell new stories in your 70s is something only possible for industry legends like Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson. Frankly, even if I was “discovered” in my 70’s the relevance of my current story will have long since dissipated.
The nail in the coffin for my big two dreams was Ms. Javins’ confirmation in a quick chat after the event that, for legal reasons, DC (and by extension, Marvel) cannot accept unsolicited pitches. I wish there were the equivalent of portfolio reviews for writers, but those are not a thing.
One oft suggested workaround for bringing DC and Marvel types stories to life is to simply tell the same story with your own characters. Sometimes, that is a very viable option, although in this instance, the history of characters like R’as al Ghul, Batman, and Blue Beetle are integral to the shorthand of the work.
So yeah. My big two dreams are done. No Batman. No Nightcrawler. Kaput. But as depressing as that sounds, it is actually just a pragmatic truth. Sometimes, pruning branches can give more energy to other parts of your tree of life. In this case, not using my time to research lore or read back issues will free up a ton of time to work on my main story - The Lump Sum Saga - and that is a good thing.
So, on Saturday night, a few comic industry podcasts later, I arrived safely in my driveway almost exactly at midnight feeling exhausted, exhilarated, and informed. If you are ever able to go, Emerald City Comic Con is an event well worth visiting. There is no shortage of things to learn, sights to see, and things to do.
10 out of 10, recommend.
I enjoyed reading about your adventure. Many, many moons ago my brother and I were at the San Diego Comic-Con riding down the elevator with two creators carrying their work to another meet-and-greet for a chance to pitch the as-yet-unknown to the world “The Teenage Mutant Turtles”. It wasn't that long before their work was out for the consumers to purchase. I am closer to 70 than 65 now and I write. Not well. But I write. What I want, enjoy researching, and reading. So don't give up on YOUR work. One step at a time, forward.
It sounds to me like a very successful and fun con. Doors close and windows open. That's all part of the journey, and I'm sure you just made more room many years of other creative opportunities! Joy is in the work, not where you work. :)