I had two missions heading into this year’s Comic-Con: Sell my books and sell myself to Archie Comics.
Like last year, I had a dedicated space at the Prism Comics booth. Traffic and sales were lower than last year, but acceptable given the state of the economy and the fact that I didn’t debut any new books. Last year I had made my money back on the booth rental (and then some) by Saturday, and I was exhausted, so I blew Sunday off. This year I had not made my money back by Saturday, and I was exhausted, but I showed up on Sunday anyway so I could squeeze every last drop out of the Con. Also, the Archie Comics creators’ panel was on Sunday afternoon, which brings me to my second mission.
Ever since Archie Comics announced the introduction of openly gay teen Kevin Keller, I’ve been pitching myself to them as an authentic voice with a proven track record of writing gay characters in the teen humor genre. I pitched Archie President Mike Pellerito by mail, email, and Facebook. I landed a three-part interview with influential Archie blogger Mark Haney, which ran in First Comics News in the days leading up to the Con. I even persuaded Archie writer/artist Dan Parent, who created Kevin Keller, to appear on the “LGBT Comics, Creators, and Characters” panel that I am hosting at the New York Comic-Con in October. My mission was to close a deal at the Con to write stories for Kevin Keller, and eventually all the Archie characters. How did I fare? Toon in tomorrow!
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