Saturday at Seattle's Emerald City Comicon, as expected based on Friday's traffic, was packed. And people were in the mood to buy! It is always rewarding to meet longtime fans -- and I did meet several -- but it is even more heartening to meet attendees who are adventurous enough to try something new. The "ick" factor surrounding gay comics and gays in general is clearly in retreat, especially in a place like Seattle that boasts so many smart and progressive citizens. And there are several hooks for "Jayson" -- it's funny, it looks like "Archie," it's about a 20-something liberal-arts graduate struggling to make it in the big city -- that draw people in. The bigger surprise for me is that my Ralf Konig translations got equal play. In prior years, passersby would point out a title like "The Killer Condom" to their friends, snigger, and move on. This year it was my first title to sell out!
I've become a big fan of some of the newer webcomics out there, like Jeff Schuetze's JefBOT. Jeff introduced me to several other young webcomic publishers at the convention, including Ryan Hudson, whose channelate is just about the funniest thing I've ever read. He's published a year's worth of his strips in a book titled "Don't Take This the Wrong Way" that demonstrates remarkable consistency in milking fresh laughs from familiar themes. Bud and I got to meet up with the webcomic crew on Saturday night for drinks at the Sheraton and got to know them better.
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