Saturday was just miserable, it was raining and awful outside. Even though I knew the Zinefest was being held in a good under cover venue, at the back of my mind I was a little concerned that all the rain might force people to stay home instead coming down to see those of us who were exhibiting at the Auckland Zinefest.

Thankfully, I was quickly proven wrong. In fact it was the total opposite. People not only came out, but there was a lot of them!

I arrived with a bit of time to spare before the 11am begin time. My table buddy was thisisrabbit, and between us, we divided up the share of the table we needed for our wares. Not long after setup and even before the official start time we had people coming around all the tables having a look and striking up conversation.

Generally I find selling my own stuff a very weird experience. You have to be enthusiastic, but not pushy because people that bully sales, suck. Trying to get people interested in content they know nothing about is not an easy task. Thankfully, with an event like the Zinefest you tend to be with other creative people and selling to an audience of like-minded people. It makes everything a whole bunch easier.

Things got manic around lunchtime. Thisisrabbit had a workshop he had to host, and I was left in sole charge of the table for both of our wares. It wasn’t an issue when he left, I was happily sketching for a cool six year old who was asking me questions like “how do you draw so good?” – however it changed fast.

From there the day was busy. I spoke to a lot of very cool people. Young and old. Locals and some from abroad. The whole day was such a good experience. Everyone I spoke to was very interested, encouraging, and the vibe of the show felt very community driven. During the down times I was even interviewed for an Internet TV thing, and for Radio New Zealand. No idea when either of those might show up, but it was an interesting experience!

The day was just too much fun. If you came out and stopped by, thanks! Much love to the organisers for putting on a great show!

Finally, go check out this collaboration doodle over at thisisrabbit‘s Doodle a day Flickr. It was worked on by thisisrabbit, PodgyPanda and myself.

Thanks for reading!
Marc

So would you like to see some of the recent bounty?

Well, I was able to pick up one of these cool Paul Pope prints. It’s a 2 colour screen print. I love the way that Paul can convey movement and energy with his art. The dude is a master, so when I saw this print for sale. I knew it would be an affordable way of getting some of his work on my wall.

I got this rad 5 colour screenprint called “Stormfront” by Jim Houser for my wife. Jim Houser paints some of the coolest art you’ll see. His palate of softer colours is always pleasing on the eyes and I was able to secure one of these prints, which was very exciting. Both for myself, but particularly for my wife, who adores his artwork. This screen print was of amazing quality, and had a embossing seal on the paper, and the paper was archival Cotton Paper. It was very well put together. Also recommended, Jim has a book of his work out called “Babel“. Which you can get through Amazon.

Finally, my friend Podgypanda stopped by on Saturday night. I managed to get one of these bad boys off him. A wooden laser print. The detail is immense! Because its wood, it just makes his art even more interesting because it is something different. Looking forward to picking out a spot and having this piece representing up on the wall somewhere soon as well.

I’m adding a couple of new* (*variations) items to my store tonight. You’ll be able to now find a new colour way of the Knuckles Tee. Which is Black on white.  The other item is the Custom Cover version of the comic. It’s the same as the regular cover, but for a few bucks extra I’ll draw you a one off cover of Adam on the front. Great ideas for Christmas maybe? Ha ha!

New updates will be hitting the store sporadically. Including some new tee shirt designs, and prints. Keep an eye on the blog here, and I’ll let you know when they drop.

Thanks for reading!
Marc

Man! That was an intense, tiring weekend. 3 days of getting up early, and manning a both until the early evening can really wipe you out. Sounds like everyone had fun though. So was Armageddon Auckland 2009 a success for ActionMan Adam? Yes and no. Sales weren’t quite what I was expecting. However, in saying that, the people that took the time to stop by, check it out and maybe even buy a copy – they were all really cool people! It was a case of pure quality over quantity. The comic was pretty well liked, I think people were just prioritising their cash in other areas. Which is fair enough. There is a lot on offer at a big show like that.

I was also doing some custom covers for people. Where I had a blank cover, and was drawing a new cover for the person on the day with some ink and marker pens. Also sold a couple of tee shirts. All in all, a reasonable result.

I had a shared stall setup with my main man Podgypanda. Who actually did really well on the weekend. Which is awesome to see. This guy is going to be a superstar soon. I say, head on over to his shop and check out his wares now, then you can say you supported him before he was all big and famous in the art world! We ran a competition over the course of the weekend, and the response was large. Over 100 people entered. Richard (Podgypanda) will be posting the results soon no doubt.

Socially, it was a really good show for me. I was able to meet a lot of New Zealand artists who I am aware of, but had never met face to face. I also met some cool up and coming people as well. I bought a stack of local comics, so I now have a lot of reading to catch up on. Which I’ll probably be able to get through over today, as now that the show is over I have contracted a cold. Damn!

Was good to catch up with friends. I saw Frank and Becky from Tiny Kitten Teeth, the last two days of the show. They setup a make shift screen printing studio on the convention floor and ran out some really cool mini prints. Some of which I was able to sell for them from my table on Monday. I met Matt Kelly. Really nice dude. Richard Fairgray from Blastosaurus swung by the table a couple of times.  Adrian was there taking down all the details, I’m looking forward to reading his write up about the show. Was able to speak to both of the Sheehan brothers briefly. I also met Drake for the first time. He seemed to have done well at the show as well. Which is awesome. Everyone was super nice!

Today I’m going to load up some story pages from the last story of the comic to be feed over the next couple of days. I’ll drip feed the last few over the course of the next few weeks, and then hopefully that should give me some time to develop some background characters, and work on the webcomic. I think I’ll start on a weekly update schedule, and see how I go. Hopefully, everyone will return, or subscribe to come along with me on the ride. I’ll also be focusing on tweaking the site here and there, to get a few more things going on it.

Hope your weekend was awesome! Can you believe it is almost November?

Thanks for reading!
Marc