Well, I’m a convention virgin no more.

It was from August 25th to August 28th where Canadians turned into their attire and decided to get their dose (huge dose) of comic stuff (we could say: get comic stuffed!).While I did attend C2E2 2010 last year, Toronto Fan Expo was my first con where I actually had my own table and had to prepare myself in order to offer some decent merchandises to potential new readers.

If you have been listening to our Webcomic Workshop Podcast lately, you probably know already how much this first con meant to me, and how many uncertainties I had prior to it. Thanks to my fellow freaks of the Alliance, and also you guys with your comments on these specific episodes, I had a good preparation (I believe) for the convention.

Drunken Merchandising:

First thing I will say is the fact the entire table was like 90% Booze Related. The remaining 10% was for the Webcomics: What’s Cooking? project which I’m proud to be part of. I didn’t have too much content to offer.
Again, by listening to our podcast, you would know this second half of 2011 is the time for me to invest a lot into marketing and advertising. One of the thing I did was to get Beer Coasters done that I was giving away.  These are a blast! I would say that 80% of the people which I gave away the coasters took the time to look at them and laughed. A big amount from them were then stopping and came back to my to look at my stuff.

 

I have been working on my book for quite some times now and unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to have printed copies ready in time for Toronto. Although, I had the brilliant idea of having made some USB Flash Drives in a Beer Bottle shape. These SHINY babies have 4gb of space and I loaded the digital version of my book on them, some exclusive wallpapers and some great samples from the Alliance’s members comic.
These were, without a doubt, the main attraction on my table. I have to say that, with the very small readers base my comic has, I feel I did pretty well in selling these. They were at a very good price, and I played with the fact people wouldn’t get a 4gb USB Drive at that price in stores (whicn is true!).

 

Also a great way to attract people to my tabe were…erm…boobs. But in my case, it was actually…man boobs. I had a few different prints of my characters dressed as Superheroes or know character. I had my female character dressed as Jeannie and Black Widow, these didn’t really sell. But what sold and actually made people laugh a LOT, was my Drunken Fat Iron Man. Well folks, make fun of our dear Superheroes and you will get some great reaction from the people!!

 

The booth on the first day

I’ve met a LOT of great people in Toronto!

I have been blessed by being located right beside Jennie Breeden, mastermind behing the great comic The Devil’s Panties.  Jennie has been doing the convention circuit for quite some time now and I surely learned a LOT from her. And seeing her fans rushing to her booth and get all excited for meeting her simply amazed me. She also have VERY dangerous boots!!

Also, after chatting with this guy a lot on Twitter, I finally got to meet Stef from Sarah Zero. We surely had a BLAST Saturday night at the Elephant Castle (British Pub)

Finally, I got to meet Chris Howard, Wiriter and Colorist of Mississauga Jay. After chatting a little, he told me he was a bit behind in listening to our podcast and when he saw me walking with my beer hat on, he knew who I was. Fun times!

Conclusion

I had a VERY good time in Toronto, seeing my friends Tracy & Erik from the time I was living in Toronto was amazing. I did learn quite a lot such as I NEED to have at least a sample of my book printed so people can browse through it.

Overall, I don’t regret going and I’m going back next year for sure!
On a disapointing note: Sunday I went for a walk and saw Barbara Eden (I dream of Jeannie) sitting alone at her booth (a bit sad actually). I came back to my booth, grabbed my print of Sophie dressed as Jeannie, went back there, got delayed by TONS of people all over the place, and when I arrived… she was on her way out…couldn’t get her to sign my art.
Now, in two weeks, I will be at the Montreal Comic Con, and I’m so glad I spent so much time getting ready for Toronto because now, I only have a few extra prints to do and I’m all set for it!

Also, you can check out my interview with the TGT crew, where I had a blast making fun of Kurt Sasso :P Click on the image below to access the Interview Page on TGT’s Website!

Cheers!

 

Seriously, don't you th ink I look like U2's The Edge?Antoine Gagnon always had a passion for cartoons. In his early teenager years, he started to draw but stopped at some point, without really being good at drawing, for obscure reasons. 18 years after, he’s back and rediscovered a passion long gone. The Drunken Fools online comic is actually Antoine’s first attempt at drawing and is inviting you to live the evolution of his style over time.