Comicfest 2010 in review (with pictures!) April 19, 2010

So, as all of you know, this past weekend marked Boulder Comics’ first convention experience at the Denver Comicfest.  Here, for those who weren’t able to make it, or for those who were there but in too much of a drunken haze to remember, is the weekend in review!

FRIDAY was our first day, and probably the slowest, but we had several stalwart volunteers and table-sitters ready to greet the people who trickled past our table, including Matt, John, Mike, Billy, and me (Melanie).  We only sold 5 comics the first day, but our spirits were high and we woke up early the next morning, ready for:

SATURDAY, which was by far our busiest and craziest day.  We sold a ton of comics, added further volunteers Jeffrey and Cami and (briefly) Dan and Tim to our table, and got to talk to a bunch of interesting characters (many of whom were dressed up as Jedis or Klingons from the Sci-fi convention next door) about our group.

Probably the highlight of everybody’s day, though, was the Inkslingers Showdown, where our group got to compete in a rapid-fire drawing contest against much more well-established groups of Denver cartoonists, like Squidworks and the Denver Drink-and-Draw, as well as a Wild Card team composed of a couple brave audience members.  It was a fierce battle, forcing group members to depict subjects ranging from “Narcoleptic Chimp Symposium” to “Transvestite Gladiators” in under three minutes.  In the end, a tie-breaker contest was decided by an impromptu 30-second dance-off between myself and one of the Drink-n-Draw folks — which sealed Boulder Comics’ victory!

(Picture stolen from Cami — thanks!)

We were also later awarded this cardboard trophy by Lonnie Allen of the Drink-n-Draw, which will forever have a seat of honor in the Boulder Comics Trophy Case:

SUNDAY was a bit slower than Saturday, so we had a bit more time to relax and hang out at the table.  It was also the day that we got to run the Awesome Comic Jam, which attracted about 20 participants, despite happening at the same time as a panel run by famous comic babe Amy Reeder Hadley.

Sunday was also the day that most people went around making trades of their comics with other artists.  Seemed like people were coming away with impressive stacks of new comics this way — I know I’ve got plenty of reading material for the next week!

All told, I don’t think anybody sold quite enough of their comics to cover printing costs, but we were able to pull in about $200 as a group, which is pretty cool.  And, save those minis, folks, because John Porcellino is hosting Cowtown Comix Fest this summer — probably in August.  That gives us about 4 months to bust out the next issue of all our series, which sounds like it’ll be a cinch, but probably still means 90% of us will be inking and printing furiously at 2 AM the night before.  Such is the cartoonist way.