ECBACC!!!

This weekend was a whirlwind of excitement that I have not experienced since, I don’t know when. The Fiancé and I headed up to Philly to attend the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. It was an amazing experience that I am so glad to have been a part of. Despite numerous glitches in the program we pulled off an amazing weekend and had a wonderful time.

We spent way too long at the wedding which made the whole “drive to Columbus” ordeal a bit of a problem. Note to self, pay the extra hundred to fly out of Dayton, because a two hour drive just doesn’t do it for me. It better be an amazing discount for me to ever try that again. We decided to not go to sleep and drive straight there. We arrived in Columbus at 4-ish. We were dead tired and the airport wasn’t even open yet.

The flight was very by the book though taking off on time at 6:15am and landing at 8. We got to the rental car at 8:45. The nice lady upgraded me to the midsize, which was cool. Tooling around in a Chevy Monte Carlo made the weekend a little more enjoyable. I made the mistake of letting Travelocity book me a hotel that was 30 minutes from the airport, but on further inspection, an hour from Philly in Deleware. How does Travelocity get away with calling it a philidelphia area hotel when it is in another state. It was seriously like getting a hotel for Cincy and finding out you are staying in Indianapolis. We arrived at the hotel at 9:30 or so, which wasn’t bad but they did not have a room available so we couldn’t check in, you know what that means right?

RITCHIE DOES NOT GET TO SHOWER!!!!

RITCHIE HATES WHEN He DOES NOT GET TO SHOWER!!!

Yeah but I was so buzzed from being in the city and going to the con I did not even think about it. I tried to call around to some fam we have there but they were in the middle of their own lives so I couldn’t catch up with them. So Nicole and I hit a Kinko’s and meet Agnes, who was the wonderful CSR who helped us with some last minute prints. Then we headed to the Con.

Well, we headed to the campus of Temple University and thought we were heading to the con. And then I realized that I had no idea where the con was. So I had to call my sister and ask her to find it for us. I unfortunately had to wake her up after she had tried her best to stay in bead all day. She discusses the experience on her Blog. She did us the huge favor of traversing the depths of Google to find the location of the Con.

A message to the promoters and people behind ECBACC. If you want out of town people at your con advertise the HECKA out of the LOCATION. Plaster that all over your front page. If I hadn’t already spent half a grand to get down there I would certainly have considered turning around and finding something else to do in Philly.

The Con was an amazing experience. It was such a joy to be surrounded by like minded people who were really excited about the work. There were kids and adults and all sorts of people. I was there for 30 minutes and decided I had to get a table. So I asked around and purchased one for 70$ bucks, which wasn’t too bad. I set up shop and sold quite a few units. It was fantastic. PEOPLE ACTUALLY BOUGHT SOME OF MY WORK!!!

Kids would come by and LOVED the Atom family posters. They would turn to their parents and ask them to buy it. They kept asking me if it was a cartoon, and when was it coming out.

Most exciting moment for me? A group of little girls come by near the end of the con. I am out of the cards with my contact info so I give them the promo poster.

The little girls start pointing at each of the characters…

“That one is me” The little girl in pink jacket and the roller shoes says. I can’t tell from where I am sitting but I think she points to Oya.

The other little girl in the green jacket and the bushy hair points to Diane and says “I want to be that one!”

Another little girl argues with her to be Diane, while the last girl proudly points to C.J. and shouts “This one is me!”

I could have literally died in that spot, right then in that small moment in this crowded hallway on Philly’s Temple college campus. I could have passed away and been the happiest man alive. Little people with absolutely no context or understanding of my dream or mission or ideas looked into the eyes of characters I created and saw themselves. If that isn’t enough for me, then I don’t know what is.

 

I finally got the chance to meet Mr. Mshindo, who I have spoken with on numerous occasions and always wondered how he would be in person. He was just as amazing as he tries not to say he is. It was wonderful to be around him however briefly. Then there was Rich aka. URAEUS, who is such an energetic poster on the forum but is so low key in person. I was frazzled and hyper from the trip and this guy has such a calming energy. It was enjoyously dichotomous. I of course purchased a preview copy of his Jaycen Wise book.

I met a lot of the other BSH fam there, like M Rasheed, brother Eurayo, and Chaos Black who is actually from Cincy right down in Avondale. He hates the city though, calling it a penal colony. It was funny. It was weird to have so many likable cool black people in one space and to be able to share the experience with them. A place like Ciny would have you forget that is even possible. We met many other wonderful people, like the artist Asmar, who gave me his table when he was done with it and the table cloth. He was a cool guy and I might hit him for a commission in the future. Other people like Sean, and Paris who hung out at the table and talked about stuff like Matrix movies and star wars and what it takes to be a writer. It was such a fantastic way to spend a Saturday.

Afterwards we tried to hit the meet and greet but we were way too tired by that point and had to drive the hour back to the hotel. We got there around 10 and the local pizzeria was closed so we had to get papa Johns. We didn’t eat until midnight, which is probably why we woke up late and MISSED OUR FLIGHT!!! We had to walk back and forth from airline to airline trying to find someone who could fly us home. It ended up costing us another $200 via Southwest, which was actually cheaper than any of the tickets I saw online to get us there.

Nicole and I got in to Columbus at 9, got he car from the lot and hit Cincy by 11. We enjoyed breakfast at First Watch and hit the bed at one. We had to wake up at 3 to get to view some apartments that we liked. They were nice but we may have chosen the wrong day to try to do that stuff.

So all in all it was a fantastic weekend, full of wonder and excitement and inconvenience. I probably would not have traded any of it for the experience. Nicole and I are already thinking about ways we can hit up the next con and make even more cash. It was definitely an educational exercise and I vow to make sure that next year there are books on the table for all to enjoy.Thanks for trudging through all this.

Stay classy Cincinnati.