Kids Con New England

Saturday, Lilah and I tabled and taught at Kids Con New England in Concord, NH. Our first Comic Book Show as artist/vendors! It was an incredibly long day (9am-6pm), but we met lots of cool people and it was very exciting.

Superheroes everywhere...

And lots of Star Wars costumes. And R2D2!

We set up our booth to show off the old Zentangle for Kidz! comic book and the new Fright Before Christmas comic. Lilah helped get everything organized the night before KidsCon and she set up most of the table as well. We brought my giant Munny along and my little needle-felted Lilah Beans too.

The workshop we were to teach was with Lilah Beans - so we made worksheets and large Lilah Beans to decorate and cut out. We had gotten some extra packs of the Kidz Tangle Cards from Fox Chapel Publishing and handed them out to our visitors as well as all our workshop participants.

Lilah took the business very seriously and explained how the cards could be used and how to draw Lilah Beans. I had also brought my original drawings (in ballpoint pen!) from The Fright Before Christmas although my little art director eventually removed them from the table so she'd have more room to "work".

Our workshop went well.. after I realized it was going to be crazy noisy, with people coming and going, adults standing around talking and general insanity. Yes. It was fun. Again, Lilah helped out a lot handing out papers and demonstrating how to use the Tangle Cards and even drawing step outs on the big whiteboards.

Here are some of the great creations...

and with colored in hair...

Tangled whales!!

And one of my favorites...

And a tangled DRAGON!!

Lilah was so great in the booth too. She talked to EVERYONE and offered them a free sticker. When they came closer, she explained about Zentangle and "our" new comic, "The Fright Before Christmas" and then she asked if they'd like to pick out a Tangle Card to keep? I loved how kind she was when the workshop kids came by to show us their finished art. And I was so proud the way she acted so business like. Even when she took a stroll around the vendor tables - she came back to report on her findings. She didn't ask to buy anything! She was comparing our table to the others and looking for ideas.

Her brother came and got her at about 1pm to go to Bar Harbor (for her cousin's graduation) and I missed her almost immediately. I kept smiling and talking and giving out stickers... but by 2pm... I was feeling near cracking. I was tired, stir crazy, HUNGRY!, and I had to use the ladies room something fierce.

My HERO! I heard my name and saw the Fireman standing behind me, wearing a Batman T-shirt! And carrying a cooler... "I made you a chicken salad sandwich. I thought you might be hungry?" OMG - YES!

He kept me company for the last four hours and sent silly selfies to Lilah on my iPhone...

Then he helped me pack up, fed me dinner and a Margarita and drove me home to sleep.
I'm still recovering... two days later!

I have to unpack everything and process what I learned... but I really enjoyed the combination of Zentangle and comic books. The kids and parents were really excited about tangling as a way to learn to draw and the black lines are very "cartoon-like". Seemed like a natural fit.

I'm eager to pursue this concept and see where it might lead me. Which brings me to school... I have only a week left for my Kickstarter project to get funded... or I don't get to go back to school. Agh. (I actually need twice the amount that I asked for). I added a bunch of new rewards including a second blog featuring my comics and the new "Fright Before Christmas" comic.

If... WHEN... this gets funded - I will add the second COMIC blog to all the levels of rewards - so get this out there! Please help me get funded! I promise to work really hard at school and make great stuff for you! :-)

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog and joining me in all my comic adventures this past year! Yes, this is the last blog post for this "year". If you would like to continue on the adventure with me - and keep getting these posts in your email box - just click on the image above, or HERE.

My Summer School starts in two weeks, so the new blog will start then as well. AND you can get the new COMIC blog posts as well! Lucky you! ;-D See you soon.