I will be making my first comics convention appearance of 2015, and my second annual appearance at Wizard World Portland this January 23-25. I had a fine time at Wizard World last year, and this year I’m bringing something special for the fans– a new minicomic featuring Snow Angel, in which, fittingly enough, she and her brother Aidan go to a comics convention. (In the panel below, Snow Angel is in her off-duty guise of a little girl named Angel. Her brother Aidan is in costume as Snow Angel, however, for complicated reasons. Not to worry; the real Snow Angel shows up eventually.)
Eventually I intend to add color to this story, and include it in a projected book collection of Snow Angel stories, but for now I am bringing a black and white version which I am titling SNOW ANGEL’S COMICS CONVENTION COLORING BOOK!
There is a controversy swirling through Facebook, if nowhere else, about the role of “cosplayers”, those people who like to attend comics conventions dressed as their favorite comic characters. Comics writer J. Michael Straczynski wrote a widely circulated screed against cosplay, which was followed by equally impassioned defenses. Straczynski and his allies criticize cosplayers for taking up too much space at conventions, crowding the aisles, and making it difficult for exhibitors like himself to sell, for not spending money themselves, and for being generally ignorant of the history of the medium they celebrate. The argument echoes the familiar wrangle over gentrification, with cosplayers cast as the yuppies who walk obliviously past the shoe repair shop that has been in their neighborhood since 1949. For their part, cosplayer defenders accuse the critics of being geek dinosaurs who resent their all-male paradise being invaded by (mostly) Girls Who Just Wanna Have Fun. For myself, I have noticed that my own sales have been lower at cosplay-heavy conventions like Wizard World and Emerald City than they were at the late, lamented Stumptown, but I tend to blame higher ticket prices for tapping attendees out. SNOW ANGEL aims to be nothing more than pure escapism, but I couldn’t resist taking a tiny poke at the issue (I thank Terri Nelson of Periscope Studios for the observation that cosplayers don’t carry wallets.):
Apart from the new Snow Angel story, I will be bringing both of the books in my PERSPECTIVE! series, as well as the recent collection published by Dark Horse, EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! (AND OTHER STORIES): DAVID CHELSEA’S 24 HOUR COMICS VOLUME 1, and sundry other goodies. Angel and Aidan quickly discover that they do better selling snacks than comic books, and I intend to follow suit- I’ll be offering a free Voodoo Doughnut with purchase!
Portland Comic Con 2015
Wizard World Convention
January 23-24-25, 2015
FRI-SAT-SUN
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR 97232
Show Hours:
Friday, January 23, 2015 – 3pm – 8pm
Saturday, January 24, 2015 – 10am – 7pm
Sunday, January 25, 2015 – 11am – 5pm