Alternative Press Expo 2015

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This weekend was the Alternative Press Expo in San Jose! The event is essentially an independent Comic-Con where independent artists come out with their comic books, illustrations, characters, and various other art implementations to hopefully hit into that market at an affordable rate for a booth & find new fanatics. Izzy & I went to APE last year when it was in San Francisco’s Fort Mason as guests… and it was pretty impressive. A plethora of great artists & comic book creators to check out and purchase their wares. You can read more about it HERE!

 

This year, the event has become truly independent and the founder of Slave Labor Graphics (“Invader Zim”, etc) has taken over the event from its Comic Con backing… and moved the event to San Jose, back where it originally began a few years ago in the San Jose Convention Center’s South Hall. Now… it was mentioned before that the process in getting a booth at the convention was… frustrating to say the least. Izzy& I went with three other of her friends/artists to go in on a booth & minimize the (in hindsight ridiculous) costs of the booth… but Izzy & I definitely kinda took the lead in getting everything handled with the planner… but to no avail. We didn’t get a whole lot of information ahead of time, and when we did it wasn’t in a timely manner. I understand… skeleton crews with no events and all that… I’ve been a part of a few… so please don’t get it twisted. However, when it resulted in us signing up MONTHS in advance… and then being placed in the worst-corner possible… purely because of incompetence… that’s when it becomes an issue. It felt a little fishy… but hey, we’re awesome & we’ll soldier on. 99% of the time, the experience is what you make of it!

 

So we set out early Saturday morning to get out there around 8 AM and get setup before the event starting at 11 AM. As luck would have it, there was a setup issue the day before so they had to move some things around… and as luck would have it, we were still in kind of an off-corner… but it ended up being between the Altspace Virtual Reality booth and the coffee / food court area… and directly across from where the speaker seminars were. GROOVY BONUS!!! Anyway, here are some pictures of us setting up…

 

After a few hours of having expo guests come check out our INCREDIBLY CUTE stuff… Izzy had to test out her new Umbreon outfit to help promote our booth and also just wander around and meet her fellow colleagues…

 

 

Then it was time for lunch…

 

One of the major benefits of having five people at our booth, is that we could keep two people there while the others checked out the event if needed, but as it really wasn’t my scene (and I’m the financial guy) then I was the last one to wander around but there was a lot of great booths… but they didn’t want us taking a bunch of pictures obviously, so here is what I have…

 

Oh… and then we found a booth on the far end that had our names on it… which is odd because they specifically directed us to our more convenient booth… AWESOME!!! There were also some great speakers about setting up Kickstarter projects, getting into the industry, and such…

 

After a long day, we chilled at the Ramada Inn nearby… and then did it again on Sunday for another six hours… which meant another run around from Umbreon… this time, with a special deal on prints!!!

 

Unfortunately it seems like most of the exhibitors that we talked with didn’t seem to do too well… for a variety of reasons. Attendance was okay, but not great… there was a lot of different things offered… with a lot of different price points, some not at all for the casual expo attendee… but yeah, based on what we were told… it seemed like most people lost a lot of money getting a booth. So with that… we felt FANTASTIC to break even at our booth! WE DID GRRRRREAT!!! Breaking even wasn’t bad for a first event of this scope… so congratulations to all the ladies! We very well may do this again next year… definitely if the booths are less expensive which it almost seems like they would have to be for most exhibitors to return. Overall, a fantastic weekend!!!

 

What does this mean for us? We’re going to probably be in a LOT more fairs and expos like this in the next year now that Izzy & her friends have free time (graduated) and I really like the process and think that we have GREAT stuff to offer to a variety of guests. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on where you can meet up with us. Have a great day everybody!!!

ALL of the Stars

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Been a pretty fun week I guess... not sure if I mentioned in past posts that I was nominated for an award at work... but I was completely surprised when I ended up winning it Wednesday. Yup, I basically won an employee of the quarter award. It's one of those things where you work hard, do your best, collaborate with a lot of other great employees who also use their gifts to the best of their abilities on a daily basis... and you think "There's no way I can win this. Very few people know who I am or what I do. They've been here longer. Other nominees are more socialable & more deserving, it's an honor just to be nominated." Then you win... and it's kinda like... "Damn right! It's about time!" Okay, so it was more like "HWHAAAAT???" So yeah, kind of on cloud nine about that thing... but that's not all that happened this week.

Rick Majerus Passed Away - Back in 1999, I was on the practice squad for the University of Utah men's & women's basketball team... so I got to work a little bit with the men's head basketball coach, Mr. Rick Majerus. His grasp of the game of basketball & the strategy behind it was amazing... and his coaching career will show it. From working with the championship winning Marquette team in the 70's to leading the U of U to the national championship game in the 90's, helping players like Andre Miller & Keith Van Horn to take their game to the professional level and so on. Was he the nicest man in the world? I would vote no... then again, a surprising number of celebrities have called me an A$$hole over the years... he probably just did it the most... but hey, that's his style I guess. Even those that loved him would probably say the same. Unfortunately, he was also a large man with a large appetite that didn't pair well with health problems... and unfortunately a tumultuous decade, it finally caught up with him. My deepest condolences to his family... and I hope that he was able to find some peace.

The college football championship is set up as Notre Dame vs Alabama... or the Fightin' Irish vs the Crimson Tide... or as I prefer to look at it, the St. Patrick's Day versus That Time of the Month. It should make for an interesting game... but it's going to be difficult to top the SEC Championship that Alabama played against Georgia to set it up. Pro football has been pretty good today too. A few overtime games... Eagles playing tonight, thought their season is basically done... good times.

Friday night, I put up my Christmas tree... now just need presents for under it...

Saturday, I helped Dizzy with a booth of her amazing creations at a craft fair at the Pinole Senior Center... and it was actually a lot of fun. We set up in the morning, and we were easily the youngest people there by about... 30 years easy. Dizzy made a variety of cool things to sell for reasonably cheap... but unfortunately the weather was REALLY rainy so turnout wasn't the greatest. However, we still made enough to cover expenses for the table, got a great lunch for a $10 donation, even found a few trinkets for a few bucks from other crafters... oh & I got to hang out with my ladyfriend for a few hours on an otherwise rainy day. Here's an early shot of her table before we made a few adjustments... great practice for our next table, wherever that might be.

Saturday night, we watched the highly anticipated "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" starring Rufus Sewell, Benjamin Walker & Dominic Cooper... and from the director of "Wanted" so you know it's historically accurate & obeys the laws of physics & reality. Long story short, it's the story of young Abraham's mother being killed by a man... so he grows up with a heart full of vengeance... and then when he tries to kill the man as a teenager (Walker), he discovers he's a vampire... and then he's saved by a man (Cooper) who becomes his mentor... and trains him to hunt & kill vampires. Now... yes, the story is imaginative & I really liked it because... well, I'm a little crazy & like everybody else I like the idea of Abraham Lincoln hunting vampires (already working on Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter & then collaborate with Rob Zombie on Werewolf Women of the SS). If you're looking for historically accurate telling with minimal plotholes... then by all means watch Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" like I did a few weeks ago. This movie will be full of CGI, action craziness, a little bit of gore, lots of questions regarding plot pionts, and you'll have to stretch a bit to go with the plot point that vampires killed the native Americans & kept slavery intact for so long... but as long as you can get through that, you'll probably enjoy it. It's basically like any other superhero story... just instead of a rich orphan with unlimited funds & cunning becoming Batman, it's an orphan with an axe who hunts vampires & become President. Enjoy! Unrelated, I watched this with Dizzy & Batgirl... and we followed this up with "Expendables 2", the latest episodes of "The Walking Dead" & "Comic Book Men" and then capped off the night with "Land of the Dead." Yeah, it was fitting.

I think that'll do it for tonight. Can't believe it's already December. Better do some Christmas shopping. Have a great week everybody!!!