Joey Wohl has a question worth answering here…
I'm glad to hear you'll be at the Baltimore Comic-Con in September. Would you be good enough to explain on your site why you don't do more conventions? I notice you're always at Comic-Con and WonderCon.
Lotsa reasons, Joey. First off, those two conventions invite me every year and others don't.
Moreover, they invite me to do lots of panels, which I enjoy doing. I've been to cons where I felt kind of useless. Most guests are given a table where they can display their wares, sell autographs or books or sketches and sign a lot of things. I don't like selling things and this is not a criticism of those who do. I just don't want to be in the retail business. When I have a book out, as I do now, I'll sign copies for some dealer who can move a lot of copies but I won't be the dealer myself. The "business model" of inviting guests to conventions presumes I'm going to do that so I don't fit in.
Also, I can drive to Comic-Con in San Diego and WonderCon in Anaheim, whereas others require air travel and take me farther away from Los Angeles. The last three or so years, I didn't travel much because I didn't want to be that far from my friend Carolyn and for years before that, I didn't want to be too far from my mother who also needed me around for medical-type emergencies.
And another "also": I'm not fond of travel. I may never visit anywhere that is more than about a 7-hour plane ride because I cannot imagine anything that would be so wonderful it would make up for sitting on an airplane for seven hours. I don't fit in those seats too well, especially since my knee surgery which makes it necessary to flex my right knee often.
On my recent trip to Vegas, I couldn't — and that was okay for the hour-long flight but I'm not sure I could do a lot longer. Baltimore is five hours and whereas I used to always try to fly non-stop to save time, I'm going to see if I can get them to book flights with one or maybe even two stops so I can get out and walk around a bit.
Lastly, I've been going to comic conventions for a long time. The recent Comic-Con International was my 48th of those and I used to do three or four other cons per year.
One thing I used to love about these gatherings is that at each one, I would meet — and often spend quality time with — some people who had written or drawn comics that I'd loved when I was just a reader of them. There are very few of those people I haven't met. So there's another reason I don't go to a lot of cons and I'm also not that active in current comics, which is yet another reason. But the biggie is that a lot of them don't ask me and when they do, all they want to do is have me sit behind a table. Thanks for the question.
