Rockin Roller Derby and other events

Hey gang! I wanted to give you an update about my travels and adventures lately. I feel like I show you progress on my comic most of all, but there is so much else I've been making and doing, and it's all turning into a real job, a very exciting real job.

Pretty regularly I have been doing art shows around the Tampa area, and just recently had some of my work posted in a local brewery/gallery called Overflow Brewing Company and just last weekend I was a vendor at a Junior Roller Derby tournament and it was a blast. In terms of financial success, this beat out most comic cons I've done.

I thought it would be cool and also important to share a few moments I had with young'ns during this show. There were a lot of teenagers who competed in the derby who liked my work - hand painted dinosaur earrings and dinosaur succulent terrariums, monster art, stickers, and of course the comic was among its target audience, and it was great to see kids talk about decorating their room with things I made, one fourteen year old even dropping $40 (which was a fortune when I was 14) on my prints for her walls. I think many of us remember decorating our walls as teenagers, what that meant to us, so I was honored.

There was a very very little one, maybe six, who actually rooted through her piggy bank to come with a dollar so she could buy one of my dollar stickers. After we picked out a sticker she liked best, she asked for a hug, and yes, I gave her one and some freebies.

My favorite interaction earned me no money at all. This young gal, maybe nine, came to my table and picked up the most recent September Sparks comic. She read the whole thing standing there. Then the picked up the next one, then the next. I called her over when she was done, I happened to have my ipad with me, and asked if she liked the comics. She said yes, she'd never heard of them before. I said that was because I made them.

Shocked face. "You're the inventor?!"

I showed her the cover for the issue I'm working on right now and she asked when I would be finished with it so she would read it. Hopefully in a couple months. 

In a few hours, she was back. She wanted to read them again, she said. At this point, I just bagged all three comics up for her. She was delighted, and so was I. This is why I do this.

Doing this event has gotten me feeling like I could do this more often, research more art shows locally and spend more time making art for them, and I could make this into more of a job than a weekend hobby. I'm starting to feel more than mediocre.