Our Goods and Our Bads at MoCCA

Whew! MoCCA 2009 is over and we are back in MN. It's time to reflect on our goods (high-five) and our bads (oops!) at NYC's small press convention. We'll also talk about a change we're making at 2d Cloud based on how we fared.

ps. thank you to Shawn Nyland-Hoke for taking this pic of us at MoCCA. There were six of us at this table and not one of us had a camera!

Without further ado, the Good and the Bad:


Table Display

• Our Bad: A cardboard cutout of a pink lactating moonbat was poor advertising.

• How we made Good: We removed the moonbat and used the space to leave copies of our mini-comics and Yearbooks opened up on the table. Customers flipped through books they barely glanced at before!

Sales

• Our Bad: Sales were slooooow on Saturday. Raighne, Nic, and I watched in heat-exhausted awe as Sean Lynch charmed con-goers with his friendly demenour: "Even with ketchup-stained fingers you can flip through my sketchbooks." Meanwhile, we drank water and tried not to faint.
  

• How we made Good: Sunday was a .05% cooler. After a day of observing Sean, the undefeated master of customer service, and a pep talk from Ed, the great self-promotion guru, I gathered my wits. I opened my mouth and people bought comics.
  

Marketing

• Our Bad: 1) Aesthetically, we make comics that are grey matter. They are neither light and happy nor dark and homicidal. 2) We publish an anthology about Minnesota. Limited appeal...anyone?
  

• How we made Good: 1) Ed Choy Moorman. His comics are universally loved by all people and press. We were able to pass our comics on to all of the reviewers that stopped to check out his books. 2) We decided that after GMN #4 Good Minnesotan will become an online-only anthology. This will give us a chance to start creating more of our own books whose audiences are not limited by geography.
  

Networking

• Our Bad: Not meeting up with Julia Rothman from Book-by-Its-Cover.

• Double Bad: Failing to give review copies to Matt Phelan from Anthem Magazine.

• How we Made Good: We're mailing Julia and Matt their review copies.
  

• How we made Double-Good: We were overjoyed to hear Jose Villarubia say he was so glad we made it. We got to meet our sales rep, Tony Shenton, in person, and chat with Tom Neely about self-publishing. We gave a distribution sample to Dylan Williams of Sparkplug comics and promo copies of Yearbooks to our favs Charles Burns, Al Columbia, Dan Nadel, Matt Madden & Jessica Abel. We met Shawn Nyland-Hoke of Size Matters: the Mini-Comics Blog (he's vegetarian!) and Ada Price of Publishers Weekly who loved Yearbooks.
  

Panels

• Our Bad-est Bad: 1) We missed yet another one of Tom K.'s panels. 2) Going to the Making Comics panel that Heidi MacDonald of Publisher's Weekly's The Beat moderated and not getting her a copy of Yearbooks.
  

• Our Good-est Good: 1) Nic was a panelist in a talk with successful School of Visual Arts graduates. This panel included Nate Powell and Dash Shaw. He mentioned Yearbooks. 2) The Comics vs. Art panel with Frank Santoro, Gary Panter, and Raymond Sohn ("the swingin' 80's"). I thought I was going to pass out. I didn't know anyone else was melded across the divide like me.

After-parties

• Our Bad: Missing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's opening night for David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp because we hadn't eaten dinner. Not hanging out with Matt Madden & Jessica Abel...because we were too tired...? WTF.
  

• Our Good: Nothing good. We sucked the big one here, folks. Too much hot air, not enough liquids, foodstuff or sleep to make wise decisions.

Comic Books Shops:

• Our Bad: Not visiting Forbidden Planet.

• Our Good: Dropping off Yearbooks at Jim Hanley's Universe. They have the best organized mini-comics section we've ever seen. Our comics were placed at eye level with our shelf-talker. Unbelievable!

Conclusion
At MoCCA 2010 we resolve to eat breakfast, talk to con-goers instead of hiding behind cardboard moonbats, attend after-parties with or without our dinners, and to avoid flights that are likely to be delayed. See you at MoCCA 2010...when we plan to commit more Good deeds than Bad!

Links:

• Here's our table-mates Sean Lynch and Ed Choy Moorman's take on MoCCA.
• Jog the Blog: MoCCA '09: The Tourist
  
• Publisher's Weekly: MoCCA's Heated Success
• Newsarama: MoCCA
• Comic Book Resources: MoCCA Hits Manhattan