C2E2 - the most unreal goal achieved, in some surreal ways.

Sometimes you can give yourself an idea that sticks in your head that overrides common sense or more appropriately, reality.

This post, has seen just shy of nine revisions, a hell of a lot of images edited down to the 90 pics in this one update. I was filled with apprehension to post about most of what I wrote about. Honestly now, some months later, for all of the things that went so wrong, it ended with a lot of things turning around for me.

What follows is one of the most open and truthful blogs I've ever written. I do this because I believe communication, honesty, and transparency needs to be predominant in the art world. Not just for those aspiring to be artists, or others who like myself have been doing it for years. Not just for the public in general who care to know more about what it's really like to be an artist. I've been really grateful for all of you that had reached out to me about the previous entries, reviewing not just the shows, but my personal thoughts, failures, struggles, and success. Buckle in. I don't hold much back in this one...

Also, I've started adding a small donation button at the end of each blog entry, in case you enjoy my content and want to help keep this blog going. Any amount is appreciated.

So, here we go.

I started applying in 2013 and could have gotten in that first year, but lack of money, transportation, and a lack of belief in myself stopped me. After that it took until 2022 for it to happen again.. Things may seem impossible, but the key is to keep going. Just try one more time. But more importantly, when an opportunity presents itself the first time, GET ON IT!

Chicago’s C2 E2 show, is a show that I had attempted to become a part of for the last few years, ever since I foolishly was unprepared to take part back in 2013. After that, it was nine years of waitlisted status. I can’t tell you how many times I regretted not taking that first foray into artist alley. Cost, travel, imposter syndrome, no belief in my own work, you name it,... I just felt that I couldn't do it. That I would fail. Make no money, and just be embarrassed.

So it was a genuine surprise after the nine years that passed, to unexpectedly be invited to apply to be part of the show this year after having been told I'd been waitlisted once again. I think I stared at the e-mail for about 2 minutes. And then a wash of emotion that ranged from initial tears to some deep seated fears hit me. I got that second chance, but I immediately thought... "I'm nobody. I'm just a guy that draws stuff, and I don't even do that as successfully as I would like."

It took a bit to get my head out of that space, to shake off that insecurity, to be happy that this chance had finally made itself happen. It was actually scary to think how much my thoughts about my own art efforts hadn't really changed about me since 2013. I learned a few things in the process, one being that it’s too easy to mythologize and imagine what a goal could mean. Two, what unexpected and often pleasant surprises can lay and wait for you. And three, in the end, people really matter in ways I would never have expected.

I had never been more nervous in my life to click a button. Once I did this, there was no turning back.

Here's where the mythological aspect of this show started to play out. In my head, this show was the sort of show, that once you made it in, you were almost guaranteed good sales, great networking, and maybe even a brush with greatness somehow. It sounds cheesy, but that's really what I thought. The truth is it’s a show in many ways like so many others I’ve done, and in other ways and experience like no other I’ve encountered. This was the first show I’ve done where I had absolutely no idea what the outcome would be, and wasn't ready for a lot of it.

The waitlist email.

With getting into C2E2, I had a lot of questions. Did I make it into the show because others had dropped out? Did I make it into the show based on jury merit of my work? Or was this just business as usual, and some tables had become available because artists had other things come up, which left the tables up for grabs for people like me on the waitlist.

As I noted earlier I really was freaking out, and unsure if I had the finances, and quite honestly the mental fortitude to do the show. Considering the fact fuel prices were high, attempting to find an even halfway decent hotel, and then all of the other possible hidden expenses that could begin to build up, had me me wanting to throw in the towel as I regretted having sent in the money for the table.

This had been a combination of savings and bill money, and now it was a planned gamble with unknown odds.

The reality that a lot of people do not understand about being an artist is that almost every single decision you make has financial investment, has that feeling of "was this a good idea?", and that most all of us walk into shows already in debt. Let that sink in.

Every single artist you'll see at comic shows, anime shows, the Plaza Art Fair, possibly even an art gallery showing, is already in newly accrued debt, or will have a debt in sales percentages to pay at the end of a show. The few exceptions are the artists who get free spaces, tables, etc. But even then, when you factor fuel to get to the show, new items made for inventory for the show, the show fees, and other additional costs involved with travel and stay, you can safely assume that artist has spent three times the show fee amount to just get there. And then after setting up a display, overcoming social anxieties, fatigue, worries, and any other issues, you, as an artist, have to be at your best, your most compelling, charismatic, and clear headed because your problems and worries do not matter, nor should they, to the public attending and possibly buying your artwork.

And that's in the face of dismissive remarks. Rude questions. No one coming to your booth, tent, gallery. And that feeling that even in trying to remain strong and hopeful, you'll no doubt feel inadequate a lot of the times at a show.

Had I not made it into C2E2, I’d made up my mind that I'd only be doing one or two other smaller shows to round out my year (I really didn't end up doing that at all!). Which would give me October November and December to start working and planning on future endeavors and events that I wanted to be a part of.

You know the feeling that you get when you send something in your suddenly and this horrible zone of "oh my God I just sent something and I’m not sure I really meant to?" That is exactly how I felt. Immediately I thought how my going to afford this, what if the show isn’t good for me, and doing some quick math I realized that by pursuing this endeavor I was walking into roughly $1500-$2000 worth of expenses by having sent off this payment. The table was $400, plus fuel prices would add around $400, parking would be $25 a day, and then a hotel a decent one would be no less than $140 a night, if I was lucky.

That was such a fucking sobering moment that the energy of it made all AA meetings within a 30 mile radius of me automatic successes.

This is something that many patrons and attendees of shows never take into consideration when they talk about getting involved and doing shows, joining the ranks of artist alley, or getting a vendor booth. Making any sort of income doesn’t guarantee that you’re making money, it could just mean you’re leveling out and making your table cost.

Almost no preparation.

The weeks leading up to the show were, if I am to be completely honest with you all, a shit show.

I’m going to let you all in on something, the timing for the show could not have been at a worst point for me. I was at that point, at a crossroads in my professional life. I had only recently come to terms with the fact that my burn out creatively was getting to be too much, so painfully real.

Mix that in with suddenly jumping into a major investment on a show I’ve never done, was a mental and emotional disaster.

See, I knew that I wanted to do the show, this was the direction I wanted to go with my career.

I also knew it was time to leave the world of graphic design behind. I had never intended to be a graphic designer, I am have been, and will always be primarily an illustrator. Now this has very little to do with my decision on whether or not to attend the show, but it did make the weight that I placed upon my shoulders in doing this show even heavier to carry forward. Now if you read the other blog posts prior to this covering ICON and Fountain City, you might understand that I didn’t want a third negative mark against me by having the possibility of another bad show rear its head.

But there are times in life, when an opportunity presents itself, one has to take that chance and see how it’s going to play out. Even if the odds are against you. Thirds time's a charm, right?

Because the show came about so abruptly, I had to figure out what I was taking with me. What would my display be like? What artwork was I taking? What else did I need for the show?

It turns out, it didn’t matter, I barely had time to collect my thoughts to keep my emotions in check and get anything extra done for the show.

Whatever I had was going to have to be good enough. I opted to not bring any unlicensed stuff/fan art sort of things. The show specifically did not want items at your booth that were not directly related to your comic book, and this was spelled out in the email.

The next few days were a blur.

Before I knew it, the time to leave was upon me.

Thursday 8/4 - I'm on the highway to sell.

I had to leave early on Thursday. And I mean, I didn’t wanna be leaving at 9 AM. I wanted to leave by 6 AM. I didn’t want to be on the road and rolling in too late for set up. The trip up into Illinois was the best monotonous, if not boring. I listened to a lot of Netflix and YouTube, Because the radio stations were terrible. I also sang a lot. To everything from the Traveling Wilburys to One Direction. Because that's how I stay awake.

At least it was cloudy, because I had to drive in the direction of the sunrise.

But it did give me time to think, that's why I do enjoy driving. It clears my head. In this case it was filled with questions.

How would I approach this show? What goals did I have in mind? Most of this seemed fruitless because I’d never done this show before, and I think it was a thinly veiled attempt to charge up some positivity, enthusiasm, and hope.

Maybe it's because I think of all the trips I've taken with dogs past and present, seeing a dog park makes me feel instantly better and safer on a road trip.

The drive is about 8 to 9 hours long depending on how many stops you make, or as it turned out how much highway construction you come across. It’s 70 miles an hour for the most part all the way up there. The only time limit I had was to make it there by 5 PM, which was supposedly the cut off time according to the set up email sent out to people in Artist alley.

Well, I made it.

One thing I had planned on which did ultimately succeed, was making sure that I filmed enough videos and took enough pictures for my social media accounts and for this blog post.

That as it turned out, was fairly success. I was in a good mood over that as my TikTok and Instagram accounts started to showcase my trip to build up some awareness that I would be at the show.

I'd only been to Chicago three or four times before but somehow I managed to forget how incredibly terrible, horrible, and insane traffic is there.

No one knows what turn signals mean, you take your life in your hands if you dare drive under 70 miles an hour, and on ramps are essentially Nascar pit exit ramps. There were moments I seriously felt like I was on Fury Road.

After attempting to follow some very bizarre GPS instructions, I went with my gut reaction and finally managed to make it to McCormick Place, of which there are multiple buildings for trade shows and conventions.

[Left] It's more than a bit weird to see something in person that I only ever saw in web posts. [Right] I was able to figure out that if I parked on Level 3, it led directly to the walkway to the hall..

I only managed to find the right building because I noticed the enormous C2E2 banner behind a set of windows. I quickly did a U-turn, pulled into the hotel driveway, and parked with my flashers on. Much to my relief I could see other people wearing badges for the show, some of them simply milling about, others dropping off what looked like set ups for the show. The photo of the banner you see above on the left, was the first photo I took when I got into the building. Seeing the banner, gave me pause, and bolstered my mood.

A feeling of elation and disbelief that I was actually there, washed over me.

I looked around and noticed the sign pointing over to a set of stairs that went down to a set of doors, and signs directing to where badge pick up was. I entered the room and saw an enormous will call, which at this point was still very empty.

Taking a few photos and some video, I walked toward the front and a staff member offered me assistance. I was given my badge, and then I asked where was I to go to unload my stuff? The staff member asked one of the other people working there, and I was told I could simply ask the security guards at the front, that if I turned on my hazards on my vehicle, would it be alright for me to bring in my stuff for set up.

I know others were doing that out front, but having worked security, I want to do right by asking those on location what I'm supposed to do. I know I always appreciated it when I still did security.

The ticket room is huge. The carpet reminded me of a childhood arcade.

In the back of my mind, I already somehow knew what I was going to get for an answer. I felt like an idiot going up to the two security officers, and asking them this. Both looked annoyed at the number of people parked out front unloading, and based on the look of irritation on the older guard's face, he was certainly more angry out of the two. I asked him if it was all right for me to stage my vehicle outside and bringing my equipment. He replied, "no. no it’s not OK, you’ll have to park elsewhere.". I totally understood that and replied, "that’s perfectly all right sir I totally understand is there a lot nearby that I could park in so that I could access the show floor?" He then in a more relaxed manner, stated, “You can park in lot A. Go back outside, turn to the left when you exit the drive, and you’ll see the ramp that will take you to parking garage A. Find a spot there and you'll get back in here the right way.” I thanked him for the information and quickly made my way outside, got in my vehicle and found the parking garage. This was day one of the $25 parking fee. I opted to not load my things onto my equipment dolly because I was running very late. I just wanted to find out if I could still set up.

The convention Hall - a pedometer's paradise.

Getting over into the convention hall from the garage level 3, required going across the skywalk, and then utilizing either elevators, escalators, stairs, or one ridiculous combination of all three to actually get to the hall depending on what you may or may not be carrying.

So with no real idea how to get to where I needed to be (and mind you it was well after 5 PM by this point), I was more than panicked. Remember, according to the email, 5 PM was the cut off time for access to the show floor. A quick glance at my phone revealed it to now be 5:20 PM. I was upset that even as much as I had tried to get there early, just getting to the place, and finding parking, had cost me 30 additional minutes. I now just expected that I would be setting up Friday morning instead.

I got off an elevator and passed a set of internal windows, I looked to see if there was anything that would show me where I was...

First time seeing C2E2's floor.

I stood for a moment taking in the floor from above, and realized the entrance should be nearby. Thankfully as I walked further down the hall I was in, there was a small opening and two security guards were there.

I asked if it was too late to access the room for set up. One of them replied, "No it’s not too late I’m here until 7 PM. As long as you get back here by 7 PM with your stuff you’ll be fine and you have until eight or 9 PM tonight to finish your set up."

This was the first of a few things that didn’t make sense and didn’t correlate with the email information I have been provided, but I didn’t wanna look a gift horse in the mouth.

I was sweaty, tired, and irritated, but also happy that I could still get my stuff set up. So I run back to my vehicle, load everything up, and go back to the hall. All this time I’m recording video snippets for social media posts later after setup, and photos for this blog.

I don’t think I was prepared for what I saw when I got in there.

Oh man...

I recorded and took photos like I was on assignment for National Geographic.

There is a lot that goes through somebody’s mind when they finally make it to a goal that they’ve long wanted to achieve.

My head was pretty empty at this point.

I think I said holy shit multiple times as I first entered the hall. The show floor was huge, it seemed to dwarf the rather large imagination I had about just what size this show would be.

There's my little booth setup in Aisle E.

I’ll be the first one to say that this also could’ve just been my unfamiliarity with the show. Set up was happening for everyone, people were bustling about, you could hear the clanging and shuffling materials and set ups, and the low hum of chatter amongst vendors and event staff. The hope I felt in my heart quickly turned into panic, which is far from ideal. But truth be told it quickly melted away into a big stupid grin on my face. I was finally here I was going to make the best of the weekend. That panic would come back soon enough anyway.

I've done many shows, but even with most booths still being set up, this was overwhelming for me.

It took me more than a few minutes to get back to artist Ally. I was caught up in everything I saw, and it took multiple times walking around the hall over the next couple of days to see most everything. C2E2 has an almost overwhelming amount of things to encounter and do while you’re there. Which is a good thing considering the ticket prices for your average attendee. I also knew that artist alley was large. I had seen the image that was sent out with the email updates from the show, and the rows went from a through Z and are about 20 booths long.

I think the fact that two large "buildings" are in the center of the hall surrounded by the actual show, put in perspective how big this show was.

Once again that feeling of feeling overwhelmed and humbled rolled over me and I could feel panic beginning to sit in. I can’t remember the last time I had this many emotions battling for the top spot in my brain. I finally made it over to my table E8 and there was my name Mario on the little placard hanging off the front of the table.

I don't know exactly why, but some moments, I stood there quietly, just being in the moment. Thankful that I had made the trip up here safely, hopeful that the weekend will be good, and trying ever so unsuccessfully to rip the imposter syndrome feeling out from inside of me.

Getting to the table was a bit of a walk.

So set up went fairly painlessly, because unfortunately, I didn’t have my whole set up.

According to the email set out for booth standards, there was nothing that stated that a full wall could be set up behind your booth.

I had brought my display walls, but I had forgotten the hardware that I used to hang my artwork with.

That was a detrimental mistake. I did have my tablecloth. I had a print bin and a display rack. I did the best with what I had.

I was feeling a little disheartened but I figured some of that had to be from driving fatigue and I still had to make it to the hotel to check in. Maybe at some point I could make it to a Target or Walmart for some pushpins or something to get art on my display walls. I almost went back to just grab the walls so I'd be that much more ready, but pride and embarrassment held me in check. Good thing they did.

Since the setup didn't take me that long, and there was enough time, I walked around for a while in the hall taking photos, taking in the details so that I can remember not only how I got to this room, but also how to get around in this hall. Where the water fountain was, where the bathrooms were, and where any vendors were that I wanted to purchase things from.

So Thursday of course ended up with the majority of pictures.

Ryobi had a great setup geared towards cosplayers and makers.

Some exclusive shirt designs that would be on sale.

Lots of books and games of all kinds.

The booth design for tokidoki was so freaking awesome. It reminded me a bit of the aesthetics of Jet Set Radio.

A giant Pikachu out of Nanoblock.

One of the advantages to doing shows, is the time one has to walk around during set up, to see things unhurriedly.

Some Stranger Things, and a Star Wars display I wasn't able to get a clear shot of yet.

Bandai had so much Gundam stuff on display. I knew before the end of the show, I'd end up buying something.

The One Piece booth was freaking awesome.

Anytime I see an arcade setup, I get happy. But none were yet ready to play. I think the ones in front are Sega Astro City Cabinets.

I often think about how these large display pieces are made, and where they end up after the company no longer needs them.

Mini Naruto Cats in Noodles.

One hell of a LAN party

Some familiar KC booths and banners.

I didn't make it over to say hello to Kyle Strahm (I had intended to pick up his new Twig book), but I did catch up with Matthew. Both of these dudes are real deal, some of the hardest working artists I know. I've included links down at the end of this post for any of you who don't follow them, to follow them.

The panoramic shots don't really do the cardio level sized floor of this justice in these pics.

So many people used to have Megatron when I was a kid. I didn't. But I remember him only being around $20 at KayBee. $750 in box today is surreal.

After about an hour and a half, I figured I had enough content recorded, my booth mostly set up, and a decent idea as to how to get back here to the hall, so off I left for the hotel.

I was so tired, I decided to not try to find anywhere to pick up pins. I figured I'd see how Friday went and then make a decision from there.

As I was leaving, I paid my first $25 parking fee. So parking for all four days came to $100. Add that to the gas, and table fee, hotel, and I was sitting around $1,100 in debt already.

I'm both alarmed and also relieved to see a CPR machine instructional "lesson vending" machine.

Sitting for a moment in the garage, I went over what I had already, and just once again, for what seemed like the millionth time, brought up a positive attitude and just convinced myself to roll with the punches.

So. Many. Punches.

The hotel - why is there tape on this elevator button?

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to hit the important points of my hotel stay. What I will do is provide you with a picture of the door for the initial room I was supposed to get.

[Left] I'm not sure I want to know what was behind that door. [Right] Thanks to the picture, I can tell you I made it there at 9:24 pm. and it was 73 degrees outside. Also that C2E2 was happening.

What happened in a nutshell. I got checked in. Started towards the elevator to go to floor 2, was called back, and informed to not push "too hard" on the buttons so that the tape doesn't come off, and that I had been given the wrong room number's card keys. The lady simply said it was "unavailable".

I don't know what happened prior. I don't care to know. But. Some. Shit. Went. Down. In that room. Passing two or three no smoking signs, I was greeted with the faint aroma of weed being smoked through a toilet paper tube filled with dryer sheets. Once you've smelled that, you never forget it.

I'm just glad they gave me another room, and that C2E2 was on the local news, hopefully getting people jazzed for Friday.

If there is a visual for my mood. This is exactly it.

The room was clean. There were three locks on the door, only one worked. I chose to take a shower.

The shower head and water control handle were not secured down. They were free floating behind the drywall. There was also a large opening where water was pouring down the wall, down underneath the tub floor. I only hoped this was not the day I'd careen butt ass naked down into the room below me and meet an untimely death by shitty shower.

The high spot was that the staff was incredibly nice, and seriously the room was very clean and all the amenities were there. Quite frankly, I was only sleeping there and spending the vast majority of my time at the show.

Friday 8/5: Day One - You hit me with your bike!?

The first day of the show I decided to get back to the garage early, I woke up at 4 AM, double checked everything packed my backpack, got ready and was out the door by 6:15 AM. I had a feeling traffic was going to be bad. I had no fucking idea just how bad it would be.

It seemed no matter where I turned, I was driving into the sun. It felt like the sun in Super Mario Bros 2 that just followed you around when you played the desert levels.

I’m certain there are NASCAR events that have had wrecks with better sportsmanship involved than what I encountered while just attempting to take an exit in Chicago. Driving downtown changes a person. And not for the better.

Truly, I felt any effort towards legal driving habits were looked down upon. Traffic laws were better followed in the recent Mad Max Fury Road film. The usage of blinkers is an unknown if not obscure art form in the city roadways.

I managed to get to the garage without having a nervous breakdown or a violent accident, by 7:30 AM. The distance from the hotel to the convention center is only 14 miles. I have no clue why it took so long.

Walking in with anxiety and hope for a good day.

After getting to the garage, I drove up to the fourth level, parked close to the doors that access the skywalk, and I sat for a moment, with the air conditioning running listening, to some Enya.

You may think I’m kidding, I am not. It felt like I had escaped a bad accident at least once and I’m only halfway joking. Hell of a way to start a day.

The security line to get in.

After calming myself down, I grabbed my bag, checked once more that I had everything I needed, and made my way over to the doors that led to the convention center.

Passing a growing line of people waiting to pick up show passes, I was glad I'd gotten to set up the evening prior. I don't think I read anything about there being a security checkpoint for creators and vendors before we could get into the show hall. There was still plenty of time before the show for me to walk around and psyche myself up for the day.

The One Piece booth was very cool. I don't know if enough appreciation happens for the designers that create these sort of things.

The more years that pass, the older I get, the more random emotion will hit me out of nowhere.

I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by that at this point. I knew that this weekend would be impactful in some sort of way, hopefully positive, but I couldn’t help but feel that dread of what if this goes horribly wrong, and how will I handle it? It took so long to get here, to actually convince myself to take a chance at doing this show.

Walking around did help clear my head. I headed back to where I was set up. There were people busy setting up all along my row. I always try to break the ice at shows first thing, so I introduced myself to my table neighbor, a really cool fellow illustrator named Paul Bautista. He was from California and had an amazing swath of work on the table..

So much cool stuff was on display at the Bandai booth...

Artist alley was located in the furthest back area just in front of the autographs area. I don’t know if this is true for all of the Reed Pop shows or not, but when the show opened, it took some time for people to make it back to where we were.

So the 9 o’clock Rush really meant nothing for the vast majority of anyone in the far back of the show floor.

As awesome as this game looked, it also looked like I might injure myself trying to play it.

As the day wore on, well I’ll break it down simply... I really had no expectations except to hopefully sell something the first day, anything really. That I did do, but nowhere near what I thought I was going to.

Sales were slow for me. When you’re not selling you can’t help but notice when other people sell that are in your area, but the row we were in seemed rather sparse with people.

I interacted with the few people that did come by, but by 2 o’clock in the afternoon I was fairly underwhelmed, and certainly questioning a lot of things. Was this the same show I'd heard so much about with people buying and sales being so good? Was it my booth set up? Was it my artwork?

Cue all the usual suspects of doubt.

If you're new to doing shows, a large swath of cloth can function as a table cover, a display cover, or a Drax/John Cena cosplay.

As the show came to a close, I overheard more than a few people in my area saying that they were looking forward to Saturday. That better sales are would happen tomorrow because it was Saturday.

But there was distinctly something off that was happening, and it echoed what I had felt at the last two shows that I had done.

It was that there was a general sense of been there done that, or oh wow yet another comic show/event to attend. I later found out the Chicago Fan Expo Chicago (in it's 50th anniversary year no less) happened on July 7, over at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.

I'm not saying you can't have a lot of shows. I am saying you can't say there's that many open wallets or that these events are even special in the mind of attendees. That affects attendance, sales for artists and vendors, and gives no sense of uniqueness in the experience in attending a show.

Price points on collectables, cool as they may be are rising more and more. No lie, the replica cosplay belt is amazing, and the Falcon model was stunning, but $476?

It also didn’t help me over the course of the day, because I had misread the email and thought that the show ended at 6 PM, when it actually ended at 7 PM both on Friday and Saturday, and then 5 PM on Sunday.

It was nice to see Machine Robo characters coming out again (this was the line known as Go-Bots here in the U.S.)

So by the end of Friday I couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel to get some sleep.

I still had to edit and upload some social media posts, get something to eat, and if I was able to find somewhere that sold velcro dots (to hang my art on my booth walls), to pick some of those up. But that also meant I had to get in even earlier on Saturday so I could get the rest of my booth set up.

Maybe by the time I'd made the 15 minute walk to my vehicle, I'd have a better idea of how to proceed.

Floor shot from earlier Friday Morning

This was the crowd density throughout Friday along the area of Artist Alley I was in.

It really sucked not having my walls set up, and that I'd forgotten the hanging hardware for my art.

A bright spot for me at every show I attend, is seeing the cosplays that come out. I have always wanted to join in this hobby pursuit, but I already have challenges managing my time.

[Left] A version of Link from Breath of the Wild (I believe) [Right] If anyone knows these two characters, please let me know.

April O'neil, Casey Jones, the Mad Hatter, and Street Fighters Ryu and Chun Li

Phenomenal LotR cosplays of Galadriel, Gimli, Gandalf, Sam, and Frodo.

[Left] This kid nailed the look of Spawn [Right] I don't know this cosplay, but I felt it might have been from Warhammer. But then again, I always think everything I don't know might be from Warhammer.

Taking time to make some notes, and cover up my table display, I gathered my things and headed towards the main entrance.

The crowd leaving.

I think sitting in the hall as long as I did, made me forget that one, it was the weekend, and weekends usually have a lot of traffic.

There was a lot of traffic. A lot.

You know how slow I had to be going to get this clear of shots of the traffic in front and behind me?

The decision to drive downtown to get some food and find a Target seemed like a good one at the time. I made this move not realizing what downtown Chicago is like.

[Left] Traffic went from a standstill to very fast. [Right] I ended up turned around in a neighborhood. 

Heading downtown in Chicago was hell. Never mind the fact the pedestrians downtown did not care that you were in a vehicle. I’ve seen this happen before in Kansas City and other metropolitan areas that I’ve driven through. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was still very annoying.

But with the additional stressed state that I was in, it’s a wonder I didn’t accidentally end up hitting someone with my vehicle.

As I drove downtown trying to both find a target store and somewhere to eat, I came to the realization that there’s very little parking downtown, even for the businesses that are crammed into the small one way streets.

By this time I had a headache developing. Now whether that was from my anxiety or because I was hungry I don’t know. My GPS directions took me to a Burger King that was in the direction of the Target I was trying to get to. Upon finding it, I discovered that same Burger King, had at some point, caught fire, and thus was no longer open.

I sat in the back of the parking lot just staring at the empty building with visible smoke damage on it.

Pulling out of the parking lot of that Burger King, to merge back into downtown traffic was a pinnacle of stress for me at that point.

I drove further along, hoping to at least get to the Target and maybe I could pick up some food from there. I figured I had a microwave back at the hotel.

I never did make it. I never did find that store. Even with the GPS.

I got so turned around, I was stopped at a red light waiting to turn left when I heard a loud and horrendous "thunk" on the back of my vehicle. Startled, I quickly looked in my rear view mirror and out my driver side window just in time to see and hear someone fall to the ground screaming "ah, fuck!" and what looked like a delivery bag split open with food now spread out on the ground.

Because I was so tired, for a moment I really thought I had accidentally backed in to somebody. Is something happening behind me that I’m not aware of? Was I getting car jacked?

I don’t know why, but I got out of my vehicle to see if the person was all right. I noticed two people heading over in my direction, that at first glance, assumed were security guards, (who may very well possibly been policeman), rushed over from across the street to see what was happening.

Not being from Chicago, and not knowing what was actually going on, I’m not gonna lie... I was a bit freaked out. I was tired, my head hurt, I was hungry, and I was extremely lost. I remember asking the guy who was on the ground, for some reason, "dude, are you high?"

After checking we both were alright, and there was no damage to my vehicle, the fellow who'd taken the spill off of his bike, by his own admission, had just not been careful and ran into me. Unfortunately, his bike was scratched up some, and his food was now street pizza.

Thankful that things weren't serious, the officers started to walk off, but I must have been looking extremely disheveled, scared, or annoyed I’m not sure. One of the officers asked me if I was all right and I said yes, I was just trying to find somewhere to eat and I apologized profusely to the bicyclist and to both of them, and said I just had a very long day. That I had been at a convention earlier, that "I wasn't from around here", and I was just trying to find some food, get to Target to pick up some art supplies, and get back to my hotel.

I over explained the hell out of everything, but the officer was nice enough to let me know more restaurants were down the street.

Once again on my way, I found a McDonald’s. I pulled in and ordered a comfort meal that would rival a convicted man’s last meal on death row.

This almost looks like the outside establishing shot of a sitcom location for TGIF.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I ordered two number one meals, two McChicken’s, two cheeseburgers, two apple pies, and two fish sandwiches. I drove in a head thumping haze after that, looking for anywhere that I could stop, eat, and get away from traffic.

Eventually I ended up in a quiet neighborhood as you can see from the photo above. This was the apartment complex right across from where I was parked.

By this point, it was about 10 o’clock at night. I hadn’t purchased all of the food to eat in that moment, but I did eat the majority of it. I’m not ashamed to admit that the stress got the better part of me and I just sat there and let my emotions flow free. I needed to get the frustration, the angry tears, everything negative flushed out of me.

The rest of the food I bought because I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage food for the next few days, since I don’t remember there being any restaurants near the hotel, I was staying at.

Put a pin in that for a moment.

It’s one of those times also when I’m glad I had my phone, and I pulled up Netflix and for about 30 to 40 minutes, I just watched some shows, ate my food, and calmed down by myself in the middle of a neighborhood in Chicago at almost 11 o’clock at night.

If you're going to drive in Chicago, do it after 11pm. Much safer.

I gathered my thoughts and decided there’s no way, even if I had managed to make it to a Target, that I was going to be able to purchase anything at that point, and get up in time to make it to the show early enough to set up the rest of my display. So I decided to just roll with it and do the best I could on Saturday without the additional display elements.

Driving from out of downtown back onto the highway in route to the hotel, was thankfully much calmer with a lot less traffic. It was about 11:35 pm. by the time I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. It was then that I realized, there was a McDonald’s. DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET from my hotel.

Anxiety can make one blind.

If you saw my video on TikTok, you know this lock, in the most hilariously pointless way, did not remotely work. It was just for aesthetics.

When I got up to my room, I got in, locked the door, showered, meditated, and watched a little TV. I needed to attempt to get some rest before getting up in a few hours.

Side note, the hotel's, cable tv, or whatever service I was watching, didn’t have the largest selection of television stations. Thankfully, there was Food Network, nickelodeon, and a Sikh television net work, which, like the Spanish Inquisition, I really did not expect.

I fell asleep, watching the Food Network, something about street tacos if I remember right..

Saturday 8/6: Day Two - The car is on fire.

I managed to wake at 4:30 AM, and was puzzled that I didn’t feel tired. I was also oddly craving tacos.

It was probably worry of getting to the show late or not finding a parking spot.

While getting ready, I thought, "It's going to be what it is. I may not make money at the show, but I'm going to do the best I can."

Even though I was happy to see a pup on the show floor, I just missed my dogs and cats.

I pulled into the parking garage right around 7 AM. I figured I’d redo my table layout, switching out art that could be seen every hour so people passing by could see the art better.

Getting there that early allowed me to get as much media for posting throughout the day, as I possibly could.

[Left] A nice Zelda cosplay [Right] I'm hoping this Jay and Silent Bob arcade brawler is coming to Switch.

When I do shows, my favorite thing is to have the stress free shopping moments before opening time. It also gives me time to talk to vendors and other artists.

[Left] I picked up three kits from the Bandai booth. [Right] I forgot to take a picture of my show badge until Saturday.

I went to the Tamashi nations/Bandai booth, and got into a conversation with one of the staff manning the booth about Japanese toys and where I could purchase some of the things they had at the booth. And of course they were selling just about everything on display, and let me purchase some sets.

[Left] Imposing cosplay of Lady Dimitrescu. [Right] An unexpected MST3K cosplay!

The crowd density was crazy.

There were moments when I spoke to a lot of people, and then times when there was no interactions at all. Craziest up and down sort of day I've had at a show in a long time.

[Left] Daisy and Peach from Super Mario Bros [Right] The last push of the crowd through Artist Alley happened right around 2:30pm.

My biggest regret was not being able to get to the arcade area during the show.

As Saturday wore on, it was becoming evident that financial success was NOT in the cards.

Even with the large crowd, and a decent flow through the row in artist alley I was in. Purchases just weren't happening.

Heading out after the show was done.

Knowing that 2/3 of the show days were now done with, I just made the best of what I could after the vendor hall closed. I spent time getting photos and recording more vid clips in the lobby as attendees passed by.

It's weird when so many of the people I saw in cosplay never made it down the alley area I was in.

Over the years I've done shows, I'm always surprised by how many people don't cover all of the show floor on certain days. I've talked to people who told me they never went into artist alley if they could help it. When I just attend shows, I literally map out every single row, especially at larger shows, so I make sure I never miss anything. I mean hell, it's expensive as hell to get in, why NOT cover every inch of the convention show floor?

One informal sort of measurement I use, that is I believe pretty accurate, on how traffic flows in a show is how many times I see cosplays pass by. A few years ago when I was doing Planet Comicon I used to do time lapses of the traffic in front of my booth and without exception, there were always some cosplays and groups of people that never passed by, that I inevitably saw after the show. I know, very OCD of me.

For instance, I would have remembered these amazing cosplays had they come anywhere near my booth.

There wasn't a lot that I thought could make my mood more off.

As I drove back to the hotel, that changed.

When I drive, I may have the radio on, I may have my mind thinking about any one of 100 things. That’s exactly how it was as I drove down the highway to get back to the hotel.

I remember that I wasn’t too far from the exit. I had to take that would lead me to an underpass onto the highway that I needed to be on.

I want to preface this by saying I’ve been in many high stress and unexpected situation before, in the years that I had done private security. But in those circumstances, when you’re at a bar or an entertainment venue, you start your shift wondering exactly what sort of lunacy you’re going to see before the night is over.

[Left] Last view as I drove off, of the convention center. [Right] Literally a car on fire.

I’ve seen enough things happen that in the moment they occur, I can stay very calm, and in control of my facilities to make sure I’m not in any danger. And that’s especially true whenever I take a road trip and go anywhere. In this case, since the drive was only about 35 minutes on the highway until I got to my hotel, my mind wasn’t thinking about anything odd possibly happening.

As I’m almost to my exit, what seemed like a simultaneous number of actions happened. I was in the right lane just passing an on-ramp, and a white pick up truck was passing me on the left. I certainly hear a revving engine, growing louder and the sound of sirens. A quick glance in my rearview mirror didn’t show anyone behind me, but as I looked into my Sideview mirror on my left, I could see a car quickly coming up on us from the offramp we were passing.

Suddenly the car flew by both me and the white truck missing my bumper by what seemed like inches, flying across the two lanes of traffic at a high speed. I looked again at my sideview mirror and saw police cars coming up the on-ramp in hot pursuit. Then I heard a crash, as the speeding car slammed into the cement retaining wall on the left side of the road, then it rebounded back across the two lanes in front of me and the truck, and proceeded to slam its front end into the steel barricade on the right hand side about 40 in front of me.

It hit with such force that it plowed through, hit the grassy area beyond the barrier, and flipped in the air and landed upside down.

No shit it seemed like time slowed down. I could describe exactly what the bottom of the car looked like as it was, as it careened over that metal barricade. I remember it slamming down, seeing dirt and foliage fly up, and suddenly the underside of the car exploded in flame. Seriously like something out of a fucking Michael Bay movie. Here’s the crazy part. I barely had time to register what happened as my exit was coming up. I took the exit and in the moment managed to grab my phone from the charger and sort of went into auto pilot as I came around to the underpass area beneath the bridge. I had just been on and filmed the moments when the cop cars caught up to the flaming wreck.

I think I was so out of it, it was so unexpected. When I later watched the footage when I got to the hotel, I didn’t even remember saying out loud on the video, “well, fuck me!”

After I recorded that clip, I drove onward, and I got to the hotel. I got my stuff, locked the doors on my vehicle, and headed into the hotel.

There was a weird static in my mind, as I walked into the lobby, said hello to the lady at the front desk, pushed on the packing tape, covered button on the elevator to access the second floor, and made my way down the hallway past the half broken door to my hotel room door. For some reason, everything seemed extra, colorful, noise seemed muted, and I felt like I was running at half speed. It was a very odd sensation, I believe I was in shock.

I’m 99% sure I witnessed a fatal car accident. I’m very certain that was a close call for both me and whoever was driving the white truck that was passing by me in the left lane.

I sat down in the chair in the corner of the room. And I just stared out into the room. I rarely have moments where my mind will go completely and utterly blank, and when it does, it freaks me out.

I’m not a superstitious guy, not really. But I do believe in chance, and the random very chaotic nature of the world we live in. I say this sincerely, there was a part of me that didn’t want to go back to the show at all. I just wanted to stay in the hotel, and the hell With any of my equipment, artwork, or whatever else I had left in the convention center. Yes, the two shows prior to this were devastatingly humbling and absolutely not what I had expected for the majority of them. But even with that being the case, if you read the reviews I did, there were good moments, and a few redeeming factors that helped me cope with the low sales and other issues that I faced.

But I just saw a car explode.

If I had left, maybe two or three minutes earlier, that car might have slammed into me. The very sobering idea of that scares the shit out of me.

I couldn’t tell you how long I sat in the chair, but at some point, I got up, grabbed my show bank, got out some change, and went downstairs to get some things out of the vending machine.

When I got down there, there wasn’t anyone else awake, and I noticed that a clock on the wall showed it being around 1130 at night. Hotels at night always have sort of a creepy, liminal space sort of feeling to them. I actually sort a dig that feeling. I had noticed the vending machines the first day I got in there and they were located in a room next to the workout area. Much to my surprise there were a few video games in there. I had about five dollars in quarters on me which was just enough to get a Coke Zero, and played about 40 minutes of Pac-Man. It’s a shame there aren’t more arcades in America that are affordable and accessible. That little mini arcade being in there helped me calm down immensely.

After using my last quarter, I walked back up to the second floor, using the stairs. Got back in my room and decided "screw it, I’m just going to have fun tomorrow, there’s no way in hell I’m going to make enough money, so I’m just going to enjoy myself".

Once again, I fell asleep watching television, this time watching one of Anthony Bourdain‘s shows. Again, I don’t believe in fate, but I did find it pleasantly surprising that the last thing I was watching before I went to bed was his show. He’s the sort of traveler and writer that I’ve always aspire to be, and there’s not a day that goes by, when I am traveling, that his stories and experiences don’t play into how I look at the ups and downs I endure.

Sunday 8/7: Day 3 - A dog, a donut, and determination.

When I finally woke up Sunday morning, I felt oddly relaxed. It was early once again about 5 AM. I got ready, packed my day bag, and then drove across the street to get breakfast at McDonald’s.

Traffic was mercifully much less that Sunday morning, maybe everyone was at church I don’t know.

[Left] About an hour before the show. [Right] Another little pooch who wandered by.

When I got into the convention hall, I wandered around and picked up quite a few things, you can see in below in the show hall pictures I took. Maybe because of therapy, maybe because I’m older, maybe it’s because I watched Anthony Bourdain before I fell asleep, I, very much was open, honest, and forward that morning. I got a chance to talk to a small group of various artists and told them how my weekend had gone when I asked. I was happy that many of them had had pretty good business that weekend.

I’m a firm believer that food can heal a lot and I don’t know this gentleman’s name, but when I was speaking to the artist Landis Blair, a fellow with a box of donuts, offered me one. I was also gifted an amazingly beautiful enamel pin by the very kick ass artist Katie fox. When I made it back to my table, my neighbor, Paul Bautista was there, and I filled him in on what it happened last night on the highway. I know this sounds macabre to say this, but I’m glad I had the footage to round out as proof what I’d seen happen.

This donut got me literally emotional.

Sunday wore on, and sales, of course didn’t get any better. But my mood did. To any of you that do shows, I think you’ll agree, that, even when the show goes really bad, it is our attitude, and how we handle things that allow us to learn, and grow from the experience. Don’t get me wrong it’s still fucking sucks. But the people I spoke to and met, especially on Sunday, made everything a whole lot better.

Finally, at the end of the show, there wasn’t much more to do than to say goodbyes and begin packing up. Honestly, some people had started packing up around 330 to 4 and their tables were already empty by the time the announcement that the show was closing for 2022 was broadcast.

[Left] Great Jurassic World cosplay of Clair and Blue [Right] The Jawa that played with the mini Mandalorian.

I’m grateful for one social interaction I witnessed, and if you look above, there is a photo of the specific cosplayer that was portraying a Jawa. I made a video on TikTok about watching the instance unfold, and what happened was there was a young boy there with his father , and he was dressed up as the Mandalorian, the little boy was. He got super excited when he saw the Jawa and ran up behind the Jawa with his disintegrator rifle, pointing it at the Jawa.

I think the father said something to the Jawa like "look behind you", and the Jawa turned around, jumped up, and pretended to hide behind other people in an excited motion, acting fearful.

That, right there was wonderful to witness. I didn’t video record the moment. I mean it involves children, and it was clearly a very personal moment for the father, his son, and the Jawa cosplayer. But I wanted to get a photo of the Jawa, which is why that’s up there, and I thanked them for being so cool to the tiny Mandalorian.

I want to note the Jawa never broke character, which I loved.

The crowd seemed really light on Sunday, this was at 12:46 pm.

With that, I got all of my booths, broken down, packed away, said my goodbyes, and headed out of the hall. For some strange reason, I didn’t really want to believe the day was over. Even as terrible as the weekend had been sales wise, I was still very happy for a lot of the experiences, and for just saying now that I officially had done the show, C2E2.

[Left] Cobra Baroness and Cobra Commander [Right] The load out instructions for after the show's end.

The rush to get out of the hall with something else there’s only a few elevators and stairwells you can take to get to the garage to get all of the stuff out of the hall. So I took my time as it was I was staying that evening because I didn’t feel like driving back at night and I check out on Monday morning.

This was the moment the PA sounded the end of the show. A good number of booths had started breaking down about an hour before.

After filming some of my last clips, and taking some final videos for my blog, I was waiting in line for an elevator, with my dolly, filled with all my stuff, and then a group of people dressed as zombies walked by me. Evidently there was also, a horror convention that had been happening that weekend as well. I’m not saying there’s a lot of crossover and the phantoms, but there’s a lot of crossover and the phantoms, and sometimes I wonder if having this many shows is diluting the effort. Maybe I’m just thinking about it too much.

Since I was just heading back to the hotel, I took my time with farewells and filming some last minute segments.

[Left] The last few people exiting under the main entrance banner. [Right] So many cosplays I never saw in the hall.

This time the drive back to the hotel was just as easy as the drive was in. Nothing crazy happened in fact they were very very few people on the road. I did realize that Monday was going to have rush-hour so I didn’t wanna stay up too late, because I wanted to not be caught in rush-hour while leaving Chicago. I picked up some food through a drive-through and went back to the hotel, and after getting back in my room, took a long shower and began packing up everything I could in anticipation of leaving in the morning. I crawled into bed and that night’s viewing was SpongeBob SquarePants.

Monday 8/8: Day 4 - Writing, thinking and time to reflect.

The anticipation of getting on the road woke me up right around six or seven in the morning. I took my time and looked over everything to make sure I had left nothing behind. Gathering my bags and give me the room one more quick glance over I may want my way down to the front desk to check out and then headed out the lobby.

I actually had a decent sleep Sunday night.

It was an overcast and partially rainy day, which for me, is the perfect weather for any sort of road trip. I tried to find a drive-through that I could pick up some breakfast at as I didn’t want McDonald’s again, and stumbled across a Huck’s kitchen, gas station.

Rain on the way home. Just outside the first gas station I found that morning.

Evidently we have these in Missouri as well. They’re a Midwestern sort of thing, but if you get the chance to stop at one of these, I highly recommend their breakfast sandwiches, they were amazing.

The drive home was thankfully, very uneventful, and because of the overcast skies, enjoyable.

A long road home.

I use voice to text in my notes app to write a lot of these entries in there very rough early formats. And because the drive home was going to be about eight hours long at the shortest. I had plenty of time to dictate it out.

There were some things I found out later after I got home that I wish I had known prior to the show. One the fan expo had happened so soon prior to see to eat you, and that there are a multitude of shows in the Chicago area. I still hold that in oversaturated market makes it hard for people to have enough money to spend across the spectrum of shows that can happen. And I’m not saying that as an excuse for why I didn’t sell. I sure as hell don’t know what really went wrong. It may very well have been that I simply blend it in, or maybe I just didn’t have fanart.

I got lost trying to locate a Wendy's and stumbled across these sandwiches at a Huck's Market.

There were some things I did do right, like, bringing a fan, remembering larger, charging batteries, and also bringing containers with snacks like beef, jerky, assorted nuts, and granola to the show to keep me going, and give me something to do when no one came to my table.

I don't remember a time that so many niche and general sort of conventions have been so prolific.

I may not have brought all my booth, but packing in snacks, back up batteries, and a portable fan, all help the comfort factor even at bad shows.

The photo below was the view from my kitchen window, early Tuesday morning. I do love travel, but there is some thing really nice about being able to come home, and think about everything I went through. I knew that this blog post was going to take me a while to write, especially considering how many photos you’ve all just seen in here that needed editing.

So the purpose of these blog posts, especially the show reviews, is to provide a point of resource for other artists out there that have been doing, or are just starting out doing, shows that cover all aspects from Anime to Comic to toy to vintage video game. I often would get a lot of questions over the years from previous blog entries. I did that questioned how much I made. How lucrative is it to do these shows, and how does one even get started doing any of the shows.

So, just like the other previous entries for icon, and for fountain city con, I’ve also included a fairly thorough show overview below.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this, and maybe there were some new hits of information to glean for your knowledge base.

It's not the fanciest backyard, but it's my thinking place.

You’ll also notice down at the very bottom above my signature. There is a button for PayPal to support the Artisan Rogue blog. I have run this version of my website for quite a few years, and I will keep posting show reviews, and experiences for as long as I go to them. But if you feel like supporting my efforts, because believe me, writing, editing, photo, taking and editing, and all of the video content I create across multiple platforms, takes quite a bit of time. I do all of that, while also working on my personal soft publication projects, freelance, and occasionally doing creative consultant efforts. This is literally a one-man show. So if you feel like donating anything, any amount, I am beyond, happy if you do.

Show Overview.

And now, the breakdown points of C2E2.

Is it worth it?

Yes and no. The "Yes" part only came after some time reflecting on all that happened. The "No" for the following...

The crowd size was insane. If you've got social anxiety, the show could be really overwhelming.

The show has so much going on, is very family friendly, man will your need to bring good walking shoes.

I didn't make money. Not even close. But there's a part of me that wants a second go at it. Maybe in 2024.

Maybe.

Expense/Earnings

1. Artist Alley Table price: $463.00
2. Fuel/food: $589.89
3. Purchases from vendors and other artists: $122.13
4. Hotel: $448.92
5. Parking Garage: $100 (over 4 days)
6. EMOTIONAL DAMAGE: not yet totaled

Total Expenses: $1,719.94

1. Friday Sales: $27.91
2. Saturday Sales: $3.58
3. Sunday Sales: $25.94
   
   Total Gross Earnings: $57.43

Pros

• The show has a long legacy, and had a lot to see and do.
• Show floor layout was enormous. A LOT of vendors and artists
• A good number of great indie artists, writers, and creators.

Cons

• Never saw staff members during the show on the floor or making rounds. Only at check-in.
• Tickets were on higher end: 3 day/$107.75 - Per day: $47 to $57 - Various other options
• Parking is once again, not the greatest, but at least there are nearby garages to use
• With so many booths, it wasn't easy to stand out. Alley fatigue was very real.
• Prices on most vendor booths for toys/videos/collectibles were on average higher than ebay

The Final Evaluation

I can't help but focus on the fact that financially, this was hands down one of the worst shows I've done. Not even kidding, it made me reconsider even going on doing other shows, really to the point of if I should even be doing shows I'd already signed up for, especially when you take into account my returns from the two shows previous to this.

Not having my booth setup fully on display most certainly hurt sales. I walked the show floor every day I was there beforehand, and it was too easy to get overwhelmed by the visual spectacle of it all. Having one or two works of fan art that I found in my bin, helped pull some people in. Marketing and self promotion is no doubt key to build up any chance at these larger shows, or having a presentation that is direct, on point, and easy for people passing by to have their eyes caught.

C2E2 is one of those shows that is up there with SDCC that most people know about, if only from hearsay.

Attending is not exactly affordable, ticket prices are fairly high, and if you combine that with a parking pass, it's painful. Break it down this way:

For one person on average spending to get in for just one day:

• Ticket on low end: $47
• Parking: $25
• Food: $25

That's just about $100 to attend one day at the show. That's not spending money. That's not more than one meal, that's not kids, that's not any sort of special perks which the show has plenty of upper options to accommodate for, at higher prices.

From an artist alley point of view, the crowd was interesting. Even around me, other artists I spoke to had hard times with sales. Others I know personally made damn good money. Easily in 4 figure income a couple of times over. Lot of people browsing, and a lot of people looking specifically for fan art, or indie things they already were invested in.

All that said, I think I should have gone to the show first. Walked the floors. Maybe held off one more year to make sure the financial hit wasn't as hard. I don't know, at the same time, if I hadn't tried, I'd not have met the great people that I spoke to and bought things from, nor would I have the experience to plan better for, if I decide to do the show when next I can get accepted in.

C2E2 Show Haul

Okay, let's end on a positive note. Sunday made all the difference for me. Maybe because the two prior days had been so bad, from so many angles, I was able to put it aside. I also have to thank my homie Paul Bautista, who I'd only just met that weekend. His positivity and realness was appreciated, and I'm so damn glad he was my booth neighbor. And there were others that Sunday morning that lifted my spirit and healed my pride. I was gifted some cool things, and also bought a few things. I highly recommend following the creators through the links at the end of this post below! Bur first, here's some pictures of what I picked up!

All the things.

Wonderful publications from Landis Blair. Hope to cross paths at a future show again man!

Stickers from Paul Baustista. One of the best show neighbors I've ever had. If you're reading this Paul, thanks man.

Beyond the Western Deep. The marketing and display is so on point for everything!

Kenya Danino (KDFoxx) gifted me this absolutely stunning pin. She is one of the most formidable artists I've ever met. Thank you for the supportive words, and talking!

Such an odd model kit. But one I could not pass up!

Thank you so much for reading, I am Mario, the Artisan Rogue, and until next time, remember to support artists and local businesses. Be kind to your fellow beings and always take the path less traveled. We all may live in times uncertain, but kindness, understanding, and believing in the good that is in most each and every one of us is what can bring about better days!.

LINKS

C2E2

Landis Blair 

Paul Bautista  

Beyond the Western Deep 

KDFox 

Bandai

Huck's Market 

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Voice Actor, Writer, Animal Rights Activist

-All photos, editorial content, created by me. One dude. Thank you for reading.-

www.theartisanrogue.com