Hey guys, welcome to Pesto Comics.
I’m actually in San Diego, in my hotel room - it’s pretty decent, I’m happy with where I’m at. I’m in the Hotel Circle area, not downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter where everyone else is.
I’m not near the convention center, but fortunately there’s a free shuttle that takes us all out to the convention. The convention’s going on right now, but I need a bit of a break - getting used to the time difference after such a long day on preview night. So I decided to take it slow getting started this morning.
San Diego as a Meeting Place
I’m going to grab some lunch, then head into the show. What’s good about today is I get to meet a lot of people in person that I hadn’t met before. If you saw the little vlog I posted on socials, you know that’s what I talked about - how the big point of San Diego is that it’s more a meeting place than anything.
Yes, there’s Hall H, and yes, there’s all the exclusives you can buy and all the things you can do that make San Diego a special place to be. But as a comics creator, the best thing about San Diego is that a lot of people are here - a lot of people you’ll make friends with online, a lot of people who’ll help support you and help you build a creative career, are going to be found here in San Diego.
So it’s well worth the trip, at least for me. I enjoy coming out here, meeting people, checking things out, and supporting who I can. I’m happy to do it again.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
There is an expense to it, though, and this is the one thing I’ve been thinking about - if this question comes up during my panel tomorrow, it’ll be my answer. How do you do all this, with no help from a publisher, just going in and using your grit and your will to make it happen?
The truth is: don’t quit your day job.
I hate to say it, but coming here to San Diego is terribly expensive. Printing books - expensive. Hiring artists - expensive. All of it is an expense, and you really have to think of it as a gamble on yourself. You have to want to make it happen - and that means sticking to your day job.
Maybe you have a dream of going full-time one day. I have that dream myself -only focusing on comics, only doing this. But the reality is, comics themselves don’t pay that much. It’s not something you can just jump into and hope that’s what you do now.
There’s a very limited group of people capable of doing that. All the people I consider my peers and colleagues are going back to their day jobs. There’s a very, very select few who just do this.
It’s tough news to take, I know - a lot of people hope they’ll land a job at DC and that’ll be it. But even the folks who work at these publishers usually have another job going on, working a regular nine-to-five just like everyone else. I’m still doing it, and a lot of people I know here are still doing it too.
That just seems to be the harsh reality that comes out of all of it.
San Diego as a Respite
But then when you come to San Diego, you get to take a respite from that part of your life, and you fully live in your alter ego. You are the comics creator. You are the comics enthusiast. '
You’re the person who lives and breathes comics and nothing else - at least until Monday, when you fly back to wherever you came from.
I really enjoy being here. I love the state of California in general - driving through, seeing all the palm trees, the Pacific Ocean rolling in, the California sun burning my skin. I’ve applied many, many layers of sunscreen, and it still manages to cut through - constantly reapplying as the day goes on. But it’s part of the gig. I really enjoy being here, and I think this is a thing I’m going to do every year.
So if you find yourself in San Diego, definitely come say hi.
Wrap-Up
I hope you make it out here. I really think you should. I’ll put a caveat out there: Thought Bubble may be just as good. I don’t know, it’s not quite the same. It’s not the same at all - Thought Bubble is much more indie-focused. But in terms of the engagement I get, in terms of meeting people and talking to people, Thought Bubble is pretty close up there to San Diego.
San Diego is the place to be. You have to come here if you want to be taken seriously as a comics creator, even if you just do it once in a while. You don’t have to do it every year, but make sure you make it out at least once. It’s a must-do in your comics life.
I’ll be back as much as possible. Right now I’m actually going to head back to the show - so with that, thank you for being here. We’ll do a full roundup - a proper “what happened at the show” plus what happened at the Minicon in Cambridge next week.
For now, I’m heading back out. Thanks for being here. Have a good one - we’ll talk next week.
