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I will be appearing at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend

By “C2E2″, I mean the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. And by “appearing”, I mean moving boxes and things, because I’m volunteering to be an unpaid lackey for three days.

Not sure what I was thinking. I signed up four months ago when I was getting Scribs into swing and had some fanciful notion that I was going to get more involved in the comics community, but now I pretty much don’t care.


Saying I had “plans” for Scribs is likely an overstatement. Probably more accurate to say that I had a certain mindset this time around that I thought was healthier. When I first started getting serious about Scribs four years ago, I sort of assumed that I’d just naturally get popular and such by virtue of making a funny comic and letting the fame pour in. I got frustrated with waiting for the inevitable rush of traffic, so I gave up on it. And then in the intervening time, I saw other comics that started around the same time get wildly popular, and then the frustration and the envy and the glaven.

But last year my more selfish mindset relaxed somewhat, and I decided to start up the comic again, but this time, I’d do it right — instead of thinking I’d let the world beat down my door due to my inherent assumed fabulousness, I decided to make an effort in getting involved in the community, get on some message boards, try to make a connection with some actual people. 

And that’s how I wound up signing up to volunteer for c2e2. Actually at first I thought about getting a booth, but 1) too damn expensive, and 2) nothing to sell. The way I pictured it, it was likely going to be less sales booth than performance art. 

But, dunno. Might have been fun, but in the intervening time my attempts to interface with the human-units went less than well. Tried getting on message boards, but ech, made some shitty entrances and tried to just bluster through, but my tolerance ran out. Tried Twitter, but ran out of interest for that and now my spinnwebe account is just retweeting my scribscomic account, which I’m sure is not going to get it much attention. 

And it’s not even about the comic, really. I was kinda hoping to get myself into a community with some cool people. Though even there I guess I’m failing, because what I really kinda want is a nearby group of people. One, I already know a cool group of people online, and two, getting involved with comic artists online is not really the correct target anyway. I’d like to know what it’s like to have friends that I would pick up a phone and call, you know? Or having a reason to have a phone other than my college to leave messages to try to get money from me. But on the other hand, I’ve seen get-togethers with some comics people and they generally look nerdier than I can deal with.

So, I dunno. Every time I think of c2e2 now, I just find it kind of depressing. I don’t much feel like being around people right now, especially seeing people that are living the kind of life I could be living if I’d properly applied myself.

4 Responses to “I will be appearing at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend

  • 1
    fleeb
    April 12th, 2010 14:33

    Well, yeah, you already have a bit of a community about you, but it’s somewhat distant (geographically). There’s something mildly pathetic about having dinner with a laptop and webcam just so you can have interesting conversation with someone other than your spouse.

    Mensa has probably already played itself out for you. You probably aren’t interested in the sort of folks who go to conventions (comics, sci-fi, etc) anyway. You probably want the kind of conversations you get from the online community, but without the sort of bizarre personality quirks that come from extremely socially awkward intellectuals (or worse, people who *think* they’re intellectuals, but aren’t).

    In your position, I might consider getting involved with the college crowd in some way. It seemed to me that I had some of the best conversations with folks during my college years than at any other point in time in my life. Folks seemed interested in talking about all kinds of odd things, and I learned stuff occasionally from the other folks, but in a fun sort of chit-chat way. Certainly, I dreamed up some of my funniest ideas in college.

    But, I’m not in your position, and I don’t know what you want. And even if I did, I doubt I’d be very helpful in finding it, as I suspect I can’t find it for myself, either. And, frankly, it’s terribly presumptuous of me to even suggest you have a desire like this, so I’m probably out of line just on the face of things.

    Maybe I’m just projecting myself on some other semi-random guy out there.

    Oh, shit, maybe I’m really creepy or something! Maybe I shouldn’t hit the ‘Submit Comment’ button. But then, what if my general feelings of inferiority are winning out over what could be a couple of seconds of entertainment for some random stranger out there?

    Then again, maybe this blend of coffee isn’t right for me.

  • 2
    spinn
    April 12th, 2010 20:33

    You have valid points. Actually I haven’t given the Mensa thing a chance yet.

    Yeah really I wonder how I’d do in an art commune or something. I feel like I could do well to be surrounded by creative people.

  • 3
    fleeb
    April 12th, 2010 21:41

    Honestly, I could use the same. My work environment is great for the sort of creative folks we have, but it might be nice not to have the general pressures to produce. Just to be wildly creative for the sake of being creative.

    Although, I might stop short of the kind of creative endeavors found within The Cockettes.

  • 4
    zwit
    April 16th, 2010 10:31

    Awww.

    *hug*

    *extracts wallet*

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