NYCC 2012 - Comics Experience Report

Another New York Comic Con is complete!

Reports are that more than 115,000 people attended, and the convention is expected to have MORE space next year!

We wanted to send a big THANK YOU to our panelists and to everyone who attended our panels on Pitching for Professionals (with Andy Schmidt, Nick Lowe, Bob Schreck, and Paul Allor) and Surviving Collaboration (with Andy Schmidt, Robert Atkins, Chris Sotomayor, and Paul Allor). We hope you enjoyed them.

We had a bunch of members and instructors exhibiting, and reports were that sales were extremely strong and the networking opportunities were fantastic!

Also, we had another successful Comics Experience Meet-Up at Mulligans on Thursday night this year -- the biggest Meet-Up ever to date, with 30-40 attendees over the course of the night.

Comics Experience alums, Workshop members, and instructors who attended included: Alejandro Arbona, Andy Schmidt, Bill Yurkas, DaFu Yu, Dan Rivera, Dan Rivera, Dave Kawalec, Eric Drumm, Gamal Hennesey, Gannon Beck, George O'Connor, Jenay Gordon, Joe Sergi, Joey Groah, Kevin Byrne, Matt O'Keefe, Nick Dedual, Nicole Boose, Paul Allor, Paul Littell, Rich Douek, Robert Atkins, Scott Dubin, Sean Flahaven, and Seth Teter. It was great seeing everyone there!

We look forward to next year -- and if you have aspirations to create comics or improve your craft, join us, and maybe we'll see YOU there next year!

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 - Comics Experience Report

Another San Diego Comic-Con International is in the books, and we hope you had as great a time as we did!

Our FIVE panels on breaking in and comics craft were a hit, and we want to thank everyone who attended.

The Writing for Comics 01 panel, in particular, was packed.

The audience had the opportunity to hear Andy Schmidt, Josh Fialkov, and Peter David discuss all aspects of the comics writing craft.

Just a couple hours later, Andy and Josh continued the discussion in Writing for Comics 02.

And because it was the last panel of the day, we ran *very* long, with Andy and Josh doing their best to answer every audience question.

On Friday, we had two great sessions on Digital Art, both from the business side and from the craft/creative side.

Andy's guests for these two sessions were David Marquez (Ultimate Spider-Man), Brian Haberlin (Spawn, Anomaly), Comic-Rocket.com founder Tim Shields, and ComiXology co-founder John Roberts.

Plus, on Thursday, Andy did his ever-popular panel on Breaking In!

As far as the convention itself, Comics Experience instructors, alums and Creators Workshop members in attendance included: Allen Edger, Amy Chu, Andy Schmidt, Bobby Curnow, Brandon Seifert, Dave Castelnuovo, Joey Groah, Jon Witmer, Rob Anderson, Sean Chen, Shaun Manning, Tim Shields, Timothy Simmons, and Tracie Burch. Folks were attending or participating in panels, doing signings, pitching projects, covering the news, or just soaking it all in!

A good-sized contingent of Comics Experience folks also made their way over to Trickster for their various symposia and other events.

This is a shot of the "Character Development and the Shaping Of Emotion" session, attended by Allen, Amy, Rob and Joey, and that huge panel at the front includes Ed Brubaker (Fatale, Criminal), Matt Wagner (Grendel, Mage), Jimmy Palmiotti (Creator-Owned Heroes, The Pro), B. Clay Moore (Hawaiian Dick), Ivan Brandon (Viking, The Cross Bronx), Scott Morse (Strange Science Fantasy, Brave), Marc Andreyko (Torso, The Lost), and Ande Parks (Capote In Kansas, Union Station). This was a great, conversational session, and notes are available on the Workshop.

Finally, no major con would be complete without a Comics Experience Meet-Up.

We had a nice dinner on Saturday night with (clockwise, from left) Carl Peterson (& Libby, not pictured), Rob Anderson, Andy Schmidt, Tim Shields, Mike Costa, Allen Edger, Alberto Veloso & Elana, and Joey Groah. Good times, good comics talk!

We look forward to the next convention and hope to see you there!

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If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
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Comics Experience - C2E2 Report!

The 2012 C2E2 Convention was another great one for Comics Experience staff, alums, and Creators Workshop members!

On Friday, Comics Experience founder Andy Schmidt (former Marvel and IDW Editor) and our art instructor (and pro penciler) Robert Atkins held two art-focused panels: Comic Art and Storytelling and Building Your Art Portfolio.

In the Storytelling panel, the panelists discussed the elements of "Visual Success," from communication and action, to dynamics. There was also conversation about how to "read without words," the concept of active reader participation, and even the topic of photo reference. You can read a more detailed account of this panel on CE alum Joe Sergi's Cup of Geek website.

In the Portfolio panel, Andy and Robert discussed all the ins and outs of building and showing your portfolio -- what to include, what to exclude, and even how to physically present it!

Also, quite a number of Comics Experience alums were in attendance, and several were exhibiting, including Amy Chu (alum & Workshop member) showing off Meridien City (1 and 2 in one volume!) and Girls Night Out. And artist and alum Carl Peterson was another member displaying his artwork in Artists Alley!

Of course, no major convention would be complete without a Comics Experience meet-up, which took place Friday after the panels.

The meet-up was attended by (clockwise, from left): Amy Chu, Jim Murray, Andy Schmidt, Joe Sergi, Brian Gilman, J.D. Oliva, Craig Schmidt, and Carl Peterson, as well as (not pictured here) Robert Atkins and Paul Allor.

We hope to see you at the next convention!

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If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook

COMMUNITY NEWS: Comics Experience at Baltimore Comic-Con 2011

The 12th Annual Baltimore Comic-Con took place on August 20-21, 2011, and Comics Experience alums and Creators Workshop members were everywhere!

At one point, Workshop member, Joey Groah, tweeted that the BOOM! Studios panel audience had "@ComicExperience member overload" because we had so many folks there!

Baltimore Comic-Con is a fantastic show for comics creators on both sides of the table, with crowds that seemed record-breaking to us, perhaps due to the appearance of Stan Lee. But the large Artists Alley portion of the convention still allowed for lots of direct interaction with creators.

Saturday night, we held a Comics Experience Meet-Up at Tir Na Nog on the Inner Harbor with alums, workshop members, and friends.

It was great to have a "real world" get-together with friends who we interact with on a daily basis in our online classes and forums, but don't always get to see face-to-face (unless you count webcams)!

As you can imagine, much of the conversation centered around making comics, and it was clear a lot of exciting work is in the pipeline.

Members/alums in attendance included Paul Allor, Rob Anderson, James Babbo, Gannon Beck, Amy Chu, Scott Dubin, Janine Frederick, Ken Frederick, Joey Groah, Elizabeth Amber Love, Dan Rivera, and George O'Connor (who joined us after the picture shown here).

Thanks to everyone who joined us, and we look forward to the next Comics Experience meet-up at New York Comic-Con 2011!

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Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook