Gearing up for ALL-CON in Dallas!!

Holy crap you guys! My 2015 convention schedule is starting up even earlier than usual: next month (March 12-15) I will be in Dallas, Texas for All-Con! This marks my first convention outside of the east coast as well as my first time visiting the state of Texas! How exciting! Thanks to my pal Taffeta Darling for hosting me during this show. I'm pumped to meet all my new friends and fans- and how lucky you guys are that are attending- you've got the first pick of all my new merch, including new prints, jewelry and accessories! I'm still trying to figure out what to wear as well, considering this is a new state and a new convention- most of the folks attending haven't been keen to my antics, so what's old is new again! I'm thinking definitely my Wonder Woman and The Baroness outfits are coming out to play (especially with my awesome new foundation garments) and I seriously can't wait to take a break from this craptastic North East weather.

Here's some of the 5x7" print sets I'll have, $5 each!

A video posted by Paige Pumphrey (@paigey_pumphrey) on Feb 7, 2015 at 2:21pm PST

6"x11" Sailor Mermaid print sets!

SO MANY BRACELETS YOU GUYS. And new pendants!

Even MORE bracelets!

NEW 8.5x11" prints- Pee-Wee, Heathers and The Marbles!

Aftermath: Baltimore Comic Con 2014

Yay! Another Baltimore Comic Con (9/5-7) for the books!! This year marked my *8th* year vending at conventions! This was also the first year Baltimore Comic Con opened up it's doors on Friday- which omg made setting up the table and getting myself prepared for the show SO MUCH EASIER. This year I was set up in Artist Alley with my BFF Little Asian Sweatshop- we each had one full table and our widest selection of products yet.

Me and Fenny as the Cobra typing pool

Weee! Here's a quick little video of my table!

Loading

Woo! Finally got my act together at Baltimore Comic Con!

View on Instagram

Every other year with it being a two-day show it's an absolute mess trying to get up to the show with all of my merch, half dressed in costume, all before 10am when the doors open and gads of people start filing through because it's also the BIGGEST day of the show. It was a welcome addition to have the extra day to take my time setting up and even bring my con outfit and makeup to the show separately so I wouldn't get all sweaty and bust a seam setting up. It's actually become my new thing that I do on setup days and at shows that require crazy prep the morning of. I'm really surprised I haven't started doing it sooner.

Tactical error in parking on Friday- 3 trips to the car in 100+ heat.
BUT SO MANY CALORIES BURNED.

This year's Baltimore Comic Con continues to become more and more of a successful endeavor for me every year, with this being my most prosperous yet. I think the combination of having done it so many years in a row, along with it being my hometown show- so many of my friends from various stages of my life come out to see me and say hello and support me with purchases and kind words. It is so appreciated. There are no fans like Baltimore fans- once you've earned their favor they will continue to support you every year you make yourself available to them.

Retro COBRA office ladies!

Saturday was our big day where we finally got to wear our retro Cobra typing pool costumes and they were very well received.We've even inspired a few friends to join in, so hopefully in the future we'll see more snarky (or should I say SNAKEY?) office ladies.

Harvey Awards mixer? Or Cobra recruitment meet-and-greet?

Saturday night my husband Phil and I attended the Harvey Awards dinner- he and his team at Kodansha Comics (where I also work my day job as a manga letterer) were nominated for Best American Edition of Foreign Material for the Attack on Titan manga. Everyone else at Kodansha had already been down in Baltimore for Otakon one month previous, so Phil attended on the team's behalf. The dinner and awards ceremony were great fun, my only gripe was that after a full day of working the show in an uncomfortable outfit- I may have gotten a bit snippy with people (mostly my ever loving and patient husband). Plus actual industry parties with big wigs and editors and old comics guard tend to make me nervous. This is why I don't typically do afterparties. I'm much more comfortable socializing in a 'work' setting like my table.

Phil and I at the Harvey Awards dinner

**And excitement! They won! Yay!!**

Yay!

 Sunday was another crazy day- maybe even crazier than Saturday. So many friends and fans came by to say hello. Baltimore truly is one of my favorite shows of the year. I also have to say a special shout to the Friends of Humanity from the 90's X-Men cartoon cosplayers. I literally laughed so hard I cried when I saw them. And they were IN CHARACTER!!! Shouting 'NO MORE MUTANTS!' in that ridiculous redneck accent from the show. If only they had a Graydon Creed with them in a red suit. It was SO GREAT. You guys have NO IDEA how much my husband and I quote from the X-Men cartoon.

IMHO, best cosplay all weekend. I cried laughing.

 And now for an amusing story:
Sunday was a cluster of seeing SO MANY FRIENDS that at one point I think we had about 10+ people from various stations of our lives hanging out around our table. It was exciting to see so many people and when Fenny especially sees someone she loves she explodes with unbridled squealy happiness. There was no doubt for that :45-hour that our table was the place to be. It was such a rag-tag gaggle of cosplayers, pinup girls, tattoo artists and punk rockers hanging out with us and having such a good time enjoying each other's company that we actually had to be SHUSHED by an AA neighbor 5 tables down. Which he did so indignantly we initially thought he was joking. No one could be THAT lame, right? But really- dude is 5 tables down from us on the same side. Clearly we're all having a good time. It's a comic show, not a wake. Instead of coming around front and politely asking Fenny or I like people if we can turn down our volume, he goes around behind 5 other AA tables, pops his head out from behind my vertical banner and hisses at us all to 'stop screaming because he keeps thinking someone is hurt!' Because he thinks he'll have to run over here and give us all mouth-to-mouth? I honestly don't know. Fenny and I initially thought he was kidding, he was being so melodramatic about it. My friend badass tattoo artist Hunter Spanks was like 'Holy shit that dude was SO SERIOUS- and I thought tattoo shows had DRAMA! This is GREAT!' Once our pals started to dissipate and Fenny and I were left alone to our tables I kept noticing every time the dude passed our table he would give us a massive stink eye. To which I, in my DILIGAF best- smile and wave back to him with a 'yeah- stop screaming we're so loud, wokka wokka!' Because if he's going to act like a joke then I'm going to treat him like a joke. Fenny couldn't have been happier- she LIVES for people having a problem with her. She loves it almost as much as praise. And if he actually had the balls to say anything to us afterwards (which he didn't) there were SO MANY WAYS we could have played it. There was the standard 'Really? We thought you were joking!' route- where dude has to admit he is a lamoid who can't handle anyone else having fun. Especially since his table? From the looks of it- NOT so much the place to be. (I think someone might have been jealousssss...) There was also my topical favorite- which was 'Excuse me but are you trying to SILENCE MY FEMALE VOICE?' Because yeah, hot button issue of sexism in comics and at conventions. Ready the pitchforks.

Overall, it reminded me way too much of this episode of
Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Either way, that dude was lame and we are awesome.

Baltimore Comic Con 2014 prep!

Baltimore Comic Con 2014 is steadily approaching!! September 5th-7th at the Baltimore Convention Center! This is the first year it's a 3 day convention! How exciting! This marks my *8th* year attending conventions on a professional level!! Me and my BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop will be at Artist Alley tables 205-206! I hope to see you there! ^_^

Here's a preview of some of the *NEW STUFF* I'll have available!!

Wondy & Supey-G magnet sets! $10 for the pair!

Wondy & Supey-G mini print sets! $5!

NEW STICKERS! $5 each or 2 for $8!

Sailor Moon cameo bracelets! $15!

UTZ hearts BOH prints! $5!

Pearly Whites Sketch dump- July 2014

Had some time to myself during a weekend visit to my parent's house in Maryland and spent a good chunk of my time out on the back porch sketching and writing for my eventual comic, Pearly Whites. 

It's coming along. I actually closed a few gaps in the progression of the story and even made up a character or two that streamlines a very complicated origin story. The problem with writing a story that's been in my head since I was 15 is that that early on I had so many bad teenaged ideas ingrained into the story that they're simply taken as history. But in reality, I can change whatever I want and no one other than me will really know the difference. I mean some of these characters have been hanging out in my head for over 20 years so I don't necessarily want to un-make my imaginary friends, but for the sake of story sometimes you make sacrifices. I'm pretty proud of how much tighter Pearly Whites is getting though. I think I might actually *finally* have the beginning of the story figured out, which is exciting. It just keeps getting more and more ridiculous. It's like I'm taking a pinch from everything I love and putting it in a mixer and making my own cake of awesomeness.

Progress pics on some comics-inspired pieces

After a super-stressful and work-intensive last couple of months, I'm happy to take a step back and chip away some less demanding pieces for art shows, future merch and the like.

Wonder Woman

After having several customers at various shows in recent years ask me for Wonder Woman merch I *finally* sat down and drew everyone's favorite Amazon. This of course being a chibi version I plan on using for mini prints and magnet sets- so keep a lookout!

Original inks on vellum- colored with paint pens and colored pencil.

Blue lined pencils.

Inking on vellum!

Coloring with paint pens!

Supergirl

Since I tend to do my chibi pieces as two-packs I figured I'd draw Supergirl as well to go along with my Wonder Woman. I decided to go with the more casual animated version, since that seemed more fitting to my style and I think encapsulates the character's personality better.

Supergirl original inks on vellum!

2nd pass of pencils on top of rough blue lines.

Color progress.

Ladytron 
 I drew Ladytron from WildC.A.T.S. for an upcoming art show- From Spawn to Saga: Image Comics at 22 at the One-Shot Gallery in St. Marks Comics, NYC. I've always been a big fan of the character visually and thought she was criminally underused in the comics she was featured in. However as visually arresting as she is I can totally sympathize with any artist having to draw her, because MAN WHAT A NIGHTMARE. Personally I've never been a fan of drawing tech. I'm also pretty sure I haven't drawn anything this 'futuristic' in 12-15 years. Fortunately I had some ball-jointed dolls to look to for reference which helped greatly.

Digitally colored version. What I love about Ladytron is that she's basically a bionic Brody Dalle.

Inks.

Toned vellum version that will be on display at the art show.

Tattooed Sailor Girl 
What was originally going to be the artwork for this year's Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival poster is now going to the poster for the 2015 show. Which I'm actually totally fine with as they are going to use the teaser poster I put together back in February for the official poster for this year, and I have the poster for next year already like 85% finished. Either way, I'm playing with coloring the original inks for the sailor girl for the now 2015 poster because doing stuff like painting my originals is strangely relaxing for me. I dunno.

Also, my new addiction:

I'm pretty sure I now have this instead of blood.

Aftermath: Asbury Park Comicon 2014

"LOVE that Joker!"

Asbury Park Comicon kicked off my 2014 convention season last weekend and was a grand success! Hosted at the Berkley Oceanfront Hotel, this was the first of this specific show that I've attended in my further attempts to try out new venues for my Artist Alley tables. Hotel shows vs convention center shows both have their own sets of pros and cons. Hotel shows are definitely more intimate than convention center shows- the winding series of smaller, carpeted exhibition rooms you find in a hotel versus the singular, echoing concrete box of a huge convention center have various effects on you. I attended with my pal and frequent convention tablemate Maria Danalakis, who actually was placed in another room from me, so it looked like we were both flying solo. Which was interesting, as our room experiences were both very different yet enjoyable. Maria's table was out in what I called "The Veranda" which had numerous windows facing the ocean breeze and a porch with seating so you could laze about in the sunshine reading comics. How delightful.

 

My table however was located in a dimly-lit, windowless room with a heater running on high all day Saturday. It smelled weird. My makeup was melting and I was getting progressively more and more sleepy as the day stretched on. I eventually started to call it "Nerd Hell". BUT, I totally had great entertainment to make the day go by quickly. My table neighbors were the costume contact company Macabre Eyes, which was run by this dude Paul who is a character actor that all day Sunday played The Joker without breaking character. It was totally amazing. I felt like I was at a psychotic Disney character breakfast (without the breakfast). Plus, he's portraying the smarmy, middle-aged Jack Nicholson Joker, which I appreciate in this day of guys trying to be all 'sexy' Heath Ledger Joker. To add to the insane spectacle of the show was that my table was facing the celebrity row of Asbury Comicon, so I was a mere aisle's width of distance from frigging Dante from Clerks himself, Brian O'Hallorhan; the Chewlees Gum Guy from Clerks, Scott Schiaffo; frigging Rick Derris and a couple guys from Comic Book Men on AMC that were hocking their own indy creations. Every time I heard Dante say something to someone I had to chuckle a little to myself,  and go "Hey, Coach Dante!" cuz I'm actually a huger fan of the Clerks cartoon than even the movie. Also I was able to capitalize on some of the gawkers who would get held up in front of my table during massive photo sessions.
Financially the show was a win. I sold out on quite a few items, namely bracelets and my Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn pinup merch. Overall, while the show had some hiccups it was an enjoyable and fruitious time.

Setting up my table on Friday afternoon.

Sunday's outfit

In our satin tights, fighting for your rights!

Aftermath: NYCC 2013

On Saturday I dressed up as a rockabilly Lum from Urusei Yatsura!

 

 New York Comic Con 2013 is my final show of the year, which is both relieving and disappointing at the same time. My artist alley table was a rousing success and I sold out of several pieces of merch, which is phenomenal. I came in Thursday with a full suitcase and left Sunday with it at about a third the capacity! That's right- Thursday to Sunday! NYCC is SUCH a crazy busy convention it goes full speed for 4 days (the only other that does this is San Diego!). In fact I made back most of my table cost just on Thursday! It was crazy! I didn't really get to see much of the show floor due to being mobbed at my table all weekend- it literally took me over an hour from saying that I was going to go to the bathroom to actually being able to break free from my table, haha. NYCC was great way to close out the convention year for me though, I got to see so many friends and fans and sell a lot of my merch and gave away over a thousand of my cards to (hopefully) new fans and future customers! Looking forward to next year when Fenny (of Little Asian Sweatshop) and I plan to get a booth on the main floor!

On Thursday! Lookit that energy! Haha, that won't last!

Friday!

My table setup alongside Sara Woolley, who was kind enough to share her table with me!

2013 marks my *6th YEAR* of vending tables at Artist Alley as a professional illustrator. And it definitely seems with the success I've had at my tables this year I'm finally starting to find my footing in these crazy dog-and-pony shows. I've become confident in the level of professionality and universal appeal my merchandise has achieved over the years and look forward to creating even more merch featuring my art for you all to have as part of your lives.

Me and cosplayer Jennifer Rose, dressed as my Rockabilly Rogue!

Me as Lum on Saturday!

I don't normally do convention sketches, but a couple of lucky friends caught me off guard.

For booth neighbor Ashley Riot of her original character

For Marsha Cooke's Lady Gaga-themed sketchbook

Here's some video of my table on Friday: