Atlanta Comic Con Reflection

I've tabled before.

I think like once before, but I've done it. In grad school my professors organized a mini convention (Hissy Fit) at My Parent's Basement. It was a great experience and it helped to teach some of the ins and outs of tabling as a comic creator. 

Fast forward like two years, and here I was still with a sense of impostor syndrome, not tabling, not really getting in front of people with my comics. I'd gone to plenty of cons as a fan, I had a number of comics self-published, and I'd tabled before so where was the impostor syndrome coming from?

Sit with me for a second, I'm a hip hop fan. I love music, I love live music especially, so I'm pretty regularly going to concerts. Believe it or not, I'm writing this while at a concert; currently waiting for Jamila Woods to perform. Where does the money for these concerts come from? I think it just materializes sometimes. Like Magic.

My cousin, a rapper, had performed at a few venues, really working to get his music out there and over the summer he and some of his peers organized an event at one of my favorite concert venues and they all performed. I saw him in his element, and I'd been watching him grow as an artist, so to see him just going up for himself in such a substantial way made me ask the question “Why aren't I doing that?” 

“Why aren't I doing that?” 

I scraped my money together and decided that I should, that I was ready. So on a whim, I applied to table at Atlanta Comic Con. I don't know that I expected to get accepted after strings of rejection letters in my job search so imagine my surprise when I was accepted. It very quickly became a scramble to get myself together, spending money that I certainly didn't have, getting stuff for my table. Down to the wire, and the weekend crept up until it was finally here. February 9th to 11th, a full weekend of tabling with my friend and collaborator working the table with me, selling prints and comics.

(I only sell physicals, that isn't changing!)

I brought Monumental #1, Stay Woke #1 & #2, the last four copies of Pride 2021, and Waiting For Superman with me to my table. We set up pretty quickly and all I had to do was wait for my audience to find me.

I'm pretty consistently in my head, so I was questioning if I was gonna reach my audience, if my art actually was on target with who I was making it for. It was inspiring to see people connect with what I was putting forth, to see people engaged with what I was saying. As people came up to me and asked questions I got to be in my element, talking through my inspirations, through my work and at the same time quieting that voice in my head, quieting the impostor syndrome because I do this.

I DO THIS.

As a comic creator, the table is my stage. From the time I loaded in to the time we packed it all up, I was doing it. I'm grateful to everyone that's supported and still is supporting me, the artists; visual and musical that inspired me, and I'm grateful for my cousin lighting that fire under me just by him doing his thing and putting himself out there and now I just have to keep doing the same.