Last weekend I journeyed to Athens, Georgia for a return to FLUKE. It is a smaller convention focused more on “Zines, Small Press, Comix”, and you have to enter a lottery to actually get a table since space is so limited. It had been a couple of years since I’d managed to get one of those precious tables (in fact, the only reason I attended the first year is my friend couldn’t make it and offered it up to me). Sure enough I got lucky and scored a spot.

While the last decade or so, the convention has been at the music venue: The 40 Watt, this was their first year at Live Wire Athens. I’m not sure if this is my memory playing tricks on me or if it is fact, but the new location felt a little smaller.

We were allowed to come into the building at 9:30 AM and the Con opened its doors at 10:00 AM… not a ton of time to mess around. In addition, because table space is so limited, everyone is sharing a 6 ft table, so you have to get a bit more creative in your setup since you’re really only dealing with 3 ft of display space. I’m not sure I had the best solution. I knew I wanted In Our Dreams Awake 1 through 3 out front. I wanted the photocopied version of You Must Be This Tall To Ride #1 available to be able to show people. But I also had the Gilded Age Graphic Novel and then my three novels to try and show off as well.

As you can see in the picture below, I did my best, but I’m sure there is a better way.

When I did FLUKE the first time… I don’t remember making very many sales. Maybe it was one comic and that might have been it. So I was using this time to mark whether the trip was worth it. If I only had the one sell this time… I would probably need to find a different convention for next year.

The Good

From 10 AM to when the Con ended at 5 PM, it was constantly busy. The wait between people passing the table could be measured in seconds rather than minutes. During the course of the day I managed to talk to dozens of people and a few of them even bought a couple of items from me (win!). One pair I chatted with for maybe 10 minutes were interested in both who my printer was, how I used Kickstarter, and what platforms my novels were on. In those instances, I feel like I need to download anything and everything in my brain because on some things I have had some help navigating things in this whole indie comics thing, but there have been so many times where I had to stumble around in the dark before I figured anything out. I’m hopeful that some of the tidbits I passed along will save them a little bit of time and/or frustrations.

The convention is well run. Very low key with a ton of the artists seemingly knowing each other or the organizers. Everyone was very pleasant, and there was no drama that I saw.

I had some friends come out. Egg and Rebecca Embry made the trip towards the end of the day so that helped pass the final half hour or so (probably the only “slowish” portion of the day). I also had someone who I haven’t seen since Elementary School swing by with his wife. Burton and Maricia chatted with me for about 10 minutes and then later in the day, Burton swung back by for probably another 20 minutes. It was definitely great to catch up a little bit (though, I’m thinking we only covered the barest of bones considering it’s been nearly 40 years).

The Bad

I mentioned that this venue felt a little smaller… I made a mistake in picking my table spot. I figured I wanted to be on the first aisle as you walk into the place so that any potential customer would have to journey past my table. When I walked in there were still a couple of spots along the wall where I would have had no one behind me. I just wasn’t thinking about that. Instead, between my table and the table immediately behind me, there was only room for one person to ever be seated. This meant that if the artists behind me wanted to sit for the entire convention, guess who would have to stand the entire time (spoiler alert – it was me!).

Normally when I man a table, I like to stand when I’m talking with anyone who is looking over my stuff. But when things might be a little slower, it can be nice to get off your feet. Even if I had the room to sit down, I’m not sure the up and down would have been that good of an idea.

Ah well, live and learn.

The Unexpected

During the course of any convention, you are going to get into conversations with different people, and you never know which way it might end up going. Many years ago at New York Comic Con, I had someone grill me on The Gilded Age. He asked me all sorts of questions about where the diverging point for the timeline happened… which isn’t something I knew. I had one issue out that I was hoping people might enjoy. I wasn’t trying to figure out the complete history of the world. He probably was at the table for 20 minutes where I answered each and every question I could… and then he didn’t buy the comic. Sigh.

A woman came up to the table and immediately grabbed The Dark That Follows, so I went into my sales pitch, telling her it was about a Fortune Teller…

Her – “Are you a psychic?”

Me – “No. I did some research though, and I have some people in the family who might/maybe/possibly be.”

Her – “I’m a psychic.”

We talked a bit more, and she bought the novel. Though now I’m wondering if I’m going to get an email telling me I got it all wrong. But it was strange that she reached for the one item on my table that would have anything to do with being a psychic.

Maybe it was meant to be?

***

After a long day, a few sales, and some great conversations, I packed up and headed home. Overall, I made my table cost back, so I will definitely put my name back in the lottery when the time comes.

***

A reminder that I am currently running a Kickstarter for my latest comic book: You Must Be This Tall To Ride #1.

“You Must Be This Tall To Ride” is the story of a family who inherits a run down amusement park. What they don’t know is that each of the various lands: Cartoon World, Weird West, Space Pirates, etc. are actually portals to another place, another universe!

When a game of Hide n Seek results in the youngest getting lost, they are going to need to find a way to traverse worlds and get their brother back… all before Mom and Dad get home!

“You Must Be This Tall To Ride” is a Young Adult Comic Book for fans of the Old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, The Goonies, The Never Ending Story, or any Kids of Bikes style stories.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ioda/you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-1

The Kickstarter is currently running through April 10, 2026.