No Such Con & The Final Days…
First, thank you to the students at Vassar College for their hard work at the No Such Con this past weekend and for inviting me back. I had a great time catching up with some people I met last year–both exhibitors and attendees–and speaking on the panels about Cultural Competency and Self-Publishing respectively (and a special thanks to Danielle Draik and Emily Ree for inviting me to the latter). There were a few surprises during the weekend too, but before I get into that, I want to point out to my readers that the final days are approaching to get your name included in the And They Call it Mummy Love collection as a supporter (deadline: 28 February 2018).
As mentioned in previous posts, my Patreon (patreon.com/jmdesantis) is slowly climbing toward its third, modest goal. And They Call it Mummy Love will be a collection of all 24 Mummy comics of the same name from my web-comic, Gentleman Cthulhu (gentlemancthulhu.com). With your patronage of just $3.00 or more per month, you’ll get access to Gentleman Cthulhu comics early, your name in the book, and some behind-the-scenes information on some other projects in-development, including, next month, some information about Chadhiyana (which has been in what I can only refer to as hiatus, publicly, for some time–though I’ve been working on it behind the scenes).
While I hate a hard sale, I can’t help but mention that with the above projects and other past and future self-publications, it’s really a great time to join my Patreon page–plus I could really use the boost in hitting the next goal.
That said, going back to No Such Con, I had a great weekend. The above panels focused on both Chadhiyana and Gentleman Cthulhu; though Cultural Competency more on Chadhiyana, of course. The Self-Publication panel covered a range of topics, including me giving a shout out to both Rosarium Publishing (rosariumpublishing.com), who picked up Chadhiyana after its initial self-publication, and Ka-Blam Printing (ka-blam.com) who I’ve used, thus far, for almost every book I’ve printed (because they do a phenomenal job, all around, and my fellow pannelers agreed).
I was also treated to a surprise from Mr. Matt Farley during his Saturday performance, when he ended with an impromptu song about me, which was both hilarious and flattering. I still love what this man does, and if you only knew the mad genius of this man–maybe I’ll just have to start blogging on the topic. His music is just unabashed, silly, good fun, and seeing him perform really adds to his songs–it’s a full, enjoyable experience, it really is.
Also, with that, my girlfriend, daughter, and I got a little time to visit the Thompson Memorial Library (the library at Vassar College) after the show on Sunday, and just a few steps into the old building had me wondering if I hadn’t gone to the wrong college, art or not (forgetting that I don’t ever have much good to say about Pratt–the college–itself; not the faculty, who were great). The library truly is a wonder, and to see so many books on so many subjects of interest to me (and old books at that–some dating from the early 1900s or even the 1800s) I didn’t want to leave. I only feel disappointed we were so rushed, especially because my girlfriend found some books of interest I’m sure she would have loved to spend weeks reading through. Perhaps we’ll have to make a special trip up, and if you’re a bibliophile like me, I highly recommend you do the same.
For now, I’m looking forward to the upcoming 2018 con season (for me, some artists may have already started theirs) and returning to NSC again next year, if they’ll have me. Though, in the present, I’ve got some more work to attend to. So, until next week…