Steve's note: what follows is a guest blog post from Adam Wallenta, the owner of American Mule Entertainment, an independent comic book publisher responsible for a number of titles including the official Public Enemy comic book.
By Adam Wallenta
First off let me say that I love going to the San Diego Comic-Con. I have been attending as an independent publisher since 1997 and I have had a lot of success. I have met some of my best friends there. Made invaluable connections and learned a great deal. Most importantly, attending the con, provided a great opportunity to get my work out to the people and I have had the honor and pleasure of meeting some of the greatest fans and supporters a guy can ask for.
That being said, The San Diego Comic-Con has always been the hardest convention to sell books at, even back in my early days. It's a huge show with tons to see, do and spend your money on. Throw in the cost of admission for the attendees, hotel and travel costs and food and there isn't much money left over for fans to go out of their way to try new books. Even with a great product, you have to be an even greater salesman to get the attention of the fans and hope that they haven't spent all of their hard-earned money elsewhere.
The sad truth is that many of us can't make it to the San Diego Comic Con this year. During the next few days our Twitter feeds will fill up with the mad-cap adventures our friends our having and there will be jealousy -- a lot of jealousy. The good news is that we don't have to sit around and act all mopey -- thanks to this wonderful invention called the internet, we can take things into our own hands and create our very own ALTERCON!!
Ready to ride the digital tubes? Lets GO!
In the spirit of Comic-Con 2008, this week's artist of the week is Paul Duffield, a newcomer to the comics world. I found him through the online comic FreakAngels, where he and writer Warren Ellis shaped a future steampunk universe about a group of telepaths who brought about the apocalypse. For Duffield it was a major score to work with an established writer like Warren Ellis on his first major project, and for fans we get to enjoy all twenty episodes of the comic online for free.
