Above image after Clay Mann, who was across the aisle from us with a giant banner with this image behind him. I mean no disrespect. Well, maybe.

Emerald City Comicon was a pretty good time. If one wanted to use modern vernacular, you could describe it with words like, ‘Sweeet!’ and ‘Tiiight!’

Last fall, SPX was the first convention in a long time, and it had been an even longer time that I had been to a con like ECCC. By that I mean a stereotypical comic book convention with costumes and dudes selling sexy fan art of superheroines, etc. Not since maybe San Diego in 2004? Wow. That was a long, long time ago. I think the fondest memory of that con was Dark Horse giving out free Hellboy movie posters and my friend Tony wanting to take a bunch, with me scolding him saying. ‘Dude! Only take one so that everyone gets a chance to have one.’ only to find out that people grabbed them in troves and then sold them on ebay for like $75 bucks a pop the next day.

Anyhow, the highlight of the show was getting to spend time with the totally radical Breena Wiederhoeft and talk shop, commiserate, comment on the cosplayers walking by, and just generally hang out. Despite tepid sales, and it not really being maybe the best audience for a book like Americus, it was pretty great to just see so many people so excited and enthusiastic. It’s so contagious! All weekend I was thinking about how I couldn’t wait to get home and get the ball rolling.

There were also a handful of people that had read Americus either online or in print and wanted to come by and say hi, or just people that wanted to come by and talk shop or ask questions. Connecting with people like that is the plus side of being stuck at a table for 8 hours having people walk by and judge you and your work.

Another highlight: Greg of Tugboat Press is pretty much the most awesome dude on the planet for many, many reasons. One of the tangible ones are his Free Comic Book Day book, Runner Runner. I’ll post my one pager I did for it soon, but it’s got a really awesome cast of creators: Drew Weing, MK Reed, Jesse Reklaw, Joey Alison Sayers, Nate Beaty, Alec Longstreth, Kazimir Strzepek, Lilli Carre and many, many more. If you’re at a convention this season you can probably pick one up, and if not, get it May 5th at your local Portland comic shops for Free Comic Book Day!

Other major bonus: MK was also in town for a last minute West Coast appearance! Great to see her and also good news: She got accepted in PNCA’s lo-residency MFA program, which means she’ll be around in the summer! Yay!

On Sunday the sun was out, and two days of convention tabling is about all I can handle, so I skipped out to spend some time around the city with Jen. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the weekend, and a perfect endcap to the weekend in Seattle.

Stumptown’s up next, but I have some family issues that might prevent me from showing up. Keep your fingers crossed to every reason for things to be okay.

Anyhow, I’m back and motivated. Let’s see if I can keep this rolling. I know it’s like two weeks later, but I promise I will post a recap of my class at OCAC this week.

So I’m heading to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con tomorrow! Honestly, I don’t really know what to expect. Tyler and I went to the first year we moved here, and it was kind of lame. Mainly just mainstream comics and large vendors. I did get a portfolio review by some big hot-shot at DC at the time. Bob Shrek maybe? I can’t remember. Anyhow, it was a long time ago, and most of the people I talk to now talk about how great of a con it is. We’ll see.

I won’t really have anything new, but I have something old that is kind of new – I reprinted the Lorian Gendarme Guidebook for Adventuring Standards, but took the time to put some love into the reprints. And by love, I mean gold silkscreened covers!

They really helped sell copies of Americus at SPX, which I will also have on hand, along with some mini-comics, and an assortment of prints and original art. I’ll try to have some new posters or prints for Stumptown at the end of April.

I’ll be in Artist Alley with the totally rad Breena Wiederhoeft at table E-16. If you’re in Seattle, come by the show and say hi!

Oh, yeah – my class finished last week. I have been getting ready for ECCC, but I would like to write a recap of the class and how it went sometime next week.

I have some great news to share!

I’m teaching a comics class at the Oregon College of Arts and Craft here in Portland this spring! It’s called Crafting Comics: Narrative & Technique.

It’s basically an intro to comics.

Anyhow, I’m super-stoked. I have always wanted to teach comics, but I thought that it would be important to have some actual experience under my belt. Now that Americus is out, and I’ve been freelancing here and there the last couple years, I feel like I have a lot of experience and knowledge to share anyone willing to learn.

Here’s the link to the Continuing Education page of their website: https://cms.ocac.edu/

And here’s a link specifically for the drawing & painting classes: https://cms.ocac.edu/taxonomy/term/3

Please help spread the word! I need at least 5 people or the class doesn’t happen!

Also, if you have any questions about the class, you can e-mail me at jonathan@oneofthejohns.com or leave a comment here on the site and I’ll get back to you!