Phoenix Comicon 2010 by Linda

From my perspective, Phoenix Comicon was AMAZING!

After much preparation, the day finally arrived where we could set up our booth. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the week, I had been stricken with an abscessed tooth and, although on the mend, was still recuperating, so I didn’t participate in this part. Still, I was very encouraged to learn that we had a great opening night – making more money at the Con than we did in the store! This would continue to be the trend for the next few days, although I also noticed that store activity was also greater than usual. Comics were in the air.

On Friday, I had the privilege to work our booth all day, along with Avery and Sean. Andy manned the store for the few hours we were open. I really enjoyed myself! It was great to be a part of the energy, to watch the Con really gaining momentum, as costumes became wilder and more prolific as the weekend unfolded. The vendors were all gearing up for Saturday, purported to be the busiest day of the Con. I absolutely loved that we had the WorldWide Villains and Tosh Delaney in the booth next to us, since they have been guests at our store many times and it felt like home. Andy had also done some art in Tosh’s newest publication, so that was cool too.

We had a good Saturday, although I wasn’t at the Con during the day. I was at the store from 10 am till 7 pm; and we had a pretty good day at the store too! I actually enjoyed hanging out there, although my thoughts were constantly with our booth at the Con – the guys were all so busy, they didn’t update me on anything until almost closing time!

After I closed the store, I headed out to the Con so that Avery and I could attend the Guests of Honor Dinner. The table settings were festive and impeccable. The food was great. The company was superb! We got to sit with Tony Parker and a few others that we hadn’t met before. I was sort of surprised that there were no speakers or introductions of the Guests, but all in all, it was a fun night.

Sunday morning, I headed out for the last day of Con – I had a couple of hours before the store opened. Things were already gearing up for the final day. We had decided to run a blow-out sale which moved a LOT of merchandise for us – something that we really needed to do. So, again, a great success.

When I closed the store, I headed back for the inevitable loading. It got complicated. I think the system may have been the best it could be, but it broke down in a few places, and I was stuck waiting for over an hour. We finally worked everything out, loaded up the car with all it could hold in all of 5-10 minutes, and Avery and I headed back to the store. Andy and Sean waited for Sean’s friend to come with the truck for the bulk of the boxes.

I still need to enter the sales and we still need to put away the comics we still have left, but all in all, it was an awesome weekend!

You can see pictures at our Facebook page.