Report from Charm City

Limited Robo Collection is available now!

Second Things First

Many of you asked about the black and white Robo collection availability after my last post. I wanted to make sure that I had copies available to sell in Baltimore and now that that has ended, I am making the remaining copies available to anyone who would like them through my website’s store. If you would like a copy of the limited run Robo Volume 1 collection (issues #1-6), you can buy them through the web store right now.

After a short period of exclusivity to my subscribers, I am going to try to sell the remaining copies to local comic shops. There are only 56 copies left at time of writing, which means that I sold 18 at Baltimore Comic Con! I feel very excited to have had so many people be interested in the comic. If you’re one of those new readers, thank you for stopping by and picking up the book! My own copy is sitting here on my desk so I can look at it every day, I still haven’t put it on the shelf because it is still making me smile.

Baltimore Con Report

I always seem to have a great time in Baltimore. I really get along with the people there and though it has a bad reputation in recent years, I think it’s a pretty great city. Granted, I’m usually going to a baseball game or a comic con, which are two of my favorite things so that might color my opinions. Still, there are cool places like Red Emma’s, a bookstore and coffee shop for radicals.

The convention was a huge success for me. As mentioned above, I exceeded my expectations on sales quite a bit, despite not having any material for KPop Demon Hunters, which dominated the excitement of the two tables next to me. I got to have quite a few great conversations with folks and I felt extremely flattered by the two new friends who bought and then read the book and came back to tell me they loved it. Way to melt a writer’s heart, folks.

I made several new comics friends and strengthened bonds with friends from previous years. Huge shoutout to the Lesser Known Comics and Apollo City Comics crew for having dinner with me every night. And a HUGE shoutout to my friend Wells Thompson for winning a Ringo Award for Best Humor Comic for Smut #1, which he released last year to great success. Not only am I exceedingly proud of him for the success he’s made for himself in the years since I met him, he also took me as his Plus One to the awards so I got a free dinner, and a giant bag of comics to go with it. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Each convention I seem to have (at least) one amazing moment with someone I meet there. In Charlotte this year, it was stopping in the concourse to admire the long efforts of an older fan who had been collecting signed chrome copies of the Silver Surfer Trading Card set. This time, I felt so honored to be trusted with some of the struggles of a young person who was making his way through this difficult time in the world with an amazing amount of courage and grace while his family was having trouble understanding him. It makes me well up a little bit just to think about it still. Thank you for sharing with me, it really was the highlight of my weekend. It reinforced how much I love comic book conventions as a place of acceptance and friendship.

The 100% vital post-convention Pizza.

My biggest regret from Baltimore was as it was in Charlotte: Being at your table trying to get the word out about the comic means you can’t go visit everyone else’s table for very long. I was very pleased to have friends nearby (pictured above) so I could get a little socializing done on bathroom breaks. But I would have loved to look around and see the other new creators in attendance.

Overall this was a great weekend. Thank you again to everyone who came by the table, took an interest, took a card, or came away with a comic. Thank you to all the friends I made. I can’t wait to see everyone again next year.

-Jesse Keppler