Over the weekend 春コミ17 (Harucomi 17), a doujinshi event which was held at Tokyo Big Sight on March 18th, 2012 took place. According to the website, 16,673 table spaces were sold and… I was one of those spaces.
Due to my own silly issues with my art, I was unable to create the cover I had planned to draw but I am actually quite happy with the comic inside. I penned up a short comic based on (I’m sure with no surprise to anyone) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It was printed in English with a Japanese translation paper insert provided thanks to two friends of mine (who also helped me out immensely during the event). Because of my busy schedule before the event (working overtime to assure I’d have money for this trip along with packing and generally freaking out) I wasn’t able to properly announce I’d be going to the event and thus didn’t bother to create more than 30 copies of my book. To my surprise though, especially since I was afraid I was overpricing myself, I was able to sell out all of my copies before the end of the event!! 春コミで私を訪問していただきありがとうございます!
I have to admit, I was incredibly nervous when I first got there. The hall opened up at 8:00AM for sellers and they’re given two hours to set up and mingle before the buyers wandered in at 10:00AM (and allowed to shop till 3:00PM) I wasn’t able to get to my table till 8:30AM (our train arrived right around 8) and well…. if you’ve ever been to Anime Expo and know the size of the exhibitor’s hall+ artists alley, just imagine three of those together and you have maybe about the same size as this event. So! After setting up and finally taking a good look around the area I was at…. I was pretty terrified. Everyone around me were people I had only known of thanks to the internet and to finally be around these people was a very exciting and nerve wracking experience! It took me a while but I finally worked up the nerve to go and buy books from all the artists that I respect and admire (along with finding a bunch of new amazing artists) but I’m so glad I did! My doujin collection is now quite a humble size thanks to this event. (oh my wallet… it hurts)
This was a really exciting experience for me, it being the first time I’ve ever been a seller at any kind of artist event, meeting artist whom I never thought I’d get a chance to, and my first time traveling abroad… But the best part of this event is that it really uplifted my spirits about myself and my art. And now I have crazy ideas of trying to come back next year!! LOL (or even in October for Comic City Spark 7…..) But that’s a while’s away and not something I want to think about just yet. Instead my thoughts are on setting up sales of this book online for anyone who may be interested.
But while I do that, it won’t hurt to start sketching up pages for my next book, would it…?
Wind Waker Link for Kichisu’s LoZ 25th Anniversary Collab!
