Comic-Con Report #4 – Swag

I actually bought less this year than in Con visits past. A big part of that is that a big part of previous purchases was Trade Paperbacks, and I tend to now pick those up (or at least Wish List them) as they come available.

Still, I did my part to support the Con exhibitors:

1. A signed print of “Twa Corbies” by Charles Vess for Margie.
2. Some cool glass earrings, also for Margie.
3. Some bootleg videos. Ordinarily not something I’d do, but these are (old) items not currently available in the States. I do hereby state for the record that, should they come available, I will purchase the legit copies. I picked up a DVD of Song of the South, and of the collected Tick animated series.
4. Some games, in particular Munchkin 2 – Unnatural Axe; Strange Synergy; Chez Geek.
5. Only one comic collection, Real Life Year 1, which looked (and turned out to be) quite amusing (and will be going on my standard webcomic rotation). Also a couple of samplers from Adam Hughes and Arthur Adams.
6. A button, “Gandalf for President” (which was actually a freebie at some booth). I mean, sure, Gandalf is a cunning plotter, mysteriously disappears for lengths of time, keeps secrets from people, manipulates events, makes occasional major blunders, gets betrayed by allies, has master plans and intentions that he keeps from his friends, and says cryptic stuff that nobody understands — but that just means it would be like voting for Dick Cheney.
7. A Dorkstock II “Give Geeks a Chance” tie-dyed T for Margie.
8. A couple of cool (free) Ts for me from the Sky Captain presentation, one for Team America, and one from Shaun of the Dead.
9. A “Hello Cthulhu” glow-in-the-dark T for Katherine.
10. Also for Katherine, a Wonder Woman action figure, and all the Teen Titans as little action figures.

So not a huge amount, but certainly a worth the price of entry, so to speak.

On that note, one thing that has changed hugely over the past half-decade is the growth of webcomics and the use of websites to advertise titles. It used to be that there were a lot of “ashcans” available (free or for sale) — little half-sized black-and-white mini-comic samplers of a title. Now, instead, indie artists and companies simply post their URL and let the web serve as the ashcan.

Indeed, more comics creators (certainly in the comic strip field) are going with web comics, either on a subscription basis, or for free, with money to be made by selling printed collections and swag. It’s an interesting change, and I expect to see it continue. (And I now regret having missed the panel on that subject that Mary went to later on Sunday.)