Recap: New York Comic Con 2016

WOW! This year's New York Comic Con was a blast! I'm still recovering from standing and talking for pretty much nearly five days straight. We usually drive in very early to the show on Thursday morning, but this year I was asked to be a part of an event on Wednesday evening at Society of Illustrators, so we arrived a day early and brought in our booth materials on Wednesday to the Javits Center.

On Thursday afternoon I did a signing at the National Cartoonists Society booth and hung out with Ed Steckley and Ray Alma.

This is Alicia supporting our Heart Comics shirt she purchased last year at #NYCC. This year she picked up our new book French Fry Club (we are unfortunately now sold out at @newyorkcomiccon and Alicia picked up the last copy). We have a few Heart Comics shirts available. We have two more issues left of The Legettes left! We also have prints, Curls comic strip collection, Black Magic Tales comic book, stickers, buttons, and more! Visit Booth 1162 in the Small Press section (lower ceiling area on the show floor) today until 5:00PM. #nycc2016 #comiccon #comics #FrenchFryClub #soldout #curlsstudio #tour #heartcomics #fan

A photo posted by Carolyn Belefski (@carolynbelefski) on Oct 9, 2016 at 9:09am PDT

I was excited to meet new people and recognize new faces and stayed at the booth the majority of the time. I did not attempt to go to any panels, but was able to break away to catch glimpses of Frank Miller, Gerard Way, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Noelle Foley, Christian, Jerry Lawler, and Joey Styles. Luckily their booths were not too far away so it took little time away from the booth.

We sold out of all the copies we had of our new comic, French Fry Club! And we also sold out of all copies of The Legettes. I still have a very limited supply of the Heart Comics shirts, so if you are interested in getting a shirt, please check them out at the online store: http://www.carolynbelefski.com/store

Overall, NYCC is a tremendous show and we hope to be back next year in our same booth #1162! Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth to say hi or who purchased our comics and merchandise. We really appreciate you all. I suspect we'll record a recap podcast soon, so be on the lookout for that audio soon here.

More NYCC photos are available for viewing on the Curls Studio Facebook page. Give us a "like" while you are there.

The next event I'm organizing is the Cartoonists Draw Blood drive with the American Red Cross on Saturday, October 29, 2016. I plan to post more details about that event soon and we hope to see you there!

Recap: SPX 2016

Small Press Expo 2016 happened this past weekend and Curls Studio had a delightful time exhibiting. We had the chance to give readers a "first taste" of our new series, French Fry Club.

We also enjoyed meeting new faces and continuing our relationship with people we may only see once or twice a year at comic shows.

Thats a wrap on #spx2016 @spxcomics !! Curls Studio ( @carolynbelefski and @astrayj ) had a rocking time. Thanks #spx Duncan made it just in time! www.curls-studio.com - #curlsstudiotour2016 #joecarabeo #carolynbelefski #creatorowned ##comicbooks #comics #curlsstudio

A video posted by JOE (@astrayj) on Sep 18, 2016 at 3:15pm PDT

Thanks to everyone who visited our table! The next time you can catch us will be in a few weeks at New York Comic Con. We'll be at Table #1162 in the Small Press section on the main show floor. I'll post a blog with the floor plan map soon.

Recap: Baltimore Comic-Con 2016

A photo posted by Carolyn Belefski (@carolynbelefski) on Sep 3, 2016 at 7:29am PDT

Curls Studio had a great time at Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend.

On Saturday morning I led the first workshop of the day in the Kids Love Comics section. "Create Your Own Superhero Symbol" is the seminar where we combine design and comics to create our own visual identity. The children were all very smart and I enjoyed interviewing them on the mic where they got to present their personal logos.

The exclusive Archie Yearbook was available for purchase and many people came by our table for autograph collecting. Happy accident that my piece had a pretty cool space on Dean's car for a signature to go.

I was able to have some fun on Instagram (follow me @CarolynBelefski) and play with their new "stories" feature to take snapshots of my convention experience. I did not get out to collect signatures for my Archie book or see the show as a "fan" because I wanted to spend time at the table and be a "pro," but I was able to arrive early to look thru some old comics and discover a comic from the early 1980s called Fish Police. That was my big discovery of the convention! I also caught a very brief glimpse of Mickie James, a former WWE wrestler. Joe got to meet Hope Larson and got a few hand sketches in his sketchbook.

Curls Studio premiered a "first taste" of our new comic book series, French Fry Club. We also gave away free Curls coloring sheets and the latest issue of Magic Bullet #13.

Saturday evening ended with a fire alarm about two hours before the convention ended. Everyone was instructed to leave the Convention Center and fire trucks came. It was not a prank. Something happened with ozone leaking. I'm glad the authorities were able to handle it pretty quickly, but once we were invited back in many exhibitors and the majority of attendees did not fill the halls. Needless, to say the last hour was light because of this incident. Sunday's flow was better and Baltimore was back!

Our next convention is Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland on September 17 and 18, 2016. Look for our table location and map on this blog soon. Hope to see you there.