So you're thinking about attending WW as a DrunkDuck rep and with hopefully the intention of plugging your comic. It's your first convention, you have no idea what to bring. If you're anything like most of the rest of us were, you don't have a lot of income to be publishing a lot of stuff. So what do you bring? How do you promote your stuff.


I'm going to share with you what people did at WW LA, what things worked, what didn't, and what I think will work best.

First, here are essential things to bring.
Bring something that isn't a flyer (this includes stickers, buttons, pins, action figures of your characters, random things) to sell or give away. People already have a million flyers and most likely they aren't going to look at them after they're shoved in your face. If you give them a sticker or something they can pretend is useful, then they'll more likely keep it. If you sell something to someone, it's automatically worth more in their minds and they won't lose it or trash it. Remember, put your information and url on anything you sell or give away. It's useless if all they pick up is a sticker without a url on it (trust me I know). Mr Granger had a great Robot collection of paintings he was selling. Did it have anything to do with a majority of his comics? Not really sure, but they sold and got the message out!

Bring some flyers and business cards...

Bring samples of your comic: This can be done on photo paper, power point presentations (like Kitsune did), or the actual published version of your comic. Make sure it's some eye grabbing stuff, as there are LOTS of other artists there. You have to think about "What is it I can do to stand out?"

Talk to people who walk by! There are lots of people who'll look at your stuff for a split second, but be to shy to ask about it! Be nice and say something like :How are you? Do you have anything you want me to draw for you? How's the convention going? Seen anything you like" They're 100% more likely to be interested(or pretend to be) if you speak to them.

Bring lots of paper: Sketch sketch sketch! SKETCH LOTS OF THINGS FOR PEOPLE. You can stock up on sketches to give away, but be prepared for requests! Things people like to see. The popular superheroes: Things like Wolverine, Spiderman, Batman etc (you are at a comic convention). Video game characters. and any other pop culture things. It's good to have at least one thing on your table be recognizable to the rest of the people there. I know I had a few people come by, but after seeing HPK do superheroes, I tried Video Game characters, and then lots of people stopped by. After they see the popular things, you're all go to plug your OWN stuff!

Bring money: There're a lot of cool comics and toys :D

Go there with the intention of having fun and meeting new people! That comes first.


The HPKOMICS approach: HPK didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but what he did was pretty neat. He made about 6 glossy pages of his work that he had sitting on the table (This is to catch anyone's eye walking by), he had maybe about 150-200 flyers of a comic page with his link on it (for anyone who wanted to pick up another flyer, I'll talk about flyers later). But the one thing that he had that made people keep coming to his booth was his use of little sketch cards with his URL printed on them. It's like a business card that he could draw on. He made a bunch of those with his characters on them and laid them out on the table, and he also had extras that he did requests on. It was a great way to get his URL and characters out there, and then get a little more extra attention.

The Stardusty Approach: Andy brought nothing on the first day. He just drew little Caggage comics on the supplied DD sketch cards and they were cute. Well he did have a copy of the book he was bringing the next day. On the next day he had a copy of his book and a many copies of a book that he was selling for 3 dollars. So here's what happens. You're walking by and you notice a cute character or an amazing piece of artwork he's working on at the moment. You flip through the book, reading maybe the first page or two, and you ask how much it is. It's relatively inexpensive so you purchase the book.
So here's what he did: He drew Caggage comics on sketch cards. He worked on really good sketches with his characters from Clear. It worked well enough, he had a decent amount of traffic.

The Mr. Mustard Seed Approach: Tom was nuts. He whipped out like 40 million drawings and gun nose copies at his booth. He had SO many sketches on the table people just stopped by and were like WOW. Basically he found something that the people liked on DD and replicated it, because people tend to like similiar things. Remember that! IF there's a particular element/character/ anything people have expressed to you that they like about your comic, DON'T HESITATE TO USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.

The Mr. Riot approach: Riot had a lot of stuff. He had tons of flyers, copies of his comic for sale, glossy little photo cards and more. The more stuff you have on your table the more likely people are to notice you. Again having comics of yours is good. People aren't going to read the whole thing at your booth, but they'll flip through. If it's something they like, they'll buy it to read for later!

Mr. Granger: He was like the Comic Con Guru and taught everyone a thing or two about going. He's actually got an indy comic thing going at kingtractorfilms.com. How do I remember that title? Because he gave away stickers and tattoos, was super friendly, talked to us about getting into the business etc. I have the sticker on my backpack. Stickers work! He was also selling paintings. I'm sure he'd be glad to answer any questions anyone has (sorry to Volunteer you buddy).

KitsuneKage: Okay, to be honest, KK and I didn't have much stuff the first day. Kitsune had stickers which were great! Anything weird or wacky gets seen! After he ran out of stickers though, and his computer battery died, he didn't have much of anything but his sketches left to hand out! What does he do? He creates a gimic. He made a sign that said: "WILL DRAW YOUR DOOM". And it made people laugh, come up, and ask him to draw their doom. They even got to request it! While I wouldn't steal Kitsune's doom idea (because he's going to make it into something bigger ((i hope))) A gimick is a good thing to have. Because it is fresh, and it is original!

What about me? I printed WAY too many flyers. I gave 2 away. I gave away almost all of my stickers. Gave away about 100 business cards. And drew lots of sketches. I didn't do badly, but next time I know what stuff to bring!

I'll go through and edit this a little more later. I'm sure the rest of the guys who went will have a few other things to add.


I want to Thank Mr. Granger, for teaching us the ways of the con. Thank HPK for the sketch card ideas, Andy for the book, Riot for being a jerk (and for the comic). MMS for being funny and keeping us entertained. Kitsunekage for being my right hand man (literally). And all the neat platinum people and Drunkduck people who gave the opportunity to us! IT WAS A BLAST AND WILL BE FOR ANYONE ATTENDING IN THE FUTURE!

Remember, bring fun. That's the number 1 thing to have.

If I go, I plan on bringing the star of my cast (my best friends, since my comic's autobiographical) and doing sketches of us with anyone who stops by. Also, if any of my fans are there, I think an effective gimmick would be to take actual photographs of them with the cast and then a corresponding sketch to go with it. I also plan to have pins to sell, and of course sketches sketches sketches. :D

Those are some great ideas! It can be used for artist alley tables at anime cons too!

I really like the sketch on business/webcomic link card idea.

Definably bring comic examples of your work.

If your selling your comic...
At my last con, I tried to sell (200+ pages) graphic novels of my work ,but my friend next to me had a good idea going selling just chapter comics of her work(20-40 pages). We had both serious story comics going on ,but I think hers sold better because hers was cheaper and easier to pick up. She said basically "People aren't sure right away that they will like your comic, so they would be more likely to buy a chapter comic than a novel just to be safe."
I did sell 4 out of 8 of my novels to people that previously told me, if I was going to the con they would buy my book.

I think commissions sell better than any random things related to your comic. (This is speaking mostly from anime cons. Never been to an comic con.) People like it because they can customize what they want.

I know the Superfrat guys did really well by giving people free sample, xeroxed comics and getting them to "pledge" the frat and sign up for the mailing list. Any gimick like that would probably work well. Also if you are new be prepared to give things away. Things other than flyers.


-Whenever I walk people try to hand me out flyers. And when someone tries to hand me out a flyer, it's kinda like they're saying "Here, you throw this away."-
-Mitch Hedburg

:3 That was most informative and helpful Zac!!!!! <3 <3 :D

Great topic with awesome ideas. I'll definately be doing some of this!

Definitely bring your own food, unless you like paying double for meals and snacks.

Thanks for the info Zac. I plan on making stickers and business cards to hand out at WW Philly. Plus I'll be bringing plenty of sketches and doing sketches there.

thanks so much for the info, zac, i actually was thinkng about asking you this until i founf ur thread here, i plan on attending wiz wrld texas

Bring a gun.
Y'know, for zombies.

Red Slayer
Bring a gun.
Y'know, for zombies.

...and blue haired fan boys!

so what if you're not wanting to go as a DD rep, you just want to meet the crew and have fun? then what are the necessities for it?

entrance fees?

The more refinded tl;dr approach FOR 2008.

If I had to name three things to bring with me to these conventions, the most helpful things are:

Sketchbook, (with predrawn Marvel and DC characters.): Why? Because most of the people there will only stop and look at your stuff if they recognize something they already know. Also you can fetch some quick cash off of these sketches.

Free Swag with samples of your art: This could be stickers, sample pages, or business cards. I did all three, and they all get taken. Anything free is instantly a hit. Business cards are nice...but stickers with your URL on them are even better ;)

References: Get a binder, get an image of every character you can think of, and put it in that binder. This is pretty helpful if you're unsure on how to draw a sketch for someone...unless you're Riot, who has all these characters embedded onto hiss brain.

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AND A GOOD POSITIVE ATTITUDE. It's going to be slow unless you can (uncreepily) bring in an audience. Be approachable and outgoing! If you see someone hesitate as they walk by, that may mean they're interested in your work, but too shy to ask!

GG DD!
See you at the next convention !

Also, be awesome. People like awesome.