Category: Conventions

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It’s Genghis Con Time Again, Kids!

It’s time for Genghis Con once again, kids!

This will be my return to the show proper since 2019. They did not run in 2020 for obvious reasons, and in 2021 they did small pop-up events to keep crowds more manageable.

genghis con pop up event 2021

Now, Genghis Con is back for 2022, at the Pivot Center for Arts, Dance, and Expression in Cleveland, OH! The show runs on November 27 from 12 pm to 5 pm EST.

Yes, that IS the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It’s been their date to organize since I first started attending the show years ago. Masks WILL be required at the venue.

What I’m Bringing

I’m bringing some sales items from Aistear Con 3 that did NOT sell out yet. And yes, I’m keeping the sales prices active on these things.

Here are the things I’m selling on CLEARANCE:

  • My remaining stickers are $1 each, or $5 for a sticker sheet
  • Greeting Cards are $1 each, with a free envelope. A bundle of 10 cards is $5 while supplies last.
  • Mr. Dino’s postcards are $1 each. Proceeds will benefit the Zebra Coalition in Florida to help LGBTQ youth in a hostile state.
  • Prints smaller than 11 x 17 inches are now $1 each
  • Misprints of The Forest Spirit, an 11 x 17-inch print, are $5 each.
  • Grab bags are 2 for $5. Each grab bag has at least 1 sticker, 1 mini-print, and an extra couple of goodies.
  • My LAST Mermaid art piece is priced on a sliding scale. A $10 minimum is needed to cover art supplies.
  • If you buy The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 1 (or its misprinted version), you get the Artifacts sticker sheet FREE.

I’m also bringing with me bagged and boarded original sketches at $10 each. This INCLUDES sketches made during the production of Witches, Gods & Spirits, and Dragons: The Sketchbooks.

For folks interested, I’m also running pre-orders for my new book, The Stars of Fantasyville: A Sketchbook, for folks who missed the KickStarter campaign. This will be kept simple – just $11 for the pre-order (that covers the book plus shipping). No extra PDFs or miscellaneous things, because those things are already on the table.

Plus! I’m bringing the remaining pins and zines left over from fulfilling Zine Club and Pin Club orders. My hope is by selling the remaining stock, folks get interested in signing up for the clubs. That way they get more delivered to their mailbox each month.

Before I Forget…

Since I’m at a convention, there will be no stream on Sunday (at least from me. What the Gnomes Know will be running streams). There won’t be a stream the following weekend, either, because I’ll be at GalaxyCon with the Columbus Cartoon Coalition.

That said, keep an eye on Instagram. I’ve been doing live streams there Fridays around 12 noon.

That’s all for now. Hope to see you at Genghis Con on the 27th!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Aistear Con 3: A Success Story (In More Ways Than 1)

my artist alley table at Aistear Con 3

Aistear Con 3 happened October 21 through 23, 2022. And for me, I succeeded (in more ways than one!)

Where Was the Show?

It took place in the same place it had in previous years – at Aistear Brewery in Bowling Green, OH. Friday is usually the most relaxed day because that’s the day the vendors set up. The show is small, too – there were 7 or 8 vendors there, including myself. All of us were local and didn’t pay for a table spot. We were, however, invited by the folks at Aistear – so it wasn’t just “show up and set up.” You had to know the peeps running the joint.

What Was the Show?

Aistear Con 3 was small, local, and indie. I mean, it’s run by an indie brewing company, and the vendors are all set up in the back of the house. The crowd we got was small – but everyone who showed up spent money on local indie creators.

a close-up shot of my artist alley table, focusing on my books.

How Was It?

By the end of all three days, I was VERY CLOSE to having a $500 sales weekend. For some that may not sound really high (like, when I worked drawing caricatures at Cedar Point, I could make that kind of money in one day). But considering how relaxed the show was, the sales I got pleased me.

It also helped that I sold out of

  • five sticker designs,
  • ALL of my pins,
  • The remainder I had of Kay the Valkyrie prints,
  • The last of my dragon Baby paintings,
  • and 2 out of 3 original white-on-black ink drawings

My goal for the show had been to sell out all of my stickers, paintings, white-on-black drawings, and prints. So it made me happy to accomplish a lot of what I set out to do.

Also! My buddy Sean made an appearance on Saturday, which helped us sell more copies of his book!

cover art for Danse Macabre And Other Works by Sean McGavin

For folks who don’t know – my buddy Sean and I worked together last year to get his book, Danse Macabre and Other Works, to print. He wrote it, I did the cover art and some editing, and my writer/editor friend Melanie Doan edited the stuff I didn’t. It took us a while to find a distributor we liked (that was NOT Amazon). Eventually, we chose Draft2Digital because it had the most reach compared to other indie book printers.

At Aistear Con 3, we had some copies of his book available to sell and sign. Sean is a regular at Aistear, so the other regulars had been absolutely surprised that Sean wrote a book. By the end of the day we sold 5 copies and he got some good tips out of it.

What Did I Take Away From This Show?

I mean, I’ll give some quick shout-outs to other vendors I got things from at the show. Dragon’s Book Hoard has delightful soy candles, and Peace, Love, Pride made my FAVORITE necklace and bracelet so far. I did not get things from the other vendors, but I’ll mention here that The Crafty Carpenter, Ignition Studios, Rich Bloom, the 3D RPG-mini printer, and the tarot card reader were delightful neighbors. 10/10, would join them again in an artist alley.

That said, what did I take away from this show as a person who sells art?

Well, this show confirmed a trend I have noticed in my sales this year. That trend is: of my best-selling categories, original art takes a larger slot of sales than I anticipated.

For context, I use Square to run my register and track sales. I have my stock split into these categories: Books, Stickers, Art, Prints (for anything 8.5×11 inches or larger), Mini-Prints (any prints smaller than 8.5×11 inches), and Misc.

(A little off-topic, but I’m overdue to reorganize this stuff. Misc encompasses pins, keychains, greeting cards, grab bags, and a lot of other things. The pins and keychains need to spin off into their own category.)

Last year, I took a look at my sales and realized two things.

  1. Books were my top-selling category by a WIDE margin. This was wild because, at the time, books had the slimmest profit margins. This year I raised prices to fix that, as well as cover increased printing costs.
  2. Last year, I carried Zines and minicomics. But they didn’t even appear in my top 5 best-selling categories.

Because of point 2, I took all of my remaining zine stock to Free Comic Book Day and gave them away for free. That actually did WONDERS for sales, because that day I made $500 in one afternoon.

This year, books are still my top-selling category. The margin is even WIDER this time. But the second best-selling category? Stickers.

Even more surprising for me – original art may move around in its position in the Top 5, but it’s still consistently in the Top 5 best-selling stuff. So clearly, I gotta make more original art for sale.

I’m surprised by this. In the convention circuit, artists make a BIG DEAL out of selling prints. (For good reason – profit margins on prints are HUGE). But in my experience, people don’t buy prints because they just don’t have the wall space to hang new work.

I took a lot of other insights from this show. But I don’t want this post to get super long, so we’ll talk about that in another post.

In Short…

Aistear Con 3 was a relaxed but successful show this year! I took a lot of good insights from how the show went, and I can’t wait to implement the stuff I’ve learned.

Also! The guy who runs Ignition Studios (Alexander) inspired me to revisit how I run commission offerings. So keep an eye out for new changes on that front! I hope that once I’m done, it’ll be more enjoyable to buy commissions from me.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Comicon at Home – An Archived Twitch Live Stream

This originally aired on my Twitch channel on August 14. Why a Sunday? Because I had plans to be at a local, one-day comicon…but they canceled the show without notifying me.

So I went, “FINE! I’ll set my work up at home and stream it online! We’ll have more fun, anyway!” And then we did. Comicon at home was a success!

Everything (or dang near everything) I show in this stream is available on my Ko-Fi shop!

By the way – I extended the Dragon Baby Pride Keychain campaign! You now have until Sept 18 to get one of your own. I go into why I extended the window in a recent campaign update.

Thank you for watching.

You. Are. Awesome.

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New Ideas All At Once – The Genghis Con Mini Pop-Up Event

pictured is an artist alley table set up at a mini pop up event hosted by Genghis Con. This event happened at Superscript Comics and Games in Lakewood, OH.

This past Saturday, I showcased my work at the Genghis Con Mini Pop Up Event. Being surrounded by comics readers and fans…talking to other creators…it gave me so many ideas, all at once.

It just felt GOOD to be back in the comics scene at a live event.

But How Was the Show?

We got a bigger turnout than expected! I sold out of a handful of small things, like stickers. And The Case of the Wendigo was the most popular book on my table!

I want to give a quick shout-out to my friend Deci Belfry. They designed, printed, AND cut my new business cards. Plus they printed and cut new Mr. Dino postcards for the table! (This reminds me: I’ll be sending a portion of proceeds to Margie’s Hope. They’re a local nonprofit serving the trans and nonbinary community).

New Mr. Dino Postcards! A portion of sales of these will go towards Margie's Hope in Lakewood, OH. On the postcard is a dinosaur holding a transgender pride flag.
New Mr. Dino Postcards! A portion of sales of these will go towards Margie’s Hope in Lakewood, OH
Here's one of the business cards that Deci Belfry designed for me! Pictured is a stylized velociraptor jumping on a business card, with the text "You. Are. Awesome." Below that text is IG: @mrdinoandfriends as well as kelcidcrawford.com
Here’s one of the business cards that Deci Belfry designed for me!

What Kind of Ideas Did I Get?

SO MANY.

I’ve mentioned on Instagram that I have a personal project, called the Character Compendium. I’ve decided that the first batch of compendiums will be zines. They’ll be easier to assemble, print, and share that way (instead of making one large book. The book was the original idea, but zines are faster).

Speaking of zines, I need to give a shout-out to Matt, aka haberfish on Instagram. His perzine inspired me with the idea of a Mr. Dino “anthology” zine. He also makes delightful cartoons, and you should follow his work.

Not only am I thinking of a Mr. Dino perzine…but Matt and Deci gave me another idea…

My personal project, Kitties By Kelci? What if there’s a comic strip with those witch kitties? I will say: if I move forward on a Kitties By Kelci comic strip, they’ll post once a week on my email newsletter. That’s how I first published Thoughtful Dinosaur and Charlie & Clow: The Bonus Arc. I think it’s high-time that another email comic strip happens. Don’t you?

Cool! But Don’t I Have a Lot Going On?

Honestly? Yeah. That’s why I’m going to make some of these new ideas small projects, like zines. (Actually, this ties in nicely to one of my 2021 goals: make more minicomics). Small projects are easier and faster to finish.

When it comes to making and finishing things, I just need to remember: One Thing At A Time. It’s been my mantra for a while now, and I find it helpful in times like this.

That’s all I have for now. Be sure to stay up-to-date by hopping on my email newsletter, where I talk about current and upcoming projects. Like new books.

And be sure to check out Deci and Matt online! I also want to give a shout-out to a few other artists from the pop-up event: Caleb from Village Comics (he has a KickStarter next month!). Lindsey J Bryan. And Quill. (I know I’m forgetting other cool peeps, so tag yourself in the comments).

Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.