MOCCA NOMADS

We set up our FG shop at MOCCA this last weekend.  It was fun and went well and the instant comic community who came out to shop was encouraging.  Id say the tops were those few times I really got to talk to people looking for a new book to appreciate. And they walked away with our comic.  It's amazing to see people's eyes light up when they hear the unique selling point of our book and you know they are interested, love it, or perhaps just aren't interested, which is fine... there's something for everyone out there.  Many of the long chats I had were with creators working on their own comic looking for advice to get a publisher to look at their work or looking for a chance to share.  And between those chats was us, waiting, talking amongst ourselves about life, doing some simple selling, getting the comic idea from our minds - out there into the tangible world. 

Sunday morning, I remember seeing a guy walking up the Armory's stairs with boxes strapped to his side, fumbling posters and coffee to set up just before the gates opened and hundreds of people began walking through to shop.  And, it made me appreciate the physical challenge we "mom and pop" creators face at these conventions... "the set up"... waking early in the morning, lugging books and t-shirts and all the other merch, carrying it all miles from here to there, to set up shop shoulder to shoulder among PVC pipe make shift poster holders, hundreds of tables, cluttered ideas and styles. And it all reminded me of those nomadic merchants in 1500's who traveled to distant Asian lands, only to return to Europe to set up a makeshift weekend shop in a crazed dark market.  I'm sure even back then they had mornings like I had on Sunday.  Moments, in mid yawn, waiting for strangers to arrive en-mass... either to buy or rummage through the things we had brought to them from another world. 

By Chris Mangun