Empire Comics Fest 2021: 11-13-2021

We had our very first in-person, tabled, show assisting ECF 2 by facilitating witnessed signatures for the legendary Jim Shooter. It’s exciting to be included in the rich history of the Rochester comic book crowd and also to participate in a true “old school comic show.” No cosplay, movies, random sci-fi.. comics.

I was a bit nervous , starting my first in-person table signing out with someone like Jim Shooter, so we needed to really knock it out of the park. Having no signage, no business cards, no POS system, etc., has been just fine as we’ve navigated our way through other conventions to find those signatures, but here at home… in person.. with a living legend.. I wanted things to look perfect. My very first call was to my friend, Aaron, over at ImageNow, by Mahar. They got us hooked up and completely ready for the show - cards, signage, pads - in a week! This was, obviously, not critical, but it shows that we’re not a fly-by-night and that we’re serious about the services we provide.

Mr. Shooter was amazing to work with. He was kind, courteous, helpful, funny. I had the best seats in the house for stories, too. He talked about some WILD stuff.. debate on who created spider-man.. WHAT?! Stan Lee almost bleeding out at a party from a wine glass cut.. my favorite was the Bill Sienkiewicz story, though. He said that one time, he was with Bill and Bill ended up doing a back flip from out of nowhere. Jim said, “Bill, I didn’t know you could do a backflip!” Apparently, Bill said, “Neither did I! I just wanted to see if I could do it!”

We were busy the entire time! There really was a line from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. I never got to eat lunch, even. It was a VERY good day for our business, for our contacts.. to just get out there and mingle with the rest of the Rochester comic community was the best part. All the vendors went to dinner with Mr. Shooter after the show.. Rhinos and Wonderland and 1st Print were there, as well as Ken Wheaton and Mike Blowers.

All said and done, this was my favorite show. It was exhilarating and really felt great to be included and recognized for the work we’ve put into the facilitation business as a family. We’re on the hook for doing this twice a year, now, so it will only get better.

We’re down to only a couple of presses left and we’ll call this one “in the books.” I can’t wait for the next one..