Comic Con Time

This is the big one - for me. Salt Lake Comic Con  is new, just a couple years old now and doesn't have near the name recognition of a slew of others like San Diego, New York or even Dragon Con but it is big. Around 150 K people are in attendance and by Saturday it is crazy. I do most of my looking around on Thursday before the crowds swell up. My boys will come with me on Saturday - they are cooking up their own cosplay for it. Mathias is thinking about being the Demogorgon from Stranger Things and Bear wants to be a steampunk Deadpool.

In any case, of course I'm a guest this year and will be signing books at Booth 2220 with my friends the Space Balrogs. I'll be on several panels as follows.

The Rocketeer- Celebrating an Overlooked Classic

Thursday September 1, 2016 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm 

25 years ago Disney's THE ROCKETEER starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, and Timothy Dalton soared into cinemas, but never found the mass audience it deserved. We take a look back at the highlights, making-of, and more about the film, as well as the franchise that never was (but should have been).
Room: 255C

Killing the Stigma - Combating Mental Illness Misinformation in Popular Culture

Friday September 2, 2016 10:00 am to 11:00 am 
(Hey, that's frigging early!!!)
Ranging from Batman's gallery of villains, the mad scientist and the homicidal socially awkward killer, fandom is rife with poor portrayals of mental illness and how it affects the person with the diagnosis. This panel will dissect and examine movies, television, comics, and books and their use of mental illness to drive their plots.
Room: 1551 A

Choose Your Own Apocalypse: Marvel Monsters Edition
Saturday September 3, 2016 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm 

The bad news is, the world is gonna end. The good news is, you get to pick how you go out. Will it be at the hands of the seductive Enchantress, or will humanity be consumed by Venom, Carnage & other corrupted Klyntar? Or will the world fall to the oldest mutant alive; a monster god appropriately named, Apocalypse? You get to decide in an interactive panel game of epic proportions! In Choose Your Own Apocalypse, each panelist represents a different way the world is going to end. A moderator conducts the panelists and audience through a series of rounds in which the panelists have to make their case for their specific apocalypse. They do this using campaign speeches, witty rhetoric, and performance art. Then the audience gets to choose who is the winner.

Room: 255C

An interesting thing to me about this Con in particular is I'm not on any writing tracks - which I always was before and you know what - that's a good thing. Who goes to writing tracks? Other writers. Do they want to get your book? Not very often. Usually they want to talk to you about their books. So as far as sales and fans its kind of a wash - talking fandom is usually the better way to go - so its all good this way.

I have print copies of Cold Slither I'll be signing and I'm very pleased with how its been doing online -its been sitting in the top ten for western horror and Whispers Out of the Dust has been joining it as of today. So that's pretty cool. I have admittedly tried to learn a little more about marketing this week than before when I just put stuff out there and hoped it would sell.

Oh and I believe the 12th issue of Utah Geek will be there as well featuring the 12th chapter in my ongoing noir fantasy serial Walking Through Walls. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna wrap it up in chapter 13 and then figure out what to do with it. Either release it as a novella or cannibalize it for another work - I'm not sure yet. I'll have a lot of pics to post next week when its over. Til next time.