tr!ckster

i wanted to take a minute to talk about tr!ckster this year, about why i invested so much of my attention to it, about why i think it deserves yours.

i've been at the san diego comic con for over 10 years now. it's been an immeasurable part of my professional life… it's in a lot of ways my comics mecca. that first year, standing in that place… it's impossible to express how it felt. the inspiration. it was my first comic convention ever & it was ENORMOUS in every way you can measure. it made me shift gears, from what i'd been doing in my life. made me decide to invest all my energy to get to a place where i belonged there.

and that was many years back, it was less than half the size it is now. unrecognizably different. my first year was the last year of an era… the beginning of a rollercoaster. the next year it would catch the attention of hollywood, moreso than before. the next year and on it saw exponential growth that they've been scrambling to keep up with. it grew until they had to tear down the walls, literally, and make it bigger. and when it filled that new space, it spilled over into every part of the town.  and it's growing still.

maybe the comics side didn't grow fast enough to keep up. the focus shifted to movie premieres, parties, celebrity interviews. people lined up outside in tents to meet the cast of twilight. these days, the hotels are full of the people who make movies. the comics people now commute, often from many miles away. it was like our neighborhood had been gentrified. we couldn't afford it anymore.

this year, some friends of mine started a thing across the street. TR!CKSTER. small at first, but loud. it would focus on comics and art. i didn't know what form it would take, i didn't know if it'd win or it would lose. but i went all in. i felt like i had to.

for the first time in years, i spent absolutely no time on the convention floor. no signings, no wandering. i looked inside, once, and decided to do things differently this year.

TR!CKSTER would get all of my attention. a kind of investment, maybe.

and it was a great success. it seemed to overflow, people painting, drunk literally and figuratively. people talking about the things they were excited about. about MAKING THINGS. not about selling them.

it ran 6 days, and at the end i was honored to be a part of the grand finale, the best time i've ever spend in front of an audience. a bunch of writers, sitting on bright orange couches, talking about stories.

if you were there this week, i thank you. if you weren't, maybe next year you'll be sitting here like me, just having basked in a long crazy moment, excited, inspired.

i'm taken back to that first year, leaving comic con, wanting to be part of something big.

 

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