Salt Lake Comic-Con - September 7, 2013

Starting on Thursday, September 5th, Brandon was practically living at the Salt Palace for the first Salt Lake Comic-Con. He used to fly all over the country to go to conventions to sell his art and comic book so it was really exciting that a Comic-Con would be held right in our own city so that he could eliminate travel costs from his expenses resulting (hopefully)in more profits. The convention was originally supposed to be held at the South Towne Expo Center, which is a smaller venue (and further away from us) but after pre-purchased ticket sales exceeded expectations, the organizers moved it to the larger Salt Palace (which was much more convenient for us in terms of location since we live closer).

The crowds exceeded everyone's expectations and it was packed! Lines wrapped around the convention center and many people were turned away because there just wasn't enough space. The crowds were crushing! But that meant great foot traffic for Brandon and it was the busiest convention he had ever done. He came home exhausted each night but it was really exciting.

After doing a sleep over at Emily's house after our raspberry picking adventure the day before, Emily graciously watched Lucy and Grey all day on Saturday so that I could help Brandon at the convention. I had been so busy previously that I hadn't pumped any milk for Grey but Emily had some of her own frozen milk and she was still nursing Rowe so I figured that she could just nurse Grey if she needed and he was starting solids so I figured that could hold him over.

What an experience being at a Comic-Con. I had been to MOCCA Fest in New York City and a preview night at Phoenix Comic-Con with Brandon but never really experienced a comic convention in all it's glory.

Brandon busy with a commission. Next to him is Jake Parker, another Utah artist.

Brandon's booth and all his wares. 

I wish I took more pictures but we were so busy. I think that the second picture was actually taken by a neighbor and posted on facebook. While Brandon was chatting with customers and drawing commissions, I was handling all the transactions and prepping the purchases (finding, bagging, and boarding). Neither of us really got much of a chance to walk around to see other booths or check out all the cool cosplayers.

I had to take off early to meet Emily at my house (and nurse poor Grey who wouldn't take Emily's milk from bottle or breast). When all was said and done and the numbers came in, I think close to 80,000 people attending Salt Lake's first Comic-Con. The organizers were able to book really big people to come and it ended up that Stan Lee even came. It was pretty phenomenal for such a small city like Salt Lake to have such a huge turnout in it's very first year and I thought this little infographic that was floating around facebook was really cool showing just how big it really was (4th largest in North America - not too shabby)!

Thank goodness the convention ended on Saturday night so that we had Sunday to recover from it all. Not having Brandon around to support me with the kids was difficult, and to make matters more stressful, Brandon had insisted on throwing a party on the first night of Comic-Con (Thursday) for all his artist friends and as the supportive wife, I agreed to it even though it meant that I would have to do all the work for it since Brandon would be so busy. I planned and prepared a ton of food (I think he invited close to 40 people but we weren't sure how many were coming) and spent hundreds of dollars installing giant white panels on the side of our garage for the artists to draw on (like at Melty Way). But because the first day was so crazy busy, the organizers extended the hours much later than originally planned so I ended up hosting a bunch of Brandon's friends without him for a while! Thank goodness the kids were good that night for bedtime and we didn't start the party until later in the evening. Needless to say, while the party was fun, we'll never do something like that during Comic-Con ever again. It's enough work and exhausting enough as it is just doing the convention. Lesson learned.