Anime Central was a wild weekend immersed in the wild world of anime. Unlike a comics convention, an anime convention like this has a much broader scope. There were only a handful of us peddling comics within the artist alley. The rest of the tables had a variety of items: tshirts, jewelry, bookmarks, prints, toys, crafty goods, and a whole lot more.

This sign was my secret weapon of the weekend. It was inspired by a similar technique my table neighbor Brion Foulke was using. I crafted it on the spot with an old legal pad I had with me and held it over my table for nearly the entire three days. Believe it or not, it actually worked! A good number of people told me they stopped specifically because they saw or liked the sign. I’m not sure this exact technique would work at a comics convention, but it managed to do the job here. Who knew??

I want to thank everyone who stopped by to say hi or chat. It was a pretty fun weekend, and now that my feet have stopped hurting I feel ready to do it again. There are several more photos on my flickr page if you’d like to get a better feel of what the show was like. For now I think I’ll just leave you with a shot of my favorite costumed crazy of the weekend– a Jedi Bunny.

The Chicago Comic-Con (formerly known as Wizard World Chicago) is coming up this weekend (August 6-9), and as usual, I’ll be on hand with plenty of the two Neil Jam staples: books and artwork.

In the books department, I’ll have with me brand new copies of the hot-off-the-presses Neil Jam collection. I suppose they’ll be making their official debut at the show. I’ll also be bringing along the individual minicomic issues, though at this point I’m not sure how or even if I’ll be displaying those, as there’ll be lots of stuff taking up room on the table. So if you’re interested in the single issues and you don’t see ‘em, just ask.

As for all that other stuff taking up all the room on the table, well you know it isn’t really a convention without a healthy dose of everybody’s favorite: Neil Jam Icons!

These fun little framed original art pieces feature a cornucopia of pop culture personalities, each depicted in the trademark Neil Jam style. I’ll have lots of these to choose from.

My table will be situated right in the heart of Artist Alley. Since this is a pretty big show with a pretty big Artist Alley, I’m actually planning on tying some balloons to the table (no joke) to make it easier to find and make your way back to throughout the weekend. I suppose it may look a little tacky, but hey, a Neil Jam’s gotta do what a Neil Jam’s gotta do.

So if you’re in the neighborhood definitely stop by and say hi. It can be a pretty grueling show, and seeing some happy faces will surely give me that extra boost to keep going strong throughout the weekend. If you’re not going to the show but still wanna know a little of what’s going on, following me on twitter might be a good idea. I’ll do my best to tweet along the way. Thanks everyone!

Now that I have recovered from the long weekend that was Chicago Comic-Con I’m ready to tell you all about it. In short, It went pretty well! The show itself has been in a downward spiral of sorts for the last few years, with fewer and fewer crowd pleasing comics centric displays and happenings each year. While that surely disappointed attendees, I’m thinking it probably helped give a boost to artist alley, as there was plenty of comics stuff going on in there. I was actually able to make this my most successful show of all time– imagine that!

I had one of the most elaborate displays that I’ve ever had at a convention on my table. The new Neil Jam book made its official debut at the show, but it was the stepchild on a table jam packed full of glorious mini framed Neil Jam Icons! The artwork was by far the hit of the show. I lovingly refer to those things as “nerd crack,” and I am an unabashed dealer. Big shout out to anyone who picked up some books or artwork. Y’all definitely made the whole weekend worthwhile.

I took a bunch of photos which can be seen here in my flickr gallery. Now that the con is over I’ll have a chance to do some maintenance around the website. Look for the new book to be made available later in the week. And while I was able to unload a lot of artwork at the con, I still have plenty left (I brought an obscene amount with me), so I may be making some of that available as well sometime in the near future. Thanks again everyone!

This weekend, September 18-20, I’ll be exhibiting at Reactor, an anime convention in the Chicago area. I’ll have all the usual stuff with me (books, art, etc), so if you’re into that stuff come say hi. I’ve never been to this show before. That, coupled with my limited knowledge of the world of anime, has me a bit wary of it all, but I’m sure everything will turn out fine. The weekend after that I’ll be on hand at SPX, but I’ll talk more about that as we get closer to it.

This weekend, September 26-27, I’ll be in Bethesda, MD exhibiting at the Small Press Expo, or as all the cool kids like to call it, SPX.

I’ll have with me a selection of books, including the recently released big collection, and probably a newish mini of sorts as well. And of course, I’ll have a truckload of Neil Jam Icons mini artwork on hand, ’cause it wouldn’t really be a convention without them, now would it?

I’ll be sharing space with my pal Justin Madson. As you can see from the map, we’ll be situated all the way in the back corner of the room, taking up table A6 and half of A7. Being in the back corner of the room is bad in the sense that it is in the back corner of the room, but it is good in the sense that it should be easy to remember where we are– in the back corner of the room. So I don’t want to hear any excuses about not being able to find us!

It should be a good time. There will be a lot of good work on display in that room. If you are a comics fan and are anywhere near the area, you owe it to yourself to stop by. Tell ‘em Neil Jam sent ya!

For a good ol’ fashioned comics fan, there can’t be any show better than SPX. The sheer amount of consistently high quality stuff on display from table to table boggles the mind. And unless I am crazy, it looked better this year than ever before.

And of course, there was a nook of Neil Jam stuff nestled in there among it all. I had all the usual stuff with me. In many respects this was a typical SPX– Great comics, great creators, great fans, and just a fun vibe all around. There are too many people to thank individually, so I’ll just have to send a shout out to the Neil Jam Nation as a whole. Thanks for the good time!

SPX 2009 fun fact: Did you know that on Sunday, the second day of the show, the temperature in the room was at frigid levels for the entire day? In a highly unprecedented move, the organizers cranked the AC so that this SPX would in fact be remembered forever as “Cold Con 2009.” Actually, I don’t know why it was so darn cold in there… But it was very strange!

Bonus SPX stuff: I took a bunch more photos, so head over to my Flickr gallery to check ‘em out.

This weekend (Dec 4th-6th), I’ll be exhibiting in the Chicago area at the Holiday Lights Gift & Craft Fair. I’ve never done a show like this, but it looks to have some good potential, as people buy all sorts of random stuff for the holidays. I figure Neil Jam is as good a random gift as any! I’ll have plenty of copies of the Neil Jam book as well as a wide assortment of Neil Jam Icons and other artwork. Heck, I might even bring a Santa hat!

For those of you who can’t make it out to the show, there’s still plenty of opportunity to pick up some quality Neil Jam items for the Holidays. There’s a store full of books on neiljam.com as well as a selection of artwork available over in my Etsy Shop. I’ll be bringing a selection of the artwork with me to the show this weekend, so the Etsy shop may look light during that time, but I’ll stock it back up at weekend’s end, and will be adding new items in the coming days as well.

Happy Holiday’s y’all.

I spent this past weekend at my first ever holiday gift/craft show. It wasn’t as packed with people as I was hoping it would be, but it was still fun time. It was a very different crowd than i am used to, so every new customer was a customer I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I was the only one there representin’ for team comics, which made me feel quite special. The coolest part of the show had to be the venue. It was held at Arlington Park Racecourse, which felt kinda fancy to me (in a down home kind of way). It was probably the most interesting venue I’ve ever done a show at.

There’re still plenty of Neil Jam Icons to go around, and I’ve been adding more to my Etsy shop, with more to come in the coming days. So please, give the gift you know they want– an oddball Neil Jam rendition of their favorite pop culture character. Or maybe a Neil Jam book or something…

Convention season will be starting off with a bang in April. I will be on hand at no less than three conventions for three weekends in a row– Quite a busy month! Coming up this weekend, April 10-11, I’ll be in New York for the MoCCA Art Fest, a great indie/artsy/whatever comics show. The next weekend, April 16-18, I’ll be at the inaugural C2E2 show in Chicago, which is shaping up to be a monstrous show featuring all facets of the comics spectrum. And finally, I’ll be capping off the three week convention spree April 23-25 at Anime STL.

I’m a little anxious preparing for all of this, but it should be a fun month. I’ll be bringing a bunch of books, a bunch of art, and maybe even a high five or two. I’ll get into specifics about each show and what I’ll be bringing as we go along. So stay tuned!

This weekend, April 10-11, I’ll be on hand at the annual MoCCA Art Fest in New York City. This show is a fantastic spectacle of art/indie comics held right in the heart of the city. What could be better? I’ll be bringing a bunch of artwork and books. Among the books will be the new “Neil Jam Harvest” compilation, which compiles the serialized narrative originally published in issues 14-16 of the Neil Jam minicomic series (where it was titled “Neil Jam Planet”). I’ll be posting more about that within the next couple of weeks.

So if you’re in the area and you love comics, you simply must check out this show. I hope to see you there!