Guys, I’ve been busy. With what, you ask? A week ago, I uprooted my life in Atlanta, Georgia to go work as Danielle Corsetto’s assistant. For those of you who live under a rock where you are somehow unable to read fantastic webcomics, the hilarious Girls With Slingshots is her brainchild.
I help my boss lady from getting bogged down with tasks that deter her from thinking creatively. These include, but are not limited to, running in my Chanel knee-high stiletto boots down Fifth Avenue to get Danielle’s children the unpublished script of the newest Harry Potter book, memorizing and telling my boss the names of all the important fashion designers who come up to her at soirées, and telling the other assistant that no, sorry, I will be going to Paris Fashion Week instead of you. Oh wait, that’s all from The Devil Wears Prada. In all seriousness, I pack and ship merchandise, organize items in Excel and help with the PR work. If I do a really good job, she’ll even give me an extra piece of cardboard to sleep on!
Another task and huge perk of my job happened just last weekend. Baltimore Comic-Con was the first convention to get my feet wet in assisting boss lady. Everything I know about this city I learned watching The Wire, so I was fully prepared with my purse-sized mace bottle and Detective James McNulty’s number on speed dial. Besides the poorly named “Running Festival” that halted the city on Saturday, Baltimore lived up to its Charm City moniker with friendly, helpful people in abundance.
On Friday Danielle and I packed up the hatch-back to arrive in the city just in time for her to participate in “Super Art Fight Five.” I assumed this meant I was going to see a bunch of artists fencing against one another with paint brushes, but I was sorely mistaken. Instead I witnessed teams of seasoned artists try to out-draw one another on huge slats of canvas. It was a sight to see, and I cheered my boss lady on until the end, when her team won.
Saturday morning rolled around, so our hotel-roomie Joel, Danielle, and I hailed a taxi so we didn’t have to walk the entire three blocks with all of our booth supplies. Unknown to us and, surprisingly, our taxi driver, was the aforementioned Baltimore Running Festival and its inconvenient road blocks. Instead of a five-minute trip to the convention center, we took a thirty-minute tour of downtown and showed up after the doors had already been opened for the patrons. This small detour didn’t lower our spirits and before we knew it, Danielle’s fans were trickling to the table to gush about their admiration of her and her webcomic. I’ve never experienced the guest-badge side of the table where people come up to you as friendly as possible to tell you what an honor it is to be meeting you. It really is something, and I know Danielle wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for her amazing fan base.
After the con closed its doors for the evening, boss Corsetto and I went back to our hotel room to get dolled up and raced to the Harvey Awards. We made it fashionably late to cocktail hour and I was introduced to other creators. The Harvey Awards wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. The atmosphere was laid back and fun all thanks to the host, Scott Kurtz of PVP. I believe the only tension in the air came from the nominees and I couldn’t blame them, honestly. After the show, everyone went down to the Marriott bar to have drinks, laugh and relax after a full day of comics. In typical Corsetto fashion, the gang and I stayed out a little too late, had a ton of fun, and crashed as soon as the room key hit the door.
I couldn’t believe that day two still had a crazy influx of fans. The convention hall was booming, and so was our table. For hours. When the crowds started to cool off, Danielle, knowing what a big comic nerd I am, told me to go make the most of the rest of the convention. I ventured off and boy did I make the rest of my con fantastic, or rather, my buddy Eric did when he introduced me to an idol of mine, Tim Sale. Guys, I met Tim Sale. To be honest, the meeting of Mister Sale is an absolute blur to me and all I remember is that he was extraordinarily nice to an ecstatic little ol’ fan, and when I walked away my eyes welled up with tears (of elation). Because of this onslaught of emotion, one of my contacts knocked itself out. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Tim Sale made me cry.
After fixing my contact malfunction, I began walking around the con floor to different booths, reacquainting myself with other creators I’ve met at conventions past. One in particular that sticks out in my mind is my chat with Matt Fraction. I mustered up the courage to talk to him, shook his hand, and related that the advice he had given me at San Diego had helped me greatly with scripting. He obliged my compliment and in turn complimented me on my Clark Kent-style frames. This is exactly what I love about comic conventions like HeroesCon and Baltimore — these are comic book lovers conventions. It doesn’t matter who you are; if you go up to a creator at their booth they are going to treat you like an equal, or rather, a person. Conventions like these aren’t about the spectacle and how much money you can make in a day. What they’re really about is the fans, the comics, and their creators coming together and having a blast. Baltimore has certainly charmed me and I can’t wait until next year.
A special thanks goes out to my buddies Dean, Eric, the Jasons, Brett, Tony and Mark. It’s always a pleasure meeting up with you guys and fun times are had when we’re all together.
About the Author
Billions of years ago, the atoms that would one day comprise Jessi Reid exploded out of a faraway star and began their journey towards achieving the paramount awesomeness we know them as today. Merging with a passing comet, the so-called "Awesome Particles" traversed the universe for eons before crashing to Earth, where they were eventually stumbled upon by a Girl Scout troop, who unknowingly tracked them into the Mojave Desert. The U.S. government scientists detected the anomaly and dispatched a crack team of commandos to investigate. After a three week battle utilizing sonic weaponry, the Awesome Particles were collected and moved to a undisclosed high-security research facility. Military scientists combined the highly unstable atoms in an attempt to create the ultimate super-weapon, and unfortunately... they succeeded. Too strong to be held by any facility and too smart to be tricked by any agent, Jessi Awesome assumed the identity of a mild-mannered nerdy girl with a penchant for comic book consumption. She now leads a life forever on the run, her whereabouts unknown. They say if you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of her outside the corner cafe, clutching a Batman comic and sipping iced coffee.
I TOLD you Sale was really, really nice. Seriously, one of those pros who handles every fan interaction with aplomb.
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