NYCC: A Recap...of sorts.

I wouldn't say that anything work-related went the way I expected it to at this year's New York Comic Con. Considering the expectations I had when I flew to NYC for the show, the actual outcome of my New York trip could be considered a major disappointment. And certainly that would be the negative way to approach the situation and if I told you about my weekend, I doubt any of you would blame me for taking that path. But I'm trying not to be about that anymore, trying to accentuate the positive as a one-time favorite cartoon bear of mine once said. So I'm putting that crabby version of myself from Earth-2 to bed and telling you what I really loved about New York Comic Con.

Growing up.

That's right, I said growing up. This is the con where I looked comics dead in the eye and said, "it's either this year or it's never." I walked that floor like a pro. Not a fan, not an ogler of scantily clad nerd girls, not even, it would seem, a journalist. This weekend I was a pro, and for that matter, a pro who was tired of watching these things go by from the wrong side of the table. For over two years now, I've been going to cons and watching as my friends grow from comics hopefuls to comics success stories. Yet here I am, clutching my press badge, finding that same groove on the record. "Yeah, I'm here, just covering the convention, setting up interviews, trying to meet publishers." Did I do all those things? Yes. I always do them. And I always come away from conventions with all this fierce momentum which I then proceed to coast by on until the next convention. Eventually, the industry will get tired of me, will pass me by. Hell, I'm tired of me.

This weekend I saw a lot of the people that are important to me in the industry, a lot of people whose careers I've been following since they were still just doing commissions through their blogs and filling in as back-up writers. You know what almost everyone of them had in common? They were too busy to hang out. That's not saying that they don't value me as a friend and that I'm upset or feel like I was excluded. Far from it. They were just so busy because for them, this was work, and regardless of how I cut it, for me it was just play.

That's not to say that I don't still believe strongly in the mission of this blog; to help new creators on transition into the industry in the smoothest way possible. I've believed in that from day one and you will continue to see content of that form appearing from me on the wide, wonderful world of the internet. But I'm done just scraping by, done not being more prolific. 2012 will be the year of the Brett.

Or you'll see me on campus at UIC. How's their journalism program?