Post-FCBD bits and bobs

Phew! Free Comic Book Day 2014 came and went super fast. Even though the event was longer than usual by a few hours, the day just flew by. We were joined by some 20 other local comics creators, and a whoooole lot of other vendors, cosplayers, exhibitors, performers, and of course, comics fans! Several thousand pairs of feet swept through Stadium on Main on Saturday in the quest to cosplay, ogle comics, perform, mingle with fellow nerds, and of course, to rid themselves of their earthly burdens of cash.

We got there bright and early, and shockingly NOT monstrously tired. We were a bit more organised this year, so we had a good night’s sleep beforehand. Our booth also took less time to set up because we’d planned it out beforehand, and we took less stuff this year to rid our table of clutter. Basically, everything non-Cottonstar-related like poop stickers, post cards, and other art prints, just stayed at home. So, each year we learn a little bit more! 🙂 We set up our gorgeous new roll-up banner, and pinned our PVC table banner to the table cloth. It looked really nice and we were quite pleased with how well our new wire stands worked with the table layout.

PVC-banner

Our PVC table banner! Also our filthy, pre-FCBD chaotic flat.

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Our awesome new roll-up banner!

Our booth all set up and ready to go!

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Our friend Clarence (aka Shakkaron) posing in front of the roll-up banner.

We really are so, so proud of all our fellow South African comics artists! You guys really produced some top-notch work and we are so excited to be a part of your journey into the world of comics. Here are some of the things we managed to snag on the day:

“Sophie, Giant Slayer” by Kay Carmichael, “The Cat Lady” by Shameema Dharsey, “The Way of Tao and Zen” by Luis Tolosana, “Gofu 2” by Deon de Lange, “The Souvenir” by Daniël Hugo, “Run! There’s Dinosaurs in the City!” by Gina Viglietti, and lastly our copies of “Velocity: Darker Forces,” to which Ben and I each contributed artwork.

We did miss out on a few things due to being largely glued to our booth all the time (we didn’t even manage to go NEAR the actual shop or free comics table), but hopefully we can pick those up at the Open Book Comics Fest in September. Because of all the new signage and other purchases, we ended up with a lot of overhead this year. We also had to reprint Chapter 2, as we were sold out of those from previous expos. We also had to make new art prints, and of course since Chapter 3 is ten pages longer than the other two, it ended up costing more per unit in print. We also didn’t sell quite as much as last year, and all that added up to our not being able to cover our costs on the day. Also, this weekend was shared with Afrikaburn, which resulted in a great deal of folks missing out FCBD in favour of that event. Despite our losses, we actually ended up with enough stock for the Open Book Comics Fest, which is actually quite a nice position to be in. So, not a total loss. 🙂 We did actually sell quite a surprising number of Chapters 1 and 2, which meant that there were new readers willing to invest in us, and not just returning ones. That was pretty awesome. 🙂 We have quite a bit of stock left over. We even have a few fridge magnets! However, we’re not sure if we’re going to be opening international orders right now, as that money would need to go directly into our bank accounts to cover shipping and so on, and the fees for that can get a bit frustrating. Not to mention it usually involves us going into a big bank branch for each transfer. If you really really want some comics, please email us and we’ll try to accommodate you. Otherwise we’ll have to wait until we have enough funds to ship out the comics, and try to sort out Paypal afterwards. We’ll put up an announcement when we open international orders.

Comics!

Magnets!

Finally, some exciting news: Cottonstar is now being stocked at several bookstores around Cape Town! These include Outer Limits, Blank Books, Clarke’s Bookshop, Book Lounge (situated very close to the famous steampunk coffee shop and roastery, Truth Coffee Roasting), and of course Readers Den. We also have some stock in Durban at The Unseen Shoppe. So if you don’t feel like dealing with us directly (for some weird reason, because we are pretty nice and can also sign them for you), you can go to any one of these fine establishments to purchase our wares. That’s about it from us for Free Comic Book Day 2014. Here are a few more photos for your viewing pleasure:

A view of our section of the Artists Alley floor from across the hallway.

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There was a giant creeper cosplay!

Our friendly neighbour across the way, Shameema Dharsey.

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Ah yes.

 

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Ben working on sketch editions. He got photographed either in the middle of talking to me, or doing a fairly decent impression of a cat butt with his mouth.

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Our friends Tim and Tamryn who were kind enough to fetch us coffee and a muffin, and also buy our things! Thank you guys! <3

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A friend of ours came dressed as a hobbit. Isn’t she cute??

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By midday, we were kind of feeling the not-eating-breakfast thing.

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Our friend Ruth cosplaying Harley Quinn.

For heaps more photos of the day, you can go check out Readers Den’s facebook page, where they have 5 whole albums full of FCBD pics! Also our friend Rowan Govender did a nice write-up of his FCBD experiences, with some cool pictures on his blog, Geek Ink. Thank you once again to everyone who came along to support us! You guys are awesome! And a huuuuuge thank you as always to Readers Den for investing in local artists. We owe them a great deal and are very grateful for their continued support and encouragement. Good Guy Readers Den! Thank you.

Love

Ben & Danelle

One Comment

  1. […] guys! We can’t believe it’s already almost time for Free Comic Book Day 2015. Last year’s event was HUGE. This year will probably be bursting at the […]

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