Hello again fans! Why do I proclaim myself King? Well, besides having two Zoom interviews discussing my artwork and comic beginnings, yours truly celebrated his time of birth with my closest friends. While the health, financial, and social unrest of 2020 continued through the first month of summer, Carter Comics continued to find its footing in the online promotion world. With most conventions still cancelled or postponed, and the few shows that find a way to go on prove too risky for my situation, Video meetings and timelapse sketches remain my social and promotional lifeline.
MOANA NUI ZOOM INTERVIEW: The first virtual conversation I had this month, was with a fellow comic creator and member of the Hawaiian Comic Book Alliance, Moana McAdams, who migrated to the East Coast from the island of Kaua’i. In addition to speaking about my comic and art upbringings, we both couldn’t resist discussing our island roots (in my case, how my tropical surroundings shaped the artist and writer that I am today). Other topics I talked about were about convention life for Artist Alley/Small Press vendors like the two of us. I specifically mentioned the early challenges of flying Con displays and inventory to out-of-state comic conventions for the first time such as Washington D.C., and my birth state of Hawaii. It was recorded to go about an hour, but we spent and extra ten minutes afterward on “Hawaii Talk.”
EAST LA CAPE ZOOM INTERVIEW: A definite sign of the times for 2020 is the rise of “virtual events,” whether they be concerts, business conferences, or comic book conventions. Safety is first and foremost in this unsure year, so many of the large conventions such as Wondercon Anaheim and San Diego Comic Con pivoted there events to online fans. Even smaller, but burgeoning new shows like East L.A. C.A.P.E. (Comics, Arts, Pop-Culture, and Entertainment based out of East Los Angeles since 2017) followed suit, giving artists who were scheduled to appear at their physical event a chance to still promote their work to an audience, albeit digitally. The show put on a series of Zoom video interviews for each comic artist, writer, or other creative talent and show promoters that would be recorded and later distributed on both YouTube and the talent's social media pages. My interview was pretty standard with the usual questions of art and comic origins and where to purchase my work, but it was still great to have that interaction (even virtual and brief) in a comic convention setting.
40TH BIRTHDAY ZOOM PARTY: And here’s where the “King” part of this blog title applies. While I was never one over the years to make a big deal out of my birthdays, when the stars still align to make a great celebration of life possible despite the biggest of hurdles, I jump on that opportunity without any hesitation. Oddly enough, without this pandemic, celebrating 40 years on this earth would probably have resulted in just going into work, having my desk decorated by co-workers, and maybe a mention of my birthday at our department meeting. Believe it or not, but Co-Vid 19 created an environment to have one of my best celebrations in a long time. Setting up a Zoom party the Saturday following my actual birthday (which fell on Thursday June 11th), the virtual format allowed me to invite just about anyone I wanted that had access to it. It resulted in a nice mix of friends (many whom had never met each other before) from my former roommates/roommates friends, current co-workers, fellow fans of my favorite ‘80s band, and Artist Alley vendor friends. The five hour party consisted of online board games, and lots of chatting between old friends and meeting new friends. So……thanks Co-Vid?
Well, that’s a wrap for this blog look back at the month of June for Carter Comics. Come back here next month to see what other virtual activities (comics-related or not) I come up with to fill the physical convention void. As much as I’d like to look on the bright side of things, it’s gonna be a rough next month or so, and who knows what the world will look like then? Until then, stay safe everyone!
Regards,
Allen Carter
Carter Comics