I couldn’t ask for a better first-time experience being behind a booth at a comic convention. Admittedly, I was nervous of the fact that I was going to be in the Flight booth, signing books for a very well known series, situated next door to super-giants like Marvel and DC. And it was going to be at the largest comic convention in the world, the San Diego Comic-Con. Adding to the pressure (unintentionally, I’m sure) was Kazu Kibuishi, a personal hero of mine, handing me a Flight 6 book to sign and saying,”You’re about to sign your first book”, while he and Kean Soo, another cartoonist/writer I admire, stood next to me and watched.

Some 300 books or so later, I think I finally began to feel comfortable, and I can safely say I’ve walked away from the experience with some great new friends, both behind and in front of the booth.

I’m very thankful for the opportunity Kazu and everyone else involved in Flight gave me by allowing me to be a part of the series. It’s been an exciting journey getting to this point. I’ve been doing an online comic for a year now, which initially began as a way for me to teach myself sequential imagery. It was a personal goal to reach a level where I’d be invited to contribute to Flight, perhaps two or three years from now. Much to my surprise, I was invited after the sixth or seventh page of my comic. I know in my heart that I put a lot of hard work into getting here, but I also know there are plenty of far more talented folks out there who have been doing this way longer than I have. So you won’t find me settling into any kind of comfort zone. I owe it to them and myself to do even better in the next volume. I can almost hear Capt. Miller played by Tom Hanks, saying to Private Ryan, played by me in this case,”Earn this.” Not that an epic WWII battle should be used to illustrate doing comics in any way, shape, or form… but hopefully you get the idea.

My head sticking out of some heroes: Scott C., Jeff Smith, Scott McCloud, along with Kazu and Amy Kibuishi, Kean Soo, Johane Matte, and Rodolph Guenoden.

You can see more pictures from my Con experience over at my Flickr page.