Damn, well, it doesn't sound like it was fun at all, but that positive list sounds pretty good if you take it away from the suckage context.

Maybe skipping the con would be a good countermove...maybe attend other smaller cons and fugg this monstrosity. I watched a bit of the coverage on G4 and it looked kind of hideous in a way...There's almost something weird about people freaking out about a movie coming out next year based on a 20 year old comic...uhhhh...okkaaayyy.

I remember hearing Skottie Young say how he took an entire year off of cons and loved it. Who knows...maybe it's good to shake up long held conventions...
 

This comment has been removed by the author.
 

Though it says Christie wrote this post, I was the one who did it - I just didn't see which account was logged into blogger at the time.

While Christie had a bad time at the con, too... she didn't vow not to go back like I did.
 

Ashley and Michelle are adorable! Who's that grumpy guy between them...? :P
 

I say stick to the vow...doesn't mean you have to remove yourself from the industry, just one con that really seems to have morphed into something unidentifiable.
 

You're a fantastic teacher, and don't worry, you haven't let any of us down in the "grim reality" department or in any other department for that matter.

While I can't speak for all of your students... screw it, I will... we know the game's not easy. In fact, we know that it's soul-crushing and awful and full of existential despair. We live in Los Angeles after all; this town runs on the broken spirits of writer-types. (My tears alone power most of Brentwood.)

But, we also know that we'd make really lousy accountants. Even in the worst moments (...and Comic-Con can't help but inspire a few...), I'd rather give this b.s. a shot than spend the rest of my life wishing I had.

Your class has brought me so much joy. I felt so burned out on writing other people's crap, and the whole comics medium and doing something original whether it ever gets published or not makes it a whole hell of a lot easier to get up in the morning.

You guys rule. The Con is weird. Ninja tomatoes keep fighting.
 

I haven't been to SD in like 3 or 4 years. the last time I went was fairly unenjoyable too, and that was probably 50,000 less attenees ago.

These days, I would much rather set up at Charlotte or Baltimore or SPX. Next year, we're thinking of doing APE or Wondercon or Seattle to go back and do a west coast con.
 

Ok, I have to jump in here and build on Julialat34's comments. I'm not a student in the class (altho if I lived in LA I would be...) But I am the cautionary tale of what happens when you let the fear of how hard it is to get the better of you. I did that, I walked away from the table when the enormity of how difficult it would be to carve out a living in any creative field would be. Trust me all you burgeoning creators--you don't want this. I now work on wall st. and am finishing my MBA but I read friggin comics non-stop because it's the only thing that keeps my soul alive. I sold out. And guess what? It aint fun...all of your out there still holding on to the dream...don't give up...(but if you do and have any aptitude with finance contact me...I'll help you sell out too)
 

Aw. I am sad you guys had a bad time at the convention. : ( We had a good time. But We am glad we cheered you guys up by dressing up as Oliver and Luna.
 

Oh. By the way when we were walking around at the con some people recognized who we were and said they loved Amazing Agent Luna. And we told people what we were cosplaying from. : )
 

Sorry to hear that the con was such a wretched experience for you guys. :( Hopefully the high points will stand out a little more once some time has passed the the perfect storm of suck will fade out as something not worth the brain cells to remember.

Either way, it was nice to see you, and the new stuff looks like it's going to be great.
 

well, i know i've already said this multiple times so i doubt it will do much to make you feel better...but i had an AMAZING time and it wouldn't have been half as good if not for you guys. for one, i probably wouldn't have been able to go, like, at all. two, i would have missed out on the incredible dinner and company i got to share with y'all on Friday night. three, i would probably be suffering horrid orthopedic problems currently from trying to sleep in my truck. and so much more besides. i'm not just happy to be a fan of yours...i'm incredibly proud to be friends with such incredibly giving and clever people because it's far too rare to find people like you in the world today.

or is this all just some elaborate plot to lull me into a false sense of security and let my guard down so Christina can exact her revenge? ;)
 

Wow, sounds like Comic Con was the overblown mess that I thought it would be. A friend from work had a good time, but even she told me that huge crowds were focusing on the big-name celebrity events and not really spending any time with all the writers and artists who create the vast majority of the content out there. Seems like the show's gotten too big and too commercial for the vast majority of the writers and artists working in the industry.

In your class I think there were times when I sensed the level of frustration that goes with being a professional, essentially freelance writer. I'm a full-time editor, so I deal with freelance writers all the time and know how tough it is to make a living writing full-time, especially these days.

I don't think anyone in your classes came away with any illusions about it being easy to break in. We all know it's hard, but we still enjoyed the class and would like to think that if we work hard, and are lucky, we could get something published (published yes, make a living at it, probably not). At any rate, you teach a good, fun class, that's definitely worth the price of admission.
 

Yeah, don't worry about anything Nunzio, you're great, and there's a reason we always come back.

And yes, we all have a sense about how hard it is to really break in, but nothing in life that's worth anything is easy.

And if you felt like you got rejected a lot at the con, you should of rolled with me to the bars and clubs Friday and Saturday night in SD. There was some serious rejection coming my way from girls all night long, haha.
 

I hope to add to the good things list by saying that I've just mailed out to you copies of the Italian edition of Amazing Agent Luna. You'll have to let me know if Nunzio's dad deems my translations worthy of his son's prose!
I would have emailed but for some reason the message kept bouncing back, so... Here goes nothing. It was a blast meeting you, and I think I might qualify as the person who came from farthest away to shake your hands.
Ciao!

michele.
 

Dude

Why so serious?

As a fellow scribe and someone who also someone who teaches at UCLA Extension and works with their spouse, I was stunned by your post.

It wasn't depressing. It was realistic. Wow, a traffic jam. That ain't gods from a machine stuff. A traffic jam on the way to comic con.

Editors who don't engage you and won't help? Uh, you have worked in this business for a while. Is this something new?

You know very well that one anyone gets into this business should be prepared to be rejected everyday of your life.

I suggest (as someone who has been through a hell of lot more rejection that you would ever imagine) to just worry about that which you can control.

The words on the page.
 

Anonymous...

Thanks for posting that heartfelt message. Nice to vent a little bit on the heels of a very bad weekend only to have some jackass come in and say, effectively, "get over it."

First off... it wasn't a simple "traffic jam." It was 4 1/2 hours of barely moving at all in 100+ degree weather. If you think that this is something people don't have the right to complain about, there's a great job waiting for you in hell.

Second, griping about that traffic jam was the last post. You'll note I was more than happy to start my con experience over the next day. The traffic was a disaster, but all it did was delay us and leave us tired, sunburned and cranky. We were fine the next day.

This post was about spending a thousand dollars in an attempt to help our career - an attempt that yielded nothing.

Maybe while you worry about "the words on the page," you have a thousand dollars to spare. But in my world, spending a ton of money to advance your career and coming away with the realization that you would have been better off skipping the whole thing is pretty bad.

Also... I have no doubt that you, as all writers do, have faced rejection. I'm not sure why you seem intent on getting into a "my rejection is more than yours" contest. I wasn't comparing mine to anyone else's, because that's pretty silly and self-indulgent. I was complaining about my weekend on my blog. That's all.

I know it happens to everyone else, and I've had it happen plenty to me and my wife. The bulk of my post was about how this was part of the job, and a very hard part. Nowhere in the post do I say this is a new experience for me, or a revelation that it's hard. It was a reminder. And it made me worry about sending students off unprepared to face that reality.

Your point that anyone who gets into the business should be prepared makes my point for me. I may not have prepared them properly.

But your notion that, just because I've done this long enough to know that rejection is inevitable, it should be easier? That's laughable.

It's like being hit repeatedly with a stick - if you know it's coming, it does very little to make it hurt less. It just takes away the surprise factor.

The saddest part of your post? You ignored the part at the end of mine. Where I say that to get through it, you focus on the positive.

Maybe for you that's focusing on the words on the page. If it works for you, I think that's great. It doesn't for me, because each month, Christina and I have to determine what words to focus on, based on who is going to pay us and let us pay our rent. And when no-one is doing so, focusing on those words will be of little comfort as we sell off our belongings.

I don't know if your intentions were better than your choice of phrasing. Maybe your 'focus on the words on the page' is meant as helpful advice.

If it is, you buried it rather effectively with sarcastic comments about traffic jams and obnoxious musings about how long I'd been working in the business and oddly aggressive statements about being rejected 'more than I could imagine.'

So if you meant better by this, I'm sorry to blow up at you. But if you meant to slam down on my venting then, well... it's nice to know that those in the same boat will mock you if you're upset that the boat is leaking.
 

And again...
...wouldn't you rather just be writing
 

Hey Michele,

Eagerly awaiting the copies of Luna! Thanks so much for sending. We can't wait to see them.

Thanks again for stopping by to say hi!

- Christina
 

Anonymous--do you have a day job or some other source of income? I think the point of Nunzio's post is that YES he would rather be writing but the real world has quite a few pressures in it that don't allow for that.

I'm not a writer, so for me, I wouldn't rather be writing, I'd rather note that your original post was lame.
 

Don't worry, all the students have day jobs and don't stoop to submitting anonymous posts to people's blogs.

Every endeavor is hard, being a successful accountant is hard. Would you rather be a struggling accountant or a struggling writer? I'll take writer. All things in life are 90% shit and, if you are lucky, 10% mental orgasm. Possibly accountants have mental orgasms when crunching numbers but I doubt it. They get, at most, a warm fuzzy feeling inside from helping people and they earn enough to buy toys and vacations. I have nothing against accountants but I could never be one. I don't need the toys and I'm useless on vacation.

So. No worries, cons are not to be enjoyed necessarily and writing exists for its own reasons and all the students know that.

We have a great time in the class(es) and thank you for it!


-FJ (Icebreaker)
 

This comment is a month late, Nunzio, but I just wanted to chime in on what everyone else has said -- your class is great, and you're a wonderful teacher. I don't think you make writing seem like an easy career choice. What counts for me is that you make it seem possible at all. I don't know if I can explain properly what a big deal that is for me. I was raised to believe that a creative career path was impossible, and spent three years in grad school feeling miserable because I wanted to write and draw but that would be "throwing away my life." You've never said it would be fun and games, but you've always said that it can be done. This is a choice I've made and you haven't said it's a stupid one, and what we do and learn in your class is evidence that the pursuit isn't pointless... that's enough for me. That's everything.

I'll see you next week!
 

PS -- This is Lisa.