STAPLE: The Independent Media Expo
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
Clockwise: Amber Willey, Carlos Saumdio, Mark McCollum, Nicholas Lopez, Phillip Hughes, John Keating
Breaking the Ice was fortunate enough to be featured at this year’s Staple Independent Media Expo in Austin, TX. I was invited to come out by the publishers of the BTI comic book Carlos Samudio and Mark McCollum of Hopper Comics. The one day event was held at the Monarch Event Center and it was a blast. A lot of times at conventions, web comics and small press can get overshadowed by the big boys of Marvel, DC and Hollywood. This event, though, was created solely to spotlight independent comics and that, they did.
Official Hopper Comics Booth Babe (and my fiance) Amber Willey accompanied me on the journey and we flew into Austin on Friday afternoon. We met up with Carlos and Mark and headed over to Texas Land and Cattle for some Texas beef! Then it was off to do a little impromptu tour of downtown Austin and the Capital building, which was gorgeous.
Then we head over to Austin Books & Comics, which is one of the coolest comic shops I’ve seen in awhile. They had EVERYTHING you could ever want in comics there. They even have Breaking the Ice, along with the entire Hopper Comics line, there as well! I was thrilled to find out that, of the 30 books they carried of BTI, only two were remaining! I don’t even have any family in Austin!
We had a couple of beers and then it was off to a late showing of WATCHMEN. The book is one of my favorite of all time, comic or otherwise, and I
loved the movie. I’ll save that review for some other time, though.
Saturday was spent at the convention. Carlos really outdid himself with banners for Breaking the Ice as well as his newest superhero book, Tex-Shield. We had a constant stream of people coming over to talk with us, buy books, buy prints (I had a Popeye print that I drew up, along with some comic strips that I made as prints for people to buy) and even get some sketches done. We had plenty of freebies, too. One was a print of Mick and the BTI logo and the other was the same picture on a button. People love buttons and more importantly, love free stuff! We sold a bunch of books and prints and Carlos seemed thrilled with the results.
I even did an interview with Spill.com and their “League of Extremely Ordinary Gentleman” podcast. Phil’s Tex-Shield one seems to be up for the March 13th show but mine has yet to be uploaded. Keep checking out the site or I’ll let you know when it’s available right here on the site.
One of the nicest things to happen to me at the convention itself was a woman coming up to the table and exclaiming, quite enthusiastically, that she reads Breaking the Ice online and loves it! That totally made my day!
That night Carlos and Mark had the entire Hopper Comics team, along with various friends and relatives, over 
to the house for a party to celebrate the company and also…my birthday!! I was very surprised and thrilled when they unveiled a cake (this was the same image on the print and buttons, as well as the BTI t-shirt) with Mick on it!
The party was a blast as we gorged on AMAZING BBQ from a place called Rudy’s. Seriously, this stuff was so good I’m about ten minutes from ordering the sauce online. In fact, I’m doing it right now!
Amber had to catch a (very!) early flight out of Austin to North Carolina on Sunday so I hung out with Carlos until my 3:00 flight. We got some Huevos Rancheros and drove around Austin. I have to say, I really like that city. Has a great vibe and atmosphere to it.
All in all, we sold some books, got some people interested in the strip and Hopper Comics in general and Staple was a success. Amber and I really enjoy these conventions and as always, getting to hang
out with Carlos and the rest of the Hopper Comics team. It’s really a great company and I’m proud and honored to be a part of it.
Next stop, Wizard World Chicago in August!
