Where we're at

Things have been a little quiet on this blog between updates. The level of quiet is directly inverse to the level of craziness that have been going on in my (and Ludo's) life.

I'll leave it to him to fill you in on the big event of his last few weeks, but for me it's been basically nonstop work and play and work and play and work and work and work.

Let me start over. As most of you know I have a 3 year old daughter named Vienna. When she was born I refused to acknowledge that The Disney Princesses would ever hold a place in our home. And when Vienna become OBSESSED with Sesame Street, I was fine with that. And when she got into the Muppets, I was ecstatic. But then something happened. We bought Beauty and the Beast. Everything else in Vienna's entertainment life disappeared. Beauty and the Beast begat The Little Mermaid, begat Cinderella, begat The Fox and the Hound, Begat Lady and the Tramp.

And then at Christmas her Aunt Stacie gave her over twenty Disney books, most of which emphasized The Disney Princess brand. It was done. I was defeated. But it really isn't so bad, because they're still books. They're still about bravery, family, confidence, individuality and morals. And the new ones, like Tangled, are also hilarious.

So my wife and I realize that in February there is a week long break in Vienna's preschool. I request off of work, we find a free place to stay in Orlando and bite the bullet: we're going to take our daughter to Disney.

And here's where this story becomes a Tart blog and not just a "I took my kid to Disney" post.

There is an up and coming comics Publisher name What the Flux Comics that is based in Winter Park, FL. The same little suburb of Orlando where we'll be staying. And the weekend we'd be driving up (if I can get off of work early enough Saturday) Orlando is hosting MegaCon. An enormous annual comic convention that I now hope to make a yearly ritual.

So I emailed What The Flux's CEO Larry Jarrell and set up a meeting for that week. We tweetered or twitted or whatever you call it and settled on Wednesday night of that week to meet up and discuss Tart possibly joining his growing list of titles.

I did get off work early enough Saturday, so I did go to Megacon. I brought hundreds of Tart fliers to hand out. And was able to give them out to lots of people. Personally, I found the greatest success giving them to large groups of people. When I walked up to a person alone, they seemed to be leery of me. But when I approached groups of 4 or more, they seemed open to the pitch. Maybe they felt that because they were with their friends, I obviously wasn't a threat. If you would have asked me beforehand, I would have assumed the exact opposite response.

If anybody came to the page from those ads, please let me know. And let me know what you think of the story so far.

At MegaCon I walked artist alley and found the What the Flux table to put a name to the face. Spoke for a few minutes and was on my way.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also lost my phone. Getting off the bus which brought us from the distant parking lot I realized it wasn't in my pocket. I searched through my backpack, but couldn't find it. So I ran back on the bus and looked on and under my seat. Nope.

I figured it MUST be in my bag, so I got off, spoke to the driver, and wrote down the number of the bus.

Phoneless I entered the Con. That is why I do not have hundreds of awesome photos to show you. No phone to take them. I was happy to find everyone at the Con to be incredibly nice. They were all excited to be there, happy to look at the patrons who dressed up (I'd say a good 30 to 40 percent), or to pose for pictures if they were in costume.

I hunted down CJ from CJ's comics, a local comic shop who was nice enough to distribute Tart fliers for me (remember I was only there on the last day, and even that was luck). He was doing crazy business which is good, because I want my local shops to be there or I won't have a place to buy my Buffy, Angel & Faith and X-men titles if they aren't around. Much less a place to sell Tart when we get her rolling.

I then learned that Nicolas Brendon and Charisma Carpenter (Xander and Cordelia from Buffy) would have a panel. I passed out Tart fliers to people waiting for their panel, and went out to the buses. Still no phone, I waited a bit until Bus #711 came back around and searched more carefully. There, stuck to the side of the wall by my seat, the black of my Otter Case matching the black of the wall perfectly, I found my phone.

I jaunted back in to the convention center. I joined the Brendon/Carpenter panel already in progress and laughed my ass off. Those two are really funny together. Anyone casting a movie needs to get them to work together on screen again, because the dynamic between the two of them is still great.

I came home to the apartment we were staying in, and collapsed. The next day was exploring Winter Park with Janet and Vienna, and then Tuesday and Wednesday were Epcot and Hollywood "Used to be Called MGM but We Changed it just to Confuse You" Studios. I say we took Vienna to Disney, but all the Princess stuff is actually at these two parks. The most amazing of which is the Princess Lunch at Norway inside Epcot Center. If you have a young child that's into the Princesses this is the place. Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and (even though we were told she was too busy to attend) Cinderella all walked around and introduce themselves to your child and pose for pictures. Expensive, but check out the pictures below and you'll see it was worth every penny: 

So zombified by two days of Disney induced delerium, I drove off to meet Larry Jarrell. I talked with him and a new art assistant of his about Tart, comics, Tumblr, deviant art, my theory that if "Neil Gaiman said it or wrote it, it's right - Always," Truk Lagoon, the difference between inking with brushes or pens (ok I just listened to this part), digital distribution, tradepaperbacks, sweet tea vs unsweetened, was told by the assistant that she didn't like the way issue 1 ended (Spoiler Alert click the cover in the upper right if you haven't read it) it was a compliment, she was sad for the demon, and too many other topics to even remember, much less list.

The end result is, we're in close talks with What The Flux Comics. Nothing is signed, yet and I'm not counting any chickens. But there's an egg there. You'll be the first to hear if it hatches.

Oh and the other result is I'm exhausted. How was your week?

KJ

PS - tune in tomorrow for the next update of Tart issue 2 when we find out just what is inside that cave.