Hey everyone!
I’m back from the wonderful city of Buffalo, with fun stories from UBCon! Let’s start with the venue: The UB Commons, the same place the last UBcon was held, was still a nice place for the event, and Artist’s Alley was a small room, but enough for a handful of really cool people. First off, there was my friend, and my ride to the con, Kez, who went out of her way to find me a place to stay as well. Kez, there’s chocolate in your future. My friend Mike was also there. All three of us did well at the con, and I’m sure I can speak on behalf of them as well as myself when I say “Thank you, Buffalo! You guys were great!”
On Friday, I rode into the con, set up, and that was about it. I got to talk to a few fun people, but not much happened other than that.
Saturday stunned me. The crowd was great, but I was surprised at how many Toku fans were among the crowd. As I was doing sketches of some more notable Toku heroes, people came up and immediately started talking about Sentai and Kamen Rider as if they had also been looking for someone who knew their fandom. I sold some sketches, some commissions, and put out a lot of cards. I also got a chance to meet my table neighbor, Drew Baker, who put us all to shame with his incredible paintings. I also found out that he’s local to me, so that’s cool! Kez and I also got to talk with a great artist from Michigan, Sarah Wilkinson, who had fun stories of her own about her art, which was also beautiful. The day finished out with more Toku talk, but Sunday… Oh man, Sunday!
Sunday opened up with a couple more commissions. A good way to start the day. And then the fighting started! Ok, it wasn’t an actual fight, but it WAS Kez and I having an impromptu demo of Escrima and Kali stick fighting, each of us teaching the other a drill we liked. Well, it then led to a lot of talk between our tables of cool martial arts info, as we both do comics which heavily focus martial arts. We happened to comment on Drew’s paintings, and how we were glad he had done research to get the swords right, among other things. He perked up an ear to all of our discussions (usually ones with gruesome detail), and was pretty much taking mental notes. Well, after that fun time, Doug Walker walks in, short on time, but definitely wanting to check out Artist’s Alley. I got to chat with him, get a picture, and while it was a quick chat, it was nice to know that he stopped in to check out the tables.
Shoutouts to:
The woman who bought my Tommy pic and commissioned me for Chandra Nalaar: Awesome fun talking about Kamen Rider with you! Thank you for grabbing a commission and sketch as well!
The woman who bought two commissions of an original character and Phillip from Kamen Rider W: Loved your excitement about Super Sentai and I’m glad you’re getting a chance to watch the older series as well!
The woman who bought two of my sketches (Faiz and Super Shinken Red): Didn’t get a chance to talk to you too much, but I hope the person you bought for enjoyed the sketches! I was proud of how the Faiz sketch came out and I’m glad someone picked it up!
The man who bought the Kamen Rider Skull sketch: You kicked off my weekend by picking up a sketch I loved drawing! First sale is always good, and I’m not surprised that Skull was one of the first to be picked up!
I hope you all enjoyed the art you picked up from me, and thank you for checking out the comic. Please send me feedback or comment, as I love seeing fans get back to me! Hope to see you guys at more conventions in the future! The one thing I forgot to get was pictures of you guys. If you’d like to show off your commissions or sketches on the site, please send me a pic! I hope next year is a lot more planned out. I was so disorganized for this weekend that I forgot a couple things that I wish I hadn’t. 
Dan: Thank you for letting me borrow a room for the weekend! You were incredibly hospitable when you didn’t have to be. Your friends were awesome, too! Glad I got to meet and hang out with you all!
Kez: Like I said, chocolate will come your way at some point! Oh, and that Dragon Pearl Jasmine Tea? BUHHHH! That was great!
Drew: Very nice meeting you, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to hang out or grab coffee soon with the rest of the Rochester area artists.
Mike: PFFT! Thanks for nothin’! Nah, you were awesome, too. Glad you did well at the con, and hopefully at the next event we’ll get to hang out more.
And last, the Staff: Thank you for bringing food and water around to the artists, and BIG thanks for putting on an incredible show which I would love to come back to next year! Maybe next time I’ll have books for sale!
