I’m back from what would normally be sunny Southern California, but seeing as how it was cold and raining (and even snowing in some parts!) most of the time I was there, I’m back from soggy Southern California, where I was camped out inside the Anaheim Convention Center for three days to pimp myself and my wares at Wondercon. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already read about my frustrations with the Hilton Anaheim’s ludicrous “hidden” fees, my problems getting in and out of the convention center itself, and my inability to get a decent meal before 10 p.m., if at all.

But despite wiping out my bank account and causing me to lose my typical cool, the weekend went pretty well. Got to reconnect with a lot of familiar faces, from both the convention circuit and my personal life, had the pleasure of meeting a lot of people I’d previously only talked to online, and once again, was dumbfounded to be approached by people I’ve never met who actually read my Homemade Comics blog.

I have no idea how many people turned out for the show. It was definitely hard to get through the middle of the exhibit space on Saturday, but being stuck behind an Artist Alley table for most of the weekend, I only saw a fraction of those people. There were a lot of admirers checking out my art, and a lot of thumbs flipping through comic pages, but not a whole lot of sales. Mostly, I was busy doing commission sketches, which was good financially, but a bit frustrating when I can’t get someone to take a chance on a $3 comic, but they’ll buy a doodle of Iron Man for $15.

Still, overall, during the event itself, I had a pretty good time, made some decent new connections, and sneaked in time to meet up with L.A. friends after the show. However, it’ll probably be a while before I do another big con. The results aren’t quite justifying the expense, and I’d prefer to return to the scene when I have bigger projects launching. There are a few small shows around Vegas that I will likely attend later this year, but other than that, I’m going to spend the time instead FINISHING existing projects so that, hopefully, there will be enough demand and incentive for me to do conventions that I won’t have a choice.

But I truly do appreciate all the people with whom I interacted at Wondercon 2012, and if any of you are reading this, thanks for taking an interest. As usual, you can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, DeviantArt and good ol’ fashioned email.