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So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #098: Slaying the Dragon(Con)

So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #098: Slaying the Dragon(Con)

Posted on by Marc Alan Fishman

Fans of this column may detect a pattern. Certainly when I’ve spoken about Dragon Con before. But what can I say? The show itself has become an anchor convention for my teeny studio. Would I prefer it be C2E2 — the Chicago-based comic expo? Sure! But that’s really hard to do when C2E2 hasn’t accepted us back as artists-of-the-alley since 2023, and 2019 before that. But I digress. This column isn’t meant to be a whine-and-moan about Reed Exhibitions. Nay. It is a celebration of a comic convention that has always been amazing to table at.

Dragon Con once again green-lit Unshaven Comics’ application for an Artist Alley table here in the Antimonitor’s year of 2025. And so, we unshaven lads traversed Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and a good lil chunk of Georgia to reach AmericasMart, Building 2, Floor 4, table 526. From 10am until 7pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday… then 10 am until 5pm on Labor Day… we hocked, shilled, and jazz-hand-waved our way through tabling the only way Unshaven Comics knows how to do: part Harold Hill, part Richard Roma, and part Willy Loman. Kudos if any of those references hit.

This long weekend was long overdue for Matt Wright (penciler/inker/painter/amazing-art-maker), Kyle Gnepper (writer/Sell-o-matic 5000), and myself (The Mike Gold dubbed Multi-Hypenate™). For what few of you new here should understand is that Unshaven Comics is a nineteen-year-old studio founded by 32 year old friends (who are all 43 years old for context). Still here? Good. Simply put, it’s rough when you don’t really hang out with your best friends of three-decades until you’re shoulder to shoulder behind a six foot table 500+ miles from home. So you learn to savor these times for the gift they truly are. 

Dragon Con this year was in full force — with likely 70K+ in attendance all filling downtown Atlanta to the gills with every manor of nerd in pop culture. More so than perhaps any other fan convention in America, Dragon Con really is a Nerdy Mardi Gras  where every sect of fantasy, comics, sci-fi, and anime all converge for a long weekend of prime programming, sensational shopping, and cosplay predilection.  Continue reading “So Long and Thank For The Fish, Man #098: Slaying the Dragon(Con)” →

With Further Ado #137: Catching Up with Thom Zahler

With Further Ado #137: Catching Up with Thom Zahler

Posted on by Ed Catto

One of the many nice things about attending conventions was seeing familiar faces. For fans and industry professionals alike, it’s a great way to catch up with, and be inspired by, the many creative entrepreneurs of Geek Culture.

One guy that was always working hard, and doing it with his natural, movie-star smile, was Thom Zahler. Since I can’t walk up to his cool booth at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, I just had to catch up with him ..via this column!

Ed Catto: How have you been managing during the pandemic?

Thom Zahler: I’m not gonna lie. It’s been rough and interesting and everything in between.

When the lockdown first happened, I was kind of designed to be fine through the summer. I was working on season two of Cupid’s Arrows for WEBTOON and that wasn’t affected by anything. I converted the last convention-exclusive issues of Love and Capes: The Family Way into a shop-exclusive version that I was able to put out when Diamond shut down. And, when it comes to how I work at home, quarantine isn’t a lot different than normal times. I couldn’t go to the gym anymore, and everything had an extra layer of complexity, but it wasn’t a big change. I was fortunate to be close enough to my parents that I could take care of them, do their shopping, things like that. And I live in a small town where you could still go out and take walks and not run into anyone.

Losing conventions certainly hurt, as much from the emotional hit as anything else. Conventions kind of recharge me. I can see the people who read my comics and that helps fuel me to make more. The loss of the revenue stream wasn’t great. But it was manageable.

Then the summer rolled on and nothing changed, and it got a lot tighter. I’m glad I bore down and prepared for the worst, squirreling money away and preparing for the long game. It still wasn’t awesome, but it was better than the alternative. Continue reading “With Further Ado #137: Catching Up with Thom Zahler” →