Boston Comic Con This Weekend!

The most important thing you need to know about Boston Comic Con is that it's in a new place this year - kind of near the old place, so you won't get totally lost, but it's at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center instead of the Seaport WTC.  A few blocks south from the seaport at 415 Summer St.  I'm sharing a table once again with my friend Jennie Wood in Artist's Alley #AA300.

BCC is also run by a new company this year - Fan Expo - so we'll see what new changes are in store.  I think that the convention will be bigger, as this is a larger building.

Once again I'm blogging last-minute.  OK now to catch some Z's before waking at 5:45AM.  If you're in the Boston area, hope to see you there!

Limit-Break Interview

Limit-Break interviewed me at Boston Comic Con!  I've done some Dead Pool sketches for Jared in past conventions, and it was cool that he chose to spotlight me.  Here are some other Limit-Break interviews:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClC0JJmkLAwFLf0z-nO6Gcw/videos   And if you have trouble viewing my interview, see it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pkNzxP7Ll0

In other convention news, I will NOT be tabling at Baltimore Comic Con this weekend.  I'm not too sure how successful the show will be considering it's Labor Day weekend.  Conventions are growing due to the large influx of new fans due to all the super hero movies.  I know the hard-core fans will always show up for conventions, but most new fans probably will not give up barbecues, parties, and other vacations to go to a comic convention.  I'll have to ask other tablers how it goes.

If you live in Baltimore and would like a sketch from me, I can totally still do that!  Please email me at mindy@mindyindy.com with a description of the sketch you want and I can mail it to you.

Keep in mind I exaggerate the Daily Misfortunes, haha!  I do spend a lot of time at the post office though, even in the daytime during off-peak hours. 

Boston Comic Con This Fri-Sun!

Hey peeps in Boston, I'll be back for Boston Comic Con this Friday thru Sunday!  I'll be tabling with Jennie Wood once again in Artist's Alley table D421.  Stop by and say HI!  Not much time to blog now, gotta get up at 5AM for that Megabus...

And then on my to the subway, I had to stop in TWO grocery stores on the same street to try to cool down from the oppressive heat (life tip = frozen food section).  The effect was good, until right when I stepped outside again.

Pete's Mini Zine Fest This Saturday!!

Tomorrow I'm exhibiting in Pete's Mini Zine Fest!  A celebration of little works of joy:  zines!  Though zines (short for magazines, of the indie kind) traditionally consist of written works, cartoonists are gradually taking over zine fests :) 

Saturday 7/30 from 2-7pm at Pete's Candy Store (the "store" is actually a bar... there is no candy, but it used to be a candy store) 709 Lorimer Sr, Brooklyn NY 11211.  Take the L to Lorimer or G to Metropolitan Ave.  Here's the facebook invite.  See you there!

Last week I got to experience and exhibit at Comic-Con International in San Diego!! (more on that in the next blog) and I realized I need to prepare for Boston Comic Con in 2 weeks.  Do I even still live in New York?

"The Forward" spotlights my work on "No Tears: Life With FD"

"The Forward," a Jewish American online magazine focusing on politics, arts, and culture, recently highlighted my work on the weekly comic "No Tears:  Life With FD."  There's a video of me creating the comic strip.  The video also shows David Brenner, executive director of the FD Foundation, talking about Familial Dysautonomia and how this comic has helped connect patients, families, and others beyond.

Read the corresponding article here:  http://forward.com/culture/318404/sketching-life-with-a-rare-disease/  It came out wonderfully!  I also love how I'm referred to as "Indy," like how reporters refer to interviewees by their last name.  The only thing is that I don't live in Manhattan anymore, haha!  Thea interviewed me in the midst of all my moving boxes!  I made sure to warn her that she'd be walking into the middle of a tornado, but she was cool with it.  You have to be prepared for some things, y'know?

All in all, it's been great to be involved with the FD community for so long, and to touch people with the comics I create.  Hopefully this article and video will spread more awareness of Familial Dysautonomia.

And Boston Comic Con was a great success!  Special thanks again to my friend Jennie Wood for sharing her table space!  I got lucky and was on the corner of an aisle - more visibility!  Also the AirBnB was AWESOME!!!  I stayed with an older couple in what was practically a mansion.  The bathroom alone was bigger than my room in Harlem.  It was a whirlwind trip though, taking Megabus at 6AM going there, and this Daily Misfortune happened on the midnight bus back.  I switched seats with the guy so he could lean on the window instead of me :P 

Boston Comic Con This Weekend!

I managed to squeak into Boston Comic Con this weekend!  This Friday July 31- Sunday Aug 2 at the Seaport World Trade Center!  I say "squeak" because I got rejected from Artist's Alley at first because they cut a lot of artist tables this year.  Luckily, a friend I made, Jennie Wood, who was sitting next to me at Chicago's C2E2, decided to condense her table space and offered me the other half of her table!  If only there were more awesome people like Jennie, the world would be a much better place! 

This is Jennie's recent graphic novel:  Flutter!  Written by Jennie Wood, art by Jeff McComsey.    "Fifteen year-old Lily shape-shifts into a boy to get the girl. Chaos ensues from pretending to be someone she’s not. While coming to terms with who she really is and what she’s done, Lily learns that life as a boy is just as difficult."  The more I heard her pitch at C2E2, the more curious I became about it!

Jennie and I (and also her friend Eric, a comics podcaster) will be at tables D320 and D321, kind of in the corner.  I'm listed as "Steffen, Mindy" this time, under "S".  Looks like all the Artists Alley peeps are in the D aisle, with some more well known artists in C. 

Also excited to be trying out AirBnB for the first time for my stay!  It's like the more legit form of couch surfing.  I've heard lots of good things about it.  Hopefully it won't end up in The Daily Misfortune.

Honestly though, this is small potatoes compared to in my last place when the power went out all the time.  In my new place, the super is ON IT!

Mindy Indy Returns!

Queen the band

Wow last time I blogged was before Boston Comic Con - it was overall a successful convention!  Here's my favorite drawing - one guy had a Lord of the Rings sketchbook and he said I could DRAW ANYTHING!  All the other drawings were really elaborate and fantastical with a variety of characters (mostly Gandalf).  I wanted to do something different, and for some reason, the image of all the Hobbits as the band Queen popped into my head:  all that curly hair!  It was first thing in the morning, what can I say?

But on the last day (Sunday) I got sick with a cold.  Odd, since it's the summer, but it was pretty awful having to keep talking to people and making my sore throat worse.  I survived though.

I've been so stressed for the last month trying to find a decent apartment.  Basically I want to move to a cheaper place to save money, but I still have standards.  Such a hard search!  If you live in NYC, you KNOW how it is.  If you don't live here... I feel like I just can't convey the craziness.

Boston Comic Con THIS WEEKEND!

Hey y'all!  I just took Bolt Bus into Boston and am exhibiting in the Boston Comic Con this weekend!  Actually it starts Friday - it's 3 days long this year!  Friday, Saturday, Sunday August 8 - 10, 2014  |  Seaport World Trade Center  |  200 Seaport Blvd, Boston, MA http://www.bostoncomiccon.com You can get tickets here.  Just checked out the site (yes I'm IN the freakin' convention and only now just looked at the site) and Sean Astin from LOTR is going to be there!  There's also a cool panel on web comics that I'd like to see if I can get away from drawing.

Oh yeah and last weekend Pete's Mini Zine Fest was awesome!  A cute venue and cool people.  My friend Rachel published her first poetry zine and sold some!  It was nice to focus on the mini comics because I usually have so much stuff at my table... sometimes they get overlooked. 

Yes this happened today.  Luckily it only got on the cover and not inside THANK GOD. 

Also yeah... biweekly misfortune...?  Been so busy apartment hunting and stuff that it does get away from me :/

Boston Comic Con Success!!!

Boston Comic Con was SUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!  Here's my new set up:  my own pipe frame to hang artwork and signs from, and new red cloth tablecloth (instead of plastic... those things got torn up).  To the far right of the picture, you'll see Bill Walko, another artist/writer, who's super friendly.  Special thanks to my friend Julia for helping me with the table and passing out flyers :)  And thanks also to her husband Matt for driving us :)  I was doing sketch commissions non-stop Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  Yay for profits!  And it seems like everyone I talked to did pretty well too.  Boston Comic Con will definitely be on my touring schedule for years to come!

Here are a few of the sketches I did:

This one wins best sketch of the con:  the guy wanted a specific boat (forgot what it was called exactly) with a unicorn's horn instead of the prow.

This little girl loved Sponge Bob.  The parents just wanted me to draw her and him together, and voila!  A fun portrait :)

I love when people ask me to combine characters in unique ways.

Did lots of portraits of people dressed as their favorite characters - especially couples!

The 2 guys on the right were very specific like "I want to have Wolverine claws and please highlight my pocket within a pocket," while the 2 on the left were like "do whatever."  Yep, cute animal ears is what you get when you let mindy indy take over!

Yep - my friend Julia's dog encountered a skunk on Saturday night after the convention.  Craziness ensued.

Website Issues

My website has been down off and on for the past week :(  I get an error message that says "the server has been reset" and GoDaddy hosts my server, and whenever I call in, they can't determine the problem.  My site is on wordpress, but they don't host the server, but I'm wondering if it's a bug in wordpress?  Does anyone have any ideas?  Thanks!  This comes at the worst time because I've been getting stuff ready for the Boston Comic Con this weekend.  People are going to be going to my site and I can't have the server be down :(

3 days to go

No time to post much today - got so much stuff going on!  Finished inking my new story just now!  Gotta go to work, pack, scan the story and hopefully do some photoshop magic tonight.  Looks like I'm gonna print them in Boston.  Luckily, Staples is everywhere!  If you or a friend will be in Boston this weekend, make sure to check out the Boston Comic Con!  More special guests include:  Laurie Holden from "The Walking Dead," Dean O'Gorman & Aidan Turner from "The Hobbit," and Kristin Bauer from "True Blood."

PS:  To the people on my mailing list, you may get this on Thursday instead of Wednesday because GoDaddy sucks and my site has been down off & on for like a week.

4 Days...

4 days until Boston Comic Con!  Some cool people that will be there include Neal Adams, Mike Mignola, and George Perez, among other awesome artists you may or may not have heard of!  Here's the lineup for Artist's Alley.  They have me listed under "Melinda Steffen" instead of "Mindy Indy."

I'll be at Carmine St. Comics today, hopefully finishing up all the inking on my new comic.

Boston Comic Con Countdown!

5 days until Boston Comic Con!  Super excited!  There's a lot going on at BCC - some things I'd go to if I didn't have a table are:

Saturday 8/2

Female Creators 6pm-6:45pm Amy Reeder, Colleen Doran, Sara Richard

Colleen Doran totally rocks!  I looooooove her art style and her graphic novels of "A Distant Soil" influenced the look of "Aer Head."  (Yes, been awhile since I've worked on Aer... I need to stop being such a perfectionist about it).

BCC's Indie Film Fest

Sunday 8/3

How to Pitch Your Comic to Publishers 2pm-2:45pm Anthony Del Col, co-creator of Kill Shakespeare

I've finished drawing my new comic, and am moving on to inking today.  Can't wait to show it off!

New Postcard Flyers!

It's time to make more postcards!  Made this one super quick last night.  I'm going to be doing more conventions like Boston Comic Con and Baltimore Comic Con, and because these are bigger conventions, I want to do the street team thing again to drive people to my table.  Another goal is to direct people to my social media sites more.  Last time I designed the postcards, I had The Daily Misfortune taking up the whole card, which was good to see an example of my work, but it was black and white and not very eye-catching.  This time I made it more colorful and bold.  (Almost looks like mindy indy is a club ;)  This look may or may not have been influenced by actual club flyers.  Speaking of which, the company I printed from is called clubflyers.com....)

Lately I've been eating a lot of Chinese take-out because it's too hot to cook.  I love fortune cookies (which is why I started this crazy comic) and I look forward to the fortune at the end of the meal.  Unfortunately (or should I say Mis-fortunately?), all my fortunes have been SUPER LAME and I was super disappointed each time!  I don't even remember any of them, but they didn't even make sense and I really think the fortune cookie people need to hire new writers, like me > : )  But luckily, you'll always get a SUPER AWESOME FUNNY fortune when you read The Daily Misfortune!  So yeah, do that the next time you get a dumb boring fortune from a real restaurant.

Accepted to Boston Comic Con!

I got accepted to the Boston Comic Con!  They had to change the date because it was unfortunately supposed to be the weekend after the Boston Marathon bombing.  Now it's in a different, bigger location.  It was a really good decision for them to change the date (unlike when King Con still happened the weekend after Hurricane Sandy and hardly anyone showed up).

Many thanks to my friends in Boston who are letting me stay with them :)  It's because I have good friends all over that I'm able to do conventions farther away :)  At this point, it's not worth it for me to pay for a hotel or even hostel.  Maybe some day.

And as always, I'll be at Carmine St. Comics today working away on stuff.  Tuesdays are my most productive day :)  It's so great to have a mini studio one day a week.  I'd like to have a real studio some day that I can use every day :)

Don't worry, mom & dad - this is a made up misfortune!  (Sometimes my parents worry when I post dangerous misfortunes).