Firstly, Happy Pi Day to one and all. I am celebrating with an apple-raspberry pie which will hopefully turn out as coherently as I want it to.
In other news, yesterday I went to Emerald City ComiCon, which was an experience, let me tell you. It was my first comic book convention, and was replete with amusing people-watching, elaborate costumes, and moments of fangirl silently-flipping-out-on-the-inside, which is how I deal with it when I meet people I admire. I probably come off as somewhat bland and introverted, when on the inside I’m going Holy crap I’m talking about the meaning of success with Jill Thomson holy crap or Pete Freakin’ Abrams! I’m talking to Pete Freakin’ Abrams! …really, I guess my silent freakouts are better than the squealing teenagers there*. Although I did tell Pete Abrams that he was responsible for me getting into comics at all in the first place. He said, “I’m sorry, and you’re welcome.”
Anyway, I had a secondary agenda during the whole thing. I brought along a sketchbook with two questions written on the cover: 1. How do you define success? and 2. What do you do that helps you be successful in your creative endeavors? This I handed to almost everyone from the middle school students who had a booth of scrawly, photocopied manga to big-shots in the world of webcomics to actual Marvel illustrators.
What I got was an intriguing collection of answers…
Some were obviously satiric…
Others were far more serious…
A few themes were recurring…
And Alex Maleev, an artist for Marvel, very very seriously signed my Daredevil comic, then equally deadpan, drew this:
“That’s what I do,” was his only commentary on the matter.
…And that’s about all I’ve got. If anyone wants to add their own verbal or pictoral definition of success, I’d be eager to hear about it.
*I think my most impressive fangirl moment was when I ended up sitting behind Terry Pratchett during the opening of Only You Can Save Mankind: The Musical. I got to hear him commentate during intermission about what he thought of the adaptation. I asked him, rather calmly, I thought, to sign my ticket at the end of the show.
4 comments
mad meg
March 15, 2010 at 10:34 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
OMG! Terry Pratchett??? You never told me! Congrats on the pie, by the way. And, for me, SUCCESS is being on the sunny side of the sod. (I could write a whole essay on “success”, but have chosen “service” to write about instead. Like “success”, the word “service” is a hot button.) Seen the new Alice in Wonderland yet? Three writings in one, but I think it works.
Kevin, Son of Nog
March 15, 2010 at 10:48 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Very nice!
LRP
March 16, 2010 at 7:24 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Holy Crap! That sounds so fun! I was too broke for ComiCon
BUT I did make an awesome quiche for Pi day.
Success= happy boyfriend and no chance of leftover quiche, I guess
Angela
March 16, 2010 at 2:40 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’m so jealous that you got to go to ComiCon! I can’t wait for Nan Desu Kan in September, that’s the only opportunity I’ll get.
As for success…I agree that success is being able to support yourself doing what you love, so that it doesn’t feel like you’re really working, but playing. You should also feel fulfilled, like what you’re doing matters more than just the fact that it’s earning you a paycheck. It should be making someone else a little happier to wake up in the morning.
I wish I could meet Terry Pratchett again…last time I did, I knew so little of his work still that I couldn’t ask him everything I wanted to. I also want to get my copy of Night Watch signed, as it and Wee Free Men have become my favorites.