SDCC 12: The Virgin Diaries: Matthew Petz #1

[Each year we try to find a newcomer to the amazements of Comic-Con to report on their adventures; it’s a nice way of seeing the very real enthusiasm for what is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. This year’s con virgin is cartoonist Matthew Petz who offered to both write and sketch some of his experiences at the con, starting with not even having a badge… Take it away, Matt.]

My First Comic Con

For most of my adult geek life I’ve know about the San Diego Comic Convention. It’ s essentially the Superbowl for comic fans. So whether it was money or just being an east coaster all my life, I’ve always done this from a far…but not this year…Oh no…this year, I’m actually going.

God help me.

I suppose I should introduce myself, my name’s Matthew Petz. I write and draw a comic called War of the Woods. In olden times it was going to come out through Zuda, then that imprint was killed off I got my rights back. Since then I’ve released it myself through ComiXology. Heres a quick link and some shameless promotion, www.warofthewoodscomic.com. You’re gonna’ love it. It has an otter with a turtle on his head, fightin’ aliens!

Anyway…

Working on a digital creator owned book is fantastic. The most common comment I hear at conventions is “when’s it going to come out in print ?” So I started testing the waters by doing some small print runs. This is all a long way to say that with from print copies on hand, I found myself invited to have some books at this years Tr!ckster event. All I heard last year from reviews of the show and fellow creators was that
Tr!ckster was the place to be. That my book was gonna’ be there is awesome.

This then immediately demanded real thought as to whether or not I should actually go to San Diego. Very quickly I realized I kinda had to. As a professional you can’t really not go. Way too many possibilities for networking and such. Plus I had good friends already going, so I probably had at least a hotel room floor to crash on. As a comic geek It’s finally a chance to experience comic book super bowl first hand. I eventually priclined a flight and here I am.

As San Diego looms, I’ll be reporting back to you as a first time SDCC virgin. I will admit I have high expectations. I’ve decided to try and do some “touristy” things this first time.

They include getting a SDCC exclusive, and attending something in Hall H.

For the exclusive I’m gonna’ try for a Bane flash drive from Mimoco, though I’ve just learned it’s limited to 500 pieces. So yeah…already not looking good.

For hall H I’m gonna’ try and see if I can attend the WB/Legendary panel. Between the Hobbit, Man of Steel, and Pacific Rim It hits my nerd solar plexus hard. The real reason though, is the rumor that Legendary will present stuff from the new Godzilla movie. THAT has me slightly woozy. I am a gigantic Godzilla fan and being at SDCC and seeing new big budget Godzilla stuff…could be awesome…if it actually even happens.

So those are my two touristy things I want to accomplish. I have to assume that the tornado of SDCC crazy can sweep you up a moments notice, so I’ll be trying to go with the flow as much as possible.

I’ll be back with an update on how things go. I’m excited. I should also mention that I’m not even sure I have a badge. So there’s that…

Wish me luck!