Garden State Comic Fest was my first time tabling at a convention. This marked the debut of my company, Monomythic, with the publication of my first official comic, an eight-page story in an anthology alongside some long-standing industry names in The Tomb of Baalberith V.2. In total, we sold over 50 copies of our comic, which I’m told is very good at a convention, especially for a first timer. I want to be transparent about how that happened and share what my journey’s been like trying to break into the industry.
About two years ago I created an LLC for my creative writing works called Monomythic, named after Joseph Campbell’s talks about The Hero’s Journey. I started my company to talk about the universality of stories. Sell original works of art while speaking about how writing connected us to something bigger than ourselves. More than anything, I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer. Especially, after having stumbled out of the game so many times already. I’m not wealthy, or famous, I’m just someone who believes in the power of stories. At the heart, people you meet and how important they become on the journey.
So… here’s how Monomythic debuted in The Tomb of Baalberith Volume 2, which involved a lot of work, networking, and many professionals to thank along the way.
On making the Tomb of Baalberith
When I quit my job as a mental health specialist at the end of 2017, my life took an unexpected turn. I quit the day job to take on the struggle of making writing a full-time career.
One notable event I was participating in was the Comics In A Day contest for Colab-arts, an artist non-profit. The artist I had only just met but was partnered with, Ryan J. Smith, and I, were in a challenge to create an environmentalism-themed comic book in less than 24 hours. We created PAPERLESS, a tale about an anthropomorphic tree that becomes a business CEO who takes the idea of ‘GOING GREEN’ initiative a tad bit to the extreme.
We won Comic in a Day that year. This was important because the celebrity judge at the event was the renowned comic book industry inker Mark McKenna, who’s worked on thousands of comic pages and hosts over a thousand credited works to his name. McKenna was a member of the legendary group in comics called Romita’s Raiders, Marvel’s talent bullpen in the 1980s run by the late John Romita Sr. himself, whose talents included phenomenal artists such as Keith Williams and Greg Capullo.
If that weren’t enough, Mark was also roommates with Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza back when they both worked at Marvel. Mark was also one of the persons to vouch for Mike Marts in the comics industry, who has since, had an astoundingly successful career as an editor at Marvel, DC, and Aftershock and is now currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of MadCave.
More than anything, Mark McKenna has been called one of the nicest guys in comics. He’s helped so many people launch their careers, asking for very little in return. I consider Mark a good friend and mentor as well. If I ever succeed in the industry, it will be largely due to him giving me my first chance with a short story in volume 2 of Tomb of Baalberith.
I stress all of this because the original Tomb of Baalberith was created in 2017 by Mckenna, Michael Oppenheimer, Victor Castro Jr., and Sam Eggleston. The story that I wrote for volume 2 was a monster sequel about a succubus I’d created.
Though one that came about because I pushed it to happen
It began in early 2023. Mark and I were catching up one day when he casually mentioned the idea of a possible sequel to Tomb of Baalberith. As someone with training in screenwriting and comic book writing, I immediately asked Mark about the project in detail, despite it still being just an idea at the time. Determined, I promised Mark I could deliver a story within two weeks if he was serious about pursuing it, which is how I ended up writing BEAUTIFUL in the Tomb of Baalberith Volume 2.
From what I learned from short story classes at Gotham and a few Masterclasses I’d taken, including one with Scott Snyder over at his Our Best Jacket Substack, I was confident in how to do short form narrative in how to tell a story in 8 pages. I was also a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, which was the biggest reason that I even wanted to become a writer, as I drew upon that comic’s narration style and used it as a guide to accentuate the themes for my story, having it, along with the reader, be as much of a character in BEAUTIFUL as Brandi.
When Mark read the script, he liked it, and the project suddenly became real. Mark then assembled teams from the original volume one, and also planned for his son, Kyle McKenna, to script one of the stories. We luckily got Sam Eggleston back to return, whose take on the Boog in Volume 1, was in my opinion, the best story featured on there. Additionally, we reached out to our mutual friend Jad Kaado, who was actually the person who ran that Comics In A Day contest I was in years ago and someone whom I’d become great friends with since.
For the art teams, Mark brought on frequent artistic collaborator Jason Baroody, along with artists Franco Cespedes and Dario Carrasco Jr. of Star Wars comics fame. He also enlisted DC veteran letterer Dezi Sienti, another frequent collaborator.
One of the most unforgettable moments I had during Baalberith was when Mark and I discussed whom we could ask to get as a cover artist. Mark listed a few names, including another industry veteran, Beta Ray Bill creator, and longstanding Thor comics legend Walt Simonson. Though Mark’s other suggestion, who ended up landing our wraparound variant cover, was in fact one of the original artists on Sandman, Shawn McManus (who currently has a Kickstarter featuring his artwork). I begged Mark to ask McManus because getting one of the original artists on Sandman would be a huge bucket list achievement of things to do before I die. You can see the result below.
With the teams assembled, Mark paired me with a relatively unknown artist who came from a marketing and graphic design background. His name was Jameson Matunas, and for the next 8 or so months, we hit it off quickly and became almost like brothers in a very short period. For BEAUTIFUL, I asked Jameson to start with something male gazey in terms of style, like J. Scott Campbell’s pinup art. Jameson also added a flair of style drawn by Chris Bachalo along with his own personality and Avant-garde style, and the work shows on the page.
Our goal for “BEAUTIFUL” was to initially capture the male gaze before transforming Brandi into an unrecognizable monster, thereby subverting audience expectations. It was a commentary on influencer culture, aiming not to shame these content makers but to reveal the potential shallowness and artificiality that can exist within it.
“Beautiful” was always a critique of celebrity worship and underscores how some individuals prioritize personal gain—be it money, fame, attention, or idolatry—above genuine humane values. In today’s influencer-dominated culture, I thought this critique remained highly relevant and that was our goal in creating this short story.
On Garden State Comic Fest
To be honest, I had never tabled anything in my life before this convention. Tabling here was Jad’s idea, as he wrote the lead-off story in Volume 2. Dave O’Hare, the organizer of GSCF, had always been kind to me since I had covered the convention in the past, and he was willing to secure us a spot at a table for this event.
I’ve covered Garden State Comic Fest twice as a journalist, including during a winter event not too long ago, where I met author Amy Chu. The biggest reason I agreed to join to attend this year, was to meet legends like Walt Simonson and Fabian Nicieza, whom Mark was already close with… though I didn’t get a chance to because tabling takes up a lot of time.
The Industry Advice taken from Professionals
I sought advice from friends and convention experts. Deanna Destito, my managing editor at The Beat, recommended offering freebies, so I used candy and dice from GenCon 2022. She also suggested having plenty of change for cash transactions, which proved helpful since cash is popular at conventions and card reader surcharges cut into profits.
Because her booth at MoCCA had got me to pay attention thanks to her brilliant setup and gorgeous artwork, I hit up Caitlin Du whom I interviewed not that long ago. I asked Du for some tips on tabling and how to get a neat setup too, and from her advice, ended up buying some acrylic stands and wire shelves to hang-up the artwork of Baalberith. I also purchased CGC holders to display a few of my graded comics, which I had always planned on purchasing anyway, as I want to show my CGCs during Zoom interviews in the future with comics creators.
Variety is the spice of life and I learned in academic psychology that for any business: give your buyers the option of choice. So we priced items from $0 up to $150, which made a huge difference, as studies have consistently shown. More choices keep people at the table longer, giving you extra seconds to pitch your comic. It also ensures there’s something available at every price point, maximizing opportunities for sales, big or small.
I should stress that also we managed to hit these numbers without using a banner. Just a small stand featuring the Monomythic logo with a QR code linking to our social media. I also utilized the table space by placing at the back of said stand, a code linking to “BRAVE NEW GIRLS.”
Tabling My First Convention
Now, Jad Kaado is one of the most charismatic people I’ve ever met and he mastered a 2 minute pitch on the spot. He also made an effort to befriend a lot of our neighbors next to us at the convention before we kicked off which was a great idea as it’s how we met, Kevin Michael Rowe. Rowe was pitching his N.A.R.L.I robot comics which is something the Beat covered in the past. They were awesome comics and tabling next to Kevin was a perfect example of collaborating with your neighbors at a convention.
Our pitch strategy was effective and versatile. Jad would start by asking every passerby if they liked monsters, would introduce our horror book, discuss Mark, or highlight our Shawn McManus variant. If that didn’t work, I’d pivot to pitching modern comics through bundles from what I called our Monomythic Menu. Each bundle was unique with no repeating issues, as we weren’t a store – just comic enthusiasts who wanted to share what was happening in comics today. Drawing from what I knew as a journalist, I’d ask people about their favorite comics or genres and would pitch a bundle I’d crafted based on what they may like. This was all information learned from reading press releases plus my knowledge of comics and my years of experience in psychology being able to profile people. If none of this worked (or if there were kids), we’d sent them over to Kevin, who would pitch all-ages comics of his books on N.A.R.L.I. about robots and dinosaurs.
Now, the order of this pitch reversed depending on which direction someone walked in, but the point remained the same: engaging everyone and working with your neighbor trumps everything else. To stand out in our booth, everyone associated wore their Baalberith shirts including Mark and Kyle McKenna, who dropped by Saturday afternoon to sign some books for us and say hi. Mark also gave us some tips on tabling, which worked tremendously but I’ll keep it between us out of respect.
As for time spent networking, I didn’t have much of it nor was able to, though I did get to meet Jerry Carita, who runs The Cloakroom anthology for the class I’m in with Scott Snyder. Though fun fact, Chris Gethard the famous comedian had come by our booth by chance. And we traded comics and he signed a copy for Jad.
How selling multiple types of items helped with sales
We laid out various items to get copies of our comic in people’s hands in a sale. We also had all three issues on display upright and open for people to peruse.
We used various price points to attract customers beginning by offering free candy, dice, and business cards to get people to stop by. We sold Baalberith #1 or #2 for six dollars each, with a special offer of ten dollars for both, or a surcharge of $10 for our limited variant. We also featured multiple 5-dollar items for sale and prints of Baalberith cover art that we sold for 15. Above that, the menu bundles went for 20 to 25 dollars, and mystery bags filled with comics paraphernalia, for 40. These bundles and bags included a free copy of “Tomb of Baalberith” volume 2 because we were in it to get our comic in people’s hands.
I also displayed a pair of CGC-graded comics (The Debut of Spider-Boy signed by Dan Slott and an Artgerm Powergirl special) priced at $150. These were meant as a psychological tactic because a $150 comic feels obscene to buy for average consumers, but perhaps, the 5-dollar option sitting before them wouldn’t be. We also placed our variant cover next to the graphic novel “CINDERELLA: FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE,” which was an entire book illustrated by Shawn McManus to showcase his work, but more importantly, get people to stay longer at the table.
Again, more items = more time spent = longer time to pitch things
Our efforts paid off handsomely. We sold 14 copies of issue one of Tomb of Baalberith #1 bundled with 14 copies of Tomb of Baalberith #2 at a two-for-ten special, totaling 28 comics. We also sold 6 standalone Baalberith #2s, 5 of the McManus wrap-around variants, 2 mystery bag totes, and 14 comic bundles (bundles and bags came with our comic). Additionally, we gave out all of our business cards, free dice, and candy on the first day and ended the convention selling out 70% of our total supplies. Even when subtracting the costs of my setup, the convention costs, and comic bundles – we were still a couple of hundred dollars in the green for both of us. Which is an astounding success for a first convention.
I love GSCF and was happy to be part of its 10th anniversary. But I have to admit, the only thing that surprised me was seeing Ethan Van S*civer tabling at this convention. I don’t support ComicsGate, nor promote hatred of any sort, and given some of the big names at the convention this year, I was genuinely surprised to see them here. Yet, it’s hard to avoid this as comics are a large community of sorts. Thankfully, they were also stationed at a different building so no drama was made.
What’s Next?
As to what Monomythic is doing next, I have a short 5500-word story that was just published today in Brave New Girls, an anthology created by editors Paige Daniels and Mary Fan. Mary is a friend of mine who’s also a member of the Crazy 8 Press publishing group, one of whose co-founders is Peter David — of Incredible Hulk acclaim. My story is called Whatever Happened to the Nine to Five? (Yes, the title is a reference to the Alan Moore comic), a story about a super genius teenage girl who keeps inventing new AI to appease her CEO/father. One day, she creates an AI to end specialized labor as we know it, though not in the ways you may think. The paperback just launched on Amazon and all sales go to the Society of Women Engineers Fund supporting women in STEM.
Beyond that, I have a 4-page short in Limit Break comics for their WISH UPON A STAR anthology. Their next Kickstarter try will be in September. I was originally partnered with my friend Chandra Free but due to health problems (you can follow Chandra on social media to learn more and support her if you can), I had to go in a new direction in terms of artists. I’m happy to announce that this 4-page retelling of Scheherazade’s Arabian Nights tale will be drawn by none other than the COO of Band of Bards comics, Marcus Jimenez.
I have yet to tell most people this, but I’m also proud to announce that I am working on a book as an editor. We’re publishing a self-help book about technical recruiting and how to land a job during these times, a book I’ve helped make with a friend named Sean Tien.
Most excitedly, I’m also proud to announce that Dead on The Inside has finally begun. This comic has been an eight-year dream project set as a satire of the zombie genre, what happened during the pandemic, and society’s relationships with mega corporations. It’s also – without spoiling it – a queer comic but I don’t want to spoil it, and one whose storyline is sort of like Shawn of The Dead if the cameras kept rolling. Our plan for this comic will start as a 40-page comic and then go straight into trade paperback as a 120-page graphic novel.
My artist’s name is Will Tan. Together, we’re two Asian creators with everything to prove. For me, it’s pretty much all that you’ve read in this piece, but with Will, I think he feels in the shadows compared to his best friend from childhood Grace Liu. Everyone in the friend group used to joke about the similarities of Will and Grace – two queer Asian best friends and artists. Grace is now the storyboard artist for My Adventures with Superman. Part of my goal seeing this through is to try and launch the careers of both Will and myself.
I’ve overshared all of this not to name-drop, but to be open and honest about tabling and what I was actually selling at the convention. Because what I sold at GSCF wasn’t just The Tomb of Baalberith… It was me. It was this career journey. My knowledge of comics and the entertainment industry. Everything you read here was involved in the pitching and engagement with comics enthusiasts. The sales we hit were secondary to just being genuine people. As artists, we hold ourselves accountable for selling the best parts of ourselves, to celebrate a medium we love: in this case, comics.
This is my goal for Monomythic. I want to be known as a storyteller. Someone who celebrates the human experience in its high points and its lows. This is what I strive to make Monomythic about: people and their stories.
Which starts here with mine.
