jennypinky

Behind the Scenes: ComicCon Baltics!

Published: November 16th 2023, 4:20:09 pm

(You have to click at one of the pictures to see them all, Patreon changed the preview)

Hello there, I'm back,

as promised and slightly late, I'm reporting today from the comic con baltics 2023.

I'm not sure how I got this honor, but I got a message from Lithuania asking if I could be invited to the Comic Con. Everything was provided for me, the stand with huge posters, the hotel and the flight. I would have preferred to go by car or train, but the Comic Con people wanted to shoot an "arrival video" of all the invited artists at the airport, so I had to go through that

(I really don't like flying and do as rarely as possible). Luckily I had a lovely companion so it was a lot less stressful.

Our flight left at 6am, so we got up around 4am. The thought that I would be greeted by cameras after arriving stressed out and not well rested really scared me. But after arriving I realized... there were no cameras. I was then told that the cameraman was stuck in a traffic jam and therefore hadn't arrived in time. They would shoot it again this afternoon at the hotel. Lucky me haha.

They made videos of me on three different occasions, but none of them were uploaded anywhere. Strange, maybe I was talking too much nonsense? :')

But another video of me went around internally, i.e. among the employees and organizers: When I was brought to my stand, I hyperventilated a bit because I was so overwhelmed by the huge printouts of my artworks. I thought it was so incredible! I almost cried haha.

Honestly, I don't know if they thought it was "adorable" or embarrassing. Of course, I was assured of the former. One person, on the other hand, said that the reactions of the other artists were "jaded". I can't imagine, the stands looked great!

Unfortunately, I'm always a bit too honest with my emotions, so maybe it doesn't come across as professional. Oh well.
Comic Con was like most conventions and fairs, lots of lovely people telling me stories about their pets and saying lots of kind words. Since Friday was a special "kids day", I had a lot of young fans at my booth. I noticed that many of them put simple pieces of paper or Pokemon cards on the table for me to sign. I hadn't seen that before, but it was very interesting. One boy said to me "this Pokemon card is super ordinary, but with your signature it's worth something!" haha.

I got some cute presents again, I'm so happy every time! Some of the names in Lithuania are spelled very differently than I know them. I had people write their names on a piece of paper first when they wanted a signature so that I wouldn't make any mistakes (Because I did before lol).

Next to me were stands from other well-known artists such as War and Peas, Coolman Coffeedan, Tomska and Ketnipz. Unfortunately, I missed out on getting to know these creative people better, on the one hand I'm just too introverted and on the other hand I wasn't really feeling well (probably due to the stress and excitement). I'm afraid that came across as dismissive or arrogant. That would be a shame though, at best I was insecure and scared.

I also really wanted to buy something from Tomska because I used to watch the "Asdfmovies" with my friends when I was a child/Teenager, I would have loved to get to know them better, but I hardly got away from my stand.
The worst and best were the performances in front of an audience. Comic Con has different stages for this. Hell for an introvert. I didn't feel like I handled the interviews well, but I didn't get any complaints. At least I got some cool photos though haha.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't stressful and confusing, but in the end it was an experience that not everyone gets to have. I feel honored to have been invited and they took really good care of us. I hope I didn't do quite as badly as I felt I did. But I just have to realize that I'm not someone who likes giving live interviews in front of an audience, my brain shuts down and I feel like my vision is blurry. Can you learn something like that? I'm just too nervous :(

I was also happy that I even had 1-2 days to explore the capital Vilnius, which has a very beautiful old town. The Lithuanian city of Vilnius is one of the largest and oldest cities in the country. In 2009, Vilnius was even awarded the title of "European Capital of Culture" - really cool! Because of its many churches, Vilnius is often referred to as the "Rome of the North" :) Learned so much cool stuff.

Anyway, I hope you like my little insight, I am very grateful for this little adventure :)

Stay warm
Jen x