I try to be at my shop for part of each weekend, but travel for family or work can preclude that. Representing my store I do exhibit at two small comic book conventions each year, which means not being at my shop, but I’m certainly doing shop work. And they are notably near the shop — no long drive to unload at a hotel in the suburbs. As the convention season in and around Boston feels pretty stable, it was a surprise when Comicazi Bob, co-owner of Comicazi, the other comic book shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, invited me to table at a brand new con. But it wasn’t a comic book show, this was a toy show! My shop doesn’t sell toys! Well, sort of.
What did I do there? Read on! (As with my other con reports, I will interrupt myself and these big blocks of text with photos of toys for sale! Click to enlarge.)
First, some context: Comicazi organizes one of those two shows at which I exhibit. Also, before I ever owned my own comic book store, I occasionally shopped at that fine store. And I pass Comicazi on the way to my store, Somerville being only four square miles in total land area. I call them “the friendly competition.” They are friendly, and they are the competition, but Somerville is big enough for both them and us. They have more space, and sell many things we don’t, like vintage toys and gaming and premium Silver Age back issues. Somerville has a high population density, among the highest in the country, and each store is distinct. Comicazi is a tightly run ship, and they reopened only a few months after the pandemic shut-down, while my store’s renovation was still in-process. Several times in that year-plus, when I had a hankering to be in a comic book shop, but mine was a gutted husk, I’d look around at Comicazi, and Bob and I would chat. (Hello also to co-owner Mike, who doesn’t appear in this post, but is great.)
Hub Comics (that’s my store) doesn’t sell toys because I wish to focus on graphic novels. We have one small glass case with, at any one time, five or ten newish action figures, but that’s a novelty and not a category. We don’t get cases of the new Marvel Legends figures, and if someone offers to sell us their ’95 Star Wars MOC figures, we send them elsewhere. (You might guess where!) Bob’s email was a surprise because he was asking if I’d like to do a panel at this new toy convention, that I probably had things to talk about, and also that my shop could have a table. That is correct, I do have things to talk about. And while there was the option to have a co-panelist, I can also fill 45 minutes on my own just fine. Jumping ahead to Sunday, October 8th, 2023, here’s the slide that promoted my panel, at the event itself, the view from my table:
I should also add that two shops, not one, were sponsoring this show. The other was Nick’s Comic Strip, of Danvers, MA. That’s a half hour north, and a store I’ve not been to. I do try to get to nearby shops, but please note there are four within three miles of mine, and not counting those I’d roughly pass another two or three on the way to Danvers. Also, no one’s actually expecting me to go to a lot of other comic book stores, I just like to. Which is a long way of stating that Nick’s Comic Strip is now on my radar, maybe I’ll make it up there one day, and thank you to Nick’s Comic Strip for co-sponsoring this new show in my city.
For Boston TOYCON (yes, in Somerville and not Boston — what do you want? BotCon ’96 wasn’t in Chicago, it was in Rosemont!) I figured that everyone else would be selling toys and only toys, so I was going to counter program and bring graphic novels. And I would need to put together a slideshow, which I thought would be easy. I would just add to that career day one I’d presented at that middle school. My wife suggested that this would be a lot more work than I thought. She was right.
Here’s the poster for the show out in the wild!
The show was held at the Armory, which is the short and informal name for Somerville’s Arts at the Armory. Yes, this building that looks like a little castle used to be an armory. It has a nice, high-ceiling event space with a hardwood floor for small concerts, book talks, the winter farmer’s market, and occasionally small comic book conventions. It also has a cafe with a tiny stage for music, and some artist-in-residence apartments and studios upstairs. It is a very cool building that the City of Somerville recently bought from a landowner/promoter (who owns a nearby, beloved music venue) and I hope the City doesn’t screw it up! Next to it is houses and apartments, a breakfast cafe, and a few shops. Behind it is the Armory’s small parking lot with maybe 30 spaces.
TOYCON was one day, from 10am to 4pm. That’s a short show! But for a first one, it’s probably good to start modest. Also, I think the organizers concepted this relatively late in the game — we would have to be out at 5pm because the space was booked for an unrelated event that evening!
I picked books and comics from my store earlier in the week. I worked on the slideshow all day Saturday the day before, minus two hours in the afternoon for Mark and I to record an episode of our podcast, Talking Joe. That night my wife helped me edit and pep up the slideshow, and then we picked more books at my shop, and loaded the car. I would be ready for Sunday morning — first breakfast, then head over to the event. Importantly, my wife made food the night before and packed a lunch for the show. Eating at shows, whether you’re a vendor or attendee, can be a challenge. Even with a cafe 100 feet away in the same building, there was a chance I’d forget, or try to make it through without leaving my table for a break.
One of the reasons I don’t exhibit at more cons locally is that they are a lot of work. Sometimes we make good money, other times we don’t. But there’s 50 tasks to do before and after: make sure the iPad and the Square Reader are charged, assemble all the extra things like a table cloth and merchandise bags and tape and a Sharpie, pack up boxes, load up the car. It’s more work than I tend to wish to do when I could instead go to my store and just sell books there. Cons add variety and can have a great energy, but I’m more inclined, if wishing to put in extra time for an event, to host a writer or artist at my store. That’s still hard, but it’s less heavy lifting, with no driving, and such events pull in new people who will say nice things like “the inside of your store looks great!”
The first thing I saw while loading in was this, a good sign!
Three photos. The cafe entrance, inside the cafe, and then straight ahead to the main hall entrance:
I was correct, that every other dealer had toys. One had toys and some horror and wrestling magazines, and one dealer did have a small stack of Uncanny X-Men issues next to their loose action figures, but I’m going to state that effectively the Hub Comics table was the only one with graphic novels. We had Bluey story books (not actually graphic novels), the Dark Horse Zelda art books, a smattering of $30-plus Spider-Man TPBs, out of print IDW Transformers TPBs, and an assortment of all-ages material, like the Pokemon Super Deluxe Guide and the 7-in-1 Mickey Mouse Little Golden Book. And I thought I was being clever with a trio of toy-related books, the amazing Kickstarter Total Action Force: The Battle Years (which my shop backed at the retailer level), Box Brown’s new book on toy marketing, and that great little LEGO history book from last year. Here we all are:
(Photo taken when I was 99% done setting up. I did make a sign for the two short boxes.)
Why yes, you do see some toys for sale on my table. Why yes, I did want to bring a few. We ordered by mistake once, and were unable to return, a cool, big, pricey Japanese something, the black box near my elbow. It’s been in storage, taunting me. And my shop has, from 2015, Wave 1 of Boss Fight Studio‘s HACKS figures, which I thought to bring because they’re always fighting for space in the aforementioned glass case at my shop. And BFS would be tabling at TOYCON, and I know they sold out of Wave 1 a long time ago. Maybe if fans of their amazing products were showing up, I could tempt them with some hard-to-finds.
I’m friends with the principles at Boss Fight, two of them all the way back to high school, but I don’t often see them. Comicazi Bob kindly put our tables next to each other, so we caught up and chatted. Enjoying the company of your table-neighbor when working a con can make a big difference! Here are two photos of some of Boss Fight Studio’s amazing current product offerings:
Comicazi, in hosting its own in-store events and also running some small cons, knows how to handle the AV component of a con. DJ Tom runs the video and music for Comicazi’s annual not-open-to-the-public/for-other-shops trivia night, and was spinning tunes at the Armory and playing ’80s toy ads and presenter slides up on the big screen. He was also in charge of the modest panel area, with mics and speakers and a small screen in front of a batch of folding chairs. So there was music over the PA while dealers set up, which continued throughout the show. Here’s the end of set-up, right as the first few attendees trickled in, view to the left, then right:
My wife had just returned from an out of town trip, and kindly helped with load-in, and then stuck around, partly because she wanted to see my panel, and partly because it’s just nice to sit at a toy convention with your spouse, and then walk around and buy a rad Japanese designer bootleg toy and a random 1960s toy package. We were set up by 10am, and attendees started to trickle in. One of the nice parts of this show (as well as the annual comic show that Comicazi hosts in this same venue) is that admission was/is free. Comicazi Bob sees these as community events, which is pretty righteous. I’ll point out that while Somerville has three subway stops (one was closed for parts of this past year, a larger problem with the local transit authority), but the Armory isn’t near any of them, maybe a 20 minute walk. But it is on a few bus lines, and there’s the aforementioned parking lot, with a satellite lot two blocks away. I’d like to think the free admission was a real draw. Somerville has a few street fairs throughout the year — ArtBeat, ArtsUnion, the What the Fluff? Festival, Somerville Open Studios, and PorchFest, so there is a culture of locals walking around — actually walking — and taking in events. Maybe people could just stop by Boston TOYCON for a half hour and not worry if it was a bust because hey, it’s a nice day out and there was no admission.
Here are some toys for sale!
There was an hour to sell before the first panel, which was about Transformers collecting and community building. My panel started at noon, and having practiced it twice the night before, once that morning, and also I’m a teacher and standing in front of people does not make me nervous, I was prepared. I had a good joke ready for my “no pictures” request, which you’ll just have to see in person if you ever make it to a panel of mine. A longtime pal who’s not into toys, but does have a LEGO-enthusiast partner, showed up, which was lovely. We live near each other, but don’t see each other often. So: spouse in audience, check; close friend in audience, check. Some Joe fans took their seats. Comicazi Bob did as well, which I appreciated. He knows only a smidge about my book, mostly that I’ve been working on it forever, but he’s also an armchair Mego historian. It felt nice that my panel was enough of a draw that he could step away from co-running a show for 45 minutes. Here’s a photo my wife took:
I was hoping for a projector and a screen rather than a small monitor, but I’ll chalk this up to “first show/next year.” And the audience could scrunch up to the front rows. My panel went well, an overview of my book. I took a few questions from the audience.
One of my Boss Fight pals watched my table during my panel, and when it was over, it was time for Boss Fight to run its own panel, which focused on its 2023-2024 product offering. If I wasn’t selling, I would have attended. I did step over to get a photo during their Q&A portion, after the slideshow, hence no exciting image on-screen:
But also, since I know them, I can get a tour of their office/warehouse, which I’ve been meaning to do since they moved to a new space a few years back. My wife picked up one of BFS’s killer Saurozoic Warriors figures for our niece:
This line is unbelievable! Which is something I find myself remarking about everything Boss Fight produces.
And the final panel was from a gent who customizes wrestling figures. Again, I was selling at my table, so I couldn’t attend. I’m not a customizer and I don’t follow wrestling, so I may not have anyway, but I appreciated the range of panels: Transformers and community, G.I. Joe research, original creations plus licensed products from an independent toy company, and wrestling customization.
Wait, are you not paying attention to all these words, and you need a photograph to show you what the panels were? Okay.
Back at my table, I was hoping people would notice for sale the final 80 (not a typo) issues of IDW’s Larry Hama-written Real American Hero, that people not quite aware of my shop and its great selection would find these sought-after comics. Aren’t there readers looking forward to Skybound’s issue #301, aiming to complete their runs, who fell behind, who want to know about Dawn Moreno and the casino on Cobra Island? Yes, yes there are, but I didn’t see many during this particular afternoon stretch. Also part of my counter programming, every issue of the great Furman/Wildman/Guidi Transformers: ReGeneration One. Not many takers, but again, we sold a bunch of Spider-Man and Bluey books, so I’m not complaining. Well, I mean, yes, I am complaining, G.I. Joe comics fans, where were you? Well, it’s okay — maybe I would bring some to Assembly Required a month later. (Present tense update: I did attend Assembly Required one month later and you can read about it here very soon.)
I did feel clever, Friday night at my shop while picking and packing, when I realized that no one would have the brand-new, four-days-old Skybound Transformers issue #1. With that in mind, I brought covers A through F, and a hundred bags-and-boards (for that unicorn Joe customer who’d walk by and pick up dozens of Hama issues and also need bags and boards). And I was pleased when, at TOYCON, a browser looked over the two short boxes of Joe and TF comics and asked “You don’t happen to have the new Transformers, do you?” Why yes, yes I do! “You don’t happen to have a bag-and-board, do you?” Why yes, yes, I do! In fact, it appears that I’ve been waiting for you!
Toys for sale:
A dad looked at the four IDW Sonic The Hedgehog TPBs I brought and said he was going to call his son to see which ones they needed. While he was gone, a mom swooped in and bought two! Then the man came back and bought the others! Lots of people picked up the Mickey Mouse mega Little Golden Book. I think the clean and iconic cover treatment nicely calls out from a busy table. Same thing with the Scott Pilgrim Color Collection volume 1 (that’s the softcover 2-in-1), people sure pick that up. And it sold! That there’s a new movie coming that looks exactly like the comic probably helps.
Toys for sale:
Here’s a view of the hall when the crowd size was near its peak:
The show ended at 4, and we packed up and said our goodbyes. I made all the Boss Fight crew stand together so I could take a group photo for posterity. How often are most of them at a show or at work all at the same time? Rarely. (Again, not all of BFS was in attendance, but this was a high percentage.) And with me taking it, none of them would be excluded for being the person behind the camera.
Then the wife and I headed back to my shop to put back all the remaining books and toys. As we got within a block of Hub Comics, we saw the telltale white fabric tents of individual vendors selling wares in a street fair. Yes, the left-side metered parking spaces and one lane of Somerville Avenue — just one block of it — were closed to traffic for the 7th Annual Vintage Fair. This was all dealers and shops selling vintage clothes. There were tons of people! I chuckled and frowned. Maybe they wanted old jeans and leather jackets and not comics, but surely some of those folks could have, should have walked the mile to Boston TOYCON! I faintly recalled such an event a year earlier, which we can likely pinpoint as the 6th Annual Vintage Fair. It’s always a crap shoot with such events — some bring hundreds or thousands of added people into Union Square, where my shop is located, and some of them stop in the store! But other events are focused destinations, wherein people head to Union Square and decidedly walk past Hub Comics, not stopping inside! I made a mental note to ask my Sunday employee what the day had been like. Certainly the cafe next door would be stripped of all of its pastries. My wife and I got food, (correct: few pastries, and a shocker: out of one kind of tea, which has never happened) unloaded the car, and headed home.
A few days later, in The Week, published by Cambridge Day, I saw this, and chuckled. Every issue, at its centerfold, has a map of Somerville and Cambridge with call outs for cultural events.
Let’s look back to a few hours earlier at some toys for sale!
Parting thoughts:
Boston TOYCON was a success. I would have liked attendance to be a little higher, but for a first show, it was a great start. We did sell some books, and that combined with the normal Sunday business Hub Comics did at actual Hub Comics, it made for a nice tally. More importantly than books for sale, this was a good kick in the pants to make an A Real American Book!-focused slideshow. And it wasn’t about teaching, or my shop, or making comics, or too much about the writing process. This was mostly about the book itself. And now I’ve got that handy, and ready to customize with more or different slides as needed, should the opportunity present itself at some other convention, talk, or presentation. Again, a tip of the hat to Comicazi Bob for co-organizing the event and inviting me, and particularly for the opportunity to talk about my book, and to my wife for slideshow critique and table-hanging-out. Should the calendar allow it, if there’s another Boston TOYCON next year I’d be inclined to go.
——Next up at A Real American Book!, it’s something toy- or comic- or animation-related, and then my three-part report on Assembly Required 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa!
A Real American Book! 