Thank you to everyone who came out to the East Coast ComiCon this past weekend and showed their support, and especially those who said they’d check out the present IndieGoGo campaign from the publisher of Chadhiyana, Rosarium Publishing: indiegogo.com/projects/rosarium-publishing-the-next-level#/. As with last year, it was something of a mixed show. The crowds were thin at times, but the opportunities to produce some work, shake some hands and catch up with old friends was wonderful.

Hopefully the show will build into something in the coming years, as really I’d love to have a few shows that I can attend that are closer to home–especially one as close as this one was. I’m a New Jersey native, after all, and Secaucus (where this was held) is roughly a twenty minute drive away.

As I said, I was able to talk shop and catch up with a few old friends and meet some new ones (as always happens at a convention). Though I was also given the opportunity to pick the brains of both Neal Adams and Michael Golden a bit, both of whom I met for the first time. What I found interesting was (believe it or not) I had something that I could relate to these two with on a professional level, which fortunately my friend Mark Mazz pointed out (he’s great for reminding me of what I have to offer, and as a friend and colleague, I appreciate him for that).

It made for an interesting experience as, for the first time ever, I was actually able to talk shop with two of the living legends of the industry. And though I won’t say that I’m at all even close to their skill level or production speed, it was a little surreal to be able to talk to these men without that intimidating feeling that sometimes accompanies talking to someone who is obviously light years ahead of you. I didn’t feel so wet behind the ears–though maybe that has as much to do with a sense of reaching a new level in my career, as much as it does having some relatable subject matter to talk to someone about.

Though both experiences were short, and I won’t even entertain the idea that either man will remember me the next time, they were positive and gave me something of a renewed faith in the idea that we’re all just creators struggling to get the work done and figuring out ways to tweak things to do the work better and more efficiently (well, maybe those two don’t struggle so much–I don’t know). But this in itself made the convention worth attending, never mind the always happy experience of catching up with friends and colleagues.

That said, as aforementioned, Rosarium Publishing (the publisher for my comic, Chadhiyana) is running an IndieGoGo campaign (indiegogo.com/projects/rosarium-publishing-the-next-level#/), and until it ends (on May 4th, I believe), my focus is going to be on reminding you all of that fact. In fact, this has become so consuming that Chadhiyana has even taken over my Gentleman Cthulhu web-comic for the next few weeks (gentlemancthulhu.com).

You can pre-order the first Chadhiyana collection (a trade collecting issues 1 – 6) through the campaign (one of the perks offered), which comes with an exclusive Chadhiyana mini-comic (it says 4 pages now, but I was able to talk my publisher into 8–I’m crazy, I know). So really, if you’re even thinking of getting the first trade, you may want to contribute to the campaign now to get this comic.

I’ll write more about it next week, but I’m hoping to make it worth it. Plus you’ll be joining the movement to build Rosarium into something much bigger than it is now. And really, that is something worth being a part of. Rosarium is doing something really great especially with their focus on diversity in publishing, and I can only imagine what that’ll turn into in the coming years.

Until next week…when I’ll be reminding you about this campaign again! Cheers!