In 2011, Seattle member Mark Monlux published “Stickman’s Advice to Having a Table at a Comic Book Convention.”  The primer’s advice is borne of Monlux’s many years of experience as an illustrator, cartoonist, and comicon attendee. The strip  covers the process of renting a table, from the initial reservation through handling booth visitors. He offers commonsensical advice, such as bring lots of business cards, prepare your pitch, and bring water (useful after exercising that well-prepared pitch).  Other advice is less obvious, such as how to scan the crowd and the advisability of having of a mobile phone credit card processor.

The strip was drawn during the 2011 24 Hour Comic Challenge sponsored by CLAW, the Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians. During the event, artists were challenged to write, sketch, and ink 24 pages in twenty-four hours. In a previous year, Monlux had struggled to finish the assignment using his finished, more labor intensive style of cartooning. For the 2011, he decided to do an instructional strip – creating the strip ate up the first seven hours of the challenge. So Monlux repurposed his long-running comic strip character Stickman for a much faster illustration style. With the trade show and comic/illustration convention season heating up, the strip functions as a charming and succinct visual checklist for anyone planning on renting a table.

Artwork © Mark Monlux. Used with permission of the artist.