October 31, 2025 • 23 mins
Nicki & Mervyn talk about the aftermath of New York Comic Con
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Nicky McCoy and I'm an illustrator, fashion designer, and
traditional artist.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I'm Mervin McCoy illustrators, storyteller and digital artists.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
For more than a decade, we've traveled in the convention
scene from coast to coast.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
We'd love to share what we've learned and are still
learning on our journey.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
You're listening to paper podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You hear that music? She stole it off the internet.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Just kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's spicy beats, be e e t s and he
hates beats. Let's check you out that SoundCloud. It works.
Doing a little test.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Right now, little testy test, just seeing what our voices
sound like. How loud this winshime is? I mean, I
guess I can take it down if anything.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
All right, Okay, so a little inside baseball here, I
put some chicken and oven.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Okay, thirty minutes, we're here on the porch and we're
gonna have a chat.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I have no idea what kind of sounds, what kind
of crazy noise is you going to hear?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
And actually, Nicholes, we were living in the moment. Yeah,
you're working on a commission.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's actually kind of related to well,
I guess Lucy.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Related to what I guess we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Which was our recent adventures in New York.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, NYCC, is it that recent though, well, I mean month.
I guess it happened last month, but it's fine the
previous month. Depending on when you listened to this, it
could be a year ago, it could be one hundred years. Yeah,
and when the aliens dig this up and time is a.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Construct, Yeah, yeah, it was relative fair enough.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, So, NYCC, the last time you heard from us,
I was talking about how terrified I was of the show,
and you know, thankfully, it's always great when you have
help at these things. You know, Spencer was there. Spencer
was on that show.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Shout out to Booster Cola.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, Boosta Cola. And you know, I think.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
This year really was a good example of kind of
using all our resources efficiently because I definitely did half
the work I did the year before, but I think
it was more productive and just you know, it was
(02:35):
a successful show. If you want to get into the
nitty gritty, we can talk not necessarily numbers, but we
can talk about what happened.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But yeah, I don't know what's your take.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I think I'm I'm honestly, I feel like I'm
still in shock in the sense that I feel like everything, yeah,
you know, there's always room to improve or do something better,
but I feel like this year everything went so surprisingly smoothly,
relative like comparatively to some of the previous years that
(03:09):
we've done this show.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And we've been doing this show for quite a few.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Years now, almost ten years.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, and and I think everything just uh, you know,
even for like whatever hip hops there were, I don't
think that there were any like uh, spontaneous combustions or
you know, fires that had to be put out I
think in the same way that we've had in the past.
So it was really nice to just kind of like
(03:35):
get there on our own time and set things up
and have everything go relatively smoothly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So and you know, even even.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Just uh like throughout the uh days, like on the
show floor, you know, like security was a relative breeze,
you know, walking around or like getting around was it
obviously like you know, a little bit bananas on Saturday,
as to be expected.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But I don't I don't think there was like maybe the.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Same chaos in some of the previous years.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But uh, but yeah, no, I think it was.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was really good and and and everybody was like
really just happy to be there, which I thought was
really cool. So I think that we we had a
lot of really satisfied uh, I guess like newcomers as
like you know, clients, and and also just like some
of the some of our returning friends as well.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
I would say that. Being said, overall with this show,
I do feel as efficient as it was this year,
there is room for improvement in one era, not just one.
But this is one that stuck up through my mind
because just since this is podcast is about kind of
(05:00):
like how we function a little bit of how the
business runs for us. It wasn't it's always a profitable show,
but it was not as profitable.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
As last year. Right, Yeah, And I you know.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I can speak specifically, I can say both of us,
but I'm going to just speak for myself in this case.
I like, let's just say I did what seventy something commissions? Yeah,
this year, maybe maybe a little bit more than seventy
this year, I did half that number, a little bit
over half. It wasn't just half, it was maybe like forty.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Something. But here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
The previous year was maybe sixty something, and usually at
this show, it's like in that range, like you get
to sixty Like between the two of us, maybe you'd
say one hundred and fifty commissions.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, because you usually do more than me.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
But we we had to increase prices a bit just
because the show is so expensive to run. So as
a result, we took a significant hit in terms of,
you know, the amount and even meant a few regulars
didn't show up some you know, for whatever reason, and
just taking that into consideration.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That right there is an era where we.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Have to kind of Obviously, we got new regulars because
we tend to do that. I know I've gotten new
regulars because I I met some new clients. But at
the end of the day, that's an era that we
definitely have to improve on since if prices are gonna increase,
then we have to make sure that people know that
(06:38):
or are reminded that this is a good value.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I mean, what we do is a great value. I
have no qualms about it.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But you know, that's something we will spend the year
workshopping and figuring out that other shows and having meetings,
chatting with people, maybe doing more t shirts, and you know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, and we definitely have time to workshop it relatively speaking,
because it's interesting how over the past couple of years
we just have so many other four day shows now
to worry about, whereas like New York used to just
be this, you know, once a year four day like
hydra of a show, and and now we have Galaxy
(07:24):
Con Richmond, Teta Con, Orlando, I think Raleigh, Galaxy Con Raleigh.
There might even be another four day show in there
that I'm uh, I'm.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Trying to remembering off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But and then and then New York, so this went
from like a once a year thing to like literally
like the four Seasons.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So to speak.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So uh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And it's interesting too because I think, like I was
literally talking to a friend about this who's technically industry
and and I told her that it's wild to think
that Thursday used to literally just.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Be an industry day.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, it was literally a preview day for press, an
industry and you know, now it's it's just a whole
another day for you know, locals and the community to experience.
So it's been it's been wild to see New York
I think, like changing uh, in that way. So you know, also,
I think like as a as a vendor, as like
(08:27):
an exhibitor or like an artist, or you just kind
of had to keep up with the times. So yeah, definitely,
I think I totally agree that what we offer is
like an amazing value for what you're getting. I think
it's just sort of sort of trying to to crack
(08:48):
the code, so to speak, and figure out, like, you know,
how we can well do a little bit more with Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, I agree with that, but I feel like we know,
and this is maybe just my philosophy. I think pee,
we already cracked the code. I think the challenge is
there's certain expansions. We kind of put the kabasha on
years ago because we just didn't want to hassle. I
think it's using creative ways in which to to reach
(09:20):
out and consistent communication with our with our friends and
customer base, you know what I mean? And I said
friends and customer base, because some people rather the relationships
theres customer, which is fine, and some genuinely you know,
our friends now like you could even say family in
some cases.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
And it's just communicating saying hey, because this is one
thing if you've learned, because we've been asked this, the
reason why we even started doing the pet drawings is because,
like you said, you started.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Getting the requests, right.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And another and the thing is we started, oh, we
did the pet things and it exploded. One thing that
we've been neglecting for a while is we get the requests.
Can you do this in other formats? T shirts, whatever, stickers, whatever,
you name it. And we just didn't want the hassle, right,
But we're running a business and honestly, we have vendors
(10:15):
or friends or associates that we can literally partner with.
And so that being said, yeah, that's another way we
can then move things along. And that's kind of what
I'm saying, where at least for myself, I think I've
been sleeping on those opportunities. And you know, we did
(10:37):
a lot of pretty cool stickers this year and they're
pretty fun, and yeah, I mean I'd like to continue
because we have ideas.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
About the Wazoo. The idea is to do stickers.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
The stickers usually come up with the ideas or things
that make us laugh, things that we'd wear on a
T shirt. And if you know they do well enough
or if they make us laugh enough consistently, we'll make
T shirts out of them, right, or other things wearables,
you know, things that are more that can be even
more pragmatic than a than a than a picture, right, yeah, which,
(11:12):
like I said, I think it's it's still.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
A great it's a great value. But what's what's.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Even better than than an image that's customized, you know,
per your specifications, and an image customized per your specifications
that you can take with you on the goal?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Right, You're not gonna walk around with a frame, you know,
to go shop or hang out with friends. So I
definitely think that's one way we can, uh, you know, yeah,
just make things even more premium and much cooler and
more fun and even more personalized, so you know it.
(11:51):
But even then the you know, we're talking about the
trip and you know how it's still intimating. But like
you said, this year was I think it was easier.
Easier is the wrong word, but it was. It was
less grueling than say, when we did the Raleigh show, Like,
it wasn't as exhausted. And one of the reasons is
because we because I go to bed early. I don't
(12:16):
know if you agree, like I think.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Even something is like I think, yeah, a lot of
it is kind of just knowing our limits, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And then like also to.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Even something as simple as like we stayed in a
hotel that we've stayed in previously, so we have like
a you know, lay of the land, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Well, okay, so this is where I would I would
I would say I agree with that. But like when
I when well, when I do a show like Raleigh
or Richmond, I in some cases even at Columbus, even
though that's not a four day show though it might
be at some point, right, I end up staying out
(12:59):
later because it at New York is so big and
disjointed that it's hard to run into the people, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, because even then, I.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh, that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, we we literally there was was it Thursday or
Friday that we went that we went to Artist Alli
I think for like the first time in years. Yeah,
I've never been to Artist of the New York show.
And yeah we went to say hi to a writer
friend and he wasn't there, and we were like, okay,
well that didn't happen. But yeah, even just navigating artist
(13:29):
ally was for me like kind of anxiety and doucing
because I was, you know, after being on the show
floor for the entire day and then like just there
were still just crowds of people. It was kind of wild, like,
so yeah, I agree, like and and also too because
like I personally had a bunch of friends that you know,
(13:49):
uh said that they were going to stop by the table,
and some of them were able to find me and
some of them not so much. And honestly, I couldn't
even take it personally because I'm like, the show floor
is so massive. I think that like finding anybody is
like a it's like a small.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Miracle and word.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So yeah, there was no hanging out really like yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Not in the same way. Yet I think that we
do it other conventions and.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Where things are like a lot more accessible, whereas I
feel like in New York, everybody's I feel like literally
just trying to run around and try to get the
best value for their book, you know, because there's like
there's so much to see and do like at all times.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So yeah, and I mean like back in the day,
we used to like you should have a big crew
and roll in with but you know, everybody is either
they have families to take care of No, this isn't
their main it's not their job. Or some of them,
it is their job and they're just in other aspects
of it now they or they don't come to this show.
(14:52):
A lot of our colleagues don't come to this show anymore.
Interestingly enough, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, I don't blame them, like honestly, like.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
But yeah, it's similar to why we don't we don't
do san Diego. We just told you about all those
other four day shows. San Diego is pretty much a
week long show at this point. I I'm not saying
that that we'd never do it, but it's that's not
appealing to me.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I think what's.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Wild we'll start in or up, But like I think
what's wild is like the amount of things that we
have to do to make this. It's like literally taking
us a song to like streamline this, and this is
on the East coast, Like we'd have to fly out
to the West coast and do all this.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, that would be a two week probably you want
probably it would be a two week trip.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So you'd be talking like, uh, this is a very
expensive show to even.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Set up, like just set up for We're not even
talking about anything else, like whatever, incidental, just making sure
everything's sorted.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's expensive, so san Diego would definite. That would be
maybe close to like a mid size house payment. Yeah,
you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
San Diego would probably be double what we spending overhead,
like easily.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I feel like the plane tickets alone would be wild.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Like for what we'd have to and like I just
I you know, it's not necessary, don't.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Need to do it, not no, like like.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I said, maybe one day, but I'm people would always
say you gotta do it, and I'm like, I think
you have to do it, Like it's it's not in
my No. Maybe if we're starting out and we're trying
to figure out where we're going and trying to you know,
find our niche sure, but I I'm not sitting here
(16:49):
saying we're the most successful people in the world in
this field. But I think we're fairly good at what
we do, and uh, you know what we're doing and
you know it's uh, it's a we're in a pretty
good position.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I also think, I mean, if if we're just being
honest and like, you know, having that conversation with ourselves,
I think that knowing your limitations is part of being
successful as well, you know, because you could you could
jump at like every opportunity, and you know, you can't
always guarantee that it's going to be a success. So
and I mean like even if you uh, it's like
(17:25):
it's like it's the risk worth it, you know, especially
because I feel like burnout is something that like doesn't
get talked about a lot, and that's a very real thing.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Tilting at wild Mills, right, So is that a don
Quixote friend?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Am I concho? Mean, if that's what you want, okay, But.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
No, New York was great this year. I'm really glad
that we had mister booster Colo with us. I think
we also managed to have a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Like in between, we went to a place called Which
to Puke to you know, round things off. We got
to make our own tabaki sauce. We got to go
to k Town, We got to go to the Tobuki
is kind of like a Korean street food. It's it's
basically like a really thick short noodle and.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's like a field spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Wow, that is so not nice.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It's a oh, I don't know if I could say
superior spaghetti and good taste, but it's it's like it's
like a singular spaghetti spaghetti and and it's in gochu
jong sauce, which is like, you know, a little bit spicy,
a little bit sweet, and and in America it's common
(18:44):
to put cheese on the tapukis, so but.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
It's not common in Korea. That's American thing.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, but like, as we've heard from one of our friends,
like you have to be kind of m picky about cheese,
I think in Asian countries, certain Asian countries, because otherwise
you're going to get the rumbley bellies. So maybe maybe
like it's maybe something more like processed, like kind of
(19:12):
like that parmesan or something might be more popular. But
like here, obviously cheese is like very abundant. So yeah,
it's common to throw cheese on the tapo key. And yeah,
so that's what we did and it was great and
and what else?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
What else? You just wanted to talk what the I did?
It's true, I mean what we did is I mean,
no no offense. It's kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We did New York things.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, but I mean I think that one of the
fun things about like being at that show is that
you know, you get out at night and you're literally
in Manhattan, so like you know, the world is your playground.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You can eat like any type of food you want.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Sure we did, I mean I guess because you know
what the breakfast have gotten lamb over the years.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeahood, I do not think that we had. We did
not have like a proper like New York like bagel sandwich.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I think that was kind of disappointing.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Like we we had we found a bodega that we liked,
and you know, it was it was acceptable, but it
was like it was not in the same way that
like there's I feel like there's like New York like staples,
Like one of them is like obviously the pizza, and
then like another one of them would be like a
really good like breakfast sandwich. And I don't think I
(20:31):
don't think we nailed it, not in the.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Past few years. Yeah, so it's fine whatever it is
what it is.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
You know, it's they have like a billion other types
of food that you know will make it tots curl
and you know that being said, it's been I think
I said, almost ten years now.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
We've been doing it for ten years because we started.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
In well, we went to our first one in New
York Comic Con in twenty twenty fourteen, right, twenty fourteen,
and or was it twenty thirteen?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There's the one we did, because the first one we ever.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Did was with the publisher of a Giant Robot Warrior
maintenance crew, and then the year after we did it ourselves.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
So whichever year that was, were we were married.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
In twenty thirteen?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, I know, well but they didn't know, so it
may have been twenty thirteen. That was the first one
we went to. And then twenty fourteen is the first
one we ever did by ourselves. We have to minus
one year, which is twenty twenty. Yeah, was there one
in twenty twenty one?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I have to Yeah, I'd have to look at my
email correspondences, but yeah, definitely obviously.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not in twenty twenty. But yeah, no, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It was.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
It's ten years at least. At least that's wild.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Yeah, so that's pretty crazy. I mean, well, I mean
on that note, I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You can listen to us on all podcast platforms.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
You can find us at paper Lab Studios on Instagram
or payperlab studios dot com, or just drop us a
line at design at paper lab studios dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And support us on Patreon at paper lab Studios. Thank
you for listening to paper Lab.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Podcast a Mango Musica, Turn that music
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Up bounds found found
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Nicky McCoy and I'm an illustrator, fashion designer, and
traditional artist.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I'm Mervin McCoy illustrators, storyteller and digital artists.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
For more than a decade, we've traveled in the convention
scene from coast to coast.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
We'd love to share what we've learned and are still
learning on our journey.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
You're listening to paper podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You hear that music? She stole it off the internet.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Just kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's spicy beats, be e e t s and he
hates beats. Let's check you out that SoundCloud. It works.
Doing a little test.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Right now, little testy test, just seeing what our voices
sound like. How loud this winshime is? I mean, I
guess I can take it down if anything.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
All right, Okay, so a little inside baseball here, I
put some chicken and oven.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Okay, thirty minutes, we're here on the porch and we're
gonna have a chat.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I have no idea what kind of sounds, what kind
of crazy noise is you going to hear?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
And actually, Nicholes, we were living in the moment. Yeah,
you're working on a commission.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's actually kind of related to well,
I guess Lucy.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Related to what I guess we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Which was our recent adventures in New York.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, NYCC, is it that recent though, well, I mean month.
I guess it happened last month, but it's fine the
previous month. Depending on when you listened to this, it
could be a year ago, it could be one hundred years. Yeah,
and when the aliens dig this up and time is a.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Construct, Yeah, yeah, it was relative fair enough.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, So, NYCC, the last time you heard from us,
I was talking about how terrified I was of the show,
and you know, thankfully, it's always great when you have
help at these things. You know, Spencer was there. Spencer
was on that show.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Shout out to Booster Cola.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, Boosta Cola. And you know, I think.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
This year really was a good example of kind of
using all our resources efficiently because I definitely did half
the work I did the year before, but I think
it was more productive and just you know, it was
(02:35):
a successful show. If you want to get into the
nitty gritty, we can talk not necessarily numbers, but we
can talk about what happened.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But yeah, I don't know what's your take.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I think I'm I'm honestly, I feel like I'm
still in shock in the sense that I feel like everything, yeah,
you know, there's always room to improve or do something better,
but I feel like this year everything went so surprisingly smoothly,
relative like comparatively to some of the previous years that
(03:09):
we've done this show.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And we've been doing this show for quite a few.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Years now, almost ten years.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, and and I think everything just uh, you know,
even for like whatever hip hops there were, I don't
think that there were any like uh, spontaneous combustions or
you know, fires that had to be put out I
think in the same way that we've had in the past.
So it was really nice to just kind of like
(03:35):
get there on our own time and set things up
and have everything go relatively smoothly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So and you know, even even.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Just uh like throughout the uh days, like on the
show floor, you know, like security was a relative breeze,
you know, walking around or like getting around was it
obviously like you know, a little bit bananas on Saturday,
as to be expected.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
But I don't I don't think there was like maybe the.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Same chaos in some of the previous years.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But uh, but yeah, no, I think it was.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was really good and and and everybody was like
really just happy to be there, which I thought was
really cool. So I think that we we had a
lot of really satisfied uh, I guess like newcomers as
like you know, clients, and and also just like some
of the some of our returning friends as well.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
I would say that. Being said, overall with this show,
I do feel as efficient as it was this year,
there is room for improvement in one era, not just one.
But this is one that stuck up through my mind
because just since this is podcast is about kind of
(05:00):
like how we function a little bit of how the
business runs for us. It wasn't it's always a profitable show,
but it was not as profitable.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
As last year. Right, Yeah, And I you know.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I can speak specifically, I can say both of us,
but I'm going to just speak for myself in this case.
I like, let's just say I did what seventy something commissions? Yeah,
this year, maybe maybe a little bit more than seventy
this year, I did half that number, a little bit
over half. It wasn't just half, it was maybe like forty.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Something. But here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
The previous year was maybe sixty something, and usually at
this show, it's like in that range, like you get
to sixty Like between the two of us, maybe you'd
say one hundred and fifty commissions.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, because you usually do more than me.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
But we we had to increase prices a bit just
because the show is so expensive to run. So as
a result, we took a significant hit in terms of,
you know, the amount and even meant a few regulars
didn't show up some you know, for whatever reason, and
just taking that into consideration.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That right there is an era where we.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Have to kind of Obviously, we got new regulars because
we tend to do that. I know I've gotten new
regulars because I I met some new clients. But at
the end of the day, that's an era that we
definitely have to improve on since if prices are gonna increase,
then we have to make sure that people know that
(06:38):
or are reminded that this is a good value.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I mean, what we do is a great value. I
have no qualms about it.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But you know, that's something we will spend the year
workshopping and figuring out that other shows and having meetings,
chatting with people, maybe doing more t shirts, and you know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, and we definitely have time to workshop it relatively speaking,
because it's interesting how over the past couple of years
we just have so many other four day shows now
to worry about, whereas like New York used to just
be this, you know, once a year four day like
hydra of a show, and and now we have Galaxy
(07:24):
Con Richmond, Teta Con, Orlando, I think Raleigh, Galaxy Con Raleigh.
There might even be another four day show in there
that I'm uh, I'm.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Trying to remembering off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But and then and then New York, so this went
from like a once a year thing to like literally
like the four Seasons.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So to speak.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So uh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And it's interesting too because I think, like I was
literally talking to a friend about this who's technically industry
and and I told her that it's wild to think
that Thursday used to literally just.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Be an industry day.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, it was literally a preview day for press, an
industry and you know, now it's it's just a whole
another day for you know, locals and the community to experience.
So it's been it's been wild to see New York
I think, like changing uh, in that way. So you know, also,
I think like as a as a vendor, as like
(08:27):
an exhibitor or like an artist, or you just kind
of had to keep up with the times. So yeah, definitely,
I think I totally agree that what we offer is
like an amazing value for what you're getting. I think
it's just sort of sort of trying to to crack
(08:48):
the code, so to speak, and figure out, like, you know,
how we can well do a little bit more with Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, I agree with that, but I feel like we know,
and this is maybe just my philosophy. I think pee,
we already cracked the code. I think the challenge is
there's certain expansions. We kind of put the kabasha on
years ago because we just didn't want to hassle. I
think it's using creative ways in which to to reach
(09:20):
out and consistent communication with our with our friends and
customer base, you know what I mean? And I said
friends and customer base, because some people rather the relationships
theres customer, which is fine, and some genuinely you know,
our friends now like you could even say family in
some cases.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
And it's just communicating saying hey, because this is one
thing if you've learned, because we've been asked this, the
reason why we even started doing the pet drawings is because,
like you said, you started.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Getting the requests, right.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And another and the thing is we started, oh, we
did the pet things and it exploded. One thing that
we've been neglecting for a while is we get the requests.
Can you do this in other formats? T shirts, whatever, stickers, whatever,
you name it. And we just didn't want the hassle, right,
But we're running a business and honestly, we have vendors
(10:15):
or friends or associates that we can literally partner with.
And so that being said, yeah, that's another way we
can then move things along. And that's kind of what
I'm saying, where at least for myself, I think I've
been sleeping on those opportunities. And you know, we did
(10:37):
a lot of pretty cool stickers this year and they're
pretty fun, and yeah, I mean I'd like to continue
because we have ideas.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
About the Wazoo. The idea is to do stickers.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
The stickers usually come up with the ideas or things
that make us laugh, things that we'd wear on a
T shirt. And if you know they do well enough
or if they make us laugh enough consistently, we'll make
T shirts out of them, right, or other things wearables,
you know, things that are more that can be even
more pragmatic than a than a than a picture, right, yeah, which,
(11:12):
like I said, I think it's it's still.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
A great it's a great value. But what's what's.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Even better than than an image that's customized, you know,
per your specifications, and an image customized per your specifications
that you can take with you on the goal?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Right, You're not gonna walk around with a frame, you know,
to go shop or hang out with friends. So I
definitely think that's one way we can, uh, you know, yeah,
just make things even more premium and much cooler and
more fun and even more personalized, so you know it.
(11:51):
But even then the you know, we're talking about the
trip and you know how it's still intimating. But like
you said, this year was I think it was easier.
Easier is the wrong word, but it was. It was
less grueling than say, when we did the Raleigh show, Like,
it wasn't as exhausted. And one of the reasons is
because we because I go to bed early. I don't
(12:16):
know if you agree, like I think.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Even something is like I think, yeah, a lot of
it is kind of just knowing our limits, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And then like also to.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Even something as simple as like we stayed in a
hotel that we've stayed in previously, so we have like
a you know, lay of the land, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Well, okay, so this is where I would I would
I would say I agree with that. But like when
I when well, when I do a show like Raleigh
or Richmond, I in some cases even at Columbus, even
though that's not a four day show though it might
be at some point, right, I end up staying out
(12:59):
later because it at New York is so big and
disjointed that it's hard to run into the people, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, because even then, I.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh, that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, we we literally there was was it Thursday or
Friday that we went that we went to Artist Alli
I think for like the first time in years. Yeah,
I've never been to Artist of the New York show.
And yeah we went to say hi to a writer
friend and he wasn't there, and we were like, okay,
well that didn't happen. But yeah, even just navigating artist
(13:29):
ally was for me like kind of anxiety and doucing
because I was, you know, after being on the show
floor for the entire day and then like just there
were still just crowds of people. It was kind of wild, like,
so yeah, I agree, like and and also too because
like I personally had a bunch of friends that you know,
(13:49):
uh said that they were going to stop by the table,
and some of them were able to find me and
some of them not so much. And honestly, I couldn't
even take it personally because I'm like, the show floor
is so massive. I think that like finding anybody is
like a it's like a small.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Miracle and word.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
So yeah, there was no hanging out really like yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Not in the same way. Yet I think that we
do it other conventions and.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Where things are like a lot more accessible, whereas I
feel like in New York, everybody's I feel like literally
just trying to run around and try to get the
best value for their book, you know, because there's like
there's so much to see and do like at all times.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So yeah, and I mean like back in the day,
we used to like you should have a big crew
and roll in with but you know, everybody is either
they have families to take care of No, this isn't
their main it's not their job. Or some of them,
it is their job and they're just in other aspects
of it now they or they don't come to this show.
(14:52):
A lot of our colleagues don't come to this show anymore.
Interestingly enough, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, I don't blame them, like honestly, like.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
But yeah, it's similar to why we don't we don't
do san Diego. We just told you about all those
other four day shows. San Diego is pretty much a
week long show at this point. I I'm not saying
that that we'd never do it, but it's that's not
appealing to me.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I think what's.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Wild we'll start in or up, But like I think
what's wild is like the amount of things that we
have to do to make this. It's like literally taking
us a song to like streamline this, and this is
on the East coast, Like we'd have to fly out
to the West coast and do all this.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, that would be a two week probably you want
probably it would be a two week trip.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So you'd be talking like, uh, this is a very
expensive show to even.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Set up, like just set up for We're not even
talking about anything else, like whatever, incidental, just making sure
everything's sorted.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's expensive, so san Diego would definite. That would be
maybe close to like a mid size house payment. Yeah,
you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
San Diego would probably be double what we spending overhead,
like easily.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I feel like the plane tickets alone would be wild.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Like for what we'd have to and like I just
I you know, it's not necessary, don't.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Need to do it, not no, like like.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I said, maybe one day, but I'm people would always
say you gotta do it, and I'm like, I think
you have to do it, Like it's it's not in
my No. Maybe if we're starting out and we're trying
to figure out where we're going and trying to you know,
find our niche sure, but I I'm not sitting here
(16:49):
saying we're the most successful people in the world in
this field. But I think we're fairly good at what
we do, and uh, you know what we're doing and
you know it's uh, it's a we're in a pretty
good position.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I also think, I mean, if if we're just being
honest and like, you know, having that conversation with ourselves,
I think that knowing your limitations is part of being
successful as well, you know, because you could you could
jump at like every opportunity, and you know, you can't
always guarantee that it's going to be a success. So
and I mean like even if you uh, it's like
(17:25):
it's like it's the risk worth it, you know, especially
because I feel like burnout is something that like doesn't
get talked about a lot, and that's a very real thing.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Tilting at wild Mills, right, So is that a don
Quixote friend?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Am I concho? Mean, if that's what you want, okay, But.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
No, New York was great this year. I'm really glad
that we had mister booster Colo with us. I think
we also managed to have a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Like in between, we went to a place called Which
to Puke to you know, round things off. We got
to make our own tabaki sauce. We got to go
to k Town, We got to go to the Tobuki
is kind of like a Korean street food. It's it's
basically like a really thick short noodle and.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's like a field spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Wow, that is so not nice.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It's a oh, I don't know if I could say
superior spaghetti and good taste, but it's it's like it's
like a singular spaghetti spaghetti and and it's in gochu
jong sauce, which is like, you know, a little bit spicy,
a little bit sweet, and and in America it's common
(18:44):
to put cheese on the tapukis, so but.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
It's not common in Korea. That's American thing.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, but like, as we've heard from one of our friends,
like you have to be kind of m picky about cheese,
I think in Asian countries, certain Asian countries, because otherwise
you're going to get the rumbley bellies. So maybe maybe
like it's maybe something more like processed, like kind of
(19:12):
like that parmesan or something might be more popular. But
like here, obviously cheese is like very abundant. So yeah,
it's common to throw cheese on the tapo key. And yeah,
so that's what we did and it was great and
and what else?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
What else? You just wanted to talk what the I did?
It's true, I mean what we did is I mean,
no no offense. It's kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We did New York things.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, but I mean I think that one of the
fun things about like being at that show is that
you know, you get out at night and you're literally
in Manhattan, so like you know, the world is your playground.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You can eat like any type of food you want.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Sure we did, I mean I guess because you know
what the breakfast have gotten lamb over the years.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeahood, I do not think that we had. We did
not have like a proper like New York like bagel sandwich.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I think that was kind of disappointing.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Like we we had we found a bodega that we liked,
and you know, it was it was acceptable, but it
was like it was not in the same way that
like there's I feel like there's like New York like staples,
Like one of them is like obviously the pizza, and
then like another one of them would be like a
really good like breakfast sandwich. And I don't think I
(20:31):
don't think we nailed it, not in the.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Past few years. Yeah, so it's fine whatever it is
what it is.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
You know, it's they have like a billion other types
of food that you know will make it tots curl
and you know that being said, it's been I think
I said, almost ten years now.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
We've been doing it for ten years because we started.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
In well, we went to our first one in New
York Comic Con in twenty twenty fourteen, right, twenty fourteen,
and or was it twenty thirteen?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There's the one we did, because the first one we ever.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Did was with the publisher of a Giant Robot Warrior
maintenance crew, and then the year after we did it ourselves.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
So whichever year that was, were we were married.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
In twenty thirteen?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, I know, well but they didn't know, so it
may have been twenty thirteen. That was the first one
we went to. And then twenty fourteen is the first
one we ever did by ourselves. We have to minus
one year, which is twenty twenty. Yeah, was there one
in twenty twenty one?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I have to Yeah, I'd have to look at my
email correspondences, but yeah, definitely obviously.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not in twenty twenty. But yeah, no, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It was.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
It's ten years at least. At least that's wild.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Yeah, so that's pretty crazy. I mean, well, I mean
on that note, I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You can listen to us on all podcast platforms.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
You can find us at paper Lab Studios on Instagram
or payperlab studios dot com, or just drop us a
line at design at paper lab studios dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And support us on Patreon at paper lab Studios. Thank
you for listening to paper Lab.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Podcast a Mango Musica, Turn that music
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Up bounds found found
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