The event I'd been planning for two months had finally arrived on Saturday. Star Comics presents Ladies Night. I'd spent the past months making the art, flyers, posters, handbills, passing them around town, making about 300+ buttons for freebies, 192 stickers, starting and running the Star Comics Ladies facebook group, figuring out which books to order, speaking with the other Valkyries about their Ladies Night (oh btw, I'm a Valkyrie now! Surprise!), and trying to spread the word as much as possible. Plus there was the actual day of tasks of baking about 100+ cookies, the set up, and the anxiety and panic. Suffice to say, I'm been a nervous wreck for two months.
It all paid off.
We had a line 30 minutes to an hour before open. While we tried to organize tables into a sketch station, kids table, teen recommendations, snacks, freebies, and a kids temporary tattoo station along with mystery grab bags and the mature recommendations, the Boy was acting as our security and tweeting pictures of the line and keeping them entertained. There's nothing better than seeing people excited for something you planned.
The doors opened and two little girls jumped in with their free poster we were handing out, excited to be the first ones in. Over 25 people waited in line. We had tickets for door prizes throughout the night that they were handed, Free Comic Book Day tote bags, and my wonderful friend and artist Kyanne did free sketchcards. She had a line the whole 3 hours.
The store was absolutely filled for the whole first hour and a half. We had a checkout line to the door and the FCBD bags were sold out quickly. There were people in cosplay everywhere and more little girls in capes than I could count. It was amazing. My best friend Marisa ran the kids temporary tattoo station dressed as Miss America Chavez. The mystery grab bags were gone by the end of the night. People stayed and chatted and talked about comics and some sat outside where we had chairs. It was no guys allowed in the comic shop but Jabberwocky Custom Computers hosted them next door. And everyone ate my cookies and liked them so that was great! (I sometimes bake but 100 cookies was daunting)
All in all, it was a wonderful night. I couldn't have hoped for a better turnout. When I first started planning, I was so worried no one would come. Other stores talked about how they only got a few the first time, how not to expect too much, but the Lubbock geek community showed up and proved me wrong. There is a very large community in this town, but for years we've all kind of run in our own circles away from the rest of each other. Hopefully with more events like Lubbock-Con and Hub City Comic Con and whatever we decide to do at Star Comics in the future, the geek community will band together and realize how big we are and we'll get more fun stuff to do!
But for now, I'll try to do my part.
With how well this event turned out, we'll definitely be doing more I'm happy to say! Look for another Ladies Night in the Summer! For now, I've got more art to do and stuff to make and moving to a new apartment to stress out about (so many comics and books to pack up). Thank you to everyone that helped me and kept me sane and for coming out! Thank you to my wonderful darling Rony, my best friend Marisa, Kyanne for drawing for people for 3 hours (holy cow, girl, you rock), and Robert at Star Comic for being crazy supportive and letting me do this. And a special thank you to my sister Amanda for all the wonderful pictures she took! She was the event photographer for the night and you can find her page and all the pictures here.
-Sam <3