Conventional Wisdom: Back to the Trenches

Conventional Wisdom is coming back! I mean, it’s never technically gone away, I’m posting a new comic the same day as this blog. What I mean is, Conventional Wisdom is GOING back to cons again! Remember all those times I said I wasn’t even gonna try to make it to any conventions before next year? Yeah, it turns out that was a big lie. I’ll be heading down to Charlotte August 20th-22nd for Queen City Anime Con! Real Life Con Comics are BACK!

Funny story: I was actually starting to write a blog post a while back explaining why I WOULDN’T be going to any of this first batch of cons during the second half of 2021, but I wound up talking myself out of it. The temptation to watch the one-in-a-lifetime spectacle of a post-lockdown convention scene figuring out what to do with itself is just too strong. I gotta witness that trainwreck at least ONCE with my own eyes. Plus, Queen City Anime Con is one of those smaller, local cons I kept saying I wanted to head out to but didn’t do, even before everything shut down. If I’m gonna poke my toe back into the convention waters, I might as well do it there.

Before anybody asks, though, this is the ONLY convention I have firm plans to attend this year. Sorry to anybody who secretly hoped I’d make a surprise return to Otakon, but the last time I seriously talked about doing Otakon again was in early spring 2020… and just look how THAT turned out. I don’t dare risk doing it again! No, but seriously, the combination of cost and stress that made me drop Otakon in the first place hasn’t gone away, so I’m still not doing any out-of-state cons for the foreseeable (which also means no Anime Weekend Atlanta either) If, and I do mean IF, I go back to any other cons before 2021 wraps up, it’ll be NC Comic Con in Durham, and that’s only if they ever make up their mind about whether or not they’ll even DO one before the year’s out.

So, if I’m going to Queen City Anime Con, what’ll I be doing there? NOT A DANG THING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. No Artist Alley table, no panels, no cosplay meetups, just me wandering the halls and taking pictures for a few days. I mean, I may bring a few bags of free stuff to give away, so if you’re there, keep an eye out for me, but I don’t have anything to plug. Just a quick trip to get material for some comics people might actually read for once.

Yeah, that’s probably the main thing. What’s this gonna mean, comic wise? Well, first of all, I’m not scrapping the 2021 ConCONcon series. Those will just go on break while the Queen City pages are coming out, then pick back up for the rest of the year. And on that note, I am going to stick to the “one page a week” model of updates rather than trying to get all the pages done and posted in a single blast. I just can’t do those huge updates anymore, man. Also, to reiterate what I’ve already said several times elsewhere, this set of comics will be WAY shorter than previous ones have been. Like, “probably under a dozen pages” shorter. I’m still gonna be taking notes like a psycho all weekend, but only the material that’s clearly specifically only relevant to this specific weekend will be in the QCAC 21 comics. Anything that just feels like generic convention silliness will get stored away as potential ConCONcon material. All that said, there WILL be an extra batch of comics made specifically for Patreon, so if the main updates aren’t enough for you, know there’s always more material just a dollar or two away! (Why do you think I’m posting this HERE?)

Last of all, what does this mean for the ever-glacial quest to re-post all of Conventional Wisdom's old content to the new site?  Well, obviously, it'd be nice if a looming deadline were to light a fire under me so that the remaining comics all wound up re-posted before the con... but you're nuts if you think there's a realistic chance of me making that.  Still, I'll at least TRY to get some more back up before then.  We're up to mid-2017 now, so there's only two more years of material left to go!

I guess that’s all for now. I actually made this decision a while ago, but have been sitting on it for a bit just to make sure everything doesn’t catch fire again.  If it does, though, just keep an eye out for more updates on the social medias or whatever. And, of course, if YOU’LL be in Charlotte this August, be sure to say HI!