Le sigh…
By Irma on May 31st, 2011Posted In: blog
While exhibiting at SPX a few weeks ago, Marcus Lindmark stopped by my table and interviewed me for part of an SPX article he was going to be writing for the Seriefrämjandet website (A Swedish comic association). The article has now posted! It’s in Swedish, but you can go there and take a look at the pictures and maybe run it through a translator to read it.
OK, if you want a translation on my part, here it is:
“Irma Eriksson is an artist originally from New Jersey, but has lived in Sweden for many years. Since November 2007 she draws the series ‘IMY’, about a girl who likes rock music, which she publishes on her website www.imycomic.com. An odd character in the series is Mick the fish who swims around in a coffee pot. “He is inspired by the rock singer Mick Jagger,” says Eriksson, “because he has big lips.”
First, the fun stuff!
I’ve got a few new things up at the webshop right now. You can go in and buy an artist card now. Just go in, choose the one you want and click “Buy Now!” Shipping is included in the cost.
Also, I’ve added the new button in with the button section. This one features the logo for Imy’s favorite cafe and current workplace, Café Rawk!
Now for the less fun stuff (well, fun for me but not so much for you)…
Imy Vol 1.0 is currently SOLD OUT. I didn’t think it would happen, but it did! I sold out at SPX last weekend. Very surprising but very cool! I will be ordering a new batch, however it’s not going to be right now. Soon I will be working on Imy Vol 2.0, and the plan is that I’ll order both books at the same time. I won’t have these books in my hand until October, though. So you’re going to have to wait until the fall. I may decide to do a preorder, so that you are guaranteed a copy of either or both books when I get them in again. I’ll let you know more as I figure things out.
The small collections, Vol 0.5 & Vol 0.5½, are almost sold out as well. The difference here is that I don’t know when or if I will ever reprint these. So far I have no plans to reprint. So keep that in mind.
So why do you just go and grab yourself an artist card, then?
Quick note…
Why are some items “Add to Cart” and others “Buy Now?”
The reason for this has to do with shipping. Right now it’s the easiest solution I have. However, if there is a combination of “Buy Now” and “Add to Cart” items that you want, email me first and I’ll figure out the price for you without you having to end up paying double on shipping.
Let’s see if I can remember everything. It was a bit of a wonderful whirlwind! All I can say was that this year was the year my hard work was really starting to pay off. Proof that build up takes some time, but if you keep at it you will start to see results.
There were a couple of things on my table that I think did it for me this year. The first being my book.
I’ve been so proud of how this book came out. It looks GREAT. The cover is everything I wanted it to be, and the full color pages are beautiful. And this book caught the attention of a LOT of people there. I had several people, who’d never heard of my comic, come to my table and drop the money for the book because they were intrigued by the comic and thought the book was something worth having.
Even a guy from a comic book store picked it up, flipped through it and said that I needed to get a barcode for it because it was something he’d like to see on his shelves. I told him I only had a few copies left and he told me to contact him when I had more (inward squeeeee).
Also, a friend of a well known Swedish webcomicker picked up my book because he was so impressed with it and he was trying to convince this webcomicker to put her comic out in print. So he bought it right then and there.
And, yes, I did end up selling out. YAY for me! BOO for anyone who missed out on buying one. But they will print again, and I’ll write more about that at another time.
Not that I didn’t have my older books on the table too…

But, even though they impressed people in other years, they were no match for the Big Volume.
They sold pretty well this weekend too, and I only have a couple left of each.
But the other big attention-grabber at the table was a life-sized Mick I threw together the day before:

He got some strange looks, some laughs, and a lot of interest. I think his precense was the deciding factor when Marcus Lindmark, who writes for Seriefrämjandet, decided to choose me to interview for his article. THAT, by the way, was super cool! And he’s informed me that the article will probably post sometime this week. I’ll make sure to link to it when it does!
The interesting thing is that no one asked WHY the fish was in a coffee pot. I think I would have…
I had planned to only sell artist’s cards with my books. But one girl returned 3 times to my table only to finally ask for an artist card. She was THRILLED when I sold her one. So much that I decided to just start drawing them up and putting them or sale. There was only one problem: people seemed to think that they were printed and didn’t realize I was sitting there drawing them all day. I guess I should take that as a compliment on my grayscale coloring
I had my watercolors up for sale too, but they didn’t move. I didn’t expect them to. They just looked good on the table

The venue was laid out MUCH better this year. The room I’m always in usually has some sort of exhibit we have to be placed around. But this time all the walls were removed and we had a ton of space.
And even the big room had more space this year, even though I don’t think there were fewer tables.
It was a complete success and a ton of fun. Thank you to all of you who stopped by, bought things or took a bookmark and showed an interest in Imy!
There were fans, who were fans before coming to SPX, come and visit me. And not just my friends, but readers who wanted to stop by and pick up some stuff. That was a first! It was very cool, and one of the most exciting things for me.
There were also a bunch of people who discovered me at SPX in previous years who came back again to buy the latest book.
And, of course, I had the usual support from my friends, because they are awesome.
I also met a few very cool swedish webcomickers who I am aquainted with through a group I made on facebook: Janna Lundholm of Anywayz, Johan Wanloo of Rock Manlyfist , and Jenny Hannula of Åtta Ben Från Underjorden.
And I really hope that all the people who stopped by and learned about Imy“for the first time this weekend, are here reading this now and checking out the site.
Oh, and do you want to see me there?
Now to start preparing Vol 2.0 and get ready for NYCC! Oh and catch up on some sleep! I’m completely wiped out!