To shake or not to shake

[Travis Surber]

You'll come to find I am highly opinionated and passionate about those opinions.I'm a new creator who's only got 9 months under my belt but I made a vow day one to not be one of "those" creators.It's only a few seconds of my time but it leaves a lasting impression on those people I meet.If someone enjoys my work enough to want to interact with me in any way I OWE IT TO THEM, not the other way around.This sense of entitlement some creators have is just bullshit and those people made you and without them you are nothing.

[Dragon Powered]

Quote from Ryan Sohmer of LICD:
"Despite the inconveniences of travel (remember when going on an airplane was exciting?), I'm hugely looking forward to C2E2.

Once again, our booth is #647 and Lar and I can't wait to shake your hands and shoot the shite.

We'll see you soon.

- Because I can."

Added the emphasis... just sayin'

[D.Z.]

I don't believe this is the most active topic on the forum.  ::)

[Gibson]

I was at the C2E2 this weekend and met...well, not so met as saw...Scott Kurtz and watched him and the way he behaved. I'll keep the majority of my impression of him to myself for the time being, but I will say that what I postulated before seems now more likely to be true. I think he's probably prone to disease.

[JR]

Yeah, I like to agree.  He does need to take better care of himself.

I was also at a convention this weekend (the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con).  I've soften my stance a little since the last time I posted in this topic (if some people have a problem with shaking hands, then that's their problem and I won't let it bother me), but it was interesting to see an actor like Doug Jones (he's played the Silver Surfer, Abe Sapien, and others) getting out from behind his table and hugging his fans.

[D-Ballz]

Personally, I think the norovirus is a very good reason to avoid handshakes...

Ever had it before? I have. It's absolutely terrible to have. It's not just your average vomiting and diarrhoea, it's easy to see how it kills people when you've had it. It was actually the worst type of ill I have ever been. Ever. We have warnings up in my college about norovirus, and despite the warnings, people still refuse to wash their hands, which is a habit that has always irked me... Then you get the norovirus and you almost want to punch everyone who has ever refused to wash their hands in the genitals, to prevent them from teaching their kids that hand washing is unimportant and diseases only happen to other people.

However, I would still shake hands. I would just, I dunno, clean them when nobody is looking. I have always been very meticulous about cleaning my hands, though. Maybe some antibacterial handwash in a bag, and just put my hands under the table or something, if I was sat at a booth. I'd probably go through a bottle of the stuff in a day.

[TTallan]

Just wanted to add another thought to this topic... I went to my first con of the year this past weekend, and despite my stated ambivalence about handshaking earlier in the thread, I actually shook a lot of hands. I even initiated the handshake myself a fair portion of the time. Kind of surprised me. Mostly the hands I was shaking belonged to other creators; webcomics people and other guests of the con that I was meeting for the first time. I can't recall that I shook hands (nor did I decline to shake) with any "regular" attendees who bought things from my table. Just a heartfelt smile and a thank you.

Also, it seems that once you already know a webcomic creator, especially one that you only get to see in person a few times a year at most, handshakes are no longer used and instead you get hugs or claps on the back. Or maybe that was just a feature of Penguicon, which was definitely one of the more social non-anime cons I've been to in recent years.  :)

[Rob]

I'm glad to hear it was (or at least it sounded like) a positive experience for you. So the real question now after all that handshaking is.... did you get sick?
;)

EDIT: I forgot Randy of Something*Positive was there. He's one of my all time favorite webcomic people and one of the reasons I got into this. Did you get to say hi?

[Gibson]

I shook a lot of hands at the C2E2, including Jim Mahfood's, and the only sickness I've heard of anyone getting after that con is a hangover. And as I've said before, I don't mind people being nervous of getting sick, but if you touch money, doorknobs, merchandise, or even a pen that's been handled by someone, you might as well shake their hand. At least some people wash their hands.

[Nuke]

if you touch money, doorknobs, merchandise, or even a pen that's been handled by someone, you might as well shake their hand. At least some people wash their hands.

This. And also bring some little sanitation wipes and use them before doing anything that involves bringing a hand near an orifice. Bam, no contact diseases.

[ran]

I just came back from anime north, where I shook quite a few hands. I am sick as a dog--I have a crazy fever, I am coughing my lungs out, and I cannot breathe out of my nose. =/ it started on the last day of the convention, and is showing no signs of stopping. This is the worse thing ever.  :-X

[Gibson]

You can never know if it was from shaking hands. You also saw people in poorly made costumes this weekend, it could have been that. Or maybe you've developed an allergy to nerds.

[ran]

If I had a nerd allergy, I'd probably never be able to do a full shift at work. =P While I can't definitely say that it was from shaking hands, I can say that I did notice a lot of people sneezing everywhere and looking rather sick. What baffles me the most is that there are people out there who will go to a con, even if they are sick, because they don't want to miss it. If you are sick, please, for the love of everything sweet and good, stay home. My lungs will thank you for it.

[Gibson]

So maybe the answer is, rather than refraining from shaking hands at cons, when we see or know of someone being sick at a con, punch that person in the face as hard as you can, then spit in their mouths and scream "How does it feel?"

[Rob]

Sorry to hear you are sick Ran. Hope you feel better.

I think paying for Con badges in advance probably goes along way to get people to come anyway if they are sick.

My sense of this is that you ultimately have a choice to make and it is either shake hands and maybe get sick or not shake hands and maybe not do as much business, maybe alienate some people. It's a choice. I never said one was necessarily better than the other. If you get sick every con and can't work on your strip for a week after it doesn't serve much good to shake hands as you will ultimately alienate more people (I believe) by not updating your comic on time.