Freedom City

Well, we didn’t make it into New York Comicon. Probably for the best, travel-budget-wise. Artist Alley is full, but near daily emails remind me there’s loads of exhibitor space open.

There seems to be a game of chicken going on with the Reed Exhibition folks. Both C2E2 and NYCC had unexplained delays in deciding the lucky recipients of AA space while at the same time sending out leadpipe hints that exhibitor space is available and guaranteed. I think they’d prefer Artist Alley dry up and be exclusively tables for the very famous. They’re sure not trying to strongarm any of the bigs into the upsell.

Cons of all sorts have love-hate relationships with the table section of their events. I can recall wandering into the “Independent Publisher” section of Book Expo America last time it was in Chicago and it was like landing in the book equivalent of a Cairo street market. The whole business was curtained off from the rest of the expo and the shenanigans and hard sells stopped the moment you walked out of it.

From a showrunner point of view, it’s easy to see the appeal of having an Artist Alley. Renting real estate in 4’x4’ squares at 300 or so bucks for three days rent is a no-brainer. It makes money. But Artist Alleys are also declasse. That’s a perception shared from showrunner to showgoer. I’m immediately reminded of a comment I overheard at Megacon “This is Artist Alley. They’re not really selling anything.”

I’m told some folks who were turned down for a table at C2E2 immediately adopted a “We’ll show you” attitude and bought an exhibitor table just to show C2E2…something. I get the distinct feeling that some folks would rather Artist Alleys disappear altogether. Maybe they are portals to smaller cons that don’t give you a piercing headache between rival speaker systems and free energy drink samples. Maybe they’re the husk of a critter that will soon only exist online, an empty shell of a crab long ago inserted into a HyVee packaged salad.

Did we see a sign of this when C2E2 sent the first round of “no thanks” emails out (we were one of those) with the inelegantly-worded suggestion that you could guarantee yourself a spot by giving them more money? They meant that they wanted you to get an exhibitor booth, but to many it read like a flat insult. Suddenly C2E2 had more space to offer in Artist Alley and things quieted down.

They could have had more AA tables at C2E2, so I suspect exhibitor spaces weren’t going too fast. There was a vast gulf between AA and the rest of the floor, filled with tables and chairs for congoers to rest in. This is a sure sign the place is undersold. Wizard World Chicago still hasn’t figured out that making rest spaces inside the exhibitor area instead of at one end looks really bad.

So our year of lots more cons is nearly over (Des Moines in the Fall remains). Our first conclusion was no C2E2 next year. MoCCA will remain our NY con and Megacon stays on the list for sure. The revamped SpringCon was a lot of fun and there’s all sorts of cons to go to.

But this weekend is a CLP Summit, so we may spin some more ideas around about con presence. Stay tuned.

As promised, images.

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And video:

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Whoof, another whirlwind weekend. In all it was a fine time, with many details slipping by me as I wrote the previous account, but blogs shouldn’t get all our thoughts.

On Saturday we stopped by THE SOURCE on the way back to the hotel. Source was one of the fine comics establishments that bought a bunch of Indy stuff to sell on Diamond Dead Week last year (when the comics distributor took a week in December and said there will be no new product from its suppliers), so we stopped to pay our respects.

Source is more of a game store by the square foot, and it also has sections for retro candy and regional sodas, models and comics. It does all of these things very well. We even saw one of Will’s Visible Roswell Alien models. They still had a few of our comics out on the shelves as well, but it looks like we mostly sold through. I personally like having a few not sell; it’s free shelf advertising!

Saturday night we also went to the first afterparty I can recall going to at any con. We were staying in the con hotel and you’d have to walk past it to get to the bar, so that pretty much settled it. Two free drink tickets was plenty for me.

Sunday we woke up better than expected, but we got to sleep in a bit. See, on Saturday Carter met with a couple models for the next Nikki Harris, so Will and I had to get up and out a bit early. Sunday we slept in some.

Sunday can be a bit of a death march at cons. This one was pretty okay sales-wise, but retailers I spoke to mostly shrugged when asked how thing were going. Our local store, Daydreams, had a booth and felt that relatively speaking they were having a better show than C2E2. Not so much in raw numbers, but more customers were buying something as opposed to merely looking. Their box of Lantern Rings went fast at a buck each.

I think I am finally used to being on a con floor for the whole day. My spirits were high and I bought very little. Well, I didn’t spend much, let’s say. The most dangerous booth in the building was Half Price Books. They loaded up their GN, gaming and software sections and hauled them right over. I mooned over a pile of early to mid 80s DRAGON magazines (The Newsweek of the D&D Set, dontchaknow) and bought four for fifty cents each. After a while I wander back around and the guys in the booth catch me looking at the pile again. “We have a hard time selling those, so we’d make you a deal like ten for a dollar.” Cut to me with a completely full eco-bag of magazines shuffling back to the table. Ten bucks for the lot. This is my current childhood memory weak point, the magazines I pored over as a youth (or intensely coveted). DRAGON was three bucks an issue in the 80s, it wasn’t cheap.

Also got an orange plastic Baragon and something called a Geronimon for Lonnie. Grabbed a couple minis, more on those later.

Of all things, Sunday brought back something I haven’t seen since the 90s: Comics Booth Babes. Early Sunday we notice two young ladies, one in a legless red sparkle onesie and another in a dress-blues military jumpsuit with epaulets. Yes there are pictures; no I haven’t uploaded them yet. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen women hired to pull people in to a comics table. Hell we even tried it ourselves at a Wizard World many moons ago.

By the end of the day the two bright smiles of the booth babes were dampened considerably. They sat glumly behind the table, proving that not even cute girls can overcome an economy in recovery.

Across from our table was a booth that could have made a mint if they were selling anything. They were an outfit called the Propotorium and they make movie prop replicas for a museum. They had a Commando Cody jacket and blaster that made my heart beat thumpa thumpa whenever I looked at it.

Didn’t find out the identity of the weird MCBA email writer, but one of these days I’m sure it will magically come up in some conversation.

We lit out at 5, drove to Des Moines to pick up Will’s car and Will and I got back to Coralville before midnight. We’re of a mind to go to the one day Fallcon later in the year, but it’s the same weekend as New York Comicon. We still haven’t heard from NYCC if we’re worthy of Artist Alley space, so it may get tense in the next couple weeks.

More pics and analysis as soon as I find my transfer cable.

Well, that’s one day down for the newly-expanded-to-the-main-event SpringCon and it went pretty well. We got here in pretty leisurely time on Friday—Will and I both took the whole day off and went early to Des Moines to meet up with Carter, who was getting off at 1 or so.

So Will and I did what any two fellows pottering around DM on a workday would do…we went to Office Max to cut, fold, and staple some comics to sell. Everybody does that, right?

At OM we found some spiff literature racks that hold our bigger comics nicely and invested in them on the spot. Now SYPHILITIC COWBOYS weirds out way more people by giving passerby about double the chance to spot the logo.

On the way up to the Twin Cities we stopped at Owatonna, MN to the Cabela’s store there. If you’ve read BEAN AND NOTHINGNESS you know that Charon the boatman to Hades loves this place, and he’s right. I came looking to acquire a fisherman’s rain hat, the vinyl droopy kind you can shape. Hey, I just want one, is all. Turns out, they’re out of style. The replacement is a cross between a foreign legionaire’s cap and those ridiculous flap-backed caps that bedeviled 1985 so.

At Cabela’s I also sought out the new Targus pistol. I just wanted to see a revolver that could shoot both .45 caliber bullets and .410 shotgun shells. Holy goodbye sucker, what a thing it is to see. (Pic will be here when I get home)

We ate at the Cabela’s cafe (I had a bison burger) and pressed on. In the hotel bar Carter thinks he saw guest of honor Sarah Douglas (one of the three Kryptonians from Superman II) in the bar but I must have missed her.

So then, next day Saturday show day. Setup was easy enough; our badges were there, all was in order, smiling faces. I even felt a twinge about making that THEY REFUSED TO TELL US COMIC for a second. But interestingly throughout the day we kept hearing from various volunteers that certain people not to be named in the organization can be a bit bossy and capricious here and there. So then I started to wonder if I could pick out the author of the email that inspired our minicomic about them. I’ll let you know if I figure it out, but there have been a couple leads.

Our table neighbor is Daniel Mohr, and excellent fellow and top-hat enthusiast. He’s the the right of me. Carter, Will and I each got adjoining half-tables; Will’s in the middle, Carter is next to a support pillar. I got to evangelize about Lightning Source, our printer, a bit; one thing we small press folks will sit and go on like old hens about is printers. They’re like girl/boyfriends in high school; you want a good one, but are secretly looking for a better one all the time.

Sales have been good. Will and I decided to stick decorative price tags on our new spiff lit racks and now people are making decisions to buy at a distance, which is fabulous. Selling a little bit of everything.

Haven’t bought too much, but Half-Price Books has a booth here and there is an amazing pile of old DRAGON magazines there for five dimes each. I got four and am fighting that old devil inside over the rest.

Carter and I went to the SpringCon party at our hotel last night. I arrived first and sat with a group of retailers and just listened to their tales of adventure and avarice. If a group like that will let you listen, it’s a pretty good time. Carter later arrived, and so did Daniel and we ended up talking TV for a couple hours. It was pretty serious Nerding. Two drink tickets were plenty for me, though, and I trundled off to the room to watch SNL.

Today my goal is to figure out who wrote the email declaring my output to be THEY REFUSED TO TELL US. I’ll keep you posted.

Details here.

Karaoke Night (a sample)

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Our table was up against a wall, so this is a 180-degree pan of the room from there.

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The view from right to left, later (yep Carter’s holding an iPad and yeah that’s my forehead at the end.

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Here’s the camera dump, while I watch TREASURE HUNTER (purchased at C2E2—holy smokes kung fu fight under the sand!).

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Two shows on successive weekends was too much for my blogging urge. Now back and rested, so here we go.

C2E2 was amazingly organized up to a point. It was well-advertised, the venue was great, actual daylight was cast upon the entire show floor, and there was a good mix of dealers and exhibitors. The Dealers apparently had some issues with the cost and arrangement of load-in, and mixed with the fact that turnout just wasn’t what we had all hoped (One dealer on Saturday joked “Were we open yesterday? I forget.”), it didn’t live up to expectations.

This is the first show in a long while where I saw lots of comic dealers. That’s actually a bit unusual in a big show anymore. I found four NEUTROs and almost got five but they were all from that same dealer and he got antsy about someone wanting every copy he had; he took one back and stowed it in case I knew something he didn’t.

I used one immediately to get a Neutro sketch from our right-side neighbor, Nino, who does The Unbelievable Laundry Detergent Man. He’s a swell fellow and seems to know everyone. He spotted Geoff Johns walking by and snagged him for a picture with his book. The next day on the bus in, he showed it to fans coming to C2E2 and they all came by and bought something. Nino’s always working it.

On our left was Alayna Lemmer, a talented colorist and digital painter. She got hooked on ZOO FORCE, and that’s cool. Have a click and look at her DeviantArt account.

No neighbor woes like MoCCA, but when the sun began to set we faced directly into the sun.

Met up with Douglas from Comiclink, and it’s always good to see him. He tipped us to some new con possibilities that we’ll be looking into.

Saw Lara Croft from Megacon, this time in her Baroness suit. I only spotted her just as we were walking out of the room for the last time. Her name’s Maygin but I called out “Hey, Baroness!” anyway. A quick hi and out the door.

I traveled by Metra train between McCormick Place and downtown mostly. Why? Well, Millennium Station is the place they filmed the Batcycle bit from THE DARK KNIGHT. It looks exactly like that. Couldn’t get enough of it.

We stayed at the Fairmont Chicago, which is a lovely comfortable hotel. We’ll be doing that again.

We tried doing the table in shifts between Will, Carter and myself and it worked pretty well. I don’t think we’ll divvy up a half-table like that again, though. It’s just not enough room for us. Also in the cards are some of those portable freestanding banners; those really help people focus on your spot and are way better than the PVC pipe approach.

Sales were okay, but everyone was off. We sold a little bit of everything. As usual, the people who did buy stuff connected with it; we tend not to get the casual buyer.

I got to haunt a couple favorite record stores, Jazz Record Mart and Reckless Records

JRM—Terry Riley A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR (never have owned that)

The Fugs VIRGIN FUGS (always always buy The Fugs)

Jimmy Smith BUCKET! (Jimmy Smith also an automatic buy)

RR—999 SLAM! (I rarely run across 999 albums)

James Brown and the Soul G’s LIVE AT CHASTAIN PARK (Dead or alive, nobody is live the way James Brown is)

Davka THE GOLEM

Tarab WIND KEEPS EVEN DUST AWAY

Noel Akchote ADULT GUITAR

Melt Banana MxBx1998/13000 MILES AT LIGHT VELOCITY

Swarm Of The Lotus THE SIRENS OF SILENCE

Someck and Sharp REVENGE OF THE STUTTERING CHILD

Old 97s FIGHT SONGS (I really didn’t own this til now? Huh.)

Burning Star Core PAPERCUTS THEATER (When you say you’ll listen to anything these guys do, you really mean it)

Ben Reynolds HOW DAY EARNT ITS NIGHT

Minima Moralia CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA

Lair of the Minotaur EVIL POWER

Also picked up the live action DETROIT METAL CITY dvd. I have read exactly one manga series to the end previously and am enjoying DMC quite a bit. Am anxious to spin this one.

In all, a good trip; even when Kelli and I decided to walk from McCormick Place to Millennium Park (3.6 miles) it was a nice way to spend time. Our legs felt like hell at the end, but it was all good fun.

I think this show can grow into something supergreat. It kicked the pants off of the last few Wizard Worlds I’d been to and there was a lot to like about it. I heard it suggested that not having it in Summer killed a certain amount of traffic, and that may well be. Also, putting it downtown sounds like it’s easy from Chicagoans to get to, but Nino for instance had to take 2 buses and the El to get there. Prestige-wise, there’s no denying McCormick Place is a great venue.

The Artist Alley was very print and sketch heavy, so I didn’t get a lot of books. This tends to be the case with the bigger cons. I need to get my stash of NEUTROs out and get those suckers circulating, get some new sketches.

Will, Kelli and I ate at a restaurant called PAPA BEAR’S out by the giant outlet mall in far west Chicago. It was a fantastically homey place with generous portions and lots of little life dramas playing out all around. I pretended to stare at the superball machine for ages listening to a waitress tell her look-I-made-a-vest-by-ripping-the-sleeves-off boyfriend “I told her if that’s the way you wanna live your life then you go on ahead” about ten times. I love random talk.

Pics and such as soon as Bubblecast gets their poop together.

We’re just about set to head off for Chicago for C2E2. We’re half of table G9 in Artist Alley, listed as Candle Light Press or John Ira Thomas, depending where you look. We’ll have another new postcard exclusive for the show (first 200 people only!) and books books books!

And Sunday—notice I take fewer pics as things go on?

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