Thursday, September 15, 2016

The ROSE CITY COMIC BOOK SHOW 2016 IN REVIEW


Hey there sports fans, Al here the latest!
Let talk about the ROSE CITY COMIC BOOK SHOW 2016.

Now mind you I didn't attend last year's show as I was under the gun for gallery shows and the first EUCON show down in Eugene Oregon. So some of my facts will be out of date.
There were a few set backs at the beginning even before the show started.
A while back you might have remembered that I mentioned how real life has a tendency to throw the monkey wrench into things?
Well this is no different and since this is the year of Monkey Blog for Rose City Comic Show 2016, and he's been working overtime. And in this case he almost had me over a barrel with the printing of the 3'd installment of Corpse Cop.


But the kicker was the fact that my good buddy George Leon wouldn't be able to attend this year's show. It was a real bummer that he wouldn't be hanging out with Dan DePaolo and myself.
He had wanted to go but like I said real life has this way of making things happen.
But have no fear for I am pretty sure that he will be attending the EUCON show this year with Dan and myself.  Haazah!
 
BUT WE GOT TO GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS OF THE PROS AND CONS OF ROSE CITY!
1).  The LOAD IN. I in years past have tabled with a number of friends and every single one of them a professional vendor. This means that the set up which usually takes place before a show is tag teamed. And with ease and speed our table set up was done in about 35 minutes. Less time than it was to find a parking space.
2). BOOTH NEIGHBORS. I have had been both situations where I have tabled in Artists Alley and have had some issues with next door neighbor's. Either being the EXTREMELY messed up situation at Crypticon back in 2013 with the Human Wall of Shame or Emerald City Comic con of 2012 with a small jazz band playing right next door. Thank God Maverick was there to keep me laughing.
This year Dan and I had the pleasure of a ceramist named (blank). Her work was great and impressive.
And they were POLITE.
I would table next to them again.

3). TRAFFIC. With cos players just across the way I was worried at first that people would be so enamored of the detail and work put into these costumes that no one would see our tables and work. HA��.  Nothing was further from the truth. Walk ways were large enough o have people see both.
4). CUSTOMERS. Everyone that came by our table was kind and mostly respectful. Never did we have to deal with "booth barnacles".  If you are aware of this very descriptive name please let me enlighten you. A "Booth Barnacle" is a individual who lingers around your table and engages you meaningless conversation for an hour without ever buying anything from your table and keeps you from being able to make any other potential contact with other people. I have had these happen a couple of times and have a Barnacle Scraper to remove these pests.
I didn't have to bust it out.
Everyone that came by said they liked the work that they saw and said so. This was a very validating thing to hear. And some of it turned into sales as well.

5). TEMPERATURE.
In times past not always but sometimes the weather can have a HUGE influence on what is going on inside a con. And this happened at both large and small con alike. The Lifework NW show with the huge outpouring of people make everything into a sweat lodge. This so makes buy trendy hipster shit much easier till you get it home.
And yes that was a dig at Linework.
Rose City was good and I hadn't heard anybody complaining.

6). COS-PLAYERS.


I have had trouble in the past with them but this time around- nope! They stayed for the most part in an area that was designed for them. Totally cool.
But now it's time (drum roll please.��) for the CONS of the 2016 Rose City Comic Show.
1). ONE COS-PLAYER singular.
On day one of the show and about three and half hours into show I'm talking to one friends and formally a fan Natalie at my table. We are talking about things non comic book related. During this time frame there have been numerous groups of cos players coming an going past the booth with no problem when this young shit bag decides to stop and put his 32 oz. ICEE on my table because there is space for it.
Natalie looks at me as he is getting a photo op with his back turned to me.  And she says "Did he just do that?"
My response to that move was "Oh
Fuck the hell NO!"
I snagged his drink and held behind the table. When he turned around his drink wasn't there but I was holding it.
"If you want to put something on someone's table, ask!"
He looked at me totally dumbfounded an scurried away like the like the ratfuck he was.
If someone had bumped the table or anything I would be out a couple hundred dollars of product. Did he have the money to cover that potential mistake? Good God no.
I tried to be calm (I wasn't I was pissed) and I was stern.
I had heard stories like this from other professionals who had the same thing happened to them. Arrrgh. Wake the fuck up!

2). THE P.A. SYSTEM.
Now I do understand I really do that this is needed for a large event such as Rose City is but JEEZUS would crank down the volume! There were a number of times I thought that my ears were going to spontaneously start spurting blood from my ears! Trying to converse with my customers was insane. Nobody likes to yell at another especially when you are trying to carry on a decent conversation. I think that Dan I were (as well as everybody else for that matter) were blasted from 2:30pm to 3:30pm with inane “Billy please meet your mother at such and such.” And then immediately repeat the same thing like we didn't hear the first time. Sorry what did you say? I couldn't freakin' hear you the first time!

3). THE LOAD OUT.
Now unlike the load in which was easy by the way the load out was a clusterfuck and half. Not because we weren't able to break down our gear or anything like that. Mine you we did have some personally issues pop up keys locked in car, bike ride to get back up keys without bike helmet because ass jack decided that they would rip mine off. No, aside from that stuff the crew that was in charge (if you can call it that surely had no idea how to organize the loading dock with the different vendors.
Everyone was tired from the show itself and just wanted to go home.
Having to pack 6” grates across a parking lot and across the street to a nearby parking lot. Absolutely BOGUS!
You would have thought they would have been better prepared. Ah HELL NO.

So there you have it both sides of the same show.

Would I go back? Yes. Granted there would be some stipulations along with it. A corner booth is a must.

SO NOW I WILL IMPART SOME WISDOM HERE (and you don't have to agree with it either but just think about it):

1). Get a booth if you can afford it. It will automatically set you apart from the Average Joe in artist's alley. Again there is nothing wrong with being in there and I understand the cost factor but if you can do it – do it!

2). Don't bring Indy made comics. I am sure you're scratching your heads about this. Aren't the shows about comics? Yes, they are, just MAIN STREAM stuff, not Independent comics.
Ah screw this guy he doesn't know what he's talking about. Just hear me out and here is my logic about this topic.
When you go to a moderately big show walk around the booths and see which ones are doing a lot of business. You'll see a lot booths selling old collectible main stream comics.
You'll see a lot of vendors selling main stream associated merchandise like coffee mugs, t-shirts, action figures. And will find other artist's selling multiple prints of copyrighted characters.
All of these kind of vendors do pretty well for themselves. But since we have been coming from a comic book art P.O.V. lets deal with that.
Artists at a main stream show need to be aware that by making and selling prints based upon popular characters i.e. Deadpool, Wolverine, Batman etc. You as the maker of these images have to have an okay by the company for the use of these characters licensed and give a portion of the profits you make from each sale and give it to the company. There are a lot of guys who don't know this and the few that do are playing with a loaded gun. It will only be a matter of time before one the companies see them and drag them into court for copyright infringement.
Independent Comic Book Companies like my Black Box Comix don't make a lot if at all at these bigger shows. Only at a smaller venues like Stumptown Comics Fest used to be or the more current Linework NW show do independent creators have a chance to make something that will be seen and bought.


3). So know why would go to a show and sell work?
I hate using this word but do it for the exposure. The only way for people to see your work is too sell yourself and the art style you are promoting. By only selling prints you can gage your potential buyers reaction to the work. This is much simpler that convincing someone to buy a small press book. Think of this as emotional investment. Plus usually a print is 4 times more expensive than a comic and for one 100th of the images including the cover amount of work.
When you see a cover of a comic that you like you pick it up to see if the art is the same inside. You want to know if is then you can figure out whether or not to pluck down cash for it. With a print, you have an immediate reaction to the work like buy/not buy. Then you move onto the next customer. That's the business.

Get your Artwork up off the table and hanging at eye level. People can see the work from a ways away and get interested in the work before they even get there. This also allows to block people from seeing something else that maybe more eyecatching than your work such as a hot looking cos-player. You want to keep that buyer there as long as you can to seal a deal – but not to long.

Time for this kid to check out
And as always there are places for you to check out as well.
Etsy










HOWEVER there are these books that I still need to add to the archive for Black Box Comix. And mind you there is website
and the facebook page 

The Website also has some new stuff added for the comic books featuring Corpse Cop.





 
I am outta of here.

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