Mechacon, SPX, and AWA: a three-con review (with numbers)
In the last month, I’ve been quite busy, as three of those five weekends were devoted to going to conventions. As I drove to all of them, I lost a lot of time to produce comics being in the car (but saved that money in airfare, for sure). So I apologize for my notable absence (and large amount of reblogs from rest stops and lunches along the way), but here it is! A three-con review masterpost!
(Photo by Becca Hillburn)
The first of the cons was the second to last weekend in August in New Orleans: Mechacon. Last year Mechacon was one of my favorites, and Becca and I flew in from savannah several days early to enjoy the city (her hometown, I’d never been). This year we drove (myself to Nashville, where I joined her, then we picked up Alex in Tuscaloosa.) Because of working around everyone’s schedule, we didn’t arrive in New Orleans until Friday afternoon, but Mechacon had only just gotten rolling, so we weren’t really late, just had no free time. Last year, because of the hurricane a week prior, mechacon was a little empty, and I certainly saw the difference this year. The artist alley was actually full, for one, and then a lot more people came. Also, we didn’t have a mouse in our hotel room.
Sadly, Saturday Alex got sick, and then Sunday, Becca was sick, so I was the only one who managed to stay well. Thankfully, we had enough help that we managed. Also, as Becca does watercolor commissions, and New Orleans is rather damp, she was having a hard time getting her art to dry.
Gross profit: Around $700
Cost to go: $90 for table, $87 for two nights at the hotel, probably about $60 in food, and $100 in gas (includes my own driving from Ohio).
Pros: This is one of the best cons I ever go to. Everyone in New Orleans is super friendly and nice, and on two of my commissions I got extra $10 tips (wow!) The artist alley is small and therefore there isn’t a lot of competition, so everyone tends to do pretty well as those dollars can get pretty spread around. It also helped that the dealers room this year was supposedly not very good, so people came into the AA to spend their money. Beyond the financial aspect, a small AA means I got to meet and talk to a lot of other artists (in the little time I had up from my table).
Cons: unfortunately, because we drove in on friday and out on sunday, we didn’t really have time to see the city, which is super sad. Also, food in New Orleans is very expensive, so be sure to have a big food budget (we got away with a little less because Becca’s mom bought us lunch).
Also, I actually saw very little of the profit I may have made at this con as I turned right around and put it into getting stuff for SPX and AWA. But thats prettymuch the norm.
Final thoughts: GO! Definitely go to check this con out at least – especially if you love food and New Orleans!
Unlike the other two, SPX is actually a convention specifically geared for small press and mini-comics (its called small press expo). Where my focus at mechacon and AWA was on posters and prints, SPX focuses on comics. I drove out to Winchester, VA where I met Chris (author/artist of Precocious) and stayed the night at his house. Friday, the day before the con, we picked up Becca and Joseph at Dulles airport, then drove to the hotel. Arriving a day early meant we got to attend the SPX pre-party and meet all kinds of new people. I’ll admit, I was quite hesitant going in – my experiences with Mocca and Fluke have made me somewhat leery of other comic artists, and its totally unjustified. Everyone at SPX was super professional and fun, no one was overly judgmental based on style or skill level, and it was, by far, the most fun con I have ever been to. I was also scared that, like mocca, there wouldn’t be a super huge crowd, and instead it would be mostly (broke) artists trying to sell to each other. I was amazed and surprised by the crowd that did come – it was huge, and they were REALLY excited for comics!
There were some unfortunate parts of SPX. First, the four of us (Emily, Becca, myself and Chris) were on two tables cornered to each other, so we had no room behind us, and kept running into each other. Our banners also wouldn’t fit behind us so we wound up having to kind of jury-rig them in the corner where our tables would have met if we hadnt pushed them out. Becca had a staff person knock coffee onto her stuff. It was SO busy and so full of comic artists I barely got to go up and meet other people and buy things. Chris left his lockbox keys in Virginia. The chairs were super uncomfy and we kept leaning back into each other. We were in the back far corner, so people were usually tired by the time they got to us, and didn’t buy.
Cost to go: $150 for the table, $85 for the hotel, probably about $60 in food and $100 in gas (driving from Ohio)
Pros: Probably the best con I’ve ever been to. The staff is all about helping us and we have no dealers room to compete with. There are tons of opportunities to meet other comic artists (including big names and people from other countries) and everybody is SUPER friendly. The staff has been in contact with me both before and after the con as well to address my concerns! Lots of great artists to buy from (even if I only saw a few) Even if I didnt turn a profit, it was definitely worth going, and next year I’m looking to get a whole table!
Cons: This was the first year SPX expanded, and the first year they did website ordering. The website went down (of course) but it seemed to be their server’s fault. The chairs and table setup meant corner people got jipped on space (we kind of were allowed to move the tables around, but it was still super crowded) and the sheer number of artists meant it was difficult to see people and there was a lot of competition sales wise.
Final Thoughts: Go! This is a great con to make connections and people are there to read COMICS! If you’re sick of trying to hawk your fanart prints and really want people to see your true work in comics, this is the place! They also dont care where you’re from. Big happy family and warm fluffy feels all around. Oh yes, and have a square/card reader. I took half of my sales in credit cards.
AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta)
This is another one where I drove to get Becca then drove the rest of the way. With a pit stop in Nahsville its still under 9 hours to get to Atlanta from Ohio, and this time my sister Julie went with me. I was starting out a little tight on the budget, waiting for some checks to come in, so this was a very daunting con at first (once the checks paid, I was okay). We drove down to Atlanta on Thursday (a leisurely 3.5 hour drive) and got to set up early – until I realized I forgot my banner and a single connector of PVC, and becca discovered she forgot her watercolors. We then had to do an emergency run to a utrecht and home depot in downtown atlanta (ugh, I hate atlanta traffic). We stayed the night near the airport then and picked up Emily Friday morning, and met with Alex (Becca’s table helper) Friday afternoon.
Becca and I had done the art show last year as well as several panels, and we were again hosting panels. We had a drink and draw friday night, which was unfortunately in the hotel lobby and it was very crowded and hard to find. We spent more time trying to round up people and trying to be heard over the loud lobby than actually drinking or drawing. Our saturday panel was an art and business panel co-hosted by Angela Sasser, and we had a lot of running around and misunderstandings due to the nature of emails on how we were going to run the panel, but it turned out everything went great.
As for the artist alley, we were near the back again (is this a thing with us? Push us to the back cause we’re no one?). We had been coordinating with the director, Ribbit, because of our panels, and she’s super nice and really pays close attention to how her artists are doing in the con. There were food trucks this year, which drew a lot of people in, and meant fun lunches for us, but a lot of people would get to about where we were (island G), see the food trucks, and ignore us in favor of tacos (those were good tacos, admittedly.) There were also a lot of empty tables this year, and I think people tend to skip over areas that look somewhat empty. The alley is also just so big that its hard for a casual browser to get through it all. Likewise, the ends of the islands (where Becca and I were) tend to get skipped over – people go up and down the long rows, not seeing those of us on the insides.
AWA is one of the cons with the 50-50 fanart rule, and I have original books and comics, as well as posters and prints that lean more towards original art, a grouping of pokemon bookmarks, and lollipop buttons that becca and I made. Yet I still got a staff member bothering me about the rule (Becca says she thinks my stuff is so pretty it LOOKS like its fanart even if its original). I also argue that there’s so many shows/movies/animes/manga/games/whatevers out there that its hard to know all the fans and a lot of people can slip the 50-50 rule that way, but I saw a lot of people that had close to 90% fanart displayed and didn’t get any flac, which DOES bother me more than me getting poked in the first place.
Regardless, its still a pretty fun con, made extra fun by the fact I was with good friends. I met new people and got some cool trades, and bought some neat art as well.
Expenses: Thanks to Emily, we had friday and saturday at the hotel covered for free (yay rewards! Sign up for them people!) so we only had to pay for thursday’s hotel. But as I was covering my sister’s portion as well it did raise the prices for me some. $50 hotel, again about $100 in gas, $100-130 in food (for two people).
Pros: Ribbit is SUPER good with trying to please her artists, and even gives everyone a form to fill out at the end of sunday to see how she can improve next year. The staff are super helpful and there are a lot of really good artists. The tables are set up well with a little space in between each one, and there’s plenty of room for banners and signs. (We think the tables may actually even be slightly bigger than the standard 6’ x 2’) Its a bigger con so sales are somewhat better. A lot of fans there were super nice as well (though I think mechacon fans were nicer.)
Cons: Our location in the alley seemed to be detrimental to our sales. The cell/internet network got so busy saturday even people in the dealers room were having trouble making square sales (and I probably lost about $50 in sales that way). Because its a juried show as well, most of the artists are really good and so competition can be fierce. And I’m upset that I got picked on about the 50-50 rule when I never saw people with 80+% fanart getting any flac. Its also a huge cosplay convention and serious business cosplayers tend not to buy in the artist alley. There’s also a huge dealers room which is a lot of competition. Also driving in atlanta sucks.
Final thoughts: I’d rate AWA at a 3.5 or 4 out of 5. If you’re local or able to drive, I’d say its worth the trip for sure. Placement in an AA does make a difference, though, and I think in a big con, being near the back is quite detrimental. At least we weren’t near the back AND in the far row. Do try to bring a helper, though, as it can be a super busy con.
ellievsbear
