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[kevincuffe-blog]

Making moves, doing thangs! Will disclose more later! #business #makecomics #comics #comicbusiness #money #makemoney #creativebusiness (at Virginia Commonwealth University) https://www.instagram.com/the_right_cuffe_/p/BuuHp7tBvtq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jdzwdi0ahxre

[gabedunston]

Comics and Their Cons

Alright, this is finally starting to make the rounds on the internet, I figure, why not throw my own view on it. "Have Conventions Jumped the Shark?" is the questions creators have been quietly asking each other at hotel bars and restaurants near the convention venues for a few years now. The only thing that's new about this conversation is that it is finally happening publicly online. Jumped the shark? Become irrelevant? No. But there is trouble. It has been brewing for the past 4 years or so at least. The trouble right this second and going on into the next convention season is that conventions are reaching or have reached a saturation point.  I have tabled at 5 conventions so far this season, and at each one I have been handed 2 different flyers promoting a "hot new con" that is coming soon or having it's second showing in the near future.

There has been an explosion of small regional cons all over the country. Wizard World has been moving as fast as it can to create a competing con in each city where a new one shows any signs of success.  

South Carolina has become a particularly interesting/unlikely battle ground.  A show in Florence debuted last year, and a newer bigger show debuted in Greenville SC this year.  XCon in Myrtle beach has been going on for a little while with some success, and another has popped up in Charleston. Wizard World has caught the scent and moved in to try and cash in on the audience that these smaller shows have primed. Tensions have risen.  All this in one state. One state in The South that most of the country forgets exists. 

This is a problem.  

Regional cons are a good thing, and having clear goals about attendance and exactly who the con is for is equally good. The saturation and frequency at which it is happening is... less good.

In order to get one of these things off the ground takes a herculean effort from the organizers, no matter how small the show.  In addition to the organizers settling all of the logistics, vendors must participate. Artists must participate. "Special Guests" must participate.  Speaking as an artist and on behalf of the many many vendors I have met, getting to one of these cons, ANY of these cons, is an ordeal and requires a huge time sink (not to mention money sink).  The more cons there are, the harder it is for any exhibitor on any level to get their stuff (and money) together and go.  More and more, Exhibitors are saying, "Screw it. I am staying home."  And it's not just the burnout keeping us home, we are also financially incentivized to stay home. Which leads me to the bigger problem that has been brewing for much longer.

The exhibitors are incentivized NOT to come, because there is no return on our investment. Not financially and not socially. There has been a massive culture shift in the past ten years. It has gotten exponentially faster.  We can all point fingers and call out what phenomenon finally did it, but the fact is that now Geek culture is "cool".  Comics are a huge part of "Geek Culture" so by default "comics" are now cool.  I put "comics" in quotes there because it isn't the art form that people are referring to when they say the word. "Comics" are an idea now.  

This is going to sound hipster and douchey of me, but just roll with it and see if this does't ring true to you.

Conventions' main failing right now are the attendees.  Too many of them don't actually like comics or any other part of what we are now calling Geek/Nerd Culture.  What they are doing is being social tourists.

I know! I know! I am the ultimate hipster douche-bag, but hear me out.

Everyone wants to be cool right? We all want to participate in whatever the popular zeitgeist is so that we don't get left out and treated like geeks.  But what becomes zeitgeist and "cool" starts out on the fringes. In the 90's it was alternative/grunge music, hard core gangster rap, and goth.  Goth was so severely ridiculous and easy to mock, but then out comes The Crow movie (based on a comic) and suddenly everyone is Eric Draven for halloween and beyond.  

But here's the rub. It's easy to put on the black outfit and carry a dour aspect, but actually having the mentality that lead to those things is hard and unpleasant to most people. It's easy to wear the baggy clothes and claim a fluency in ebonics as a second language, but neither of those things makes you a poor kid from the ghetto with real problems.

In short, everyone wants to be cool, but nobody wants to BE. Being is hard. Being is scary. Being requires effort and passion.

Now we have Geek Culture which is based completely on BEING despite ridicule. The plus side is that a lot more people out there are being themselves and are much less ashamed and much less afraid. On the downside, there are so many people opting for the simple trappings of geekery and masquerading for as long as it is fashionable.

Girl geeks absolutely hate every time some one says that "girls are becoming more geeky for fashion," but the damnable truth is that's exactly that is happening. It's not limited to the girls of course, boys are doing it too.  There were so many girl and boy geeks for so many years, and we all had secret codes to know each other and fly under the radar, but now those secret codes are common knowledge and we can no longer distinguish tourists from genuinely excited neophytes.

Comic cons are great for tourists because "Geeks like comics, and I saw that movie that time, so I'm totally in. Plus I hear they got the girls/boys in those costumes heh heh heh..." They come to be a part of the zeitgeist, watch the freak show, take some selfies, and buy a souvenir.

Where are the people who actually make the comics?

"People still MAKE those things?"

The souvenir buying is the real rub right now.  Prints are a huge seller in every artist alley. But not just any prints, FAN ART. If your table displays no fan art, getting any attention for the comic you made is a miracle. It doesn't matter that it took you a year of long hours and emotional drain to make your latest graphic novel, the print of batman that it took you one night to draw is the thing that will sell. And for twice as much as your book's cover price.

Comics are an idea now. They mean "Fun" and "Super Hero" and "Movies." They don't mean a  visual story-telling medium. And the thought of them being anything other than Super and Fun and be ABOUT anything other than superheroes is a foreign concept.  In fact, reading comics is a foreign concept altogether even though the new comics by exciting new creators are being displayed RIGHT THERE AT THE BLOODY SHOW! When a movie is made out of a book, people watch the movie and go read the book. When a movie is made off of a comic, people just go see the movie.

San Diego Comicon is a good litmus test. It is supposedly the biggest comic show in the world, but how much comic news actually came out of that thing?  Did you know that San Diego has an artist alley? Every walk down it? Ever meet any of the artists? Ever buy any of their stuff? Don't worry, no one else has either. But did you see that Game of Thrones panel?

Before this culture shift, cons are where people went on purpose.  Now they are ways to kill a Saturday. Before the culture shift, people would go into artist alley on purpose to find new comics they had never seen or heard of before and meet the creators.  Now they go to artist alley because they are lost or "Why not? I'm already here."

Somewhere along the line meeting creators and finding new and exciting comics stopped being important. In fact they have largely stopped being a thing at all.  Unless you are selling something other than comics of course. I  once tabled between a woman selling knitted hats of popular shows/movies/comic characters and a guy selling mash up prints*. I was selling my graphic novel. Guess whose table sold the most. IT WAS A TIE!  Guess whose table was avoided.  Sigh...

Not that these other offerings in artist alley don't have their own troubles as well. I have seen on more than one occasion an attendee try on a hat or t-shirt and strike a well rehearsed pose just long enough to get their picture taken before putting it back and buying nothing.

I have also had folks stop by my table to take a close up picture of one of my prints and instagram it before they have fully walked away. (No eye-contact for the artist either.)

And with more regional cons there are more people going to conventions than ever, but those people are spending less on new art and artists than they have before.  Of course the cost for us artists to table at these cons has certainly not gone down.  

A mystery that plagues me is that when I first started tabling, there were throngs of people looking for new comics and creators and artist alley was the place they would go to. Now, however, they aren't showing up in artist alley nearly as much?  Where did they go? And where do we artists go?

Now, I know I am painting a picture of gloom and doom, and I sound bitter as hell, so allow me to set the record straight. I am not bitter nor angry about any of this. I'll admit to some frustration, but nothing serious. Every market has its ups and downs and ebbs and flows. Comics are no different. Things are the way they are, and I can't change them.

Also, I don't begrudge anyone who focuses on making fan art, prints, hats, t-shirts, or other trinkets (like the steam punk jewelry people I see everywhere). I know many artists who are actually making an alright living off of bringing their prints to as many cons as they can fit in their schedule. As for the t-shirt makers and crafters, I am fans of them too. I don't like trying to sell comics next to knitted hats (because the hats always win), but I do like that knitted hats are at these cons. Variety is the spice of life, and if you can get paid off of your spice, MORE POWER TO YOU!

There are some gains to be made at these cons for artists. There are a few devoted folks who drop SO MUCH BANK on the independent artists that they love. I had my most recent graphic novel kickstarted, and the folks who kickstarted it were the folks I had met on the con trail.  Tabling at conventions has given me a small but devoted and much appreciated audience, and I am not the only one. The trick is to know that the landscape has changed and to be judicious and plan accordingly. Some cons still have folks dying to find new comics. A very few cons are made SPECIFICALLY to shine a light on the creators and their alternative comics.  (S.P.A.C.E., SPX, etc.) (I would like to see more of these.)

Also, comic cons are not the only place where people go looking for off topic souvenirs.  I have had colleagues tell me of great success selling their comics at gaming conventions and anime shows. And last but not least, let us not forget the comic shops themselves. Creators, when is the last time you arranged for a store signing? I have no conclusions to draw and no advice to give. All I have are the observations and theories above. I do know that I will be going to fewer conventions next season, and I am currently looking for more effective ways to sell my comics. 

I hear you say: "Hey, why not put your comics online?"

I did.  Did you read them?

Neither did most people.

Now, I hear you say: "Hey, why not sell your graphic novels on the internet?"

I do. Have you bought any?

Neither has anyone else.

"Maybe your stuff just sucks then."

Maybe.