Avoid this Con like the Plague - Unfriendly to Artists and Vendors
(this post will be updated as more hilarity is found)
Well it looks like a first year con is doing everything that a first year con shouldnāt do: Ā alienate artists and vendors by silencing criticism, sell āspaceā (tables and booths) when you donāt even have a venue, and have a Social media manager that has the ego the size of Texas, run your facebook page
So slowly updating throughout the day, a little known (less than 1000 likes on their Facebook Page btw) convention to be held in Arizona (more than a year from now), posted the pricing of their Vendor booths, Artist Alley tables, CRAFT Tables (yes, if you do crafts, you are not an artist apparently), Kickstarter tables (what the actual fuck?), and Vendors
Mind you, this is a first year con. With NO Venue booked. No guarantee of how many people are expected to attend
http://www.outlawcomicon.com/
400 days out (as of this writing) and they want people to pay for space, that isnāt even booked. $250 for an ARTIST ALLEY TABLE, $550 for a CRAFTERS table, and $750-$1000 for A VENDOR space. Kickstarter tables are free, but will be āgivenā out to whomever Ā they decide they want (Mind you, Iāve been tabling at SacAnime for 3 years now, and the most Iāve paid for a table there, was $160 with electric hook up, and vendors pay ~$500 for a 10x10 space)
This is where the hilarity starts.
First: they badmouth JIM (fucking) LEE, because he declined their invitation, and āguessā that he wouldnāt attend because the con is not worth it (never mind that maybe JIM LEE has other obligations...like his job), and thinks that 10,000 likes (remember on a page with only 750 likes), would sway Jim Lee to attend:
Then they post this little attack against artists on their Facebook Page, because having prices for tables for an UNBOOKED venue is like putting the cart before the horse. Notice his lovelyĀ āreplyā to those posting concerns about their pricing structure:
It gets better.Ā
Remember, the con doesnāt have a BOOKED venue yet. That means, there is no location. Not even an inkling of where its going to be hosted. Just somewhere in Pheonix, AZ; so this Texas sized ego man, started to work on a Exhibition hall layout.. which anyone with two neurons firing, can see this nutjob, has no freaking clue on how to set up/layout an Artist Alley, and Exhibitor hall.
Yeah, even though I donāt run a con, but having attended several cons as an artist, can see that this person has no freaking clue how traffic flow works, or how booths are setup and laid out. I guess he thinks Artist alley is an ACTUAL freakingĀ āalleyā in the middle of the room. And the FUN doesnāt stop there! Some artists voiced their concerns over this cons attitude toward artists. So artist have been replying to the post all day, pointing out that this is Ā not a way to attract vendors and artists to the con. So youād think that maybe, the guy running the Facebook Page would be likeĀ āWe are hearing you, and as you know, the con is still over a year away, so we will work with our vendors and artists as we get closer..ā or something cordial...nope..
He fucking bans you from the page. What a way to attract artists, dickweed. Here are more screens from now thatĀ āmoderatedā post, where comments from artists who were asking about the justification of the prices, and his direct attack on crafters, are now deleted, and these artists are now banned from the page:
Not how you run a con Not how you attract artists Not how you attract Vendors UPDATE:Ā https://www.facebook.com/groups/195041610657542/permalink/714130875415277/ UPDATE 2: https://www.facebook.com/rob.liefeld/posts/10211097773902890?hc_location=ufi UPDATE 3: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1570358042991368&set=p.1570358042991368&type=3&theater You can read the ongoing discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/143875999117732/permalink/663617097143617/
