| Con Report: Steel City Con |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|03:00 pm] |
Sometimes a convention just doesn't work out for you. You can't get depressed or discouraged by it, though; you have to factor in why it didn't work and how you'll avoid that in the future. Steel City Con, which was this past weekend, was one of those cons that just didn't work out.
The con took place in Monroeville, just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. It was about a five hour drive, made a little longer by our accidental turn into an outlet mall for lunch rather than the Wendy's we had been aiming for. It took us 45 minutes to find the food court, get our food, and get out of there (we did, however, get some Gloria Jean's coffee which made up for the trouble). Upon entering Monroeville from the turnpike, I thought we were somehow back in LA. The traffic was horrible! Turns out someone's car had stalled and gummed up traffic all the way to the turnpike exit. Further frustrations ensued when we learned that apparently they don't label streets very well in the Pittsburgh area (a fact confirmed by my friend who lived there). When we finally found the convention center, we walked in to get our badges and heard an announcement that the loading dock doors would only be open for another 15 minutes. Considering where we had been forced to park and that we didn't have any handcarts, we became a bit more frazzled. Luckily, we found Trevor and cohort, Ethan, and roped them into helping us bring some boxes in.
Once we were fully unloaded, unpacked, and arranged, I was able to survey the hall. The artist alley was about 4 rows (2 back-to-back rows) placed in the midst of everything else. Everything else consisted of toy and comic book dealers. To our immediate right was Jay Fife, a very talented and friendly pin up artist. I like his work a lot; he takes pictures of models (one of whom was at the table with him all weekend) and then draws them as superheros or movie/TV characters. I would love to look into getting a commissioned fairy pin up from him. And to our immediate left was Andrew Harmon, a super nice colorist (who also draws, but mainly colors) with whom I had some good conversations about art and the industry. Behind us were some artists who mainly drew comic characters (another rant-filled entry for another time) that I didn't speak with until the last day, but who were also quite friendly and rather helpful.
Further down the row was a table with the aformentioned Trevor and Ethan, and Mike of The Cow Comic. These guys I've known for a short while, but I was glad to hang out with them a bit more over the weekend. Fun people to be around. Across from them was Kez, someone whose name I've heard crop up from time to time, and her sister, Laura. Sweethearts, both of them. And also quite fun to hang out with. And behind them, in the next aisle, was Alex, who is not fun at all. And if you believe that, then you'll also believe that Bardsworth was optioned for a three-picture movie deal. Alex is pure awesome, through and through.
The first day was slow, as is expected with the Friday of a three-day con. I had to assure Kez of this, as it was her first three-day experience. I had hopes for the rest of the weekend. We'll get to where those hopes got me in a moment. First of all, I do want to mention that I had the pleasure of meeting a new reader that day. Betty friended me on Facebook the week before, with a message that said she had clicked the link for Bardsworth on the Steel City Con website and read through my entire archive, which I thought was super awesome. So I was as happy as a pig in mud she stopped over say hi. If anything, I came out of this experience with one more reader.
By the way, the traffic was not better on the way to the hotel, which was only 2 miles away. It took us nearly 20 minutes to get there. Ridiculous.
I wish I could say Friday night was filled with revelry, but really... we were all exhausted. We, meaning us artists - as well as a friend of Katie's and her friend's friend, Alex and Heather respectively, who stopped down to the con to see us - had dinner in the unsurprisingly overpriced hotel restaurant, and then decided to call it a night. Katie and I shared a hotel room with Alex (Garanos Alex, not Katie's Alex; that did get a bit confusing at times), Kez, and Laura, and all of us conked out at around 10:30. Lame, I know.
Saturday was the day we were going to make money. Maybe not a lot, but a good amount. And guess what? It never happened. We made a couple of sales, but that was it. And it wasn't just me and Katie; all of us webcomic artists were suffering. I came to the conclusion that we had been duped. The promoters had touted this as a convention, which to me includes not just dealers and artists, but events and workshops and panels. All that stuff brings a sense of energy and enthusiasm, which Steel City Con did not have. What it had was a lot of stuff for people to buy. It was a glorified swap-meet, and because of that, people showed up with an idea of what they wanted, and with that mentality it's hard to sway them into checking out something original and different. I'm not saying the event itself was a bad thing; it just wasn't for us, and we had pretty much been tricked into thinking it was.
That night, Katie and I had dinner with an old friend of mine who lives in the area. Coming back to the bad traffic thing, it took her almost two hours when it should have taken 15-20 minutes, as an accident had caused the entrance to the highway to be closed and everyone was trying to take the side roads. But she made it and we had dinner in a nearby restaurant (Max & Erma's, which I guess is a chain in PA). After that, we got together with the artists again in the hotel restaurant for some drinking and sketching. Some folks left early (including Katie), but I stuck around until after midnight, knowing I'd pay for it the next day. But that's why coffee was invented.
Sunday was no better than Saturday, so I spent a lot of time away from the table, checking out stuff and talking to other artists. The high point of the day, and indeed, one of the high points of my life, happened in the bathroom. Bear with me on this. As I approached the row of three urinals, I noticed the outer two were taken, and with a groan I reluctantly headed towards the middle one (something no guy really likes doing). As I got closer, however, I realized that the person on my right was none other than one of the con's special guests, Ernie Hudson. I was peeing next to Winston from the Ghostbusters! No, I didn't talk to him; I don't care who you are and how famous you are, I don't like doing conversations in the bathroom. Not even at the sink. But it was still exciting none-the-less.
Pics!
Trevor of Taka Comics and Mike of The Cow Comic, spreading some love
The calm Laura and crazy Kez behind their colorful table
Alex is looking BOISTEROOOOOUS! (Don't worry if you don't get it.)
Katie as a fairy. You know it's a tough crowd when not even a pretty girl dressed as a fairy will get you much attention.
Rochester webcomic artists represent! Back row, left to right: Some kind of a hairy ape-thing, future webcomic artist Ethan, and a tough-looking Mike. Front row, left to right: "I'm staring into your soul" Trevor and "I can't believe I'm posing with these guys..." Kez.
Needless to say, we won't be returning to Steel City Con. I wish them all the best, I really do, but it's the wrong crowd demographic for us. Despite the utter financial failure of being there, though, we had a great time hanging out with the other artists and we came away from it with some new friends, some of whom we'll be at future cons together with. |
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