Capes-n-Babes

So this is the reason why there is not a new strip up today. Today’s image depicts ALL of the caricature sketch cards I did on Saturday and Sunday at the NC Comic Con in Durham, North Carolina.

And that black box above indicates though, there was only ONE card that I forgot to take a picture of and it just happened to be one of my best ones this weekend – and that was of a lady that wanted to be Tank Girl. It turned out pretty awesome (trust me).

Okay, so now some thoughts on the show:

Back in 2010, I attended the very first NC Comic Con two-day show (at least according to my photo records anyway). That year, it was held in a mall that had some closed stores. In fact, I think the store that had all the artists tables in that mall was a closed down clothing store since I sat directly behind the dressing room stalls.

Needless to say, since that first year, the NC Comic Con has grown leaps and bounds.

This year, it was held in the Durham Convention Center in downtown Durham. The convention center is beautiful but it’s not an easy place to get to in terms of a loading bay. Bill McKay and I traveled together and it’s a good thing we did as we literally had to park on the sidewalk of the convention center in order to unload all of our convention gear. Had I been alone, it would have been chaos and I probably would have wound up with some kind of ticket.

Also, driving in and around downtown Durham is not easy – especially at night. It’s a little bit like a mini DC in the sense that there are one way signs all over the place and it takes a while to figure out how to navigate around the convention center. Still though, parking is very convenient and affordable. The parking garage is across the street of the convention center and was a VERY affordable $3.00 a day for all day parking. MUCH different than, say, Baltimore of Charlotte which can range from $10 – $20 a day.

As far as the show itself goes, there were only two negative points I had. One of those is something I’m beginning to see at LOTS of shows so it wasn’t unique to the NC Comic Con. Ill get to that in a moment. The other item though, is something I have never experienced before at ANY show I’ve done since I started tabling at shows in 2008. None of the artist alley tables were INDIVIDUAL TABLES. Instead, it looks as if there were a series of eight feet tables lined up next to each other and a large plastic sheet was secured over the entire row of tables and six feet areas were marked off with Sharpies. Your area was inside the two Sharpie lines.

This particular set up presented several problems for me. First, I was one of the unlucky few that, because of the way the tables lined up, my six foot area consisted of two tables jammed up against each other. They were two different tables as well so 1/3 of my table was slightly higher than the other one AND I had a large, obnoxious table leg directly in the middle of my six foot area so it was slightly uncomfortable drawing the entire weekend.

Added to that, because the plastic sheet covered the entire row of tables, there was no place to drape your table sheet over the sides. so everything could look nice and uniformed. Because my black table skirt is so large, I had to fold it in an odd shape to get it to fit within my two black Sharpie lines of my six foot table. This was, to say the least, very aggravating and very hard to deal with. The usual table concept I use all the time had to be scraped and I had to think on the fly of how to re-arrange my entire table structure simply. But this is an example of why you need to be flexible in your table arrangement and be willing to change it on the fly because you never know how each convention is going to have their floor layout set up.

Which brings me to the second point that I’m beginning to see a lot. Now this situation might be because it’s hard for non-exhibitors to anticipate things when no one is in the room but I’m finding that there seems to be a need for organizers to provide PLENTY of space for walking space between tables but they squeeze the space behind the artist tables… so, in other words, if you’re in an artist alley island with a table behind you, there is ample enough room for convention goers but artists have to squeeze all of their convention materials behind our desks, making it extremely hard to maneuver to get out and go to the bathroom or get something to eat while there are 15 yards of space for attendees to walk. Ordinarily, when that happens, you can usually push your table slightly out from the table’s original set up so you can add a little space behind you but because all of the tables were essentially connected with that plastic sheet, it was impossible to move even more so in my case since I had TWO tables I had to deal with.

Now, with all of that being said, I ended up having a terrific NC Comic Con show.

All of the stress I put in to about the table and floor arrangements ended up being wasted and useless energy. My modified table arrangement didn’t seem to negatively affect me in any way whatsoever. And we artists are pretty resourceful types so we eventually were able to make adjustments to the tight space behind our tables. I eventually got adjusted to the large table leg in the middle of my set-up and I dealt with it. It ended up being more of a slight irritation than a major problem and by late Saturday, I barely was paying attention to the table leg any more.

If I am able to go to the NC Comic Con show again next year, I’ll have a MUCH better idea of what to expect and I will plan accordingly. Since this was my first time back since 2010, it was practically a new show for me and I didn’t know what to expect. Now I do.

From a sales stand point, there was a HUGE crowd infusion on Saturday – and maybe that’s why the organizers provided so much space between the middle area of artist alley. The steady stream of attendees was constant all the way up to about 5:00pm on Saturday and, even though the show was supposed to end at 7:00pm, the crowds seemed to have mysteriously vanished right around the 5:30 mark. Not that I was complaining because I was in a constant state of selling or drawing all the way up to that point.

On Sunday, it took a little while for the show to get going. Many of us suspected, being more on the southern part of the east coast, maybe this had to do with everyone going to church on Sunday. I don’t know if that’s actually the case or not – heck, it could have been the NFL as well, who knows. In any case, right about 12:30 or 1:00pm, the crowds picked up again and, even though they were as plentiful as Saturday’s, it was still a good enough crowd to keep you busy until about the 4:30pm mark.

Overall, this show was comparable to a few shows I have had in Baltimore the last few years. In terms of sales, it didn’t eclipse this year’s Awesome Con or Baltimore Con shows but it easily made it as my number three show this year for highest grosses. I will definitely try to get back to the show next year, if I am able.

Despite all of the troubles I had with the table arrangement, it was DEFINITELY a trip worth doing and I commend the organizers for putting on a really great show!