Last weekend I went to Wizard World Philly and I had a table in 'Artist Alley' for three days next to my artist friends Mike Manley and Scott Cohn. Due to foot problems I was not there on Friday but I heard that it was dead so I don't miss missing the lost day. The show as a whole has gone downwards in terms of the number of people attending and the lack of kids in general who were there and were comic fans. I've done the convention every year since they started and every year it's worse. The only reason I still do the show is because I have certain fans who buy original art from me at the show every year so I feel compelled to do it. This year was the worse financially. If it wasn't for two original art buyers who made the show for me, I'd probably be crying. Haha!
The state of the comic industry is in trouble and needs new younger blood to sustain it. This is why I'm glad I do licensing art and comics is just 10% of my yearly income. These shows while fun to see my artist friends whom I don't see that often are great to go to and hang out at, but I go primarily to make money as a pro by doing sketches and selling books or other products I've worked on. It was just a weird vibe for the whole show this time. Everything was off. I only did 5 sketches total for people (I did much more last year) and sold a ton of comics. I had sold out of Strawberry Shortcake product in about 4 hours early Saturday morning, which has NEVER happened. I mean every storybook and coloring book went. Every show I go to has something different about it and what moves faster over something else so it's always hard to figure out what to bring.
I only do two shows a year and that's Wizard Philly (cause it's practically in my backyard and the cheapest show to do in terms of overhead expenses) and the Baltimore Comic Con which is run by my friend and super, big comic fan Marc Nathan. Baltimore though is a lot like Wizard Philly now in that it's more of a one day show really. The second day (Sunday) is usually always poor in sales. Baltimore does have a great artist list and it's one of the premiere shows that feature comics and their creators. Heroes Con does a great show too and is a pure comic show. I would recommend going to both if you are a comics fan.
In other news with me, I posted a new Alfie comic strip a few days ago and finished up the new June issue of DCM Magazine which went to press on late Tuesday afternoon and I got copies of the printed mag today.
As for other work, I have more Power Rangers I'm working on and two Scooby comic scripts for DC Comics I have hanging up to do as well. So it's busy work wise.
I'll also be doing a tutorial for 'how to digitally ink' for Mike Manley's DRAW! Magazine as well. I've had many people ask me how to ink digitally so a tutorial is the best thing I could think of to show fellow artists and fans how I do it. More on that as I post later.
Other than that, it's been a low key week after Wizard Philly and I've been enjoying the weather, taking it easy and enjoying life. As Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
yeah, if I wasn't living here I'd skip it...and I might next year...
ReplyDeleteFunny how you never know what will sell at these shows.
It was a sad show to be sure. Though others in Artist Alley did worse. I made out great but it was only based on two people making it so. I have a feeling it might be better if they gave artist tables away to the artists instead of charging $300 for the weekend. Or take it back to $150. That's just way too high to make your money back on anything. Maybe a lack of people signing up next year will force Wizard to charge less.
ReplyDeleteAs for what to bring, it's impossible to pick stuff out. I could have had another full table of stuff and it might have just sat there. I'm glad I packed light and just brought the newer stuff I've done.