ratecon

All the photos I took at Animinneapolis on Saturday! I went as Nakigitsune. Sweat and pain throughout the whole day, but I guess it was fine in the end.

Hey guys! I never really got to give my review and experience of Akaicon 2014 held in Nashville, TN. Totes forgot. XD

Anyway I have to say Akaicon was epic! While it was only its second year it doubled in attendees and I can see it doubling again next year. All the staff was awesome though there were a few communication problems between staffers but you will find that at any con really. The staff that I interacted with were absolutely great. They would go out of their way to see if there was any problem and were extremely polite to the con goers. In all honesty Akaicon and Hamacon have the best staff and volunteers I’ve ever seen at cons. Just one of the reasons I would recommend this con. It really felt like a friendly and safe con, where if something happened you could report it and something would actually get done. Just saying. 

I loved the artiest/dealers room, they had a wide variation of merchandise. Also once again the staff working it were awesome. I had been helping at my friends table a good portion of the con.

I really only have two complaints. One with the hotel and one with the con. The con complaint was the scheduling. I really only took part in the cosplay contest and didn’t go to any panels so it wasn’t a huge deal for me. But I did here a lot of complaining from other con-goers about how confusing it was and the fact it seemed to keep changing. Second has to do with the hotel reserving about ¼ of the parking lot for the TN Titan players. That was around 50 or more parking spots just for them. While this would have been understandable, the fact was there were maybe at the most four cars parked there leaving the rest of the parking area empty all weekend. This was a major problem because parking was hard to find anyway. I feel the hotel really dropped the ball on planning when it came to the hosting of a convention. Other then that the hotel staff was great and the place was really nice.

So that’s it when it comes to the con really for me. I really recommended it though!!! 

OHOHOHOH In other news! I did win Runners up in Masters for the cosplay contest! The judges were great, they took their time and really were interested and engaging. Hope to enter again next year!

This is a review on my experience with Youmacon 2014. I attended as an artist this year, and am very grateful that I was able to attend as an artist! It was an amazing experience, and one that I am sure to learn from and put my newfound knowledge to use my next Artist Alley.

For an in-depth review, it can be read under the read-more in this post.

So this year I was finally able to make it down to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for SaikouCon! Seeing as how I have been busy for the past two years and was unable to attend for this year, I was extremely excited to make the trip down. I actually didn’t think the con would be as lively as it turned out to be, since it’s only been around for a few years now and folks who had gone before told me that it’s pretty small. While it may not be big like AnimeNEXT or Otakon, I’d have to say that I had the most fun I’ve ever had at a small con this past weekend. I attended for Friday and Saturday and I’ll detail my experiences in the rest of my con report below~

(Photo is of myself as Kuroko and weskerwhiskers as Tetra on the Saturday of SaikouCon! Photography is by stormyskies228 and editing by myself!)

This was my third time attending Otakon this year and the second time I made it out there for Thursday chill times. This year I had my badge mailed to me, so I didn’t have to wait in the horror of LineCon. Tbh, it wasn’t the line itself that turned me off, but it was the fact that the system the staff was using for preregistered people kept on shutting down every two minutes. So, it was an easy choice for me this year to opt for my Otakon badge being mailed to me. I’m so happy that I didn’t have to wait in the prereg line again, because that gave me more free time to do things on Thursday that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to. 

((I will continue my report under a ‘read more’!))

It’s kinda long and detailed. I’ll spare you the scroll-spam if you’re not inclined.

Hello everybody! I’m home in Colorado from Oklahoma now! I haven’t really done this with other cons, but I figured I’d take the opportunity to start writing con reviews, in case any of y’all find yourselves interested in the con scene as well!

Firstly I want to say that overall this con was a joy. I split my table with my friend Monica (who you should totally check out!) and she was great to table with. I’m very exhausted and I have a lot of sleep to catch up on, but I think I can come away saying this con was a positive. I’m gonna go over some high points about this Artist Alley and then some concrit I’d like to offer as well! After that I’ll go over my travel costs and how much I ended up with. I’ll put it under a cut so y’all don’t have to be spammed haha.

In the last month, I’ve been quite busy, as three of those five weekends were devoted to going to conventions. As I drove to all of them, I lost a lot of time to produce comics being in the car (but saved that money in airfare, for sure). So I apologize for my notable absence (and large amount of reblogs from rest stops and lunches along the way), but here it is! A three-con review masterpost!

(Photo by Becca Hillburn)

MECHACON

The first of the cons was the second to last weekend in August in New Orleans: Mechacon. Last year Mechacon was one of my favorites, and Becca and I flew in from savannah several days early to enjoy the city (her hometown, I’d never been). This year we drove (myself to Nashville, where I joined her, then we picked up Alex in Tuscaloosa.) Because of working around everyone’s schedule, we didn’t arrive in New Orleans until Friday afternoon, but Mechacon had only just gotten rolling, so we weren’t really late, just had no free time. Last year, because of the hurricane a week prior, mechacon was a little empty, and I certainly saw the difference this year. The artist alley was actually full, for one, and then a lot more people came. Also, we didn’t have a mouse in our hotel room.

Sadly, Saturday Alex got sick, and then Sunday, Becca was sick, so I was the only one who managed to stay well. Thankfully, we had enough help that we managed. Also, as Becca does watercolor commissions, and New Orleans is rather damp, she was having a hard time getting her art to dry.

Gross profit: Around $700

Cost to go: $90 for table, $87 for two nights at the hotel, probably about $60 in food, and $100 in gas (includes my own driving from Ohio).

Pros: This is one of the best cons I ever go to. Everyone in New Orleans is super friendly and nice, and on two of my commissions I got extra $10 tips (wow!) The artist alley is small and therefore there isn’t a lot of competition, so everyone tends to do pretty well as those dollars can get pretty spread around. It also helped that the dealers room this year was supposedly not very good, so people came into the AA to spend their money. Beyond the financial aspect, a small AA means I got to meet and talk to a lot of other artists (in the little time I had up from my table).

Cons: unfortunately, because we drove in on friday and out on sunday, we didn’t really have time to see the city, which is super sad. Also, food in New Orleans is very expensive, so be sure to have a big food budget (we got away with a little less because Becca’s mom bought us lunch).

Also, I actually saw very little of the profit I may have made at this con as I turned right around and put it into getting stuff for SPX and AWA. But thats prettymuch the norm.

Final thoughts: GO! Definitely go to check this con out at least – especially if you love food and New Orleans!

(Photo by Chris Paulsen)

SPX

 Unlike the other two, SPX is actually a convention specifically geared for small press and mini-comics (its called small press expo). Where my focus at mechacon and AWA was on posters and prints, SPX focuses on comics. I drove out to Winchester, VA where I met Chris (author/artist of Precocious) and stayed the night at his house. Friday, the day before the con, we picked up Becca and Joseph at Dulles airport, then drove to the hotel. Arriving a day early meant we got to attend the SPX pre-party and meet all kinds of new people. I’ll admit, I was quite hesitant going in – my experiences with Mocca and Fluke have made me somewhat leery of other comic artists, and its totally unjustified. Everyone at SPX was super professional and fun, no one was overly judgmental based on style or skill level, and it was, by far, the most fun con I have ever been to. I was also scared that, like mocca, there wouldn’t be a super huge crowd, and instead it would be mostly (broke) artists trying to sell to each other. I was amazed and surprised by the crowd that did come – it was huge, and they were REALLY excited for comics!

There were some unfortunate parts of SPX. First, the four of us (Emily, Becca, myself and Chris) were on two tables cornered to each other, so we had no room behind us, and kept running into each other. Our banners also wouldn’t fit behind us so we wound up having to kind of jury-rig them in the corner where our tables would have met if we hadnt pushed them out. Becca had a staff person knock coffee onto her stuff. It was SO busy and so full of comic artists I barely got to go up and meet other people and buy things. Chris left his lockbox keys in Virginia. The chairs were super uncomfy and we kept leaning back into each other. We were in the back far corner, so people were usually tired by the time they got to us, and didn’t buy.

Gross profit: about $440

Cost to go: $150 for the table, $85 for the hotel, probably about $60 in food and $100 in gas (driving from Ohio)

Pros: Probably the best con I’ve ever been to. The staff is all about helping us and we have no dealers room to compete with. There are tons of opportunities to meet other comic artists (including big names and people from other countries) and everybody is SUPER friendly. The staff has been in contact with me both before and after the con as well to address my concerns! Lots of great artists to buy from (even if I only saw a few) Even if I didnt turn a profit, it was definitely worth going, and next year I’m looking to get a whole table!

Cons: This was the first year SPX expanded, and the first year they did website ordering. The website went down (of course) but it seemed to be their server’s fault. The chairs and table setup meant corner people got jipped on space (we kind of were allowed to move the tables around, but it was still super crowded) and the sheer number of artists meant it was difficult to see people and there was a lot of competition sales wise.

Final Thoughts: Go! This is a great con to make connections and people are there to read COMICS! If you’re sick of trying to hawk your fanart prints and really want people to see your true work in comics, this is the place! They also dont care where you’re from. Big happy family and warm fluffy feels all around. Oh yes, and have a square/card reader. I took half of my sales in credit cards.

(Photo by Julie Black)

AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta)

This is another one where I drove to get Becca then drove the rest of the way. With a pit stop in Nahsville its still under 9 hours to get to Atlanta from Ohio, and this time my sister Julie went with me. I was starting out a little tight on the budget, waiting for some checks to come in, so this was a very daunting con at first (once the checks paid, I was okay). We drove down to Atlanta on Thursday (a leisurely 3.5 hour drive) and got to set up early – until I realized I forgot my banner and a single connector of PVC, and becca discovered she forgot her watercolors. We then had to do an emergency run to a utrecht and home depot in downtown atlanta (ugh, I hate atlanta traffic). We stayed the night near the airport then and picked up Emily Friday morning, and met with Alex (Becca’s table helper) Friday afternoon.

Becca and I had done the art show last year as well as several panels, and we were again hosting panels. We had a drink and draw friday night, which was unfortunately in the hotel lobby and it was very crowded and hard to find. We spent more time trying to round up people and trying to be heard over the loud lobby than actually drinking or drawing. Our saturday panel was an art and business panel co-hosted by Angela Sasser, and we had a lot of running around and misunderstandings due to the nature of emails on how we were going to run the panel, but it turned out everything went great.

As for the artist alley, we were near the back again (is this a thing with us? Push us to the back cause we’re no one?). We had been coordinating with the director, Ribbit, because of our panels, and she’s super nice and really pays close attention to how her artists are doing in the con. There were food trucks this year, which drew a lot of people in, and meant fun lunches for us, but a lot of people would get to about where we were (island G), see the food trucks, and ignore us in favor of tacos (those were good tacos, admittedly.) There were also a lot of empty tables this year, and I think people tend to skip over areas that look somewhat empty. The alley is also just so big that its hard for a casual browser to get through it all. Likewise, the ends of the islands (where Becca and I were) tend to get skipped over – people go up and down the long rows, not seeing those of us on the insides.

AWA is one of the cons with the 50-50 fanart rule, and I have original books and comics, as well as posters and prints that lean more towards original art, a grouping of pokemon bookmarks, and lollipop buttons that becca and I made. Yet I still got a staff member bothering me about the rule (Becca says she thinks my stuff is so pretty it LOOKS like its fanart even if its original). I also argue that there’s so many shows/movies/animes/manga/games/whatevers out there that its hard to know all the fans and a lot of people can slip the 50-50 rule that way, but I saw a lot of people that had close to 90% fanart displayed and didn’t get any flac, which DOES bother me more than me getting poked in the first place.

Regardless, its still a pretty fun con, made extra fun by the fact I was with good friends. I met new people and got some cool trades, and bought some neat art as well.

Gross profit: $661

Expenses: Thanks to Emily, we had friday and saturday at the hotel covered for free (yay rewards! Sign up for them people!) so we only had to pay for thursday’s hotel. But as I was covering my sister’s portion as well it did raise the prices for me some. $50 hotel, again about $100 in gas, $100-130 in food (for two people).

Pros: Ribbit is SUPER good with trying to please her artists, and even gives everyone a form to fill out at the end of sunday to see how she can improve next year. The staff are super helpful and there are a lot of really good artists. The tables are set up well with a little space in between each one, and there’s plenty of room for banners and signs. (We think the tables may actually even be slightly bigger than the standard 6’ x 2’) Its a bigger con so sales are somewhat better. A lot of fans there were super nice as well (though I think mechacon fans were nicer.)

Cons: Our location in the alley seemed to be detrimental to our sales. The cell/internet network got so busy saturday even people in the dealers room were having trouble making square sales (and I probably lost about $50 in sales that way). Because its a juried show as well, most of the artists are really good and so competition can be fierce. And I’m upset that I got picked on about the 50-50 rule when I never saw people with 80+% fanart getting any flac. Its also a huge cosplay convention and serious business cosplayers tend not to buy in the artist alley. There’s also a huge dealers room which is a lot of competition. Also driving in atlanta sucks.

As you guys know my roommate and I (Finchofwhismy) Attended Shika con this weekend a con in Bristol, VA and it was their first year running. And I have to say,

It was more than I ever hoped for!

I’ll walk you guys through why!

Prices:

50$ only for a table and two badges?? Dang you guys got it goin on (You guys should raise that tbh). And with the hotel rate we spent less than 200 for food, gas, table and lodging. Which we made back. Quickly.

Staff:

Super nice and really helpful! We had no problems the whole event, The director of the space was amazing and always came around to ask how every thing was going. Really professional and well kept together~

Sales:

So for me this was basically Commission Con. I made exponentially more money with commissions than prints and all else put together! Not to say that was a bad thing at all! Over all I well exceeded breaking even which is amazing for a first year convention :) The age groups were predominately younger, and Anime fan art and Cartoons/comics based pieces seemed to do the best in my opinion!

Overall:

Hell yeah We are going again. Everyone was so sweet, the location was great and it was well worth our while! So you should too!! Check them out here and here!

pictures:

So this was my fourth year attending AnimeNEXT and will be the last time I get to experience it in Somerset. I’ve heard that the convention is moving to Atlantic City next year, which is good in a way since the con has overgrown the venue. It was honestly so much harder to walk in the Dealer’s Room this year as well as the Artists’ Alley, so I think the move is a smart one. It’s going to be harder for some people to attend, but I think it should work out positively in the end for AN. I’m going to say a little bit more about my experiences under the read more, so please keep reading if you want to hear about my time!

Warning warning for language

So, this was my first ever con! I didn’t know what to expect, really, asides from a lot of people and a bit of craziness. I still don’t know what exactly I made of it, but a little more in depth.

The very first thing me and my friends did was get lost because we didn’t know where we were meant to park, and there’s so many one way streets. Good way to start the trip, yes. But we prevailed! Only to get to Matsuricon and then get lost between the three buildings. Apparently none of us can read a map. Upon asking a staff member how to get around, he had absolutely no idea. (Granted, I saw many staff members guiding people throughout the weekend, so kudos to them, we needed you, haha!) But, we found our way through trial and error and asking random people and got used to the layout and it was fine. It was a little daunting, but meh, no big complaints there.

Big complaints here: the autograph sessions. Just slap a gigantic fuck! on that. Like, if you went for an autograph at any time during the weekend, you know what I’m talking about. I made friends with random people by venting about the autographs. The way I understood was that there were too many people and that’s why they started handing out tickets? To me, that’s something that they should have anticipated/planned for. Matsuricon’s been going for ten years; I don’t know anything about cons and I know things can go wrong, but shit. Shouldn’t this be something simple for a ten year old con?

We were in line for Kyle and were told that we were number 44, that there were 70 tickets, and that we were fine. When the line finally started moving, they said they were out about ten people ahead of us. Also, we were yelled at by staff not to line up (Which I understand, that many people block the halls, the elevators, and traffic flow. I really do understand and I agree.) But when there are tickets to go into an autograph signing and they’re gone in thirty seconds… what the hell are we supposed to do? The whole thing was a huge clusterfuck, and I literally only got to get to two autograph sessions (one because Matthew Mercer was an absolute trooper and set up another session).

The way I took it, the guests sat at a table, you went down the line, got your autograph, and kept moving. If you got there early, you had no wait, if you got there late, well, okay, but you’ll have to stand there for a long time before you get your signature. Is this how cons generally do it? Look, if the tickets were necessary, there should have been a fucking announcement. End of story.

Yeah, the autographs were SO damn annoying. The horrible way that it was handled literally ruined my entire Saturday, and I was honestly seriously reevaluating if Matsuricon was even worth my time.

On top of that, everything seemed to start late. Autographs. Panels. The rave, the Lip Sync Battle. I didn’t bother with the rave or the masquerade or anything, but there was a crazy line for those things and I just wonder if they didn’t run late too. But meh. Literally not a huge deal compared to those damn autographs.

But never fear, I decided that Matsuricon WAS worth my time! (More or less.)

After being shoved off into the overflow room Saturday afternoon for Matthew Mercer, and being turned away after standing for an hour, there was a rumour that he was going to have another extra early signing on his own time Sunday morning. And damn if he didn’t actually do it. Now Matt was the reason I wanted to go in the first place, and the fact that he specifically went out of his way to meet more fans was just amazing. So, kudos to him, he literally made my con; I got autographs on all my Alvin things, and two hugs (holy shit bro don’t even get me started i can’t believe enivurehfuerihbgtg), and also he did Kanji-kun for me, and we chatted about his work in Rune Factory. (Also he recognised my Sherlock cosplay. *serious nod*)

Also went to his late night panel that had SO many people and SO many questions and Matt was just being super fun the entire time, offering up a prank call to a guest’s mother and then testing his skills at Sephiroth’s voice (omg). Of course we all talked about bazongas as well, because. Come on. It’s Tales of Xillia. Gotta ask about bazongas. It was just great, like hands down.

We went to one of Eric Vale’s panels as well, which had a very small turnout that was disappointing but fun nonetheless. He got us all to play a prank on some of the people walking in and he talked about farting, because we all need Eric Vale and bodily functions in our life, I mean seriously, it was freaking hilarious. Guy’s crazy, but he’s absolutely awesome. (And we also talked about Fruits Basket, which made me super happy. And my friends got autographs from him, and a photo, and that made them super happy, which was just… super. xP

I also got to meet Lauren Landa and get her autograph for Tales of Xillia. She is super cute, and super nice, and was chowing down on Poptarts when I met her which I thought was just adorable for some reason, don’t know. She seems super cool, I’d like to hang at one of her panels one day if I knew her from more than just ToX…

The Lip Sync Battle was the BEST thing I’ve ever seen. I just thought, hey, this sounds cool. Oh no. It’s cool times infinity. Matt and Professor Shyguy totally owned everyone imo, although everyone was amazing (and let me say I don’t know Jessica Calvello, but she. is. TOO CUTE. AH!) A must must see.

The dealer’s room was crazy busy and I thought everything was a bit overpriced, but that’s con stuff. I didn’t buy a whole lot (mostly because I had stuff I wanted to buy online when I got home lol), but I got me a Rei-san plushie and a cute little Axel button <3 (and now I’m gonna buy a shit ton of xxxHoLic stuff smh). Artist’s Alley was BEAUTIFUL, all the pieces there were spectacular. I’m a huge Etsy fan and so loved AA. Everyone there had beautiful things, and I would literally recommend everyone stop by AA if you go next year.

I MET LOTS OF PEOPLE FROM TUMBLR! YOU GUYS ARE BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU AND I HAVE PICTURES OF YOU THAT I TOOK THAT I NEED TO UPLOAD WHEN I’M NOT SO EXHAUSTED

Lots of people also stopped me for my Sherlock? Like, I didn’t expect the attention, wow. I’m sooo happy that so many people recognised me! Like, Sherlock is always going to be my number one fandom, and everyone’s enthusiasm made me so happy! (Plus that fucker was hot to wear in 90 degree weather, I thought I was gonna do so bad, but thankfully it was really cold in parts of the centre, so I could cool and that would get me through the warmer parts of the building. LOVE my coat, love my scarf, love my leather gloves, but not in summer xP)

I’m probably forgetting aspects, I don’t know. I’m exhausted, biggest trip I’ve ever been on and it seems like my luggage just seemed to expand throughout the entire weekend even though I didn’t buy much. We did a lot of running around like crazy and a lot of panicking and I did a lot of full scale bitching in my head (in my head!) It was fun, it was confusing, it was brilliant and it was irritating.

Would I go back? Yeah, but probably not for the whole weekend. It’s just too much, and there’s too much of con staff not knowing what was going on and thus us con-goers not knowing what was going on. I think I’d probably just go back for one day for the person I’d want to see and that’s all, unless, you know, there were multiple people.

Overall, I give Matsuricon 2015 a………. 7/10. (And that is mostly purely because of VA interaction, not actual connish things, because that’s what made me personally happy.) Good and bad, yeah. I don’t know, they have things they need to fix, I think a lot of us would agree, but it wasn’t horrible and it wasn’t boring.

It was, for the most part, bad.

Firstly, the location. Too small. I understand a con held at a hotel will have some issues. My favorite con is held at a hotel, but this was ridiculous. Moving was difficult, and I expect that at BIGGER cons. People would stop in the middle of the halls for no reason or to take pictures. There usually was no staff around to tell people to keep it moving to to clear the halls. As a person with a cane, getting through these messes was difficult, and for the few people I saw with wheelchairs, it was nearly impossible. There were other attendees (such as myself and my friends) telling people to keep things moving or to clear the way

Now staff….Most of the staff was incompetent. Most, but not all. Most of the time you couldn’t get a direct answer for anything without someone having to consult someone else. My friend and I were also given disability markers, but they rarely were recognized. Any time we wanted to go to the dealers room (the only good part of the con) we were told to go to the back of the line (and note, I’ve never seen a line to get into a dealers room EVER). The staff at the door was apparently uninformed of the disability markers. And EVERY TIME told us to go to the line. Even if the first thing out of our mouth was “we have disability stickers”. The dealers room itself though was pretty good, except for, again, people blocking paths. I doubt that a wheelchair could’ve gotten through there, even if there were nobody else in the aisles. Also, the artists and dealers were mixed together. I personally like when it’s separate, but that’s just me…

ALSO, on staff, before I forget, the only time I really saw anyone doing anything was when there was possible tornados, in which many staff were shouting about how those under 18 had to stay inside. But they were using Tornado WATCH and Tornado WARNING interchangeably which they are not. Not only that, but their shouting about this caused a bit of panic. Which, from everything I’ve listed so far, does not add up to this being s good situation.

Also again, there were rude staff who were essentially body shaming. My friend, who has very large breasts was told that she was dressed inappropriately and to not wear a certain cosplay again, despite the fact that she was covered. I too, was told to cover up. At the time, I was wearing a kigurumi that was unbuttoned to between my breasts and belly button. I was wearing a bathing suit top that completely covered my breasts with absolutely nothing spilling out. But moments later we saw several skinnier girls in essentially bra’s and panties. But apparently that was ok?

On to tech issues… This I’ll keep quick. They couldn’t get their shit together. I knew it was happening in several places, but in my opinion, the worst time was for the cosplay contest. The overflow room ended up to be the “staff guy and soundboard guys entertainment show” which was funny and probly the best part of the con for me, but still not good. They couldn’t get a stream or something to work so that the show could be projected a couple rooms over. That’s pretty sad.

Now the guests were great. I sat in on a panel that Monica Rial was doing. Awesome on her part but there was nowhere near enough room. But she was incredibly friendly, as were Jad and Blake, whom I met just walking around. Their autograph sessions seemed messy though, so I didn’t bother with it.

Now on to cosplayers… This con seemed to be a bit of regression for cosplayers. People being inconsiderate with their props and the people/space around them, people taking pictures in terrible places, and the WORST thing… Body paint. And it wasn’t just homestuck people here (though there were a LOT of homestuck) Everywhere you looked though there was unsealed and runny body paint. It is hot as hell down here, so if you don’t seal, you are gunna get paint everywhere. Which is exactly what happened. If you are reading this and you wore unsealed body paint, you need to fucking reevaluate. You can/will/probably did destroy a lot of things, from other people’s cosplay to hotel property.

In the last 14 years, I’ve done a lot of cons, including Ohayocon. I attended the artist alley for ohayocon in both 2003 (or 04) and 2007. Both of thse were rather good for me, and one of them was actually my best con I remember. However, I was also a stupid teenager and did some stupid things. I was hoping as an adult I could come and reclaim this convention, and make a decent profit.

Stupidly, I decided to go with my memory rather than the warnings people said on the internet (though I didn’t see many of the warnings until too late). Becca and I decided to share a table as Rascals, Rogues, and Dames, and use our space theme. This was a no-fanart convention, which I had yet to do, but I naively thought it meant that original webcomics an the like would be able to compete and get attention. (I had also hoped that they would have us in one of the locations they had used in previous years, such as where the big glass atrium is, or in a hallway where many attendees must pass us).

Setting up.  We finally broke down and used the cubes.

Becca decided to fly in, and so Julie and I drove to the columbus airport to pick her up on thursday. Unfortunately, I seemed to also be coming down with something at the time, and the weather chose that weekend to become miserably cold and snowy. Meanwhile, as we prepped, we had a lot of issues with Ohayocon not communicating things such as the map of the artist alley, or where we would even be located in the convention center, or the hours for setup (friday morning), or even any kind of info other than “if you registered you should get an email” (which I didn’t, and even after emailing them didn’t get much response).

Friday morning we headed over to the convention center and got all our stuff ready to go. Friday was the only day we managed to snag a parking spot in the hotel garage (its far too small – two floors for the whole hotel/con) and it was absolutely freezing. We trundled upstairs to find our way to the artist alley, which turned out to be ….where again? The information booths set up around the convention were nice, but they had a very difficult time trying to direct us to the artist alley (I think partially this is the fault of the layout of the convention center, which seems to be total nonsense). Meanwhile, I had to actually purchase a badge for Julie ($60 for the whole weekend? Seems a little steep, even for a larger anime convention). We finally made it to the alternate entrance to th edealers room (of which the artist alley was upstairs), and a very nice staff person guided us to the artist alley (possibly the only nice staff person we encountered all weekend). When expressing our concerns that if we had such a hard time finding where we were supposed to be, attendees wouldn’t be able to find us (meaning no profit for us) we were told by most of the staff “they’ll have no problem finding you!” and to sod off. (the whole con seemed to suffer from a lack of directions/signs, which would have been very helpful in the very confusing layout. Also, what maps they DID have did not include the 4th floor, which is where the artist alley was.)

We had a bitchin setup though.

After setting up, the floodgates opened and people started coming into the alley. I was pretty excited as it seemed to be a lot of people coming in, but most everyone just milled around and ignored the artists. It seemed rather that everyone was more interested in other people’s cosplays than what the artist alley had to offer.

Just my side

(I found out later they also used the artist alley as the signing space for at least two of the guests, which I think is one of the only reasons people even came in.)

Unfortunately, I also had the beginnings of the flu this weekend, so a lot of the weekend passed in a haze of dayquil (it could have actually just been a bad cold that I pushed my body too hard for. Mostly I remember drinking a LOT of tea and having to pee a lot. Also, very colorful lights.)

Glad I know how to drive in snow.

Sales were dismal, to say the least. Even posters and prints that sell out at other conventions were barely touched, and people were only interested in getting $2 buttons or $5 sketches. No one touched my comics (I had to literally put them in people’s hands) or my artbook, which I generally sell a few of at any given con. Of course, I was verymuch off my game being sick, but it still felt like a disaster.

The Breakdown:

Cost of going: $125 for the table plus two art badges, another $60 for julie to get in. The $125 was split between becca and I (or rather, me repaying her for the disaster that was nekocon). Because I was sick and not super hungry, food ran about $60 for the weekend, but I had to spend money on dayquil. The hotel cost $202 for me ($303 total, split 3 ways – I paid for Julie and myself). Gas was minimal as columbus is less than 90 minutes from my house (probably about $30 total). I spent about $150 in con prep, but considering most of what I had printed didn’t sell, its backlog for future cons.

(Total Cost: $410 plus $150 in sellables.)

Earnings: I made almost all of my earnings on commissions, which is quite difficult to do when you’ve got the flu. Unfortunately, I also didn’t keep very good track of things. As far as I can tell, I made a little under $300.

Non-monetary earnings: Seems to be none. No new followers, no online sales, no jobs/work, nothing. Because I was so sick I didn’t even meet anyone.

Dealers room: no height restrictions, played loud annoying music all weekend, no fanart restrictions, and much easier to find (more entrances).

Other notes: The staff was very unhelpful and often downright rude to the artists (when they were even around.) The no-fanart policy absolutely destroyed sales, and considering the dealers room had no such limitations (we even think there was a vendor there with stolen art) thats where all the money went. That and the ridiculous admission fee and everyone’s cosplays.

For some reason it was also “sit around and do nothing” con. There were a lot of people around, but there were a high percentage of people that were just sitting around – including someone in a mermaid tail (could she even go anywhere?) Were there no good events? Was everyone broke? I honestly don’t know what happens at cons outside of the artist alley, but it seemed like an awful big waste to go and just sit around all weekend, even if you were seeing friends.

Lots of people, and a lot of sitting around.  I didnt get good pictures of that, unfortunately.

I was amazed how people were not deterred by the snowstorm (I’m an ohioan and I would have said “nope.” But I was also sick). But having to walk a block in snow and ice and cigarette smoke (Im super allergic and it causes my lungs/throat to sieze up) was not fun with artist gear. Or when sick.

I drew this on friday, I think.

I had the pleasure of attending CloverCon for the second time yesterday. I decided to go to the convention as Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica! It was a bit hotter out than I would have liked, but thankfully there wasn’t any rain or otherwise bad weather so it was pretty nice. I’m going to write up a little bit about my time yesterday, so if you’d like to read about my day please continue! (I’m also going to add some photos from the con of me to my report!)

(Photo above is by HKaze Cosplay!)