MiniMegaCon Day 2 and Conclusions
Well I'm back in Iowa. Carter shouldered the load today since Allegiant Air was only gonna take me back to CR today. We finally got some books sales on top of Carter's commissions (a Starscream, a Leeja Clane and a magic soldier) after I left, but overall the first MiniMegaCon seemed a bit hamstrung. Lots of Artist Alley spaces were empty this morning and the exodus came fast, according to Carter. All the TWILIGHT-related guests had to cancel since New Moon is still filming. I was looking forward to talking to Peter Facinelli about Nurse Jackie, actually.
I think those cancellations really cut into things. Add the economy into this mix...and this. Seems there was a turf war going on vis-a-vis the anime programming. Certain events and guests were double-dipped apparently and there's some hurt feelings. I just remember this morning hearing over the loudspeaker "There's no line at the autograph area, so now's the time to come on down!" Hell, they had Buffy people and one of the Doctors Who twiddling their thumbs. So three things really came together to knock down atendance.
Plus also there's the Florida vibe. At this con people were way more interested in pinups than comics. A lot of the folks at Artist Alley were there to fill that specific need. Not a lot of comics. It explains the uptick in commissions, but it didn't translate to say, art book sales. But it's our first show down there and we're brand new to them. So we're meditating on or new principle of a lean mean effective table presence. Next up is Minnesota Fallcon; that should be interesting. We've been before, so we know the deal.
Did I buy stuff? Uh sure. There was a very good movie table I hit and I got a Black Mask figure from a Batman villains series for Lon. It's one ugly cuss.
Regrets? Didn't do putt-putt adventure, and never could catch the very nice fellow from ShockTactixGraphix again after a nice conversation on Friday.
The trip back was interesting; the guy next to me was shaping up to be one of those guys who gets his drinks cut off mid-flight so he takes a dump in the beverage cart. He was pestering the hell out of the stewardesses/air hosts about a concept of priority seating he paid for and felt was inadequate. He'd had a couple of drinks and my best guess at his point was that he wasn't seated next to his wife and two kids, even though the longest row of seats was three. I dunno. He felt it should mean first crack at the drinks cart and he kept on about that. Every time his kids would get a little jolly he would pop his seatbelt, go over the seat and tell them things like "Your sister is sitting back there because you're bad." He's gonna have some twitchy kids who wonder if Daddy drinks because they're bad. I decided to nap away the journey in case he thought I could be recruited to his cause against the airline.
Well after we land I end up in the same shuttle back to IC/CV as him and his family. And he tries all sorts of tres-subtle remarks to get the driver to drop him off first, even though I'm much closer. I feel for this guy's wife, who I didn't hear once. I am grateful he wasn't driving, though.
So I'll get the pics and movies uploaded tomorrow, as I've just cut a few blisters open and am not feeling very upload-y right now.
I think those cancellations really cut into things. Add the economy into this mix...and this. Seems there was a turf war going on vis-a-vis the anime programming. Certain events and guests were double-dipped apparently and there's some hurt feelings. I just remember this morning hearing over the loudspeaker "There's no line at the autograph area, so now's the time to come on down!" Hell, they had Buffy people and one of the Doctors Who twiddling their thumbs. So three things really came together to knock down atendance.
Plus also there's the Florida vibe. At this con people were way more interested in pinups than comics. A lot of the folks at Artist Alley were there to fill that specific need. Not a lot of comics. It explains the uptick in commissions, but it didn't translate to say, art book sales. But it's our first show down there and we're brand new to them. So we're meditating on or new principle of a lean mean effective table presence. Next up is Minnesota Fallcon; that should be interesting. We've been before, so we know the deal.
Did I buy stuff? Uh sure. There was a very good movie table I hit and I got a Black Mask figure from a Batman villains series for Lon. It's one ugly cuss.
Regrets? Didn't do putt-putt adventure, and never could catch the very nice fellow from ShockTactixGraphix again after a nice conversation on Friday.
The trip back was interesting; the guy next to me was shaping up to be one of those guys who gets his drinks cut off mid-flight so he takes a dump in the beverage cart. He was pestering the hell out of the stewardesses/air hosts about a concept of priority seating he paid for and felt was inadequate. He'd had a couple of drinks and my best guess at his point was that he wasn't seated next to his wife and two kids, even though the longest row of seats was three. I dunno. He felt it should mean first crack at the drinks cart and he kept on about that. Every time his kids would get a little jolly he would pop his seatbelt, go over the seat and tell them things like "Your sister is sitting back there because you're bad." He's gonna have some twitchy kids who wonder if Daddy drinks because they're bad. I decided to nap away the journey in case he thought I could be recruited to his cause against the airline.
Well after we land I end up in the same shuttle back to IC/CV as him and his family. And he tries all sorts of tres-subtle remarks to get the driver to drop him off first, even though I'm much closer. I feel for this guy's wife, who I didn't hear once. I am grateful he wasn't driving, though.
So I'll get the pics and movies uploaded tomorrow, as I've just cut a few blisters open and am not feeling very upload-y right now.
posted by John Ira Thomas | 6:12 PM
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