Yesterday I attended ‘Not Another Comicon’ at Aston University. It ran between 10am and 4pm and a single ticket cost me £10.00 along with a small booking fee through the Eventbrite website. In preparation I looked at their website and facebook page and they had some impressive UK comics guests that included John Wagner, John Higgins, Steve Pugh, Al Ewing and Jamie Delano.
The event was something of a mixed bag.
I got the train from Euston to Birmingham New Street and followed the map directions from the event page on their Facebook page. Here is where it took me at 9.50am.
I stood in this spot for a while looking for banners or signposts to the event without luck. I messaged a pal who was tabling at the event to get him to press the ‘Location’ button on WhatsApp but due to nobodies fault the Wi-fi was wasn’t playing ball. Then behind me across a small green area i saw someone who looked like John Wagner with what I guessed may have been a convention volunteer. I gave chase.
This is where they took me.
Still nothing showing the convention? Look closer. To the left of the door... that small dark sign, that’s a convention poster. I continued onwards. I was still unsure if that had been John Wagner I had seen from a distance or if I was walking into the right place. Usually I would have expected to see other punters or cosplayers etc.
As I reached the entrance hall this is what I was greeted with.
No line and a table set way back into the building. I headed on and collected a wristband. I was handed a leaflet that I thought was a programme or something similar but turned out to be an advert for the event I was actually standing at with something about toys on the back. The volunteer pointed me upstairs after I asked where I should go. I walked up to the right of the right of what you can see in the photo and was presented with this....
This photo shows one side of the landing I had reached and there were in fact four doors. I was beginning to feel like I was in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain trying decide which door to take. As I stood there pondering I was joined by two more punters and a man carrying coffee. The coffee man declared that it was ‘a bit confusing’ but if we followed him he’d show us where the hall was. We walked down a long corridor and into this room.
This was the main sales room with games tables and a row of retro video game stalls at the far end. You can see that even twenty minutes after opening it was far from ready. I walked round a couple of times and thought that this surely couldn’t be the whole convention, I also couldn’t see any of the comics guests or small press. I explored a couple of the corridors off this room without luck and only found a restaurant that was closed and a student kicking a vending machine. I headed down to reception again as I had seen some people heading out to an area behind the ticket desk. I asked where the other rooms were and was told there was one more and I had to go through the main sales hall and out the other side.
I headed back upstairs and explored further. I saw up a small ramp a banner for Gary Erskine (he told me later that he had volunteered his banner so that people could find the room).
I had finally found the room I was interested in and this is what it looked like (apologies for the poor photo):
I spent most of the day here chatting to pals and comics professionals and finally left at around 2pm. It was very poorly attended and I spoke to six or seven of those tabling after the event who reported extremely low sales. There was a definite lack of signage although they had some amazing guests.
Here is a photo of Jamie Delano. One of my favourite ever comics writers. His table was badly located without any noticeable signage and seemingly next to where they dumped the unused sheets?
On the plus side when a convention is really quiet it was an opportunity to have a good chat to creators who in any normal circumstances would be mobbed by fans. I spoke to Dan Cornwall and John Wagner about ‘Rok of the Reds’ and the upcoming ‘Rok The God’. Dan showed me some of the art for the new mini series that launches next month on Kickstarter and it looks amazing (more news on that front soon).
(Another view of the comics room a couple of hours after opening).
(And another).
I also got a chance to have a good chat with Jamie Delano. His Captain Britain and Hellblazer are some of my personal favourite comics ever. I bought a signed copy of one of his prose novels entitled ‘Leeping Dizzy’ and started it on the train home and am loving it!
I’m a fan of the artist Paul Williams after meeting him at the Lawless Convention last year and it’s great to see him so busy with the Megazine and 2000 AD. He was offering sketches for a mere £10 so I took him up on the offer and got this excellent Shang Chi.
Other things in the plus column was the chance to catch up with creators I’ve met through the scene and the podcast. Stuart Mulrain (and family), Adam Falp, Corey Brotherson, Rich Carrington, Steve Tanner, Sally Jane Hurst and many more. I also got to pick up a couple of cheap trades from the Nottingham Forbidden Planet stall. There were panels but I’m afraid that I didn’t get in to any of them.
Later this was seen...
I will avoid both visiting as a punter or tabling at this event in the future. The main floor was slightly busier than the comics room but could never be referred to as busy by any normal convention standards. We had been offered a table and declined some months earlier. I was told that tables were priced in the £40/£50 area for the comics room.
Why was it so quiet? I’m not sure. The lack of signage could be a reason (there was also a rumour circulating that a guest got frustrated with trying to find the venue and gave up and went home but I’m yet to confirm this). Is August a bad month? Everyone on holiday? Are there too many conventions? Is there a feeling of general apathy towards comics events? Was it due to a lack of advertising?
If nothing else this is a worrying sign for UK comics fandom and comics in general.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Many thanks for reading.
Thanks for the review. I hope they up their game.
ReplyDeleteThe cost of the tables vary depending on who you speak to.
ReplyDeleteYou've brought up a REALLY interesting point near the end there Tony. Are there too many cons? Something I've seriously wondered this year. It's great that there are so many chances to see comics out there, but is it possible that it's all a bit too much for folks and they get rather fatigued? Could the over saturation of cons have an effect on having comics in stores even? All rather interesting.
ReplyDeleteReally nice honest review though dude. Let's hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
Tony, the question if there are too many comic cons was first raised by Aristotle. Well if not someone who knew him, it's that old a conundrum. In my opinion there is an expectation by promotors that fans will turn up regardless of advertising, marketing or lack of clear signage to any con. Having attended several this year what is clear to me is that local advertising gets the locals, Facebook and other online marketing works for the rest of the community. If it's bad I won't return and will tell others. Thanks for your review, you certainly helped me when considering my diary choices for next year.
ReplyDeletean excellent and eye opening review with some good advice for the event hosts x big loves to all x
ReplyDeleteAverage cost of tables were £50,non existent signs to indicate that there was actually an event on ( comic con here today ! ) All guests and traders complained about finding the infamous car park 5! Postcode to event was wrong, there were no staff outside or inside venue to direct traders , in fact it was traders telling traders where to go etc. There were stairs! Alleged that one guest saw the stairs and said "sod that im off" and went. All staff , traders and guests were given "staff" lanyards which meant nobody knew who the staff were! Not one staff or the organiser came round to chat to the traders , even just to see how we're doing or even hello and thank you for coming ! The venue was at a university , most students were away for summer , no passing footfall ,poor location, posters were eventually put up around 9am inside the venue where only people actually attending saw it! 90% of the cosplayers were professional ones , no easily accessable food or drink, very poorly attended and some traders didn't turn up ( possibly fed up after driving around the ring road looking for the car park ) which made venue look worse with and hoc empty tables , times were wrong as well social media stated 10 - 4, posters stated 10 - 5, confusing traders but most were ready to go by 2.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for the replies people. I tried to keep the post evidential in that I backed up each experience with a photograph.
ReplyDeleteI see from the above replies and those elsewhere that many others had a similar experience. I have had four messages that have been made with an expectation of privacy from guests at the event that they had poor sales and were ‘sat twiddling thumbs’.
One of the purposes of this post is to wonder where we are now. Some events like ELCAF are getting more popular but many are really struggling. This has got to have a lot to do with things like the amount of very similar events offering the same old guests, poor or non-existent advertising and poor signage/local on the day leafletting etc. But I do fear that the washed out meaning of ‘Comicon’ may be to blame. A term that falls somewhere between pop-culture and actual comics these days.
I’ve been thinking about my con going intentions and outside of working a convention for Nobrow I think I might only do events that are for charity or go that extra mile to build the community.
Not ones that are just about making money.