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A Comic Dealer At Comicpalooza

comicpalooza

Jennifer King of Space Cadets Collection Collection exhibited at Comicapalooza. She writes,

Last weekend was the much celebrated and anticipated Comicpalooza Comic Con. We have attended for almost as many years as the convention has existed, exempting it's early years at the Alamo Drafthouse and in the mall. We love this convention. They get far more things right than wrong.

After the controversy with SOA at Space City Comic Con, Comicpalooza did something brilliant and made arrangements to have Charlie Hunnam attend (whether at his request or theirs, I do not know.) They also offered anyone with Hunnam or SOA Vip tickets from SCCC a free 3 day pass to Comicpalooza so that they could meet him if they missed their opportunity at SCCC. It was a classy move, garnering them lots of good will points in the community.

Comicpalooza (also known as C-Pal to us locals) happens at the George R Brown convention center in downtown Houston. The problem with this location currently (and for more than a year now) is that it is under renovation along with most of the immediate area. This means very difficult parking situations and walking for long distances through construction zones. Once all of this building is finished in the downtown area, there will be many more square feet of hotel and convention space and it means good things for future conventions at this location.

From the dealer point of view:

Load in is pretty straight forward and organized and the staff makes sure that we have enough badges for staff for the entire weekend. The volunteers were all very helpful and seemed informed. This show does not allow us to pick our location on the dealer floor, which we would rather be able to do and we were located toward the rear of the convention and facing the back wall. We purchased 3 booth spaces (two corners and a main line space, all connected) compared to the 2 corner spaces that we had at SCCC three weeks prior. C-Pal is usually our most successful convention of the year in regards to sales, but this year we were very surprised that SCCC was the better sales convention of the two despite the horrible weather (flooding in multiple areas of the city) that happened on the weekend of SCCC vs. the beautiful weather the weekend of C-PAL.

Here is what I think was the difference this year:

I think it didn't necessarily hurt C-PAL attendance, as there were plenty of people at the convention, but the closeness in dates between the 2 shows meant that customers attending both shows did not have a chance to save money (or even make a paycheck) between them. The convention was very spread out, the famous guests roughly 2 football fields away from the dealer part of the floor. It was so far away, in fact, that I never even made it down to see them. I'm sure it happened similarly for folks at that end of the convention, which is why we never saw them. Usually we at least have a visit from Ming Chen from Comic Book Men or some other famous guests needing to pick up gifts for friends and family, but saw not a one all weekend.

What needs to happen in my opinion for conventions in Texas to be more healthy:

Spread them out. Make them unique and have different guests of all kinds. Don't call yourself a Comic Con unless you have significant comic book guest representation and programming to go along with it. We hear guests complain about that quite often. Comic Con owners don't have to be friends, but should at least try and have an amicable relationship so that they can avoid silly things like having their events too close together. Optimum spacing in the same metro-plex should be at least 3 months and better at 6 months apart, unless they are aimed at a completely different crowd (toy show vs a pop culture convention). Cons should listen to their customers and their vendors and ask for feedback that they follow through on. Conventions should advertise for their vendors the same way that they do for their famous guests. Vendors are part of the reason that people come and it helps them to know that there might be a vintage poster dealer, for example.

Off of my soap-box now.

I do think that C-Pal is a great show and will be successful for years to come. It's great for the local economy and its customers are a loyal bunch. I love setting up as a dealer there and will continue to do so.

Next show is Amazing Houston Con in September, run by Jimmy Jay who owns the Amazing family of conventions which are focused on the love of comics and is in our opinion the best run comic con that we attend. It's the only convention that we have attended where the convention owner greets all of the vendors during load in, walks the floor all weekend attending to our needs and makes us feel important and valued by the convention. I'm guessing it's why all of his shows have been successful, that special touch.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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