Max Riffner

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How Was My Con?

I’m back from WizardWorld Chicago, and have finally caught my breath. Most of the trip was in a car late at night or early in the morning; that takes a toll on a guy.

So how was it? In a word, slow. I was stuck in the offshoot of Artists Alley, off of the main group. Everyone I spoke with in the area reported to me that it wasn’t just me; there was not much traffic moving through our area. Someone told me that they were turned off by the Drunk Duck webcomic people at the front of our area. Apparently they were a bit obnoxious. I don’t have any first hand experience with that issue though, so it is hard to say.

It was an interesting first-time experience though. Here are a few things I’ll be working on for my next con appearance:

• Prints. Prints are huge. Superhero prints of characters from Marvel or DC are even better. People were selling the crap out of prints. Even people who, you know, haven’t even actually made a goddamn comic were selling the hell out of prints. I’m kind of ambivalent about this, since I don’t own Batman. Or Superman. Or even Spider-Man. Technically, this is illegal. But with so many artists hawking superhero prints they don’t own, maybe the Big Two turn a blind eye? I don’t know. This whole thing makes no sense to me. What does make sense to me is ducats though, and the people selling prints were making some money. And fans ate it up. So, what the heck do I know?
• Salesmanship. Man I suck at sales. My sales pitch is not at all what you would call engaging – partially because I’m interested in developing relationships with potential readers rather than just making a sale. I could stand to maybe take a class, or anything. My good friend Ora who worked at Krypton Comics here did me a favor and watched my table for an hour while I tried to see some people, and he sold 4 books in an hour. That would have taken me about 6 hours with my pitch. Maybe I should just hire salespeople?
• Marketing Materials. I think a postcard or something for people to take away would be good. If I don’t get them to convert at the con, maybe I can get them later. I did have an email sign-up sheet that did pretty well, but a postcard might have been good too.

It was a good learning experience, and despite the slow days I did make some good connections with some people. It definitely wasn’t a waste of time at all. Had a good time with the creators of GearHead, who have the best by-line in comics: Hopeless Mellon. That is gold. Dennis and Kevin were great. The Shocktraumanauts in attendance were great company (as always – it’s amazing we all get along so well). Also thanks to my table neighbors Jason and Ethan, without which I surely would have died from boredom by Friday afternoon.

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