|
EXTRA // 11.07.02 "YOU
WOULDN'T HAPPEN TO HAVE….." "You wouldn't happen to have a drawing of Princess Lea in the slave girl costume, would you?" The fall Motor City Comic Con was held on October 26-27, 2002. It was run by Motor City Conventions, who run three shows all told: the fall show, the Chicago ComicFest, (March 8-9, 2003 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, O'Hare-Rosemont, IL), and the spring Motor City Comic Con, (May 16-18, 2003 at the Novi Expo Center, Novi, MI). The spring show is by far their largest, with an estimated attendance of 15,000+. The Chicago and fall shows are much smaller, with an estimated attendance of 2,500-3,000 and 5,000+, respectively. Motor City is Michigan's largest and longest-running comic convention and celebrated it's thirteenth anniversary with this show. Motor City is also a local con for many well known comic artists like Guy Davis, Vince Locke, David Mack and James O'Barr. This fall put Michigan's con up against Maryland's, and it has the potential of going head to head with Maryland again next year, when it falls on the 18th and 19th of October. While this may have hurt attendance from the pro and actor angle, it opened up a lot of room for the small pressers, who seemed more than willing to take advantage of the situation. Just glancing at the program I see Pam Bliss (creator of B-36, Dog and Pony Show, Those Kids! and Sparky the Dog), Matt Feazell (creator of Cynical Man) Layla Lawler (creator of Raven's Children), Paul Sizer (creator of Little White Mouse), and Jane Irwin (creator of Vogelein.) And there were plenty more new creators, hitting the convention for the first time, or whose work was yet to garner the attention of those already mentioned. And there's the rub. As more and more attention is placed on indy and small titles and their creators, more and more emphasis is put on shows like APE, SPACE, the XPO and now MOCCA, which cater specifically to them. This is fine, but fans of indy and small press comics need to remember the big shows as well. Just because a comic convention has actors and models in it, doesn't necessarily mean that their brand of comics will be absent from the larger shows. It just means they're going to have to take the time to look for them. Be brave. Put your blinders on and wade past the aging women squeezed into clothes two sizes too small for them, past the boobie pictures and on into Artist's Alley, for lo, there they are. As a creator, shows like APE, SPACE, XPO and MOCCA all sound lovely, except that in those shows you're already preaching to the choir, as it were. The fans that attend those shows already know about indy and small press comics. It's at the bigger shows, like Mid-Ohio, Pittsburg, Wizard-Chicago, San Diego and Motor City where small, independent comic creators have the best chance of getting their work out to the widest audience possible, and it's this fact that keep the creators coming back for their tables in Artist's Alley. The more visibility independent creators can garnish for their work, the better. So whether you're a creator or a buyer, don't forget the larger shows. Oh, and the title/first line of the piece? Someone actually asked me that late Saturday afternoon. See? See how we creators suffer to get the comics you love into your hands? Discuss this column on the SAVANT forum. |