Capes-n-Babes

Okay, so here is my slightly delayed RavenCon 2010 recap which could easily be titled “The Good, The Bad and the Disappointed”…

Right off the bat, let me say it was an absolute blast sitting around the hotel lobby Saturday night with Bryan Prindiville – who was a fellow panelist on our discussion about blogging & Twittering Sunday afternoon, Barb & Chris of Sledgebunny, Kara Dennison of Conscrew (whom I had never met before but frequently chatted with via Twitter), Rob Balder of Erfworld and Peter Prellwitz of Angel of St Thomas – I have met Rob before but not Peter – and, lastly, James Hatton of In His Likeness.

I left James at the end because I had actually met James a few years earlier at Baltimore ComicCon. This was the a month before I started Capes & Babes. It was also that same con I mentioned several times in the past where I met & talked to Danielle Corsetto and who ultimately convinced me I should jump into the vast sea of webcomics and start swimming. But before that, I really hadn’t known James all that well – even though I DID put him in a strip in Capes & Babes. So this was a prime opportunity to get to know him better and share our own personal webcomic version of “Six Degrees of Danielle Corsetto”. He was also on the webcomics panel that I moderated too. So that was a lot of fun getting to meet, talk and hang out with a bunch of webcomic creators Saturday night.

Now… on to the part about the actual con itself:

This was my very first time ever attending RavenCon 2010. RavenCon, for those not in the know, is a sci-fi and fantasy writers convention. I had attended a very similar convention last year called BaltiCon 43 in which many webcomic creators in the Washington, DC area were invited to set up free tables in the lobby of the hotel where the Con was taking place. I didn’t sell anything at Balticon that entire weekend but I had heard positive things about RavenCon so I wanted to attend and see if it might be different than my BaltiCon experience.

In some ways, it was similar. In other ways it was not.

First, let me say everyone that was a part of RavenCon was extremely accepting of webcomic creators. The people of RavenCon even invited me to be a guest at their con – what that meant was I didn’t have to pay to attend the con. The only thing that was required was I would have to be on at least four panels during the con (pretty cool) and I would have to pay for my own hotel room. Being a guest though did not mean I also got a free table to display my stuff or sell my merchandise. If I wanted to do that, I would have to fork over $85 for a retailer’s table. It was a tough decision but ultimately I decided to go ahead and get that table since the price wasn’t TOO steep.

At this point, I should also mention that RavenCon was a three day show (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Unfortunately, due to the fact that I will be at the Pittsburgh ComicCon in two weeks (another three day con) I couldn’t afford to take Friday off to head down to Richmond for the entire first day of the show. Instead, I had to wait until I got off of work before driving the 1.5 hours to the show. So essentially, I ended up paying $85 for a two day set up instead of a three day set-up. The positive about this was I was able to make it into Richmond in plenty of enough time to get to the convention hotel and still get my table set up before the retailer’s room closed on Friday night – so, essentially, I was all set to go first thing Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, as receptive as the RavenCon organizers are to webcomics and webcomic creators, the general walk-in audience didn’t seem to be very receptive to me. Many people commented how much they liked my art and my style but in terms of subject matter, the reception was lukewarm, at best. Now, this being my SECOND sci-fi and fantasy writer’s convention, I realize I have a few things going against me:

1. I’m a cartoonist. I think if I was a more realistic artist, perhaps my style would go over better at a convention like this.
2. My primary bread and butter is super heroes – not necessarily science fiction or fantasy even if I do have a werewolf and vampire in my strip.
3. My subject matter is also primarily humor. If Capes was more of an introspective-style comic, maybe that might make a difference.

I think the combination all three of those things makes Capes & Babes a hard sell at a convention like RavenCon. I am curious, however, to see how Capes & Babes might do at a horror convention and have thought about looking into cons like that. But for the most part, Capes & Babes is a very hard sell at a convention where the audience tends to be older, aren’t really into comic books or super heroes at all and maybe they just don’t “get” webcomics overall.

The other thing I am learning VERY quickly in the convention going business – because it IS a business – is that if you plan on being on panels, you’re invited to be on panels or you volunteer to be on panels, you REALLY need someone to help you maintain your table while you are participating in panels. Being on panels is an absolute cool thing to do. It’s a chance for you to show your expertise or at least pretend that you’re a “big star” for the hour or so a panel might be scheduled for, but if you’re solo operation like I am, you can’t be at two places at one time so it’s a bit of a financial sacrifice to be on panels since you lose the potential of selling every moment you’re away from your table. That being said, it actually is good and healthy to get away from your table an hour or so at a time. The thing you want to avoid is being on too many panels or being on back-to-back panels since the more you’re away from your table, the less people will keep coming back. Of course, if you have a wife, girlfriend, best friend or whomever to man your table while you’re away, this is a HUGE advantage you will have over other creators.

Also, should you be asked to participate on a panel, here’s some things you should consider doing:

1. Bring extra promotional material. I handed out plenty of postcards to the attendees of the panels I was on.
2. If you have a book, bring that with you. If you have a small stand for your book, bring that too so you can display it next to your name. Never miss an opportunity to promote, promote and promote!
3. Talk to your fellow panelists if you don’t already know them and don’t be afraid to give them your postcard or business card either.

That’s essentially my advice and experience at attending my first RavenCon. I would definitely consider going back next year but only to participate in various panels. I would resist the urge to buy another retailer’s table since my core audience is a little outside the norm of the type of audience RavenCon attracts.

But as always, sometimes the best experiences you get out of attending conventions is not related to how much money you made, how many new fans you might have made or how many panels you participated in – all of those things are fun, of course, but quite often it’s the after hours of a convention that turn out to be the most fun. Generally, that’s either because you’re meeting new friends (and growing your contact network) or, as was the case with me this past weekend, you’re catching up with old friends you haven’t seen in a while. And maybe you spend a few hours in the hotel lobby sitting around and talking about nothing but awful movies you either regret seeing or that are so bad, you simply have to enjoy them for their awfulness.

That was the case Saturday night