For those of you that don't know, I had gone to college at UCM (or as it was known in the days when rap/rock bands roamed the earth and the sitcom "Friends" ruled with an iron Rachel hairdo,...CMSU), so being able to participate in the first year of a comic convention in my old hometown, was both equal amounts bit nerve wracking and happily familiar.
I was just beyond excited that this kind of show was starting up, so when I finally found out about it (about a week prior), it was automatically one I wanted to do.
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| The latest addition to my show badge collection. The back of this is badge is blank, and it would have been nice to have been able to purchase some advertising area on the back of it. I was 138. (anyone else think of the Misfits song?) |
Setup that Friday evening was until 10:30pm or so, and there were a few people there setting up stuff way more intricate and full than my setup was going to be.
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| The show was being held in the ballroom of the student union, and I knew I didn't want to be dragging stuff into the show on Saturday morning, so I opted to set up Friday night. |
I walked around the center aisle of the show just looking to see who all was going to be there, and the set up was the whole pipe and drape sort of affair. Being the first year, it was a smaller floor plan, and ultimately it's how attendance in both ticket buyers and the vendors/artists.
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| "Predator" masks in progress. |
The next day I set out my art and books for display. I'm getting spoiled with 8 foot tables at shows. I can still remember the days of 4 foot tables. That just would not work nowadays.
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| I really didn't know what to expect for attendance/selling at this show, so I brought a low key setup. Just the basics. |
Set up this time was a lead in of 2 for $5 art reproductions, then an array of various sized original illustrations, and then my show sign, graphic novels and comics and my business cards and flyers for ICWXP.
It's weird to think how much the display keeps evolving depending on the show I am doing. For larger shows I have Pro Panels that I can use, and this was one show where I probably could have made it work, but I didn't want to be "that guy" at the end of an artist alley set up that blocks the view of other people's booths with bad neighbor display shenanigans.
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| Some of the very cool people I got to meet and admire the cosplays of over that weekend. |
This event was FULL of great cosplayers and many of the vendors as well were catering to this hobby. I know there were panels with all of the media guests and various subject matters, but I didn't get a chance to attend any of them.
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| StealthCon had a good crowd both days from what I experienced, with rushes of attendance spikes on both days. |
It had been windy, painfully cold, but thankfully nothing else for Friday night setup and Saturday's show day. But I awoke on Sunday to this...
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| Thanks Missouri. |
Really though, without the wind, the day was not that bad at all. But I decided to head into the show early, and check out the other booths and stuff I did not get a chance to see yet.
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| REALLY had wanted to start digging for some comics, but I'll wait until the next FanCon to get my fix on for that. |
Two vendors in attendance had comics on display for sale, and as you can see below, the other vendors had some various cool things for sale.
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| I will also add that congestion of crowd, even when it got busy was not a big deal with the super wide carpeted aisles. |
The show was a lot of fun in one primary way for me. I got to go all out in my marketing and promotional effort for myself. I worked really well as this was a great financial boost of a show for me to start the year off with, right before NakaKon. I actually ran out of flyers for ICWXP and almost ran out of my stack of 300 business cards.
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| Even more super cool people whom I had a blast talking to at the show. I hope to work with some of you over the coming year! |
To all of you that took the time to bring your portfolios and artwork to share with me, to all of you that had great and fun stories to tell,... THANK YOU. Thank you, Thank you. You guys all keep me going and wanting to do this. And I did mean it to all the parents I spoke to with children that have art bubbling up in them, when I said contact me with questions or input on stuff. I sincerely enjoy that kind of thing.
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| Mortal Kombat's Scorpion and Kung Lao, Thor and Heimdall, and a family whom I think was cosplaying some element of DragonBall Z, and the new owner of "Marceline". |
So finally as the day wound down, I did get a chance to get around to people and exchange contact info and find out what shows we'd all be doing down the line.
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| (Left) Seeing families cosplay like this just warms my heart. If the littlest one (whose La Muerta cosplay was awesome) had come as a SpaceBalls jawa and sung Dink Dink, I would have lost it. (Right) Dana was killing it as Daenerys Targaryen. |
Not gonna lie, it made it feel like a real coming home of sorts for me. Normally, I'm a very low key artist alley guy. I really mean that, (I know a lot of people saw my Billy Mayes side come out this weekend, but I swear I am introverted), and so it was very cool to have someone take notice and do a write up like that.
But with that personal triumph sandwich, comes a side of soggy fan fries.
I love the movie Starship Troopers and one of the reasons I was overjoyed to do this show was to have a chance to not only meet, but also have my action figures and back issue of Cinefex with Casper Van Dien's Rico character on the cover, autographed.
I was talking to the printmaking professor for UCM at the very moment that what I assumed was someone that just looked a lot like Rico was checking out my art and well...
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| This kind of obliviousness means I will survive NO zombie incursions ever. Even zombie manatees... |
I DON'T KNOW HOW I MANAGE TO DO THIS!!!!! Either way, I learned my lesson, and I have to remember to be more vigilant. This sort of thing happened last year at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live when BROM was checking out my Tank Girl.
Be sure to follow Casper on
Twitter and on
Facebook where he also posted up some great stuff about the show!
StealthCon, thank you for happening, and let's hope you are preparing for 2017 and beyond.
Faithful readers, be kind to your fellow beings, support your local artists, check twice to make sure you aren't standing next to Casper Van Dien and miss out on getting your action figure signed, until next time!
- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
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