Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
Fall	7.2%	[ 73 ]
Winter	5.5%	[ 56 ]
Any time!	46.5%	[ 474 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1020 ]

[LavenderMintRose]

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...

...I want to go to Fanime. They say it's like Otakon but better. But I live in New York which hopefully everyone knows is not exactly near California. So I go to Otakon because it's closer.

Still no word about AnimeNext, and I've been told to stop expecting to hear anything within the next 3 months. Crap.

[spoonyliger]

Starre257

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...

...I want to go to Fanime. They say it's like Otakon but better. But I live in New York which hopefully everyone knows is not exactly near California. So I go to Otakon because it's closer.

Still no word about AnimeNext, and I've been told to stop expecting to hear anything within the next 3 months. Crap.

When it comes to going to conventions, living in New York is pretty crappy. At least in my opinion. There's barely anything nearby. The only cons around here that I know of are Otacon, AnimeNext, the New York con one but I don't think their AA is the same as the other places. I'm going to on this year though in Hoboken, NJ called Castle Point Anime Convention, I already paid for my table there. It only lasts one day though. We need more cons in New York.

Hey, you guys know those black fence looking thingies people use to hang their pics. What are those called and where to get them?

@Vicemage: Can I still use you as a reference in Comixpress? I was trying to look for your comic there but I couldn't find it so I thought that you probably don't use it anymore.

[Vicemage]

Derek, yes, you can. ^_^ I'm not actually listed in the store, but I do still use them. I'll PM you with the information for using me as a referrer.

[Kaxen]

Does anyone use Ka-Blam printing? How fast do they make comics?

[Vicemage]

I used Ka-Blam for a recent project... how fast they print depends on how much you pay them, honestly. The more you're willing to shell out, the farther up the queue they'll put you.

However, they're just as slow as anyone else I've used at sending you out your invoices and giving you any notification, and just like anyone else I've used, they'll push it all the way to the very last possible day before you get anything. (With Comixpress, in all but one case I've gotten my books at most a day or two before the deadline I give them; with Ka-Blam they arrived exactly on the deadline day.)

[R a i r e n]

Derek Dragomir

When it comes to going to conventions, living in New York is pretty crappy. At least in my opinion. There's barely anything nearby. The only cons around here that I know of are Otacon, AnimeNext, the New York con one but I don't think their AA is the same as the other places. I'm going to on this year though in Hoboken, NJ called Castle Point Anime Convention, I already paid for my table there. It only lasts one day though. We need more cons in New York.
.

you have Comicon. (Granted that's not an Anime fest, but I'd kill for Comicon..)

There's definitely more than those three, do a search, there's also Katsucon if you're going all the way to Maryland for Otakon.

[spoonyliger]

R a i r e n

Derek Dragomir

When it comes to going to conventions, living in New York is pretty crappy. At least in my opinion. There's barely anything nearby. The only cons around here that I know of are Otacon, AnimeNext, the New York con one but I don't think their AA is the same as the other places. I'm going to on this year though in Hoboken, NJ called Castle Point Anime Convention, I already paid for my table there. It only lasts one day though. We need more cons in New York.
.

you have Comicon. (Granted that's not an Anime fest, but I'd kill for Comicon..)

Oh, yea I was trying to refer to those two but I forgot what they were called. My problem with those though is their Artist Alley. For some reason I think that they're different from most cons. Getting straight to the point, I'm afraid they won't allow fan art to be sold.

R a i r e n

There's definitely more than those three, do a search, there's also Katsucon if you're going all the way to Maryland for Otakon.

I've been searching for cons for the last 4 months on this awesome website called animecons.com, they have a section where they show you the world map with all their con info pinpointed on it - Con Map

There's others like Tora-con, but that's too far for people like me. I-Con in Long Island...... I don't know why, but it just seems very scarce around here when you compare it to states like Texas or Florida.

[LavenderMintRose]

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...

The thing about Katsucon and Otakon is that you can only really make 1 trip that big per year, unless you're kind of rich. I choose Otakon...

And yeah, Comiccon's AA is mostly for professionals. It's not for the type of artists who go to Anime cons. Although, I did see one artist from Otakon who I'd say is the typical anime-con type at NYCC's Artist Alley.

Also, I've heard Reed Exhibitons, that does NYAF and NYCC, are kind of bad with the AA, and they don't treat the artists well. I'm not sure of the details, though... I heard it from a webcomic artist.

Edit: But it appears the town I'm going to college in next year has two cons right near it. I know about Ohayocon, but anyone know anything about Anime Punch?

[aisazia]

I've been to Anime Punch and I'll probably be there this year as well. 3nodding What exactly did you want to know? Their website is animepunch.org.

[Moe SahChan]

I had a friend who had a table at either NYAF or NYCC. She had a terrible experience. THe tables were insanely expensive (upwards of $100, I think? And apparently it was because the convention hall itself is hard to book/expensive ffff idk) and I guess she just had a bad time at the con in general. Definitely turns me off.

I think most comic conventions are less for amateurs, more for professionals/regulars... Although, that also depends on how big the con is, and of course, there are always exceptions. A lot of my friends in the local artist's alley aren't anywhere near professional level, but they still do manage to book tables at like, WonderCon (basically the younger sister con of SDCC) and other fairly large conventions. I dunno how, but they do.

[[Kako]]

Big conventions like those have always seemed like major headaches to me. ^^; Everyone takes things so much more seriously. (I'm not really one to talking about taking things too seriously, though. xD I stayed up all night twice just to get my table at AX '07. Speaking of that, holy cow this thread has been going on for a while!)

On another note, I'm trying to plan out my table display for Fanime. (Assuming I get a table. razz ) The Fanime tables are 6'x2', and I'm sharing with two other people. One of them is selling prints like me, and we're going to share our space entirely, while the other person is taking 1/3 of the table entirely for himself. So, we've got a 4'x2' space to work with. I'm thinking of setting up one of those pvc-pipe hanging displays, so that person A and I can easily display our posters, but person B objects because he thinks it'll get too cluttered. Does anyone who has done the pvc-pipe thing before have some input?

Oh! Speaking of Fanime, they had to take their info down for some modifications ^^; Hopefully, it'll be up soon.

[Kaxen]

>_> If I was selling like a 20-page-ish comic, would it be better to sell a short story or a first chapter of a longer story? >_> Man, I need to stop drawing so many comics simultaneously...

Or more selling dark and gloomy (the short story) or dragons vs. airplanes... (the long story)

Though I am trying to pigeon-hole my dragons vs. airplanes idea into my project for my animation class so I might have a trailer for that. Do animated trailers for non-animated stuff attract people?

[LavenderMintRose]

okay, I have a question.

I remember hearing once (I think it was on an anime podcast where they were reviewing a con, or maybe it was at a panel at a con about cons) that people who are more than just congoers shouldn't cosplay. I remember this person said that if they walked into a panel that wasn't a cosplay panel and saw the panelist cosplaying, they would walk out. I think they said that it also applies to artists in the Artist Alley, that people with a table shouldn't cosplay.

I would think these people might be in the minority, and that for most people, a (decent) cosplay of a character from a show they liked might draw them to the table.I know in the past I bought from a table because the guy working at the table was one of the only two Scrapped Princess cosplayers I saw at that con besides myself.

But I'm not sure, so I just wanted people's opinions... has cosplay become something people don't really like? Or is it more of an ice-breaker? Or something else? Does it depend on the series being done? I'll (probably) be cosplaying Villetta from Code Geass (and sharing my table with a Jeremiah cosplayer). do you think that's good or bad? Should I save the cosplay for the next con I go to, where I (probably) won't be in the Artist Alley?

sweatdrop

[Seijaku_Ishida]

I wouldn't be turned off to an artist for cosplaying. If I like the series or even just the costume itself, I'd probably go over to ask for a picture.

I don't cosplay often, but I kinda want to make a costume of one of my comic characters. >: