Orlando comic-con/2007; the Day After!

Well, just returned from my last convention of the year and boy was it a big hot steaming pile of.....BOREDOM!!!

Now I'm not saying the con itself was a failure although there were some apparent problems with the preparation of the event-some of which could have been avoided if certain precautions had been taken.

The Orlando Comic-Con is a young convention only in it's second year of existence in a highly competitive industry. A con this young can't afford a bad rep in the business or it's lifespan will definetly be shortened...and all it takes is a bad word of mouth.

I live in O-town or as I like to refer to it; "the great land of the RAT", so I didn't have far to go to be a part of this lil' party, but other guests did travel, some from outside the country.

I saw some friends at the event, friends like Tommy Castillo, Craig Zablo, Pat Carlucci, Gene Gonzalez, and Mitch Hyman and Steve Sanchez just to name a few; then there were some of the bigger names in the biz; Mario Gully, Leinil Frances Yu, John Beatty, David Lloyd and the legendary Nick Cardy...But at the same time there were some noticeable absences like local based Arcana Studios and Stuart Immonen to name a few who apparently pulled out at the last minute due to some disagreement or misunderstanding between them and the organizers of the con.

I never really got to the bottom of the story but the general feeling was that something was amiss, also the hours were a bit on the weird side-it was advertised as a 3 day con but in reality the first day(which never accured due to some mixup with the resort location) was a 3 hour VIP preview night which would also allow some of the vendors to set up for the next day. Saturday was in all apsects a normal con day (10am-6pm) , normal hours for a Saturday at a convention (the most important and profitable day). Sunday was inexplicably short (11am-3pm), only four hours to try and make a profit with whatever you have to sell wether it be books, toys, cards, art or talent.

I am but a small independent artist trying to make ends meet, granted I, like many other artists have a "real job" in the world , I do not have a large profile name like a Greg Horn, Alex Ross, or a Jim Lee, maybe someday but at the moment I'm just plain ole' humble Shawn Surface so the more hours at a con table can be very important because the not so well known artists and professionals out there need every little cent and ounce of exposure.

In the end I came away paying for my table space with my earnings at the con, which is OK cause as I mentioned earlier ,I live in the Orlando area, a mere 30 minutes from where the con was held-it would have been nice to come away with a little more to put in the piggy bank but again this was a small and young con , one which could stand some more agressive advertising and careful management and planning-hopefully some mistakes made this year in preparation for the event will be remedied by next year.

Glynn and Sara who organized the con as they did last year are still learning the ropes of conventions-they are very nice people and hopefully in time things will all fall into place...the sooner ,the better, they have succesfully attracted some big names to there event and have moved it's date to what I think is a far superior slot in the calendar (September) far away from MegaCons residue in February.

Hopefully there will be an Orlando Comic-Con/2008, it will most likely be held in a different location other than the Caribe Royale Resort which may have caused some of the problems at this years event....time will tell.

My next scheduled cons will not be until next year, next on the agenda are two local, higher profile cons; the FX Extravaganza(January/2008), and the Orlando MegaCon(February/2008).

Till then ,it's back to the ole' drawing board, in the coming months I will be giving updates on some of the projects that I am currently working on including; "the SUPER-7", "BUBBA; the Redneck Werewolf", "Chase's Arctic Adventure", and my first creator owned project....."KUDU-MAN".

PEACE ;)

Shawn Surface

SURFACE ART STUDIOS.