Greetings Surface Dwellers...
I have survived yet another convention....but just barely!
Recently returned from the carnage that was FX International I can safely say that I have come out of it fairly unscathed albeit a bit bruised and fatigued.
FX is held annually here in the great "sunshine state",a venue highlighting the comics genre among other things (toys, merchandise, movies etc...), this year it celebrates it's 20th anniversary, a rare milestone indeed amongst such cons especially ones such as FX that have smaller turnouts compared to it's bigger brothers MegaCon, and DragonCon. I came into the convention showroom knowing this so in the end I was not disappointed, but that doesn't mean that I still wished my visit was more pleasant...and more profitable!
FX is a well organized and well run convention and has been for some years now, but unfortunately the convention Gods have not been kind as of late, despite it's professionalism, it's well trained staff and a rather diverse guest list of celebrities, artists, creators and writers FX has yet to shake off the large stigma that is MegaCon.
This year the organizers moved the event to April away from it usual January date(it was for some time the first Convention of the year), I can only surmise that this was done to help stimulate crowd numbers and to further separate itself from MegaCon (held in late February).
The schedule change did not help matters; it was held on the same weekend as the dreaded national tax deadline , that and the fact that this great nation of ours is going through a tough recession only compounded the situation. FX suffered one of the poorest opening day(Friday) turnouts that I have seen in recent memory for an established con , now I'll admit that I am not a well known artist, in fact I am more unknown than known, and this may come off as "sour grapes" to some who may read this and I'll be honest with you that I wish ,as all who ever have a table at such events, that I had a more financially rewarding weekend-who wouldn't want to make a profit or be better recognized and appreciated for their talents and profession?
Saturday is traditionally the busiest day for any convention, but much to FXs dismay Saturday was not much better, oh the crowds were much larger, and the events, panels, and special signings were plenty but a simple look in the eyes of most of the vendors, and artists attending would shatter that illusion.
I spoke with some creators and artists who were attending their first FX ,and they were a bit disappointed and they ,like most chalked up the poor attendance and sales to the current national financial crisis.
The more recognizable names in the biz on the majority did well but I spoke with a few and they too noticed the poor turnout. Now this report is not all doom and gloom ,there was a ray of sunshine amongst the clouds. I did get to meet up and talk with some old friends and some colleagues from cons I had not been able to attend lately, also had some first time meetings notably with veteran artists Michael Golden (Micronauts, The Nam), Frank Brunner (Man-Thing,Howard the Duck, Dr. Strange) and one of my favorites...Steve "the Dude" Rude(Nexus, the Moth), Steve and his wife Gina were patient and very kind with this one, for a moment, I felt like a "fanboy" again. I also got to meet with other artists like Sean "cheeks" Galloway( animated Spider-Man, Hellboy), Mike Perkins(Union Jack), Robert Atkins(G.I.Joe) ,and Jim Cheung (Avengers) among many others.
I did do quite a bit of signing myself, placing my "John Hancock" on some issues of "BUBBA; the Redneck Werewolf" ,and on copies of my latest release; "Billy the Monster Hunter", I even signed and sold a couple of copies of the limited print that I did for the convention. All in all FX proved to be more of a social gathering for me than anything ,although financially disappointing it was on the other hand rewarding in other aspects...FX is one of the events held in my "backyard", Orlando, Florida and I will most likely attend and have a table next year, at which time we can only hope that the national crisis has passed or at least improved along with the fortunes of FX International....
...till next time my friends, Peace ;)
