Greetings Fanatics!
Sorry for the delay on my write up of Comicpalooza, but I always sustain some sort of injury/illness after a big con and this time it was a wrist strain. My sewing machine ate all of the needles I bought it so many of this year's wares were sewn by hand. Even as I type this, my hand is resting on an ice pack.
This year's Comicpalooza was good. It's always fun, but this year was less profitable than previous years; maybe due to the changed date from the usual Memorial Day weekend to Father's day weekend, maybe due to the massive construction being done on the face of the George R Brown and surrounding streets, maybe due to the fact that the disappointing Space City Comic Con was held only two weeks before and people may have been wary/strapped for funds of the next big convention. I don't know. Sales were disappointing, but compliments and business card takers were in abundance, which is very encouraging. Thank you to everyone that stopped by the TIM + BEN booth!
I say that Comicpalooza is always fun and it's true. Even when sales are slow, I always have a good time. This weekend we brought Isaac for all 3 days, which was challenging, but in different ways than we thought it might be. He mostly sat in the back of our space, reading comic booths and refusing to nap. Comicpalooza is very good about having kids' space, to entertain smaller children. This year, we brought Isaac to the bounce houses set up in the middle of the floor, worth the $4 admission each time to get him some exercise (and tire him out). He loved seeing the "robots" (Stormtroopers from The 501st Legion) that were stationed at the end of our aisle. He was too shy to meet Tina and Louise cosplayers from his favorite forbidden cartoon, Bob's Burgers. He had a fun time, considering he had no idea what was going on.
I had fun too; especially in form of walking several miles everyday going back and forth through the convention center and catching comedian Jim Mackenzie's side show multiple times in bits and pieces. The TIM+BEN crew (me, Aaron, and Hannah) have been big fans of Jim's since 2014, when he posted up across from our vendor's booth and started cracking a whip to get the attendees' attention. *No one* is a bigger fan than Hannah, who takes every opportunity to leave the booth when she hears his distinctive voice call over the show floor. This past Saturday, she did something terrific to show her appreciation, even if it didn't go the way she had planned. Friday night, when we went to the grocery store to get supplies for the next day, she purchased a single long stemmed red rose. She trimmed it and planned to throw it at the end of one of his performances the next day. I followed her soon after she left the booth to support her/make sure she did this wonderful thing. We watched Jim's entire show and when the time came and he bowed and the audience was clapping ... she didn't throw it. She missed her cue. She meant to do it while he bowed, to throw it in front of him while he was bowed down so that he wouldn't know where it came from, but she froze. She decided to leave it on his speaker/podium while he was taking Scissor Selfies with fans, but because Hannah has hilariously bad timing, she laid it down just as he was walking back. And he saw her. And thanked her. Over the speaker, While she was power walking away. She was mortified and I was dying of laughter. It was my favorite part of the weekend, better than seeing my favorite hero at the convention. Thanks, Hannah.
My next write up will be about the challenges of vending plush at a convention because of the lack of resources I feel that plush makers have for in person events.
I'd really like to move onto what I bought at Comicpalooza; fans of the blog will know that I have a slight "junk" addiction. All of the pieces of art and toys I buy would look beautiful if displayed by a home designer in an airy, window filled loft but alas, I live in an apartment in Houston, located off of a creek and optimized to keep the heat out, so my collection is dark and cramped;but interesting. To adorn the walls and shelves of my work space, I purchased:
- a ceramic cat totem from . I almost got $100 worth of stuff but decided to wait until Sunday to see how much extra money I'd have to buy art (none)
- a Silence of the Lambs inspired cat print. I'd been coveting the original painting displayed across the aisle from us since set up on Thursday, but couldn't justify the $400 expense considering the dismal sales this weekend, so I settled on a print.
- An original sketch of the Creature from the Black Lagoon by Wizard of Barge. They have great woodcuts and shirts in addition to prints and sketches.
- a screen printed devil line art that Aaron picked out for me at the end of the convention, made by the terrific artists at Shaw Illustrations.
My arm needs to rest so please expect an in depth article on plush displaying in the next few days.
Stay Fanatic,
Megh
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