A Lost Weekend at the VA Cosplay Con… Sorry, I mean my VA Comic Con in Review [UPDATED]
How do I start this? It is fair to say I had a convention adventure at VA Comicon aka VA Cosplay Con, it would be fair to say it was a roller-coaster ride. Although I was one of the few who came out okay, there was a huge disconnect compared to last years much better run show. So, to review this show I am going to knock it down into two sections, the good and the bad.
The Good
Let’s start with the good that came out of this show. We picked up a booth for this event, had a good setup and I pushed the boat out on the Teddy Bear Tales gear, and found I actually had space to display my other non-Teddy Bear books. The location looked good, being placed on the main transit aisle and we even was able to set up on Friday night. All of which helps to ease yourself into the Saturday morning.
I was joined again by Charmingly Geeky which is run by my wife, the making of geeky jewelry has been a boon for her this year, keeping her active while dealing with a chronic disability.
Tristan the Teddy Bear at VA Comic Con
And then the show begins… it was really cool catching up with Kickstarter backers, and fans of the Teddy Bear Tales work. I rarely get to see you all face to face and finally putting names to faces was a great experience. Also talking to new fans who are taking a chance on my work makes for an enjoyable time. When I could talk with having to shout over the Deadpooly Cosplayer and his Boombox.
The Kilt
The Kilts at VA Comic Con
I finally met Chuck Parker, and teamed up with Chris Otto of Dogs Life fame and took an amazing Kilt picture which has been bopping around the internet. I am sure there will be several versions on the world-wide web by now. Chuck has been a backer of every single one of my book projects, and I finally got to thank him for his support face to face. You are awesome Dude, and again thank you for your support!
The Commission
I only got one commission during the show hours, which is pretty normal. I don’t really go out of my way to advertise that I do commissions, as it takes face time away from me directly talking to Attendees. It was a sketchcard illustration of a custom anime character.
Tristan Meets The Cosplayers
Tristan the Teddy Bear meets Ivy Doomkitty at VA Comic Con
I’ve decided to move the Tristan meets the Cosplayers gallery over on to theteddybeartales.com makes more sense to put it in our favorite little Teddy Bears internet home.
The Writers Workshop
I was privileged to be tapped for the Writers Workshop, and I was joined again by the Yankee Cowboy in Kilt known as Chris Otto, and we had an engaging discussion with several budding writers. I think we managed to inspire them to keep writing, helped them through a few sticky writer issues and maybe one of them will be the next best seller. Just hope I make it into one of their acknowledgements;)
The After Party
On Saturday night VAComicon threw an After Party for the VIP’s, it was a like a mini-con held back at the main convention hotel. About a dozen artists attended bringing a little bit of their booth setup’s with them. I brought my sketchcard prints and did two quick BW sketchcard commissions before calling it quits, and going to bed.
The Middle
Last year VAComicon was a huge hit Creators and Comic book fans all in one place, great atmosphere,great show for everyone. Based on this information alone I signed up a booth and convinced a fellow Creator Scott Markley of Time of Hugs to pick up a table, getting bigger after a successful first year show is only a good thing… for most shows anyway.
Sorry Scott hope a hug from Tristan makes you feel better…
The Bad – Welcome To VA Cosplay Con
Before this continues, I feel it is important to point out I have no issue with Cosplayers at conventions, almost all of the Cosplayers I have met are pretty cool people, and just like us Exhibitors they add color to a comic book convention, and with the exception of a tiny few, most are rabid comic book fans and a joy to talk to.
Updated – 11/26/2014 – Yesterday I posted that Cosplayers got in for FREE at this convention, this was based off the Cosplay Rules information, namely Rule 11 on the Vacomicon.com website.
’11. Lastly, all attendees claiming a free cosplay ticket at the door MUST be in costume. If you are not, your cosplay ticket will not be accepted. Please remember that these rules are for the safety of yourself and other con goes. Compliance with these ensures a safe and fun convention environment for everyone! Guests and cosplayers alike. If you have any questions regarding these rules, please look back over them or be sure to speak with our friendly security staff at the event.’
It turns out I was incorrect with this information, and based on sources from a VA Comicon Officer only some of the Cosplayers got in for FREE.
But Gosh… Did this convention go sideways. First off it was marketed with the emphasis on it being Cosplay Con over comic books and pop culture. Proving it is true what they say, you market to certain segment you only get that certain segment of the market, so in many ways their marketing towards Cosplayers was very successful maybe a little too much.
Plus White Tiger Filmz were there filming their version of Heroes Of Cosplay, called Viva La Cosplay which is airing on CW Richmond, and this too was heavily promoted. You know be nice one day if a reality TV company documents what an Indie Artist/Creator goes through before a show, I know a couple of subjects who might make good TV.
Deadpooly Dance Party
This has already been mentioned, throughout Saturday my wife and myself were subjected to several of the Deadpooly BoomBox Cosplayer and his impromptu dance parties. You can read my much longer account of the most disruptive cosplay behavior I have ever experienced here, and learn of the VA Comicon lack of reaction to it.
Was That An Award Show?
Saturday saw an odd event taking place to the right of my booth just at the top of the Cosplay Catwalk, it looked like a Cosplay Award Show of some type. It completely blocked off one side of the hall stopping trade for the Exhibitors up there for almost three hours, and in one case one Exhibitor could not get back to their booth it was that crowded. This strange event was a hint of what was to come on Sunday.
Cosplay Take Over
On Sunday, I watched the crowd change from regular attendees to almost all Cosplayers, when the Award show started around 3pm they clogged up the entire opposite end of the Cosplay Catwalk, blocking up the Comic Book Vendors – these are the guys that paid the big money for their space. Until it got so bad a Fire Marshall turned up and moved the Contest out into the main lobby. By this time I was seeing Exhibitors packing up and leaving, it was done, this show wasn’t about comic books, artist, or creators… It was about the Cosplayers, they had taken over.
If the Convention Organizer wanted a Cosplay Ball, then perhaps he should have organized one of those instead.
We left around 6pm after packing up our Booth, and as we drove off the Cosplay Contest was still going on in the main Lobby, the show had left. I wonder if they even noticed those funny artists and comic guys had gone?
I wont be returning to VA Comic Con again unless something drastic changes – I know I’m no loss, in fact VA Comicon have told me I am no loss to their show and the other Exhibitors who said they wont be returning will be no loss to them either. This is the way of things, we in the Artist Alley are after all ultimately seen as disposable, but it still stinks.
Sum Up
I had some fun experiences during this show, and largely this was an okay convention for me. A lot of ill-feeling towards Cosplayers was generated at this show, it had nothing to do with Cosplayers, but the Convention Organizers getting it complete wrong and not giving them their own space, or dealing with disruptive elements.
I don’t really know what else to say… Just complete disappointment, a balance has to be found.
Update 11/26/2014 – This article was originally posted late on 11/25/2014 and I got a lot of heat for it from mostly one VA Comicon Officer. While I acknowledge I did get the Cosplayers got in for FREE information wrong, it was caused by misinformation on the VAComicon website. The rest of this article is pulled from my own observations, sources within the VA Comicon staff on the show weekend, and the two dozen Exhibitors, (some of whom want their money back) that I talked to during the show.
I stand by the Fire Marshall moving the Cosplay Award Show out into the Lobby area, I wish I did take some pictures to visual proof of just how crowded it got down there. I got the Fire Marshall appearence from three sources, and I think as an ex-Hack that is good enough.
The VA Comicon Officer admitted the show was understaffed which may have led to some of the chaos of that became the Cosplay Take Over on Sunday, only two of the ten volunteers turned up over the weekend.
The same VAComicon Officer asked who told me about the Fire Marshall, and like a good Journalist I refused to reveal my source. The Officer then said he would talk to the staff to find out who did talk. For this I want to say sorry to the Staff Members (and Volunteers) who talked to me at VAComicon, I didn’t mean to put the sources into a situation where they might feeling pressured into admitting they dared to talk to an Exhibitor about some of the shows problems. I hope they do not suffer any repercussions for being generally helpful and having to deal with some real awkward and out of control situations on the show floor with no support from the VA Comicon Officers ‘running’ the convention.
While I understand VAComicon might want to do damage control, right now a general ‘don’t talk to anyone about the problems’ works better than singling one person out. Doing that stinks of something even worse happening behind the scenes that even I don’t know about (apparently there was something worse- see below).
After all in the end, who am I? I am just a very, very small fish on the Mid-Atlantic convention scene and don’t have that huge an impact (accept if I fall over, something I have to see to in the new year), and would be surprised if this article pushes into double numbers (it did! View count as of 12/02/2014 – 1543 – which for this website is spectacular numbers.)
One last thing, and I did take offense to this.
I was accused by the same VA Comicon Officer of seeking attention and of click baiting for ad revenue, and as such I should be ignored as this is my third article about VAComicon (one was fun, honest!). This is my answer.
I posted what happened, I’m not big-headed enough to think any of this would have got attention.
I don’t make ad revenue on this website- although I am sure I may have a Google Ad on one of my satellite pages somewhere.
I retracted the bad information about Cosplayers getting in for FREE – clear the confusion up on your website.
I paid for my space at VA Comicon I have a right to run commentary about the show as I see fit.
I have zero issues with Cosplayers, except for Deadpooly… But that Douche made his own problems.
Unlike this VA Comicon Officer I talked too, I am not saying one thing to your face and another behind your back.
I don’t like the attempt at being bullied into taking down an article on my website by the VA Comicon Officers, and while I will post retractions and corrections, what content goes up on my website and stays on my website is my choice. No one else makes that choice, this is after all my rented space on the interwebs.
Be thankful I am not posting everything that was revealed to me or posted any names (although I am was sorely tempted as new information came to light), a Asshat Hack would do that, I’m not an Asshat Hack – hence why I never really got anywhere as a Journalist.
Update 11/27/2014 – WTF? -Looks like my link post on Facebook attracted the attention of VA Comicon owner Brett Carreras, I’m just going to post the screen grab of his reply below.
Even though he is being economical with the truth (must have forgotten about the 120+ minutes of floor sharing on Saturday), he almost had me changing my article. Then he posted accusing FORMER staff on the show floor passing on false information second post. Rogue Staff members loose in the hall giving VA Comicon a bad name?
WTF?
What a farce… Rogue Staff?
If you had rogue former staff in the convention, out to give you a bad name then they had no control over the VA Comicon at all.
Crap…
I should really have attached ad-revenue to this blog post, it is doing silly numbers.
