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OK, fine, con report, whatever
A-Kon. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija flew in Thursday, and after a small comedy routine involving exactly where she was going to be - the arrivals screen said B28, but there was no baggage claim B28 because it jumped from B25 to B29 - I collected her and her large bag of books and candy (for bribing people to buy stuff), and we headed for my place, with a short detour on the way to eat at Tom's Burgers & Grill, a very shiny diner-looking burger joint. It really is shiny: the entire outside is coated in polished aluminum or some such. Then on to my apartment, on the way to which I showed her five of the seven liquor stores within a mile of my apartment. (I'm on the city limits of Arlington, TX, which was dry until a year ago, hence many liquor stores just outside the city.)
We printed prints and watched Kyo Kara Maoh and various other con-related things until we were hungry, and then embarked upon a long journey to find a restaurant that wasn't actually closing their doors as we arrived on their doorstep, and ended up at the Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse.
Next day, the boy showed up and we headed out for con. The hotel couldn't find the Spindrift boxes that had been delivered, but thanks to the miracle of the internets and UPS tracking I knew who had signed for it, so they were able to track them down to someone who was lazy and didn't want to deliver the boxes from the loading dock to the hotel lobby and had told the concierge that the boxes were already at the lobby. Butts were booted and boxes delivered.
We got to the Komik Market to discover that (a) I was a panelist, much to my surprise, and (b) neither Toby nor Rachel had badges waiting for them. I didn't actually realize I was a panelist until a friend came by and told me I had a panel on Sunday, even though I'd been given a badge that said PANELIST. The one year I actually was a panelist, they didn't schedule me for any panels, and then last year someone chased me all over the con to give me a guest badge for some inexplicable reason because I had enver actually been invited to be a guest, and had purchased a badge. So being given a panelist badge didn't connect in my mind with being an actual panelist. Which is normal operation for A-Kon.
We sat next topzb. Friday sales were ok, and we went to dinner at Sonny Bryan's, a BBQ place downtown, with a bunch of Cepheids (friends who were and are members of the Texas A&M SF club, Cepheid Variable. Once a Cepheid, pretty much always a Cepheid).
Saturday. Same-old, same-old art table stuff, for the most part. Sales were ok again, not too incredible. We did sell several copies ofrachelmanija's book, All The Fishes Come Home To Roost. The target demographic for that appeared to be soccer moms who were escorting their kids around the con and looking slightly shell-shocked at the anime stuff all around them, who grasped eagerly at the one thing smacking of normality they saw, even though that normality was a book about a girl raised on a commune in rural India by crazy hippie parents.
I escaped to the dealer's room once, and got a Renji pin, and a Bleach teeny mystery-box figurine that turned out to be Orihime, and a Spirit of Wonder mystery figurine that turned out to be a nice statue of China, the female lead in Spirit of Wonder. Sasuga Books had an original artwork by Kazuya Minekura from Wild Adapter, but wanted $400 for it, and I could not justify putting that on my credit card no matter how hard I tried, so I contented myself with drooling from a distance. I also got a bunch of marker paper from the Copic marker booth, and a bottle of colorless blender refill.
Saturday night: RJs for dinner, a Mexican food place downtown. Then back to the room to watch the first episode of Doctor Who season 2, whichrachelmanija hadn't seen yet.
Sunday we were woken up by a Texas thunderstorm, and got down to the artist alley about 10ish. My panel was at noon, andanderson_t and rachelmanija got shanghied to be on it, since I had few ilusions about my ability to lead a panel all by myself. The topic was "Manga 101: Q&A" so I wisely decided to spend the entire time just answering the audience's questions. Seemed to turn out well, and since the other two actually have real, pro manga/comic/what-have-you work under their belts, theywere able to project an air of authority that I totally milked. XD
After the panel, since we were already on the third floor and the escalators had been staircases since Friday morning,rachelmanija and I toured the art show. She hadn't believed me when I told her that she wouldn't need me to point out the dire art, because it was just that dire, for the most part. I saw someone debating buying one of my prints in the print shop, so I made myself known as the artist and talked with him about it until he was guilted into buying it. XD
Sales were better on a per-hour basis on Sunday than on Friday or Saturday, which I attribute entirely to Money Frog, my small frog statue which had not been on the table Friday or Saturday but was on the table Sunday. But as we were at the table for fewer hours on Sunday than Friday or Saturday, that didn't add up to much. I sold 6 of 9 works in the art show, however, and 3 of the 5 prints I put into the print shop.
Overall, it seemed that sales were down for everyone this year, event hough A-Kon was bigger than ever. I'm wondering if people blew a lot of their budgets on gas to get to the con, instead of having it left over for art.
I didn't have any particular piece that was a runaway seller like the Advent Children last year, but the keychains were a good idea: I think we sold about 85 of the 100 I had. I'll work up the numbers of what I sold and post them later. Sold more Bleach than last year, which was interesting, considering that there were more Bleach cosplayers last year. The largest cluster of cosplayers I saw this year were Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts II*, and I'm thinking I might have been able to sell a lot of those if I'd done them. Naruto cosplayers were abundant, but on the wane, and Bleach cosplayers were numerous, and more of them were cosplaying captains this year, as opposed to other Soul Reapers last year.
* Where do they buy those leather/pleather coats? Some were obviously homemade, but way too many were way too good to not have been purchased.
Sunday the Komik Market had a raffle where all the artists donated a prize, and all the artists won something. I won a set of 10 Copic markers (!!!!!) and donated a $14 credit for my stuff (the price of one of my big prints), and the table who won that packed up and left before they were notified about their prize. So I should probably try to track them down.
We drove back to my place after the con, and the boy and I introducedrachelmanija to the glory that is Freebird's World Burrito*, then we drove by Central Markup Market and picked up a sampling of desserts (rachelmanija had been educated on the PROPER way to pronounce "pecan" 'round these parts), then went back home to watch more Doctor Who and an episode of Inu-Yasha, to introduce her to the crack.
* Sort of like Chipotle, only with flavor and attitude.
Monday I droverachelmanija to the airport and carefully dropped her off at the exact wrong gate, necessitating that she walk to the other end of the terminal for her plane.
And then I came home, posted to LJ about video games, then was ALMOST SUCKED UP BY A TORNADO for values of 'almost' that include 'not at all', and went the hell to bed.
rachelmanija flew in Thursday, and after a small comedy routine involving exactly where she was going to be - the arrivals screen said B28, but there was no baggage claim B28 because it jumped from B25 to B29 - I collected her and her large bag of books and candy (for bribing people to buy stuff), and we headed for my place, with a short detour on the way to eat at Tom's Burgers & Grill, a very shiny diner-looking burger joint. It really is shiny: the entire outside is coated in polished aluminum or some such. Then on to my apartment, on the way to which I showed her five of the seven liquor stores within a mile of my apartment. (I'm on the city limits of Arlington, TX, which was dry until a year ago, hence many liquor stores just outside the city.)We printed prints and watched Kyo Kara Maoh and various other con-related things until we were hungry, and then embarked upon a long journey to find a restaurant that wasn't actually closing their doors as we arrived on their doorstep, and ended up at the Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse.
Next day, the boy showed up and we headed out for con. The hotel couldn't find the Spindrift boxes that had been delivered, but thanks to the miracle of the internets and UPS tracking I knew who had signed for it, so they were able to track them down to someone who was lazy and didn't want to deliver the boxes from the loading dock to the hotel lobby and had told the concierge that the boxes were already at the lobby. Butts were booted and boxes delivered.
We got to the Komik Market to discover that (a) I was a panelist, much to my surprise, and (b) neither Toby nor Rachel had badges waiting for them. I didn't actually realize I was a panelist until a friend came by and told me I had a panel on Sunday, even though I'd been given a badge that said PANELIST. The one year I actually was a panelist, they didn't schedule me for any panels, and then last year someone chased me all over the con to give me a guest badge for some inexplicable reason because I had enver actually been invited to be a guest, and had purchased a badge. So being given a panelist badge didn't connect in my mind with being an actual panelist. Which is normal operation for A-Kon.
We sat next to
pzb. Friday sales were ok, and we went to dinner at Sonny Bryan's, a BBQ place downtown, with a bunch of Cepheids (friends who were and are members of the Texas A&M SF club, Cepheid Variable. Once a Cepheid, pretty much always a Cepheid).Saturday. Same-old, same-old art table stuff, for the most part. Sales were ok again, not too incredible. We did sell several copies of
rachelmanija's book, All The Fishes Come Home To Roost. The target demographic for that appeared to be soccer moms who were escorting their kids around the con and looking slightly shell-shocked at the anime stuff all around them, who grasped eagerly at the one thing smacking of normality they saw, even though that normality was a book about a girl raised on a commune in rural India by crazy hippie parents.I escaped to the dealer's room once, and got a Renji pin, and a Bleach teeny mystery-box figurine that turned out to be Orihime, and a Spirit of Wonder mystery figurine that turned out to be a nice statue of China, the female lead in Spirit of Wonder. Sasuga Books had an original artwork by Kazuya Minekura from Wild Adapter, but wanted $400 for it, and I could not justify putting that on my credit card no matter how hard I tried, so I contented myself with drooling from a distance. I also got a bunch of marker paper from the Copic marker booth, and a bottle of colorless blender refill.
Saturday night: RJs for dinner, a Mexican food place downtown. Then back to the room to watch the first episode of Doctor Who season 2, which
rachelmanija hadn't seen yet.Sunday we were woken up by a Texas thunderstorm, and got down to the artist alley about 10ish. My panel was at noon, and
anderson_t and rachelmanija got shanghied to be on it, since I had few ilusions about my ability to lead a panel all by myself. The topic was "Manga 101: Q&A" so I wisely decided to spend the entire time just answering the audience's questions. Seemed to turn out well, and since the other two actually have real, pro manga/comic/what-have-you work under their belts, theywere able to project an air of authority that I totally milked. XDAfter the panel, since we were already on the third floor and the escalators had been staircases since Friday morning,
rachelmanija and I toured the art show. She hadn't believed me when I told her that she wouldn't need me to point out the dire art, because it was just that dire, for the most part. I saw someone debating buying one of my prints in the print shop, so I made myself known as the artist and talked with him about it until he was guilted into buying it. XDSales were better on a per-hour basis on Sunday than on Friday or Saturday, which I attribute entirely to Money Frog, my small frog statue which had not been on the table Friday or Saturday but was on the table Sunday. But as we were at the table for fewer hours on Sunday than Friday or Saturday, that didn't add up to much. I sold 6 of 9 works in the art show, however, and 3 of the 5 prints I put into the print shop.
Overall, it seemed that sales were down for everyone this year, event hough A-Kon was bigger than ever. I'm wondering if people blew a lot of their budgets on gas to get to the con, instead of having it left over for art.
I didn't have any particular piece that was a runaway seller like the Advent Children last year, but the keychains were a good idea: I think we sold about 85 of the 100 I had. I'll work up the numbers of what I sold and post them later. Sold more Bleach than last year, which was interesting, considering that there were more Bleach cosplayers last year. The largest cluster of cosplayers I saw this year were Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts II*, and I'm thinking I might have been able to sell a lot of those if I'd done them. Naruto cosplayers were abundant, but on the wane, and Bleach cosplayers were numerous, and more of them were cosplaying captains this year, as opposed to other Soul Reapers last year.
* Where do they buy those leather/pleather coats? Some were obviously homemade, but way too many were way too good to not have been purchased.
Sunday the Komik Market had a raffle where all the artists donated a prize, and all the artists won something. I won a set of 10 Copic markers (!!!!!) and donated a $14 credit for my stuff (the price of one of my big prints), and the table who won that packed up and left before they were notified about their prize. So I should probably try to track them down.
We drove back to my place after the con, and the boy and I introduced
rachelmanija to the glory that is Freebird's World Burrito*, then we drove by Central rachelmanija had been educated on the PROPER way to pronounce "pecan" 'round these parts), then went back home to watch more Doctor Who and an episode of Inu-Yasha, to introduce her to the crack.* Sort of like Chipotle, only with flavor and attitude.
Monday I drove
rachelmanija to the airport and carefully dropped her off at the exact wrong gate, necessitating that she walk to the other end of the terminal for her plane. And then I came home, posted to LJ about video games, then was ALMOST SUCKED UP BY A TORNADO for values of 'almost' that include 'not at all', and went the hell to bed.
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i would do anything to have seen that. i wonder if it ever got bought? but if i was there, i would totally buy it. (or maybe not . . . )
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FUCK! KNEW I forgot to do something in Texas! *cries many tears*
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Wonder what the big anime will be next year.
OH! And I have Kyo Kara Maoh on my Netflix list. How is it?
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I figure if I go to Oni-Con this October down in Houston, I'll try to work up a few OXIII members and see if they sell. I also had two people within an hour ask me if I had any Tifa Lockheart.
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If mostly L and Light, then pro'ly because they're easy costumes to do (except for Ryuk and Ren), yes? ( ... although I'd have a tough time passing as any of those characters ...)
It's really odd, I've only done one such con (Katsucon) since I started reading manga, and at that point, all I'd read was Samurai Deeper Kyo - and without a reference for the mental images in my memories, I have almost no idea what characters I saw!
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The DN cosplayers were mostly L and Light - Light had to be carrying a Death Note around or be chained to L or you really couldn't tell him apart from an inexplicably formally dressed congoer - but there were a lot of Misas, a decent number of Mellos, and a couple of Matts. No shinigami this time - there was a Ryuk last year.
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Man, I can't wait until Anime Expo. I usually go to Fanime, which is over Memorial Day weekend, but I couldn't go this year because my lil' sister graduated from college and we went to see that, of course. (My OWN college graduation? I blew that off for Fanime. XD Considering my college was a huge state one, and I would have stood up for 30 seconds in a sea of a thousand others for "ALL RISE, COLLEGE OF ART... THANK YOU"... yeah.)
Anyway, since I have not been to Fanime for the first time in my entire fannish life, I am going through severe OMGCON withdrawal. So your post provides some happy crack! YAY CON!
(Is it can be AX tiem now plz? D:)
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Next year.