DOING COMIC CONS & SHOWS

In the late 1980s I was doing the Comic Con circuit with a friend who was also trying to break into comics. We stuck to mostly “local” shows but being based in Massachusetts we’d set up at shows as far north as Maine, west to Ohio and as far south as South Carolina. We did it the way we thought everyone did— we got a table and we paid for our travel and lodging. Luckily I’d had good mentors at SVA in New York, guys like Will Eisner and Jack Kirby who told me NEVER to pay for a table at these shows because you would get put on the “sucker” list which all these shows share— the fact of comic cons is they don’t exist without the artists— that’s the talent, and the dealers pay far more for their tables than the few artists who don’t know enough not to pay for their tables.

You are far better off trading artwork for a program or offering to do a workshop or a panel in exchange for a table than you are plunking down your hard earned sheckles and starting a show already hoping to “make table”. In those early days I thought every artist paid their own way to shows, and I thought a good show was a profit of $250 and up— boy did I have a lot to learn.

See here’s the thing— nobody talks about this until you get to a certain level, and then it’s like the other big name attendees assume you are part of the club. It was my good friend Paul Ryan who broke the news to me, I was doing it all wrong. Good news for you— I’m going to talk frankly here, and I’m going to pull back the curtain on such secret information.

HERE ARE THE LEVELS of Creators Attending the Shows. Keep in mind, you don’t have to be a big name working on some big title for some big publisher to be in one of the upper levels. I’m not— I’ve made a healthy living (last year I made $400,000/USD) for the past 28 years as a full time working comic book artist whose focus is on graphic novels and educational comics. It’s a good life.

LEVEL A - A show brings you in, covers all of your travel, provides your lodging, arranges pickups to and from the airport as well as transportation to and from the hotel if it’s far enough from the show, gives you a table, provides you meals while you are attending, assigns you a handler to help you setup your booth, cover your booth during panel events, and swing by each night to see if you’re ready to leave, and even gives you a stipend to cover after hour meals and sometimes, like when San Diego had Veronica and I as special guests in 2017— even your bar bill.

LEVEL B - A show brings you in, covers your plane fare and lodging but everything else, including lunch during the show, is your own responsibility.

LEVEL C - A show invites you to attend, gives you free tickets and a free table but you’re responsible for everything else.

LEVEL D - You are a paid attendee of a show and you pay all of your expenses including paying for your table.

So how do you move up in levels?

It’s actually fairly easy but it does take some effort.

1- You need a good LIVING* online presence, it can be your website, it can be IG or FB or whatever social media channel appeals to you— but it should be all business, no pics of your aunt’s birthday party, no pics of you in cosplay gear (if you get pegged as a cosplayer many shows will never take you seriously as a creator). If you are someone that cosplays, setup a different account to post those pics and keep them off your pro-website or presence.

Make sure you have some kind of active website that lists all of your books in print, preferably with ISBN Numbers and publisher names. The more books you have in print the more likely a con will think you’re worth inviting.

*A LIVING presence means the last post on your site isn’t two years old. Nothing looks worse than a ghost town website or blog.

2- You need to create a mailing list of fans. Do a giveaway of free sketch card art in exchange for email signups. Then create a monthly newsletter that tells these fans what you’re working on and upcoming shows.

3- Get a literary agent or a comics focused agent. Before I got mine I followed the advice of Gahan Wilson who told me back in those dark days of the 80s when I said you couldn’t get a lit agent until you’ve be repped by someone else— “Then make one up.” he said. That meant creating an alternative email address (that you check regularly) and you use that email to reach out to shows you want to get invited too. That “agent” will talk up your fanbase, your published works, the volunteer art you do for programs, etc. Every single Show Website has a section for people to click on and suggest guests— you need to do this 6-9 months BEFORE a show is run— many of these events plan well in advance. Be consistent, be considerate, and make sure your “agent” email is always professional and to the point.

4- Remember that email fanbase list? Time to call on them— ask them point blank to reach out to a show to get them to invite you. Fans love to support an Underdog— in the email you send out— which shoule be from you in this case not your agent— ask those fans to help or to recommend shows they’d like to see you at.

5- Reach out to the big shows like FanExpo who do shows all over the world— find out who the guest co-ordinator is and have that agent contact them with an impassioned plea that you are a winning guest to have.

6- Reach out to small shows too, but many of them don’t have the budget to pay your way— in those cases you’ll have to settle for Level C Status, but DON’T PAY FOR A TABLE— NOT EVER.

7- When a show invites you— get set up on time, then seek out the person who invited you and thank them for the invitation. Try and do the same thing at the end of the show, stay positive, tell them you had a successful show and thank them for inviting you. Trust me relationships matter and you’ll be invited back.

Don’t stop until you reach Level C and pretty soon you’ll have enough shows under your belt and enough good will that you’ll be invited to multiple shows.

8- Once you’ve started doing shows bring along a notebook and keep track of how you do. What is a successful show? It depends. Sometimes a success is being in a town you really like and enjoying some great restaurants and the profits aren’t all that important. In my own personal case I assume I’ll lose at least two days in my studio because your flight is usually the day before the show starts and the day after the show ends— you’re also giving up your weekend and that should have some value. In my case the bare minimum I have to do at a show is $2500 to make it worthwhile to do the show again, and that means CLEAR $2500 minus all expenses (if any).

So I rank shows— and I also get when I see patterns of consistency. Portland Oregon’s ROSE CITY is a prime example of a city with a lot of great food. We do the show every year and we’ve seen a credible swing in profits but that first year we only did about $300. Sounds like a loser show, right? Well, like I said, I enjoy Portland’s food scene with some world-class restaurants so we were willing to stick it out.

Second Year - $900 Third Year - $1400 etc etc, the last year we did the show we cleared $6000 so that became a winning show. For the record our best show ever was $20k in Chicago at C2E2. Make sure as you’re making all this “easy” money that you put 40% aside for taxes as, yes, you need to claim this on your income tax, it’s all part of doing business.

Follow these steps and you’ll achieve what you’re looking for.

It works.

WANT MORE HANDS ON HELP? Consider signing up for my FREELANCE Course which starts next Fall— space is limited.