Wow, this story has it all. Unattainable glamour, a desperate scheme, legal drama. And a mystery I can't answer.
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Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: salt lake city comic con, Legal Matters, Conventions, Add a tag
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Legal Matters, Conventions, San Diego Comic Con, Con Wars!, salt lake city comic con, Add a tag
The ongoing trademark battle between Salt Lake City Comic Con and the San Diego Comic-Con may be closer to settling, although it’s only listed as “promising,” with the judge in the case giving them more time to hash things out mano a mano. The two sides are set to meet with the judge this Wednesday […]
Blog: Creative Zen (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Comic conventions, Emerald City Comic Con, monsterpalooza, gothic fantasy art, diana levin art, Salt Lake City Comic Con, long beach comic expo, Art Show Reviews, Halloween Shows, Horror Convention, Horror Fantasy Art, Horror Shows, Uncategorized, art, art show, wondercon, Add a tag
With so many shows to prep, art to make and projects to work on, it has been a challenge to keep up with blogging. But I wanted to jump back in here and post a recap of all the shenanigans that has been going on with our business and the many things to expect from us in the future. So here goes:
Following a prosperous if somewhat grueling marathon run of Knott’s Berry Farm Holiday Village that took up all of December, Shawn and I took a much needed hiatus from the business for a couple weeks. We took a road trip to Denver to visit Shawn’s family. After we returned, it was back to prepping for the first show of the year, Salt Lake Comic Expo. This was a much smaller event in relation to Salt Lake City Comic Con in September but our sales were only down by a little. Still, we had fun, ate great food and made some new friends.
Long Beach Comic Expo, I will have to admit, was a bit disappointing. I always try to be open and honest about my experiences at various cons. Many times I hesitate to publicly talk about the shortcomings of a given Con and will debate with myself as to the best way to describe an unsuccessful show without bashing it. But because I strive to be more transparent about my experiences running an art business, I will go ahead and share my experience. Long Beach has always been a tough area for me to cultivate a following. I am not sure why that is. My first Comic Convention was Long Beach Comic Con. That was 3 years ago. While in most shows my sales and fan base expends every year, in LB it seems to stay at the beginning level of that very first show. Last years LBCE was surprisingly good for us and that gave me a glimmer of hope it would improve for many years to come. However, I think that the show expended too quickly, adding significantly more vendors without bringing the attendance that would justify that expansion. Again, I can only speak from my own experience. Although I spoke to many friends at the show who also saw a significant drop in sales.
Spookshow at the Halloween Club in La Mirada
This was a fun, free one-day pop-up Halloween themed event that took place in the costume store parking lot. This has definitely become one of my favorites and I hope they continue to bring this show back every year. Despite the warm temperature that day, the turnout was pretty damn good and everyone was having a great time. Our sales were up from last year. It’s free for vendors with a $25 deposit that got returned to us a week later. The crowd was just really great and enthusiastic.
Emerald City Comic Con and Mosnterpalooza
Double show weekend for Shawn and I. I fly out to Seattle for ECCC, while Shawn tables at Monsterpalooza in Burbank. Like last year, this was one incredible weekend of sales for both of us. What can I say… Emerald City Comic Con is really great show for both vendors and attendees. The people Pacific Northwest seems to have a healthy appetite for unique and original art. Monsterpalooza is more of an industry show. It feels a lot more like a trade show that has evolved to include a healthy mixture of artists, writers and horror themed artisans.
Next Up: WonderCon in Anaheim. Dealers Table DSL- 10. Hope to See you there!
And now for more great news:
1. You might have already heard, Shawn and I are changing the business name to “Ghoulish Bunny Studios”. This new business will include my artwork, plus Shawn’s writing and videos.
2. We are working on a picture book. Me illustrating and Shawn writing. We will be setting up a kickstarter for it.
3. More new art. I am trying really hard to finish work that I have started a while back. And I try to produce at least one new piece for each show.
4. We are phasing out certain products to make room for more. Many of the mini prints we offer will be retired so that we can make room for…
5. Sketchbooks. I already put my first one out this year. my next one will have more pages, more drawings and a better quality print.
6. Spooky stores from Shawn. He as been working on his writing and coming up with some great little short horror stories. We are going to put together a book of his work that will also include illustrations from me.
7. New website and online store “Ghoulish Bunny Studios” where you can shop directly from us. More products will be added, more artwork available and Shawn’s stories and videos.
So far this is as much as I can share at this time. We are always expending, changing and evolving. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years. We strive to produce quality work and products for our fiendish friends.Thanks for reading!
The post Convention Recap and the Start of Ghoulish Bunny Studios appeared first on Diana Levin Art.
Add a CommentBlog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Top News, convention attendence, convention center capacity, salt lake city comic con, Conventions, Add a tag
The third Salt Lake City Con was held this weekend, and it was by all measures a success, becoming the largest convention in Utah, with a reported 120,000-130,000 people attending. This is up from the 72,000 that attended the first one a year ago and the 100,000 that attended the spring FanX sister event. Stan Lee also said it was the best comic con on earth, so there you go.
This number would, of course, put it in the midst of San Diego Comic-con, New York Comic Con, and Fan Expo Canada as one of the biggest conventions in North America. The growth was not without growing pains, as documented on the show’s Facebook page and in the news:
As was predicted, Saturday proved to be the busiest in Salt Lake Comic Con history, with a line that wrapped around the entire Salt Palace by the 10 a.m. opening.
“The other two days I was in line for an hour and Thursday in line for three hours,” said Layton resident Ryan Bielik.
Convention goers logged serious hours in line Saturday, but what’s a few hours in line when you spent days working on your costume?
According to another report, 100,000 people attended on Saturday alone, leading them to shut down ticket sales, and the fire marshals to briefly step in:
The three-day event was bigger and better than before. Records were broken Saturday as more than 100,000 convention-goers attended the second annual Salt Lake Comic Con, according to event organizers.
Dan Farr, Salt Lake Comic Con founder, said the event had some hiccups.
“Not everything worked perfectly,” he said. “We had a few challenges getting everyone in on the first day because it was much larger than we anticipated.”
Dan Farr said VIP passes sold out a week in advance, and even pre-registration numbers didn’t prepare them for the onslaught of visitors who just showed up to buy day-of tickets.
“We sold out,” Farr said. “We had full capacity in the building for the current set up. We had, from everybody I talked to ,everyone had a great time.”
Without doubting for a minute the excitement and growing audience for this show, many industry observers have expressed doubts over the numbers that SLC Comic Con organizers have been claiming for attendance. Founder Dan Farr explained in a previous email to me that for FanX, children’s attendance was an estimate only. In addition, I’m told that for past shows, tickets given to retailers as promotional giveaways were counted as part of the overall attendance numbers, whether anyone used them or not.
So how many people were there? Not being on the scene, I can’t tell you, but lets look at some numbers.
First off, here’s some pictures of the show.
The population of Salt Lake City is 189,314. Of course, conventions draw from the outlying metropolitan area, which in SLC’s case is 968,858 according to the 2000 Census. Utah’s population is 2,900,872. By that metric, nearly 1 in 20 Utahans attended the con this weekend.
What about the convention facility, the Salt Palace Convention Center? You can see all the specs for the exhibit halls here. Some of the capacity numbers are misleadingly low however, since they refer to seating capacity.
But according to this convention center information site , the SPCC’s mazimum capacity is 82,052 people. So if 100,000 people did attend in a single day, there were some serious crowding issues.
For comparison’s sake, SPCC has 679,000 sq ft of exhibit and meeting space. The San Diego Convention Center has 615,700 sq ft of exhibit space (that’s halls A-H), a total area of 2,600,000 sq ft and a capacity of 125,000.
Did you go to Salt Lake City Comic Con? Did you have a great time? Do you think there were 100,000 people there? Let us know in the comments.
Heidi,
Thank you. The “Happy Ending from Virgil” will have me laughing for hours.
Thanks again,
Troy
I would have understood this better if I knew who “Boomer, Virgil and Chaka” were…
Boomer is the name of a character from the 1970s Battlestar Galactica as the actor who played him has spent the last 35 years appearing at fan cons and selling his autograph. Virgil and Chaka are unknown to me and I watch way too much TV and I still don’t recognize those names.
Wasn’t Chaka the name of the man-monkey on Land of the Lost?
I think Virgil is a wrestler. Maybe?
Still, using your military site ID to impersonate a federal officer — even if the crime used in using that is minor, that’s a MAJOR crime that should be punished. He should probably also lose his job. I can’t imagine the Air Force wants this guy on their site anymore, either.
They should fine the guy whatever it actually cost to get into the VIP room plus legal expenses on both sides and then give him a buttload of community service. That plea deal is preposterous.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/3757105-155/salt-lake-comic-con-says-10k
“Salt Lake Comic Con co-founder Bryan Brandenburg said Friday he was perplexed when he found out federal prosecutor Carlos Esqueda referenced tickets to the room during a hearing for a man accused of pretending to be an Air Force agent at the September 2015 event.
Brandenburg says tickets have never been sold for attendees to enter the VIP area where celebrities can rest.”