We haven’t had a crappy con tale in a while, but what happened at the Panama City Beach Comic Con in Florida seems to be a textbook case: the promoter (Greg Messick) announced a show (that was mostly b-list nerdlebirties and hardly any comics) a few months out and then just never paid anyone, and […]
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What goes up, must deal with thinner oxygen at higher atmospheres. The last two years have seen unprecedented growth in comic cons/ media events around the world, with many showing spectacular growth.
But as we keep pointing out in our “When a con is crap” recurring feature, this also means a lot of fly by nighters and unprepared rookies are jumping in and not achieving the results they might have hoped for. And along the way, unsuspecting vendors, guests and attendees are getting caught holding the empty oxygen tank.
Although run by industry vets who are neither fly by nighters or rookies, the cancellation of Detroit Fanfare is the most prominent in a bunch of recent shows that will not go on as planned.
The Cherry City Comic Con in Salem, OR, scheduled for March, has been cancelled and, oh, by the way, vendors didn’t get back their deposit money:
Savannah Glitschka is among the vendors left high and dry when the organizer of the Cherry City Comic Con canceled the event – and likely kept her deposit money.
Complaints about the event were filed with the Better Business Bureau. Organizer Mark Martin – who registered his business with the Secretary of State in June — remains unavailable, despite repeated attempts over days by KOIN 6 News to talk with him.
Glitschka is a college student who paid the $60 deposit for a spot at the event scheduled for spring. She paid the money in August for a table to display and sell her art work at the Cherry City Comic Con.
“So not only is the Con not happening, we don’t get to sell out stuff out, we don’t even get our refund for the money we spent in the beginning,” she said. “And that sucks.”
And then there’s ConComics, which was planned for San Antonio TX in March 13-15. But oops! Better unpack that suitcase.
While I’m not aware of the details surrounding these cancellations and postponements, I do know word is out among vendors to beware of shady organizers. Inflated attendance and guests who were never actually booked are becoming more and more common, and with people STILL getting into the convention business in droves, “con games” are a very real thing.
So you know of more cancelled cons or suspect exhibitors? Let me know and help spread the word.
Thanks so much for posting this story. As the founder of Creative Con, we were nervous that the bad experience people had at the PCB Comic Con would taint what people thought of coming to shows in our area. Fortunately, because we’ve been going for 6 years and work hard to put together the best show for our community that we can, we have only received even more positive press from this situation. Thanks again for sharing and shout if you ever wanna come out and visit our show! :) PCCreativeCon.com
Yeah, as one of the guests that got stiffed, we made the best of it to give the attendees a great time.
As much as it sucked for all, I mostly feel for the young fans that got sucked out of 100s of dollars for VIP passes.
In any case, we all have contracts that have been handed over to lawyer to do their jobs. Unfortunate, but thats the way it goes.
Unbelievable. Maybe when Trump is president these horrible scams will finally come to an end…