Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cardiff, comic con

Pleasant Surprise – An Indie Comic Sellers Experience of Cardiff Film & Comic Con 2013

Published Thu, 05 Sep 2013 18:00:10 -0500

Joe Glass writes;

This year, in fact the past weekend, saw the very first Cardiff Film & Comic Con held at the Motorpoint Arena.

Now, let's be clear: this was not the first comic con in Cardiff. In fact, Cardiff Comic Expo has been running for three or four years now, and whilst one of the smaller UK cons, is a very much well loved one, with a fantastic atmosphere, a brilliant showcase and support for the small press and indie UK comics scene, and generally a lot of fun for those attending, whether sellers like myself or cosplayers or general con goers.

Now is it the first comic con by these organisers: rather, they are known for their shows including Autographica, Collectormania and London Film & Comic Con, amongst many others. This is merely their first time at this venue and in this city.

And there is plenty of room for both, I believe. Assuming Showmasters don't keep moving their events to coincide with the Expo, which sadly they have done in the past. Wales doesn't have a great many comic shows, and it really should, as we have a LOT of comic fans and creators, so having the big con and a more focused, indie con would be a major plus to all of us.

Anyway, diversion aside, I'll be entirely honest: I didn't hold out much hope for this con when I bought a table. In fact, I only bought a table because they were very cheap compared to other events (and was of course rather local to me). (Sadly, this already seems to not be the case for next year, as a deposit for a table which was discussed is already more than the full price this year. A shame, but to be expected).

It seemed that most of the information of the website, and in their advertisements leading up to the event weekend (though granted, seeing so many adverts for it was a nice change) seemed to focus on the Film and TV and, oddly, Sports personalities who were present for signings and photo sessions.

Comics, despite being in the name of the event, felt like an afterthought. There were some great UK names present, and even a bit of a coup in the presence of Gail Simone. But there was little to no mention of any kind of comics village or artists alley, or much information about the panels.

However, when I turned up on the Friday night to set up, I immediately discovered that there were in fact loads more comics folk there than I had thought there would be.

Now, rather than bore you all with a blow-by-blow of our sales and discussions throughout the day, let me give you a general overview: our sales were great! Some of the best we ever had.

People were going up to get into the convention ALL DAY. I am not kidding: at 5pm on the Saturday, people were still queuing around the block, despite there being only one hour left! The place was constantly busy (surprising given the size of the venue), and what was especially brilliant is the con seemed to attract a great mix of people, many of whom did not consider themselves comics readers but were more than happy to try something new.

And end of the day, despite my original thoughts, it was a really good mix of creators, big and small, retailers, personalities from other mediums, and it brought vast swathes of people in to the show.

Now, I'm not saying the con was perfect: there were some bugs to work on, mainly to do with the organisers and the venue, and how they seemed to have little to no communication with each other at times, and people were getting some mixed messages. Likewise, booking wise for creators is a little unusual compared to most other shows, as you don't actually receive any official confirmation of your table booking until a week before the event, and table sales are all handled via the phone for small press creators at the very least. It can make the place seem formidable and inaccessible to some people, and also showed some poor communication which could do with being worked on. In fact, for ages, many indie creators I know hadn't booked a table with them as their website only had the charge for large retailer tables on it; it wasn't until Bristol Comics Expo this year when someone was going round, baffled by the constant response he got that tables were too expensive for small press creators.

These aren't damning points by any stretch of the imagination, but would be nice if they could iron some of these kinks out for next time.

All in all, this was a damn fine event…no Kapow or Thoughtbubble by any means, but certainly a great, up and comer for the area and hopefully will continue to attract crowds and big names to lovely ol' Wales.

And to end, I would love to see Cardiff Comics Expo and Cardiff Film & Comic Con both continue in Cardiff. Cardiff needs and wants both. Cardiff loves CCE, and CCE were there first. And there is plenty of time and space throughout the year to continue to support comics and genre media in the home of Doctor Who and Being Human. We want to see more events of this kind even in Cardiff and Wales as a whole, so there's no need for competition. There's a market here for everyone!