Road to SDCC - San Diego Comic Con 2018 - A last rehearsal in April

Hello everyone!
Hope you are doing alright and have survived the holidays?!

As you might know I'm on my way to being at the SDCC 2018 next year in the 'Artist Alley'.
I was super lucky to get on the list to be one of the artists that is allowed to show/sell their work during the San Diego Comic Con!

As you can read in some of my previous blogs I am trying to share the story/journey of me going there.
Hopefully I'll be able to record the whole process, from making artwork, to getting it printed, booking hotels and tickets to eventually actually being there in San Diego and showing the booth/artist alley table!.. Where maybe I'll meet some of you awesome people!

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A last rehearsal
I currently live in The Netherlands. The comic con's that are organized here are nothing in comparison to the ones I see on YT / TV in the likes of SDCC or NYCC. The comic cons here have about 10.000 attendee's in a weekend and most of the time it is actually filled with people who just want to take a look what all the fuzz is about..

What happens is that you have 'tourists' instead of fans and collectors. Of course everyone should be welcome on a Comic Con.. this year a tourist next year a fan, year after a collector?! But as an artist that has to buy an artist alley table it can be quite difficult to get your investment out.

You rent a table for €350, buy merch / prints for €200 and perhaps some parking / food / drinks costs €100 .. it adds up!
Let's say you will have to invest about €600 to €700 to attend the con.
If a con then is filled with 'Tourists' that don't actually buy.. it becomes really hard to get some of that investment back!
So for the past 3 cons I've done only 1 gave some sort of return. (somewhere between 100/200€)

But as with everything.. You learn from your mistakes, you look at those who actually do alright with a 'touristy' crowd and find out why. But what I have also learned is that even per comic con the crowd type changes dramatically.

So the best thing is to try and appeal to the mass.. Have art that is known by the masses and has the most fans.
Eventhough I personally don't really like it. If you want to get a little back on your investment you have to sell fan-art.

Dutch Comic Con

So as a last preparation/rehearsal for SDCC I will be attending Dutch Comic Con. (31 march / 1 april)
I was there this year and it actually was the only con that made a bit of a return for me. It is the biggest comic convention of the year in The Netherlands and usually attracts a large crowd that is diverse in terms of fans/tourists.. best chance to sell something!

This people organizing the con aren't great.. They are barely responding to any mails and questions and apparently pre-sold all the artist alley tables to artists that they knew.. Great!..

Since they don't know me.. There wasn't an artist alley table for me. :(
I am now left booking a table as a normal 'dealer' which bumps up your table price significantly.. where it is normally €350 it is now €480! .. That means I have to sell even more stuff! .. ( this already got me worried! :D )

But as a last rehearsal for SDCC I will test out some new prints.. Prints that are NOT fan-art related. Try to have some of a 'premium' 'art' look which hopefully will appeal to some. (love to hear what you think about this)
Since SDCC doesn't really allow for artists to sell fan art I will have to do my best to get a nice collection/portfolio of personal non-fanart work.

When the new year comes I will have almost 4 months to pimp up my portfolio, creating more new and personal artwork.
Hopefully I'll be able to get a nice collection going that will sell enough to cover the cost and supply me with a bit of hope for SDCC!!

Whenever I make something cool.. new .. I will share it with you guys here on Steemit!

Thank you for reading!
Hopefully you will tag along with me to SDCC!

Cheers!
Rogier / @beekart