This weekend we had a table at the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo, which was our first ever experience of being bona fide exhibitors at a comics convention. Although we did a good trade, it was possibly meeting all the other folks that made the Expo for me. Not only did we enjoy the company (and work) of table neighbours Eyeball Comix, Dirt Pony, Dirty Rotten Comics, Benjamin Womack and Colm Wood, but we also met some other wonderful creators, including the sizeable Irish contingent of Paddy and Katie of Cardboard Press, Phillip Barrett, Maeve Clancy, Cliodhna Lyons and Paddy Brown. Most of them even saw me in the real world on Saturday night and still spoke to me the next day, which is no small feat (I get excited and talk a lot. Whoops). I also got to put a face to the name of Doug Wilson as well as finally getting to meet Paul Rainey and have a nice chat with him about the difficulty in distributing small press work, grants and being a travelling comics salesperson.
All in all a very positive experience, so thanks to anyone who stopped by, had a look, had a chat or bought something!
Here’s what happened… (fox and loot photos mine, all others © Becky)
Saturday:
Despite fears of a hot, hidden and darkened room from which we could only dream of escaping into the sunshine, we found ourselves in the relatively palatial surrounds of a fifth floor conference suite: air-conditioned, water-coolers cooling water, and with two walls of windows offering views over the city. We were duly impressed.
Saturday night saw us head to Christmas Steps for their ‘Night of the Year’, a street party celebrating the launch of the Christmas Steps Arts Quarter’s exhibitions for Bristol Festival of Photography. This involved: dancing to Dixieland Jazz (good fun, bad dancing from me), seeing a fox check out some art (good) and seeing the sunrise over Bristol on our walk home (good, but when its 4am and you need to be at your table in around 6 hours? Bad).
(this is how it felt walking home)
Sunday:
I somehow managed to get myself from home to the Expo in a loosely dignified fashion, despite it having taken me nearly 10 minutes to realise that Nick was already over half an hour late to call for me and then realising he was probably here and that, having staggered out of bed to the lounge, lying on the sofa smelling of booze and in not many clothes was really not the way to start the day. However, we soldiered on through Sunday and made some sales, some trades and some friends (we hope).
Things we found out:
#1 Having your work on fancy library stands looks nice but seems to discourage people from picking up and flicking through your work. We used them instead to support the open comics so people could see what was inside, and laid the rest of our stock out in front.
#2 Bundle deals are good. People might be reluctant to buy a solitary item, but if you’re willing to throw in more, and volunteer that info, then that seems to get people buying. Nick is inexplicably good at talking to people and doing this. He is a ruthless sales-vegan.
#3 Little descriptions of what it is that you do seem to grab people’s eyes and draw them into your table and then you can have a nice chat with them and maybe they’ll buy something. Maybe.
#4 A good atmosphere is hard to beat.
#5 Don’t stay out all night.
Next time… loot!
For now, I’m off to ignore the blue sky and write my PhD.
PS I think people (understandably) liked our paper bags more than our comics.
