True Believers Experience

The comic book festival took place on the 7th of February.
The Agents working at the event met at the Racecourse's Hall of Fame entrance at 6:30am then we were shown where the main room was, where the staff break room was and received our lanyards. The main room was larger than I thought with many different tables, we had maps to show people where their stall was and carried stock and helped them set up for the first few hours. It started getting busy around 8:30 when most sellers were bringing their stock and there was plenty to do. Most sellers had experience at comic festivals before so didn't need too much assistance but were grateful for any given.

My 'Agent' Pass, badge and floor map showing stalls

The doors were opening at 10:00 for early bird kickstarter passes, 10:30 for normal kickstarter passes and then at 11;00 for the general public. To prepare for this the staff met at 9:30 by the main desk to decide our roles for the next few hours. I was assigned to work in the main room to help give directions, ask the stalls if they needed anything and tell people where and when the panels take place.
I used this opportunity to talk to as many people as possible, see the wide diversity of work on offer and get some advice for my own work. I went to individual stalls to tell them about the panels so they could attend them if they wished, if so we could arrange for some of the staff to mind their tables. This was a good idea because not many people were aware there were talks on and even the comic artists who were speaking in the panels didn't know where they were. I told the event planners about this so they could spread the word better next year.

The main floor showing tables

Stalls beginning to set up

I was supposed to be working from 6:30 till 1 but there was not as many volunteers as expected for the afternoon shift so I was asked to work at the front desk for a while after 1. This involved selling tickets checking the tickets of those who had pre booked and giving the extras such as signed prints to people who had got them on kickstarter. There was a steady flow of people and the event was quite busy, this increased after 3pm when the public could buy cheaper tickets.

After my time at the front desk I worked on Pittville Press's stall. This was for a shorter time then expected because I was doing other work for the True Believers but it allowed the others to take a good break. It was nice to see people's reactions to the work as they were impressed by the range and skills on show. However people had to be called over to be interested and they were not as keen to buy the work as it was not fan art and things they recognised. I think a lot of the sales issues had to do with the fact it was a new comic festival so customers didn't know what to expect. The convention was very much about the artwork ideas and independent comics instead of more mainstream so even professionals didn't sell as much as they are used to in the new environment. I enjoyed working on the stall even if it was rather brief, I sold one of my prints and I would definitely like a stall next year when I will have a larger body of work to sell.

Pittville Press stall

After working on the stall I attended two of the panel talks, 'Crowd Funding your Own Comic' and 'Drawing Comics' these were informative and not too long, but I would like to know more about the comic book industry to better appreciate the information. I had some time after this to buy things from the stalls and talk to more people. Overall I had a very enjoyable day and feel that I would like to expand my exploration of comic book artists and different ways I could produce my own. I got some good advice and made contacts who I will get in touch with soon.