Motor City Comicon

This is typically my best show of the year. I've been attending for about 8 years, but they have recently started doing it twice a year, and raised the table fees every year, which thins out the number of people and tires people out. Even with that in mind it is usually worth it. This year they made it so that you have to pay extra to not end up in the dead spot they created through poor planning, which is incredibly frustrating.

That being said, this is a collectors show. Some cons draw anime kids and people who buy prints, but this show tends to draw old people with money as well, which is great if you have originals and high price items. If you have done a few shows, and tend to be profitable, I'd say give it a shot. If you end up in the dead zone by the green room (which is excellent, by the way), I'm sorry.

So they expand the show floor by adding a handful of new vendor booths and couple hundred of artist tables. I heard somewhere that first artists were given a far away spot in a expansion area. The farther you were from the entrance, the less attendees you saw. By second to last row you saw maybe 3-4% of the attendees, and the last row was completely dead. I traveled out of state and barely broke even, only because normally I do very well at cons. Many artists around me didn't even cover table fees, which are high already. So with a $340 table it was like being at a con with 2k attendance. The far away area had nothing to draw people in, it was a giant white wall, plus some of the tables were empty, people were completely discouraged from going there. Artists were setup in rows from A to Z, row J was aligned with the entrance, all activities, autographs, and vendors were to the right, which is where the attendees went and nobody ever came back. And rows C and under saw barely any attendees. If you buy into this and get a table assignment anywhere to the left, you're better off not wasting your time. There way too many artists, overwhelming for shoppers.

*comic con should not be one word for the title of the show

Motor City has been a good show for me to work. The artist tables are not too pricey and they are big. There are wonderful fans there both new and returning. The cost for them to get in is adequate and the celebrity line-up is always decent. Recently they have separated the "flat" artists from the crafters and it seems to help out for the attendees being able to find who they are looking for as well as keep the displays from varying too wildly throughout. They have a green room for anyone working the show where they do provide some decent snacks as well as you can chat with some of the celebs there as they have a snack too. The after party in the hotel is always a good time to mingle with fellow creators and maybe meet one or two of the celebs too. I am excited to see what this next weekend brings and I will do my best to update my review here afterwards too.