2013 Dallas Fan Days report

[mysterio]

Just back from the Dallas Fan Days show, held at the Irving Convention Center this past weekend. This is the third and final show of the year for these organizers, and was the least attended. All the dealers I chatted with said that the October show is always the lowest in terms of attendance, and this being only my second Fan Days I had little to compare it to. Anyway, it was an enjoyable show and I picked up some great signatures, sketches, and a couple of very cool books.

 

First off, for those of you who have not ventured out to Irving the convention center looks like a giant Sandcrawler (at least it does to me). Here is a shot from outside on Saturday.

 

 

Sadly, I forgot to take any photos of wall displays, but several dealers did have strong selections. Black Cat had a number of Marvel keys, as did Duncanville Books and All-Star. There were maybe slightly fewer comic dealers than some past shows, but overall there were still plenty of books to look at if you were in a shopping mood like I was.

 

Here is the main book I picked up, and I'm excited to finally own a copy. Boyd at Black Cat gave me a great deal on it:

 

[mysterio]

I got several autographs and sketches. My first stop was Anthony Daniels for my Empire poster, which is shaping up nicely. He was incredibly outgoing and friendly to all the fans in line. My pic isn't the best, but it was the least blurry one I had of him walking around the room and chatting with us before he started signing.

 

[mysterio]

Meeting Kelley Jones was one of my highlights as he rarely does any shows and I'd never seen him at a con before. I had him sign several books and sketch in one of my Sandman hardcover GNs, and also commissioned a sketch from him.

 

[mysterio]

Some of my other pickups include a Hulk sketch by Herb Trimpe (who is also very cool) and a short stack of raw comics that are autographed on the first page. The X-Men #140 below was particularly sweet.

 

 

Signed by Claremont, Louise Jones (colorist) which has faded, John Byrne, and Terry Austin!

[mysterio]

There were lots of people in costume, here is a sampling of some of the ones that caught my eye.

 

Lots of Poison Ivy, of course...

 

 

 

Gumby was photobombing everyone.

 

 

 

No comment needed.

 

 

 

Don't see too many Electros running around.

 

 

 

 

This Ant-man was really good.

 

 

 

[mysterio]

And some other guests:

 

[mysterio]

These shows in Dallas can be classed as basically a really large regional show or a very small national one. It isn't going to compete with San Diego, New York, or Chicago, but for what it is it can be very solid for books and autographs. With more dealers in the room it could be really good for comics, but they'll need a bigger/better venue for this. Here's hoping that they move out of the Irving Convention Center when their lease is up in 2014.

[Caddotx]

I was set up there as well but it was my first time since doing Ben's shows in the 90's so I didn't have a great location, not that I'm complaining, I was happy overall with the traffic and the money that flowed in the room. I know several dealers said it was slow but that just means I can only go up from there at future shows.

 

I also met Black Cat Boyd there and he helped me out a lot grading a few tough books I had (tough to grade, not all that tough to find). I really enjoyed talking to him and he gave me an awesome deal on a Vampirella #1.

 

I also picked up a Detective 359 so I was really happy with what I walked out of the show with. My 9 year old and I do these shows together so we have a lot of fun doing them.

 

Several dealers and I were talking about the potential to move the show but the problem is there are few spaces big enough to hold it. The show takes up all floors and rooms of the convention center from what I saw and that venue is just hard to replace. Maybe Dallas Convention Center? Built in 1957, not great but probably the logical place to move to, but Irving is more centrally located. Market Hall? One big room, gonna be tough to hold panels there. Options are available but concessions will have to be made.

[thehumantorch]

Thanks for the report and pics.

[musicmeta]

I went Sunday and had a good time. I didn't see that many comic book dealers.

 

[MedicAR]

Thanks for the reports! I'm hoping to be able to attend one of these next year. I really hated to miss this one with Kelley Jones, the Breitweisers, Cary Nord, and Graham Nolan in attendance.

[mysterio]

Thanks for the reports! I'm hoping to be able to attend one of these next year. I really hated to miss this one with Kelley Jones, the Breitweisers, Cary Nord, and Graham Nolan in attendance.

 

Yeah, this was a particularly good guest list. I wished I had more for Nolan to sign, but I did get him and Jones in some Batman GNs. I'm just glad I finally got to see Jones and get a sketch. You should come check one of these out sometime, the May show is typically the biggest.

[Psithyrus]

I think I've been out of town for this show every year I've lived in Texas.

[Davenport]

What did you think of the admission prices?

 

Personally I think $40.00 for a Saturday is insane. That's damn near San Diego pricing.

 

I understand Ben's shows are mainly autograph oriented, but still. For casual fans who might want to take in a Con, 40 bucks to get in the door seems prohibitive.

 

If he wants larger crowds, he might consider easing up on the haircut he expects people to take just getting in.

[slym2none]

Or offer them a haircut & some deodorant at the door?

 

 

 

-slym

[mysterio]

What did you think of the admission prices?

 

Personally I think $40.00 for a Saturday is insane. That's damn near San Diego pricing.

 

I understand Ben's shows are mainly autograph oriented, but still. For casual fans who might want to take in a Con, 40 bucks to get in the door seems prohibitive.

 

If he wants larger crowds, he might consider easing up on the haircut he expects people to take just getting in.

 

I'll be honest, I didn't pay to get in thanks to the generosity of some dealers who were kind enough to supply my brother and me with wristbands. I have paid admission for plenty of these shows in the past though.

 

$40 for a one day admission to this show does indeed seem high to me. I'm guessing that that price is based off of Wizard's seemingly always escalating Saturday prices, which are approaching crazy. I know I paid $100 for my 4 day pass to Chicago this year, and that show was about 10 times the size of this show with exponentially more comics and guests. They may need to charge this to cover their overhead, but I wouldn't know enough to guess there.

 

To me it is just the nature of shows and damn near anything else lately. This year was more expensive than last year, and next year will probably be higher than this year. I just wonder when and how that stops when it comes to these types of shows. I do enjoy this show, despite its shortcomings, and hope they continue to put them on and grow them.

[MCMiles]

I was in Dallas this past weekend and considered stopping by the show, but had limited time, and at $40 for Saturday or $30 on Sunday it wasn't worth it.

[Cat-Man_America]

What did you think of the admission prices?

 

Personally I think $40.00 for a Saturday is insane. That's damn near San Diego pricing.

 

I understand Ben's shows are mainly autograph oriented, but still. For casual fans who might want to take in a Con, 40 bucks to get in the door seems prohibitive.

 

If he wants larger crowds, he might consider easing up on the haircut he expects people to take just getting in.

 

I'll be honest, I didn't pay to get in thanks to the generosity of some dealers who were kind enough to supply my brother and me with wristbands. I have paid admission for plenty of these shows in the past though.

 

$40 for a one day admission to this show does indeed seem high to me. I'm guessing that that price is based off of Wizard's seemingly always escalating Saturday prices, which are approaching crazy. I know I paid $100 for my 4 day pass to Chicago this year, and that show was about 10 times the size of this show with exponentially more comics and guests. They may need to charge this to cover their overhead, but I wouldn't know enough to guess there.

 

To me it is just the nature of shows and damn near anything else lately. This year was more expensive than last year, and next year will probably be higher than this year. I just wonder when and how that stops when it comes to these types of shows. I do enjoy this show, despite its shortcomings, and hope they continue to put them on and grow them.

 

[font:Times New Roman]There was a lot of genre competition (comics, cos-play, SF/fantasy, books, art & TV/film celebrity) for fans in Dallas last weekend.

 

For instance, I attended the tenth annual FENCON as regular art panelist and auctioneer. Next year I'll be returning as a featured guest artist. I might've set-up DFD if the convention hadn't been scheduled the same weekend. It just seems unfortunate that competing shows can't coordinate dates better to maximize their fan attendance when there's a crossover audience. Of course, I'm sure more comics and celebrity signatures were sold at DFD, but the admission price for FENCON was more reasonable too.

 

Also, I heard that there were other shows vying for fan attention in the Metroplex last weekend besides these.

 

My [/font]

[mysterio]

What did you think of the admission prices?

 

Personally I think $40.00 for a Saturday is insane. That's damn near San Diego pricing.

 

I understand Ben's shows are mainly autograph oriented, but still. For casual fans who might want to take in a Con, 40 bucks to get in the door seems prohibitive.

 

If he wants larger crowds, he might consider easing up on the haircut he expects people to take just getting in.

 

I'll be honest, I didn't pay to get in thanks to the generosity of some dealers who were kind enough to supply my brother and me with wristbands. I have paid admission for plenty of these shows in the past though.

 

$40 for a one day admission to this show does indeed seem high to me. I'm guessing that that price is based off of Wizard's seemingly always escalating Saturday prices, which are approaching crazy. I know I paid $100 for my 4 day pass to Chicago this year, and that show was about 10 times the size of this show with exponentially more comics and guests. They may need to charge this to cover their overhead, but I wouldn't know enough to guess there.

 

To me it is just the nature of shows and damn near anything else lately. This year was more expensive than last year, and next year will probably be higher than this year. I just wonder when and how that stops when it comes to these types of shows. I do enjoy this show, despite its shortcomings, and hope they continue to put them on and grow them.

 

[font:Times New Roman]There was a lot of genre competition (comics, cos-play, SF/fantasy, books, art & TV/film celebrity) for fans in Dallas last weekend.

 

For instance, I attended the tenth annual FENCON as regular art panelist and auctioneer. Next year I'll be returning as a featured guest artist. I might've set-up DFD if the convention hadn't been scheduled the same weekend. It just seems unfortunate that competing shows can't coordinate dates better to maximize their fan attendance when there's a crossover audience. Of course, I'm sure more comics and celebrity signatures were sold at DFD, but the admission price for FENCON was more reasonable too.

 

Also, I heard that there were other shows vying for fan attention in the Metroplex last weekend besides these.

 

My [/font]

 

That all makes sense in explaining why the attendance may have been a bit on the low side. Ben's shows have often had bad luck with jam-packed weekends, particularly the May show competing with Big Wow in California and also a big Detroit show. Of course those aren't local to draw away fans, but they do draw away dealers or guests that can't be at two places at once.