Amazing Oklahoma City Comicon -- TBA, Spring 2017

[Shark]

Anyone hear if they're planning a 2016 edition?

 

Yeah. They came on the loud speaker at closing time Sunday and said "See you next year at the Amazing Oklahoma City Comic Con". I had heard they were coming back next year prior to that announcement also. Apparently, the show organizers were happy enough with the way it turned out for them.

 

I'm going to contact the organizers and find out what the attendance actually was. Someone posted expected attendance of 15-20,000 ahead of time and I then asked one of the show organizers on Thursday just before the show started. She was hoping for 10-12,000.

 

The trick for them now is to get vendors to return. Some said no way they're coming back and many others (like me) are on the fence whether to return as a vendor or not. They may have to reduce booth fees to get vendors to come back.

 

If you're a comic buyer, hopefully there will be a lot of comics next year like there was this year. There were many great deals and a ton of comics to choose from.

 

Yeah, as a buyer I would be interested. Just having an excuse to make a buying trip to OKC was nearly enough to get me there, but the weekend turned out to be lousy. Having the show the weekend prior to the biggest travel week of the year doesn't help attendance...

 

My brother was one of the vendors (Monster's Lair), and he was not particularly happy with a lot of the execution of the show. But if the promoters can figure out what they're doing and actually promote the show it could be a good thing for the region. Their first two moves need to be better dates and a much stronger effort to advertise, and reducing booth fees would help too. I guess we will see how they do.

 

Is your brother jaster-mareel here on the boards? He introduced himself to me at my booth on Sunday. Also got to meet c-mack (Chris) here on the boards as well.

 

He is. We've seen you in Irving and at the North Texas shows.

 

Thought so. I remember seeing you at the North Texas Comic shows but didn't remember him at first.

[RCheli]

I've been thinking about this: what is the responsibility of the promoter? I was at the Grand Rapids show, and it was packed. There were probably 15,000 people there, and yet dealers nearly universally said they did poorly.

 

The promoter got people through the door. It wasn't the "right" people, but is that his problem?

[Shark]

I've been thinking about this: what is the responsibility of the promoter? I was at the Grand Rapids show, and it was packed. There were probably 15,000 people there, and yet dealers nearly universally said they did poorly.

 

The promoter got people through the door. It wasn't the "right" people, but is that his problem?

 

No, it isn't. You would think a "comic con" would draw in a bunch of comic collectors. But in today's world that seems to be less and less the case. I now tend to believe that 80-90% of the people who show up at the bigger comic cons go only to dress up in outfits, see the comic artists and writers and buy toys and/or mystery boxes.

 

And because it's slowly sinking in that this is more and more the case, I think I'll just stick to selling online and at local TRUE comic cons (OAFCON in Norman, North Texas Comic Shows in Dallas) and say to hell with the bigger "comic cons" like Wizard World Tulsa and the Amazing OKC Comic Con. I sell better at the smaller cons than I do at the bigger media hyped ones.

[mysterio]

I've been thinking about this: what is the responsibility of the promoter? I was at the Grand Rapids show, and it was packed. There were probably 15,000 people there, and yet dealers nearly universally said they did poorly.

 

The promoter got people through the door. It wasn't the "right" people, but is that his problem?

 

No, it isn't. You would think a "comic con" would draw in a bunch of comic collectors. But in today's world that seems to be less and less the case. I now tend to believe that 80-90% of the people who show up at the bigger comic cons go only to dress up in outfits, see the comic artists and writers and buy toys and/or mystery boxes.

 

And because it's slowly sinking in that this is more and more the case, I think I'll just stick to selling online and at local TRUE comic cons (OAFCON in Norman, North Texas Comic Shows in Dallas) and say to hell with the bigger "comic cons" like Wizard World Tulsa and the Amazing OKC Comic Con. I sell better at the smaller cons than I do at the bigger media hyped ones.

 

That may ultimately be the best strategy. Some of the larger shows are good for comics, but many are not. We had a good weekend selling at the big Dallas show this past May, and the Irving shows are always solid if unspectacular. We really enjoy selling at the North Texas shows, but we can only afford to do the two day events.

 

I don't know what Amazing shows are typically like. I've never been to one. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in on whether they're usually good for comic buying and selling or more of a Wizard type show short on substance.

[Monster's Lair Comics]

Unfortunately from the few locals that I spoke to, the show was not promoted through normal channels; TV, radio, billboards. They went to the close comic stores and hung up 8 1/2 x 11 "posters" to promote the show. It's fairly obvious that didn't work. According to Holly (who I booked with) their expectation of attendance was 10,000. I would imagine they topped out around 3500-4000. I lost money doing this show. I had dollar books all the way thru $1000 keys. Most of the people spent 30 min pulling out three $1 books, and agonized over the decision on which one to get. Hard to pay for a booth one dollar at a time. If this is any indication, Greg Capullo had no line...... Every other show I've attended or set up at that had Greg Capullo, he had about a 30 min to 1 hour line. Here you could just walk up and get your books signed, no wait. I felt bad for the artists and writers that were guests. Peter David spent most of his time reading at his booth. Only saw a few autographs. Kevin Eastman's table (which was right inside the door) seemed to be busy.

 

 

[mysterio]

According to the home page they plan to be back in 2016, so we can just tack onto this existing thread if they do...

[mysterio]

Still waiting to see if this one will get a second chance...

[mysterio]

According to a comment on FB Amazing is targeting next Spring for a return to OKC...