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Phoenix Cactus Comicon 2006

Started by OldGuy,

41 posts in this topic

LordThanos1969

LordThanos1969

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Posted

I will also be there. I went to the first year this convention was held and went the last two years as well. There really wasn't that much difference between the events, though that may have been a function of the show being a one-day affair. I'm hoping this year is somewhat better, particularly when it comes to the dealers who will be there. I've never seen anything but a local presence among the dealers, and not all of the local dealers have been particularly supportive either.

 

Having lived in Phoenix on an off for about 20 years now, I can say I remember only one relatively big, multiple day show. It was held at the Civic Center downtown around 1995 or 1996 and actually attracted some of the big-time dealers, including Motor City Comics. Unfortunately, it was viewed as an unmitigated failure by both the promoters and dealers. This resulted in conventions being essentially non-existent in Phoenix until the Cactus Comicon began.

 

If anyone is up to going for a Saturday forum supper or gathering, I'd be in for that.

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batman_fan

batman_fan

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I will also be there. I went to the first year this convention was held and went the last two years as well. There really wasn't that much difference between the events, though that may have been a function of the show being a one-day affair. I'm hoping this year is somewhat better, particularly when it comes to the dealers who will be there. I've never seen anything but a local presence among the dealers, and not all of the local dealers have been particularly supportive either.

 

Having lived in Phoenix on an off for about 20 years now, I can say I remember only one relatively big, multiple day show. It was held at the Civic Center downtown around 1995 or 1996 and actually attracted some of the big-time dealers, including Motor City Comics. Unfortunately, it was viewed as an unmitigated failure by both the promoters and dealers. This resulted in conventions being essentially non-existent in Phoenix until the Cactus Comicon began.

 

If anyone is up to going for a Saturday forum supper or gathering, I'd be in for that.

 

I went to that show as well. I bought a Batman 3 from Motor City and Mike told be I was the best sell for him for the entire show. I was also interested in a Batman 29, 41 and 64 he had but passed given how much I spent on the Batman 3. (Note, I called him about a week later and bought the 41 and 64. The 29 was already gone!). Only the local dealers seemed somewhat happy, but that is because they weren't paying travel cost.

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Mattman-migration

Mattman-migration

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Hi,

 

Oooh good questions!

 

For the vendor hall - it is 100x150, so you we incredible close. It's 15,000 sq ft and it's a huge increase from last years 6,000 sq ft we had at the other facility.

 

Of the 97 booths - all but 20 some are filled. While some of our dealers will no doubt carry gaming product - we do not have any true standalone gaming only dealer. The vast majority of our dealers are comic book vendors. Some sell toys, some anime, and one even does custom lightsabers!

 

The Wolverine exclusive will cost ten bucks at the Samurai Comics booth.

 

And we'll have more info on our programming forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. We have numerous panels and workshops with our artist and writers, so hopefully we'll have something else to offer you.

 

Thanks for the interest!

 

Matt Solberg

Director

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BrianR

BrianR

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Well when you get there and see 64 of the 90 dealer spots empty (based on number of spots available and current dealers attending) and Not all of them are selling comics. the 25-35 dollars I saved and put towards my FF 103 ORIGINAL ART PAGE will of actually gone to good use. devil.gif

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Grifter

Grifter

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Touche.. I'm going to enjoy it regardless.. Comics and people of the industry make me happy so take that.. boo.gif I'm going with my buddy and he is excited, since it is his first convention ever.. It'll be a priceless moment for him.. cloud9.gif

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jedi_sennin-migration

jedi_sennin-migration

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Harley was there, but I am not sure how well he did.

 

Harley did well enough to sign up for next year!

 

CGC couldn't attend because of their move to new office space this past weekend, but if I heard correctly from our Director they will be here in January.

 

Yes you heard right, we're moving our annual date to January (January 26-28, 3 full days) starting next year, so we'll be doing this again in 4 months! Every dealer booth was full, most dealers bought mutiple booths and a majority of the dealers were comics and toys. Guests all had a blast and most have expressed interest in coming out again, always a good sign! 1 day passes were available and will be available again, but 2 day passes are $25 right now. I'll talk with my director and see if i can do a special CGC forum ticket discount, if any of your are interested. I can also mention maybe a CGC dinner or bar meet at the hotel if you guys would like that. Any feedback, suggestion or ideas you guys can offer up would be great, and if you have an contact with "harley Yee" calibur vendors we'd love to get that info so we can try and get them out. Thanks to all who came out and showed their support!

 

Rick Hernandez

Art Director

Phoenix Cactus Comicon

rick@phoenixcomicon.com

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Apotheosis

Apotheosis

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I was only able to make it on Sunday, but was impressed with the improvements versus the last 3 years.

 

The first thing that surprised me was the sheer number of people there. This was my 4th Cactus con and just off of what I saw in the parking lot I would say that the number of people were at least double last years turn out. Fairly impressive for sunday. I know that the organizers were telling dealers that they expected 2500 - 3000 people, but I would be surprised if attendance was that low. The east side of the valley definitely turned out.

 

Registering to get in was still as big a pain as in the past. There's got to be a quicker way to get attendees into the con in a quicker fashion. Standing outside filling out a personal info page is annoying.

 

There were vast improvements inside the con as well. First and foremost was that there were a ton more exhibitors. Last year I believe I counted 6 dealers that were selling comics that they themselves didn't print. There were at least 15 this year. Not a ton by most standards, but still a great improvement. The booths also looked a lot more professional this year. Last year everything was open. This year they actually had what looked like booths with the curtains between vendors. May not sound like much, but it didn't look like such a fly by night operation.

 

Being a GA collector I wasn't expecting much out of the con. I knew that Harley would be there, but didn't think there would be much else. I was pleasantly surprised that there were 6 booths that had GA items. Nothing spectacular outside of Harley mind you. I did find a nice VG Fighting Yank 21 for $85, but someone snagged it before I made up my mind. Not too much in the way of Fiction House of Fawcette which make up most of my collecting these days, but the other big houses were represented. Harley had a decent number of Fox books there as well.

 

Most of the comic booths had the big names in SA (X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, etc.). I didn't see any of the big keys, but I wasn't looking that closely either.

 

If you're into con sketches then this was definitely a good one to go to. For the size of the con there were a decent number of artist there such as Steve Rude, Josh Middleton, Billy Tan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joe Benitez, and others. The only table that had a line was Josh's. Everyone else was very approachable and available for sketch's. I'll be taking advantage of that in January.

 

Before I arrived I was expecting to find mostly Anime stuff as that's how it's been in the past. Pulling into the parking lot and seeing the attendees in their anime gear I wasn't holding out much hope. Inside I found very little anime other than the kids. Most booths actually focused on comics. Finally.

 

While I wouldn't fly in to attend this con (unless you really want to see some of the artists), I don't see any reason why any comic collector in AZ shouldn't make the trip. All in all a huge improvement over last year. Still plenty of improvement to go...

 

For the organizers...

 

You did a great job adding more dealers. Even more would be good. Finding a way to get more of the big name dealers would be great. The names bring in the collectors.

 

Please find a better way to register walk up attendees.

 

Your website should list more of the exhibitors. There were at least two there (Jay Company and National Comics or something) that weren't on the site. The more you list the more attractive it becomes. Not to mention that Jay Company is pretty big and is a good name to have listed.

 

January? Really? While I was at Harley's booth he was talking to a couple of other dealers that mentioned (not Harley) that while the con had gone well for them they weren't sure about January because of how soon it is. It's also a tough time for your middle class collectors being that it's probably less than a month removed from Christmas. Remember, the middle class attendee is the one that is going to buy from Harley and your other mid to high $ sellers. The less they buy the less likely the big dealers are to come back. It may not be too bad, but that close to the holidays is just bad timing.

 

Just a couple of thoughts...

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jedi_sennin-migration

jedi_sennin-migration

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You did a great job adding more dealers. Even more would be good. Finding a way to get more of the big name dealers would be great. The names bring in the collectors.

 

Something we strive to do, but with out the promise of collectors coming out to support it's hard to get the great out of state vendors to commit. Vendors don't know how strong our community of collectors really is, so any support you guys can offer would be great. Maybe shoot an email to your favorite vendor and suggest they come out, if they get enough requests they may be pursuaded to get a booth or 2.

 

Please find a better way to register walk up attendees.

 

Agreed I've also made this suggestion to our registration staff, so it is something we will work on!

 

Your website should list more of the exhibitors. There were at least two there (Jay Company and National Comics or something) that weren't on the site. The more you list the more attractive it becomes. Not to mention that Jay Company is pretty big and is a good name to have listed.

 

I have a feeling those some of the few vendors that actually signed up only a few days before con, ideally we'd like to have all booths sold in time to fully promote who will be there, just doesn't always work to plan.

 

January? Really? While I was at Harley's booth he was talking to a couple of other dealers that mentioned (not Harley) that while the con had gone well for them they weren't sure about January because of how soon it is. It's also a tough time for your middle class collectors being that it's probably less than a month removed from Christmas. Remember, the middle class attendee is the one that is going to buy from Harley and your other mid to high $ sellers. The less they buy the less likely the big dealers are to come back. It may not be too bad, but that close to the holidays is just bad timing.

 

Our biggest barrier to gettting guests is weather, and being at the end of con season. We recieved so many, "Sorry, I usually take a break after SDCC" from people we invited and a few "Isn't it still 100 degrees there?" that we had to move the date, all signs pointed to January. Our weather is gorgeous in January so it made sense and removes the "weather barrier" and being at the beginning of the year removes the "SDCC Barrier".

 

There are a lot of Pro's and Con's to the January date, but there are many more negatives to our September date. We know it's a gamble but we think it's in the best interest of our Attendees, Guests, & Vendors.

 

Thanks for the input, we do need to hear it to reflect on good and bad ideas.

 

So what did you think of the Already Confirmed Guests?

 

And I apologize if I misspelled something or left out words, I'm running on 6-8 hours of sleep for the entire weekend (Fri-Sun).

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LordThanos1969

LordThanos1969

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I went both days and had a surprisingly good time. Having attended the first Cactus Comicon as well as the past two years, I can definitely say this one was much better. In fact, I will say it's the best convention I have ever attended in Phoenix. Of course, that's not saying that much, because this town has had very few conventions during the 20 years or so I have been living here.

 

On the first day, I was shocked to see the convention center parking lot packed. While the dealer's room was small compared to the major conventions, it did have far more comic dealers this year than in the past. I knew Harley was going to be there, but Terry, Ron Murray, and Steve Wyatt were all in from out of town as well. I thought I'd only be at the convention for a few hours, but I ended up staying until close and then going to drink beers with some of the out town dealers (thanks for the invite Terry).

 

The second day was not quite as crowded, but still the attendance was solid. It was great to see people in this town finally come out to support a convention event. During the two days, I did seem some notable comics, but I didn't really go looking for high dollar, gold, or silver comics. Instead, I focused on Bronze age material and comic-related magazines. I succeeded in accumulating a nice load of material.

 

There weren't really any guests or programming that captivated me, but I had a very enjoyable time at the convention overall. Also, it was good to see some of the local dealers whom I had not seen for a while as well as those from out of town. I think the convention organizers did a good job overall. And, believe it or not, having a venue with free parking was very shrewd. From what I have seen, people in Phoenix will not attend some events solely on the basis of having to pay for parking. It must be an Arizona thing!

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