Hiatus Continues - GR8bit Live

[Adam Dravian]

Check it here!

[Michigander1911]

Sounds like a very busy 3 weeks. Glad you guy's had another successful con experience.  Even though a couple were rather small it seems as though it has helped the learning curve a little so they were worth your time.   

While it's not the outcome you may have liked, it is pretty cool that guy seemed to go out of his way to help explain his intentions and help you guy's. 

[Rijst]

So because it was free this is really the first convention you made a profit at?

I guess it's his convention and if he doesn't want sex and violence in it than that's his choice. I wonder if the audience is very different because of that though, so you might not even sell that much on a convention like that.

That photo of Jess' dad is brilliant. He also has the exact same look of horror the girl in my profile picture does, which I guess means it's a great look..

This makes me wonder though, have your parents read the comic?

[Jessica Safron]

While it's not the outcome you may have liked, it is pretty cool that guy seemed to go out of his way to help explain his intentions and help you guy's. 

So because it was free this is really the first convention you made a profit at?

I guess it's his convention and if he doesn't want sex and violence in it than that's his choice. I wonder if the audience is very different because of that though, so you might not even sell that much on a convention like that.

I was glad the GR Comic Con guy was nice and tried to be helpful, but I couldn't help but get sort of watery-eyed while talking to him. I feel too strongly about this issue as a whole. I know it's his con and he wants to make as much money as possible. I can't stand this perpetuation of the whole "comics are just for kids" mentality though, among many other facets of this issue.

The convention is so huge that we'd certainly make fans there. It's still marketed as a comic convention, with a great variety of comic book fans in attendance, though the way the guy was talking about it, you'd think it was supposed to be a kiddie carnival.

I think I actually made a teeny tiny profit at GRASP, as well.

This makes me wonder though, have your parents read the comic?

Yes, my parents have read it, and both are wildly supportive of it. They each really want cameos. I'll probably squeeze them into a crowd shot or something at some point.

[Michigander1911]

I was glad the GR Comic Con guy was nice and tried to be helpful, but I couldn't help but get sort of watery-eyed while talking to him. I feel too strongly about this issue as a whole. I know it's his con and he wants to make as much money as possible. I can't stand this perpetuation of the whole "comics are just for kids" mentality though, among many other facets of this issue.

I agree the "comics just for kids" stuff is ignorant and insulting for pretty much all artist and most readers. Though I guess I can see the need for a family friendly con.  Kids do have as much right to be fans as adults and I'm sure many parents appreciate the opportunity for a safe place for their kids to have the con experience. 

That being said I'm not sure why he discriminates against all other artist by not having a separate section or separate con to accommodate other artist.

I'm guessing that you guys are not the only local artist that feel this way. Maybe it's time you use some of your college contacts and maybe even your alumni status to get the college involved and put together your own con. Grand Rapids as a whole has been expanding in it's acceptance of art, mainly because of Art Prize but I'm sure a comic and/or artist convention, especially if it was marketed well would really take off.

[Jessica Safron]

I was glad the GR Comic Con guy was nice and tried to be helpful, but I couldn't help but get sort of watery-eyed while talking to him. I feel too strongly about this issue as a whole. I know it's his con and he wants to make as much money as possible. I can't stand this perpetuation of the whole "comics are just for kids" mentality though, among many other facets of this issue.

I agree the "comics just for kids" stuff is ignorant and insulting for pretty much all artist and most readers. Though I guess I can see the need for a family friendly con.  Kids do have as much right to be fans as adults and I'm sure many parents appreciate the opportunity for a safe place for their kids to have the con experience. 

That being said I'm not sure why he discriminates against all other artist by not having a separate section or separate con to accommodate other artist.

No way. Having to be confined to an adult section would be ridiculous. This isn't porn, and there isn't even nudity or anything "harmful" in my display. It's a bit hard to argue my case when I should fully expect to receive flak, doing a comic called "Satan Ninja 198X," but this is bigger than that to me.

At first he was saying that cleavage is fine, then he saw my Morrigan vs. Ryu piece (I'll link to it later) and said the cleavage is too excessive in it, and I would have had to take all my prints of her to my car. I never would have expected that, and it would feel so humiliating having to leave my table to do that walk of shame.

GRASP was his attempt at having a section that's more supportive for more artists, and he lost a whole ton of money on it. So he won't do it again, at least not for another couple years if at all. It looks like it failed because barely anyone heard about it, and people complained that it didn't have enough other events or activities, like cosplay contests or panels or whatever.