The asshole who had to read The Age next to me on the plane.
Getting almost no sleep; i'm an awful sleeper when i've drunk beer, especially outside of my own bed. I think i slept about 12 hours over 3 nights. Means I was not my usual self.
I put on 3kgs while i was away.
I didn't realise that towels weren't supplied by the hostel until 2 in the morning and i was drunk and really yucky.
Having to sleep in that state=bad.
The coffee at Gloria Jeans
Paul Abstruses facial hair configuartion.
Practice Cactuses facial hair configuration.
Sales of Sureshot Presents were pretty meh
SSP1 x 10
SSp2 x 12
SSp3 x 18
SSp4 x 15
Sales have been falling every year and are now pretty much on par with Doujicon. I dunno if its the positioning of the table in Artist Alley, the lack of comic guests, or the product itself. There were probably the most comic shops/back issue sellers at a supanova I've seen for awhile (still can't find Starman #2!) but I'm not sure how they all went. I'd like to hear how other artist alleyers did over the weekend.
Getting too drunk and telling Avi what i think of his work on oztaku in less than flattering terms.
Having to listen to the same speil from the Animavericks for 16 hours which i know off by heart "hey do you like anime? Animavericks is the first offical anime and j-culture magazine is australia. We get all our information from japan. blah blah blah"
The incredibly lackluster announcements spruiking Artist Alley. Instead of something to the point like "Support original ideas and visit artist alley" or "Sick of supporting corporations only interested in exploiting your wallet? Try artist alley" or "be cutting edge, don't be a follower, try something new in artist alley" we had to listen to "Hey, this is an announcement announcing that there are comics and things being sold in artist alley on the edge of the floor, these creators could be the next David Yardin and Stewart Mckenny and Alex Maleev so you might get to buy from the next comic superstar blah blah blah". I am paraphrasing, but the general point was that it was long-winded and pointless - no one listens to those things unless it starts with "Blah Blah is discounting" or "So and So is now speaking..."
Paying $7 for a copy of the Tom B's Dicks series only to discover that its only 17 pages long.
Being solicted by a prostitute, I don't look that much like a loser.
Having Practice Cactus continually refer to me as being gay and then trying to woo me by giving me a copy "Adventures of Leatherboy" as some sort invitation to start a relationship. I hate breaking hearts, but I'm sorry Steve.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Snova - the bad
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18 comments:
I think most of artist alley thought sales were pretty slow. I guess we are just bottom of the food chain at these kind of things - we get the scraps left over after people have spent their money on Star wars and anime paraphenalia, so the more vendors there are the less people have free money to spend on indy comics.
Sales for us were better than I expected
I sold all my stock of 40 Guh #1(3 were swaps) and about 30 #2, A crapload of badges, 4 toys and 1 painting.
A lot of people found it easy to buy both issues at once. If I had more issues I suspect they would have just gone with one.
-Jase
I don't have the numbers on me but approximately we sold:
Raven and Zombie 1 ~45
Raven and Zombie 2 ~45
Figurines -9
Shifting Time ~5
T-Shirts ~25
We had our best year ever but mostly because of those t-shirt sales. Massive kudos to the chick who worked at Border's who'd bought a shirt first day and wore it on the second day. Great advertising.
If I find out how LAC went over the weekend I will post it up here. I think it's fair that I also felt their comics were pricey.
Best buys for the weekend were Eldritch Kid and the Doug Holgate Sureshot. Closely followed by the Guhs and Wrong.
tonia - plus i think people just don't want to try anything new.
Jase - Gah! how am i supposed to blame everything else if you give me evidence to the contary! Its me! I think it helps that you actually had a good spot near the front by the exit doors and pizza place, and you had really cool easily flickable books.
Fitts - i think people have success with cheap badges and books because it allows poor kids to buy something. And you did have all the dan green spillage
(I'm looking for excuses)
Good point on the cheapness of the books. At $2 each a lot of young people and parents were picking them up. But they also don't represent much profit.
Way back in 1997 I published my first Art Magaziner I sold 4200 copies of it by walking from the South to the North of Adelaide knocking on doors selling them one at atime. It was hard yakka but it worked. Starting anything new is tough but if you are 100%committed nd fair dinkum about getting it out to the public you will succeed.
All the best.
Yeah you wish buddy.
I bought that for you to show my support and solidarity to your closeted attitude..just go with it man, we won't judge you.
And you still on about my facial hair?
Oh wait, I get it now..awww, it's ok mark, you might one day be able to grow on your face,like all the other boys too and who knows maybe even down there too.
"Getting too drunk and telling Avi what i think of his work on oztaku in less than flattering terms."
Cuz sometimes "mark" sounds like "cock". tsk tsk
Wait... you're NOT gay?
:p
Magnet-o
Fitts - Its all about volume, VOLUME! turn up the VOOLUMME! (i learnt me sales knowledge from tom waits)
Geoff - i can't really come up for a reason why i don't want to go door to door other than i think i could take the time off work an whilst it seems good in the short term, long term i'd just burn out.
PracticeCActus - i thought you gave to me like when guys make their girlfriends watch porn and say "hey that looks cool, lets try that" with stupid grins on their mouths.
i don't mind facial hair as long as its not ridiculous - and the jury in this house finds the plaintif...guilty.
Maggie - yes i admit to the cocklike nature, but come one have you seen the covers to oztaku? sometimes i wonder if he's ever been to a news agent and seen a cover to any magazine ever. and don't get me started with the undergrad editorial standard.
and i'm gay like you Maggie, vaginagay
While our stuff might be a little bit pricey (I'm not denying that for a second) I feel the quality of the production supports the cover price. We sold around 115 comics ranging from $3-$12 with the majority being $7.
Most people would pay the same for any international comic, and as nice as full colour and glossy pages are, with our stuff you dont get ads breaking the flow of the story and you get the warm fuzzy feeling that you are helping Australian comic creators. Plus in most cases you get more pages of comic (Dicks being one of a couple of shorter pieces in the current LAC library where that is not the case) than you would in other international professional comics.
Dave.C
Local Act Comics Pty Ltd
Dave - To pay $7 for a US floppy would mean a cover price of $3.50 (going on by the double cover standard, but if you are paying double cover your comic shop hates you). More likely a comic with a cover price of US$4 can be got for 7 local dollars. I expect quite a bit for that. Birds of Prey #100 (with Nicola scott art) was $4 and was at least 48 pages. Yes people are willing to spend $7 on a comic but McDonalds can't charge me $12 for a cheeseburger because the pub next door is selling burgers for that price. The pub burger is 3 times larger.
For a local book, 17 pages is a bit raw; especially when previous issues of Dicks had better cover stock and more pages for cheaper.
Getting all warm fuzzy for buying local will only get you so far, being local will get me to buy a copy but it will be story and art that will get me back.
I think my point is why not stick 3 more double pages in there (the cost would have been about 20cents a copy)? Have previews to other comics, something. Make it feel like value for money, somehow - even charge $6 for it. Because most people, being charged $7 for 17 pages would feel ripped off. Which isn't good.
You make a fair point Mark. Future editons of Dicks do have more content pages, and if I find its on the lean side once everything that needs to go in has gone in I'll look at adding a few preview pages or related content. Thanks for the feedback. I'll aim to get better value for money in future editions.
Next time please let me know if youre unhappy with a comic privately rather than posting your complaint in a public and potentially damaging way. I'm trying to make a difference in Australian comics and will embrace feedback and discussion as to how I can improve - as I'm sure you would as well. Its a pretty small community as you know and your comments carry a lot of weight. If I completely ignore you then go nuts and complain all you like in any fasion you see fit, I'll deserve it then.
Cheers,
Dave Cunning
Local Act Comics.
Dave - I said that paying $7 for 17 pages was bad. If i said it was ugly, then you may have some sort of point. If I spread rumors or lies, that would be wrong.
But there is nothing wrong with me saying that i felt like i didn't get value for money. Think of it as a review - should only positive reviews be allowed?
I think more criticism is needed in this scene.
(sorry)
Mark, I certainly dont think only positive reviews should be allowed. Check out the latest edition of Word Balloons and you'll see what a bad review reads like for LAC. Criticism is a necessary part of improvement. To be honest I appreciate the mention, but I guess I would have preferred to hear what you thought about everything you picked up from our table, not just the one that left you annoyed. My apologies for mistaking the difference between something being 'bad' and something being 'ugly'. I'll leave it at that.
Now David, my tongue is firmly in my cheek most of the time - i can understand that might be hard to read sometimes. The next point i make is being solicited by a prostitute, its all context.
I doubt that anything i say here will damage a comics sales, whilst i get about 50-80 hits a day most of that is my friends (looking for mentions of them or stories about me in embarrassing situations) and comic creators (and most of them are too broke to buy anything anyway).
Most other times I've said good things about Local Act; particularly in the case of Vigil and other books released in the first batch.
Read the blog, listen to the podcast. I've only said two negative things 1)I'm worried with the high output there might be a case of burn out and quality might suffer - that's a fair comment because i've seen it in other local books 2)and the current point that started this.
I have only talked about 3 or 4 books i bought over the snova weekend, i state i'm burnt out on comics at the moment. I intend to write some more feedback later on when i get to them - i'm pretty sure LAC will get a guernsey, most likely good. And I'm sorry but i'm not going to vet my articles to creators/publishers first.
in the words of my significant other, relax ya daks max
Mark, consider my Dax relaxed. No hard feelings. I think you may have simply been the victim of me having a really really shyte day. My apologies in full. I look forward to getting more feedback from you in the coming weeks and months. My sincerest apologies again for acting like a dick.
Aww, big group hug everyone..
Yeah even you Mark ya big gaylord, get over here.
*squeeze*
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