Chicago Comic Con (Wizard World)

I tabled in the artist alley of Wizard World Chicago both 2013 and 2014. This is a hard show to work as a print artist. The biggest reason being is that Wizard World Chicago has become what is known locally as the autograph show. People come to meet the celebs only at this show and neglect artists/vendors/exhibitors. It also costs attendees so much to get in the door, see/meet their celeb/s that by the time they make it to the show floor, if at all, they are broke. Other creators have told me that book sales do well at this show but that is also hard to believe since it is no longer a comic-centric show and is now a pop culture show with emphasis on celebrity meetings. Until or unless this show gets reformatted to be more comic focused as well as lead the audiences to the artists/vendors/exhibitors I would suggest avoiding it at all costs. While some WW shows may be good for business this one is not one of them. Look at the data WW has released over the past 1.5years they have lost revenue, major employees have stepped down from the company, and they are getting a bad reputation. On another side story when I first did this show in 2013 they did a video interview of me and said it would be up on their Youtube channel within a month or two. It took them two years to put any and all of the interviews of artists in 2013 up. They also re-purposed my artwork for the videos intro without asking my permission and probably did that to other artists. I contacted them about these things and was ignored.

I went to the Chicago comic con in August 2015 and it was my first time attending a Wizard World convention as an artist. So this is kind of a good- bad review based on my experience. First the good, Tons of exposure: thousands and thousands of people attend the show and it's definitely a great venue to show off your work and hopefully make some sales. However, this is such a popular show that with a price to get ($50-$60+)for a standard ticket and up to 300 for the VIP celebrity pass, I I had many people tell me that because they spent so much to get in, that they have very little if anything to spend once they were in there. To make matters worse, my table was so far in the back of the show( in the shipping and receiving area ) that often I was overlooked compared to other artists. I will say there were some fun perks about being an artist there. For instance, they had an after party that was free for all vendors, which was actually a pretty fun time. They also had a free breakfast on the last day, but unfortunately I just missed it. Another plus what is the accesibility of venue. There was a parking garage connected to the convention center that was reasonably priced. Speaking of accessibility, after the show they even let vendors drive onto the conventions floor to more easily load all their inventory and displays directly into their vehicles. Despite some of these pros for the convention, I have to say I don't think I would do it again without someone I can split the table cost with. For my budget, $400 was just too much to spend on a table. I had to sleep in my car ( a small Honda) all but one night just so I could come away with a small profit. Lastly, I would just recommend that if you do the show, make sure you have a really good amount of inventory and try to appeal to as wide audience as you can. I think if I had more work than obviously my sales would be better. That said, in the future ,if I do another show like this, I'm going to make sure I have more to sell.