Tucson Comic-Con

I've vented and helped vendors here for years. There was a brief hiccup pre-pandemic with organization but it's since been resolved. The staff are very friendly, the venue has undergone an upgrade and the representation of local artists is great. Attendees also spend a lot at this con. It's the same weekend as Saboten now but I prefer this con. The atmosphere is much friendlier, the booths are cheaper and TCC really focuses on community.

There is an awesome gaming area, the cosplay group hall is the best in Arizona (even better than PFF in my opinion) and the load in/Load Out is super simple with the roll away doors. I honestly enjoy this event so much. My other friends make 2-3 times their booth fee on average. Most make back their AA booth in a day. I'm not sure about the vendors but they always look busy.

There is a big focus on family friendly stuff so nothing lewd or NSFW is usually accepted unless you're an author. Just a heads up.

I've done this local event, local for me, for around 4/5 years now. I shared a table with a friend, then a booth, and finally got my own table last two years now. It is an affordable table, around $150 or so? With 2 badges, so it's not bad. My only complaint is this year they really over expanded the artist alley. It became a huge swamp meet style event, rather than a small quaint little comic con.

Sales were down for pretty much everyone due to this. When you add 100+ people you make everyone's totals go down. With little guests to draw more people, and the guests they did have not drawing in enough, it's starting to feel like they may have over-extended themselves. Sure they had a huge waitlist, as it was a small event, but opening it up just made it worse.

Parking does suck. The convention center charges $10/a day to park, though not on load in Thursday thankfully. You can get away with free parking on the meters come Sat/Sun but get there super early as they go fast. You risk parking tickets or tow in most other areas, so unless you uber or have a friend drop you off you're out of luck.

Food trucks are a major plus. Love them. Great addition.

I hope they figure out the problems for next year, such as maybe including free parking for vendors, along with cutting back on vendors.. or even bringing in A list stars to bring in those crowds we want.

Every year I table at this con it seems to do worse in crowd turnout. In 2013 it was fun and decent, I made a profit of a few hundred. This year I didn't cover table costs. People come to spectre, not buy, despite the artist alley being the center of the sales floor. The layout has improved in 2018 to where people actually evenly mull around the whole center, but with the huge caveat that there's a literal wrestling ring right next to the artist alley. So you have to shout over loud wrestling performances if you're on a certain end of the floor. You won't have a say in whether you are or aren't next to the ring, there's no option to choose your table location when buying your table. Being between halloween and the Dia de los Muertos parade for Tucson, it effectively ends up being a family thing to go to between two holidays.