Convention Pre-Planning – Part 2 | The Convention Report: A Wizard Universe Blog

Convention Pre-Planning – Part 2

July 24, 2009 on 4:43 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Ok, so back for another Blog post! Where did we leave off last week? Ahh yes. Planning to go to a Convention.

We’ve covered the hotel, flight, parking, passes, food and bags.

What else is there? Ahh yes, spending money!

Don’t kid yourself. You are going to spend money at the con. There’s just no way around it. How much and where is up to you, but it’s very difficult to go to a convention and not buy SOMETHING. Well, it’s difficult for me, but I’m a collector. You may have more self control and will power.

Things to get at a show – Autographs, photos with people, sketches, toys, comics, clothes, hats, costumes, props, games, etc. There is just so many things available!

First off, Autographs. I don’t generally collect signed 8×10’s of my favorite actors, I prefer to have a signed photo of me with the celeb, but more on that in the next chapter below. If you’re into collecting, and want to make sure you don’t miss out, be sure to check the convention website to see if you can pre-order the autograph ticket. By ordering it in advance you can guarantee that you’ll get your autograph, and possibly even get to cut the line to get your autograph first! Be sure to check the Convention store, or the particular celebs bio page to see what the details are. If you can’t pre-order, then you’re going to have to wait in line. Remember this simple rule of conventions –

Friday’s for Autographs and sketch card creating.
Saturday’s packed, on lines you’ll be waiting.
Sunday’s for shopping, you little Pack Rat.
And those are the rules of Conventions per Spat!

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

So, get your autographs out of the way on Friday if you can.

Getting a signature on an item you bring from home is also an option. Generally, Comic artists and writers will sign their comics for free. While the Movie and TV actors will usually charge to sign their DVDs and posters.

Now, getting a photo with the celeb of your choice is a different story! Once upon a time that was super easy. Just walk up and ask. But then some of the guest started to only take the pic with their Polaroid camera and then charge you for it. Soon, they began to charge for a photo with them, even if taken with your camera. Then some guests just decided not to take the pics at all, since it usually took a bit of time to do, and if the line was long, taking a pic with every person on it, as well as signing autographs and chatting for a moment just took forever. I would see it happen at every show. The celeb standing there with their arm around a fan while another fan stood there asking, “Which button it it?” “Oops, I think I turned it off.” “Did the flash work that time?” “You blinked.” “Blurry.” Well, you get the idea. It took forever.

So then photographers joined in! We use a guy for the Wizard shows that we call Froggy. Talk to him at the next show and you’ll know why.

Froggy, and his company Froggy’s Photos will take a professional photo of you with the celeb of your choice, in a properly lit photo session at the show. And then they’ll print out a high gloss 8×10 for you! His prices are reasonable, and at the end of it, you have an awesome keepsake to take home with you, or, do what I do, and bring it to the celeb and have them sign it. Some guests do charge to even sign these pics, but some don’t. Be sure to ask first!

Personally, I’ve had about 15 Froggy photos taken in the last few years at conventions, and I love them.

Ok, sketches and then we’ll take a break until next week!

A lot of people who don’t actually spend time in Artist Alley at conventions just assume that it’s the place where artists sell art. There are also artists there who are famous for a comic or character that they created or worked on who will be there signing copies of the comic.

But what a lot of the Movie fans miss out on that the Comic folks have figured out is… the artists will also do custom drawings for you! That’s right! If you’re a fan of a particular character that this artist is famous for (and sometimes even if their not), they can draw it for you. Of course, there’s usually a fee for it, and some of the work is not done while you wait (you drop off your sketchbook and then pick it up later), but it can end up being THE keepsake of the con. You’ll see people rushing towards Artist Alley as soon as the doors open on Friday just so they can get on the list for a commission at the show!

Next time you’re at a con with an Artist Alley, I highly suggest you head over and see what the Artists there have going on.

Also, be sure to support the Indie Comic folk! Yes, always buying comics from Marvel and DC is great, but once in a while, head over to Artist Alley and check out some of the self published stuff! You never know, you may just find a gem, or the work of an up and comer who will move on to working on huge comics soon after! Or occasionally, you’ll find an Indie comic that will soon be picked up and turned into a movie! And then you can brag to all your friends that you have a first printing of that story, signed by the artist and writer. “Yeah, I picked it up at Chicago Comic Con. Then it went all mainstream.”

Ok, we’ll take a break here and come back next week with Part 3!

As I take a break for the weekend, I think back to Wizard World Philly 2009, and the time I met Michael Papajohn (the guy who shot Uncle Ben in Spider-Man). Super nice guy. He mentioned that he had to get to the airport to catch his flight. I asked him, “if you don’t get there in 30 minutes, is the flight free?” He replied with something along the lines of, “I’ll show you how free it is”. And then he robbed me at fingerpoint.