Just got finished with the third annual Detroit Fanfare and
wanted to do an overview before I forgot about everything and other things
start to consume my time. It took me a
couple of days as I had lots of school stuff to do as I fell a bit behind on
grading and such but getting all that caught up.
The con was a huge success.
Sure, some minor glitches but that’s going to happen all the time but nothing
major and probably went un-noticed by just about everyone at the con. We had to divide the convention floor into
two rooms. One had the dealers in the
center with the artists primarily lined along the walls. The second room was a more traditional artist
alley but off to one side were the media guests and scattered throughout were
special setups such as the Pinball Expo, the giant Lego display, and other
non-traditional vendors. It worked out
well because almost every artist I talked to said they were glad they were in
the room they were in as they were doing well.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Detroit Fanfare Report
11:57 AM
Unknown
3 comments
Even though we had two rooms, they meshed together well as
there was one hallway that led into both.
The Kids Area was the corner of the two rooms and we had our Master of
Ceremonies, Chet Jacques between the two and he kept the crowed entertained
throughout the day with raffles, contests, and all other kinds of things. Ordinarily, splitting a con floor in two is a
problem but the flow was smooth and didn’t cause any problems as you had to
pass the first room which was virtually open to the hall before hitting the
second, larger one.
Friday was a Preview Night and we weren’t sure how that was
going to play out. Traffic wasn’t real
heavy but enough that we’re going to continue with it as feedback was really
positive. Almost immediately afterwards
were the Shel Dorf Award Ceremony. There
was a cover charge of $10 for that and all money received is going to the Memorial
Fund to purchase a headstone for Shel’s grave.
The emcee of the Awards was Scott Vertical, a local radio
host and it was easily apparent that he was a fan of comics. The presenters included myself, Tony Miello,
Sina Grace, David Petersen, Dirk Manning, Rafael Nieves, Kevin Vanhook, Josh
Blaylock, Bob Camp, and a few of the local retailers since the show is tied in
with the retailing community. Jimmy
Gownley had a great presentation as he announced that he had been nominated for
some 18 Eisners and Harvey Awards (which is just a mind-blowing number) yet had
never won and he was anticipating that since he was nominated for a Shel Dorf
Award, he expected to go home empty handed to continue the trend. Unfortunately for him, he was right.
Bill Schelly was awarded the Jerry Bails Award for Comic Fandom. If you’re unfamiliar with him, check out what
he’s done here. Very deserving. The Shel Dorf Legacy Award given to those who
have contributed over their lifetime to comics was given to Allen Bellman and
he gave a moving acceptance speech and captivated the audience, not just at the
Awards but throughout the entire con.
I was surprised with a Torchbearer Award as the other
members of the Shel Dorf Board of Directors (which I am one): Tony Miello,
Dennis Barger Jr., Jill Smethers, and Bob Smethers managed to keep it secret
from me and so I didn’t find out until Dennis presented it to me. The Torchbearer Award is given for continuing
the convention aspect that Shel started.
Although Dennis’ introduction included my retailing and publishing
years, I also put on the King Kon conventions in the 80’s that helped to center
a large convention in the area although there were certainly others at the time
but it did establish an annual event. As
I said, it was quite a surprise and as anyone that knows me, I’m not much for
public sentimentality so my acceptance was short. My appreciation, though minimally expressed,
was very heartfelt. I was glad my wife,
Jennifer, was there. She seldom comes to
conventions any longer but decided to come to the Preview Night.
After the Awards, the party started with the Buddy Black
Band playing live. The layout of the
hotel allowed a spill out into the lobby plus we had the hotel bar and one of
the great advantages here was that everyone was at the same hotel. Eventually, another party grew in the Pool
Terrace and when I went up for the night close to 2:00 am, there was a lot of
activity all over the hotel.
The hotel is a Hyatt but next year, it will be the Adoba as
the owners of the hotel decided to associate themselves with a new
partner. When it was announced that
Hyatt and the owners were separating, somehow it got twisted that the hotel was
closing. As anyone in the area can tell
you, it’s a great hotel and conference center that does fantastic
business. We don’t know what Adoba’s
plans are yet but they have a lot to work with and we heard a lot of
compliments on the hotel. It has a nice
presence about it, rated very highly and we obtained special rates that made if
affordable for the weekend. It’s a four
star hotel yet we had one potential guest who heard it was closing and wanted
us to put him up in a different hotel as someone told him the place was a
“dump” which couldn’t be further from the truth. So, we couldn’t, or should say, wouldn’t, accommodate him so we had to take a pass. I think anyone that came to the con knows he
missed out on something special.
Saturday was, of course, the main day. Attendance was heavy, especially early on,
and we had a good lineup at the beginning.
Chet and Mike Roll entertained the waiting crowd for a bit before they
were allowed in. We were surprised of
the impact of the costume contest as the attendance for that was
fantastic. The traffic flow was maintained
throughout the day…not NY or San Diego heavy, of course, but busy…very busy.
Throughout the show we had a number of panels and workshops
and all of them seemed to be well attended.
Probably the most shocking event in terms of response was when we had
the mermaid appear in the pool area (which was also the kids’ area) and the
crowds that rushed in to see her.
Saturday night was another party with the adult costume
contest during the party and both had a great reaction. The guest judges for the contest were Dave
Santia, Bob Camp, and Dirk Manning, and Freddie Nova stepped in to help out. The live shadow cast performance of Rocky
Horror Picture Show started at midnight and had the audience participation. I stopped in towards the end and it was a
packed house, guessing somewhere around 125 people and they all looked like
they were enjoying it immensely. I
ventured back to the party but I didn’t stay until the end as the short
sleeping time was catching up to me so I bailed out before 2:00 as I knew we
had a staff meeting the next morning.
The convention opened up at noon on Sunday and though we had
some questions about such a late opening, we certainly received a lot of thanks
from all those who stayed up late at the parties. The kids costume contest was actually prior
to the opening of the convention and we had a packed house. After the contest the kids were the first
into the show floor and they could go trick or treating as most everyone had
candy for them. The initial onslaught of
kids rushing it to get candy from over 150 vendors was fun to see although
where I was, we were directly in front of the door they came in and it hit us
fast and hard.
The kids were steered towards the area that we had set up
with Kids Read Comics convention from the Ann Arbor area. I was on hand to pass out my young adult
hardcover book from a couple of years ago, The Spirit of the Samurai. Those were passed out free and I autographed
over 100 of them in about 45 minutes.
The mermaid came back and other events started happening so I could get back
to my table. Sunday was steady traffic butI
got a chance to visit with a lot of the creators set up. The response was overwhelmingly positive,
even enthusiastic. By the end of the show, we also had over a dozen artist
alley booths prepaid for next year.
For me personally, it was a great time. I got to hook up with some friends that I don’t
see often enough such as Rafael Nieves, Kevin Vanhook, Dirk Manning, Vince Locke,
Mark Bloodworth, Joe Pruett, and others.
I had an opportunity to meet and spend some time with others such as
Allen Bellman, Bob Camp, Sina Grace, Yannick Paquette, and more. I met in person finally Danny Boyd of
Chillers and his friend and writer, Bill Bitner. Mala Mastroberte was also there. It’s funny when you’re a publisher that you
can publish someone and have a relationship yet never meet them…so that was
good. I also got to meet Alonzo Simon
who was there with Shawn Lee at the IDW booth.
Alonzo is one of the editors on the War of the Dead series I did with IDW. Sam Jones of Flash Gordon fame (and Ted, of
course) was very nice and we talked a bit.
He had a great rapport with fans. There were a lot of people that I knew
there such as Paul Storrie, Tom Orzechowski, Rob Worley, Keith Pollard, Bill
Morrison, Ryan Stegman, Arvell Jones, and Josh Blaylock that I got a chance to
talk with and so many others that listing them would fill a page. David Finch, Natalie Sanders, Mike Costas,
Nick Spencer, William Messner-Loebs were some that I didn’t really get an
opportunity to talk too much with but that happens at every con.
I had set up as myself and also had a spot for Transfuzion
and Binary, two publishing companies I’m involved with. The Voices from the Deadworld made its debut
there and between the contributing artists getting copies and sales, I went
home with just a single copy of the 150 I brought. It was a hectic time throughout the
convention but because it worked out so well, it was a good hectic.
We’ve already had a meeting to discuss some things to
evaluate on the con and ideas for next year.
With the new management taking over, we don’t have a solid date yet but
plan to shortly and they seem very eager to work with us and even expand the
event possibly.
There was a fantastic vibe to the show with lots to do
outside of visiting the dealers and artists as we had panels, workshops,
movies, and other events. We had a few
people come in for Saturday and then ending up staying the night so they could
enjoy Sunday.
The overwhelming sense of the show from most attendees and
exhibitors is that it felt like an old time convention and that’s a good
thing. Sure, there are bigger shows
around but we felt we really had a strong comic audience that appreciated our
guests and we know the guests appreciated them. Of course, what makes a convention special above all else are the people and we had a fantastic staff and volunteer corps and received numerous compliments about them.
Great times, great con. And we have some surprising things that we're already working on for next year.
3 comments:
Gary, couldn't agree with you more; a great show, a fantastic venue, and I can't wait 'til next year!
Had a great time, thanks to all of you for putting on an incredible show! I'll be back next year!
Dan Dougherty
Sounds like a great show, Gary. I'm hoping I can make it next year.
Steve Jones
Post a Comment