Speaking as someone who does both I have to disagree with this for a number of reasons. For one, saying that cosplay is killing cons is, honestly, just bad business. If your crowd is changing into people who cosplay, the last thing you want to do is to alienate them by saying, Cosplayers are just focused on themselves and the attention and arent supporting the artists. Thats going to upset a huge chunk of people who are potential customers. Now, that being said, is it frustrating doing a con and not making money? Of course it is. But, honestly, after having gone to so many cons this year and still going to more, the most support Ive gotten in regards to my art and my books is at anime/comic book conventions. We post like crazy online but the best place we do business is at these geeky venues. We even tried at a con that focused more on books and didnt sell a single one. But an anime con? Oh man. The amount of people Ive met who are impressed with the fact that I have stuff published has been amazing, and theyve been very supportive. I mean sure I have my coasters and my wifey has her plushies, but book sales have been really great, too. Weve sold out of books at conventions to the point that we had to order more and ship them out to people, and theyre o.k. with that! Might take a month because I need to email the publisher. Thats fine. And they respond! Got my book in the mail, thanks! Love it so far! Because even if they can order it online, Im there, in front of them, talking about my work. But its not like that at every show, you know? Weve come home and ended up spending more than we made, but to sit and blame that on cosplay is just ridiculous. Ive had plenty of people out of costume not buy from me. Ive done shows where the cosplay is at a minimum and not made much. Not to mention that artist alley is becoming a much bigger thing. More people are doing it, which is creating more competition. Something that started out as a small room in Anime Central years ago now takes up a good chunk of the convention center next door. Tables sell out in minutes. Places like Anime Expo sold out for next year as soon as the con was over. More and more artist are at these cons working and trying to get their name out there. Theres so many factors that play into artist alley: location, table placement, the size of the convention, the amount of people in the alley. I swear when I went to cons years ago artist alley would have maybe 20 tables, now some cons have 300+! Do you realize how many booths that is to look at? And thats just artist alley, theres still the dealers room. Her examples in this article are all these gigantic conventions where there are hundreds of artists to look at. That is overwhelming as all hell. What people are doing now is looking at who is going and making a plan: I want to see this person, they are located here, I have to go there. The best we can do is what we always do: try and stand out. And this idea that cosplayers are taking the attention away? Most people I know who go to conventions dont spend all that money just to see cosplayers. You can do that on the internet for free. Theyre there for the experience, to meet people, guests, to check out the dealers room, artist alley, everything. If anything, treat cosplayers as part of the attraction. It pulls people in. Ive done cons where people who are at the hotel NOT for the convention walk over because theyre so fascinated by whats happening. Now, they want to know what its all about, and maybe theyll stick around. I use my cosplay to my advantage, I cosplay at my table, it pulls people in. I enjoy doing it, absolutely, and I do it while Im selling my work. People want a picture with me? Sure thing! But hey, while youre here, check out my work. People need to realize that cosplayers are more than that. Sure, a lot of work goes into our costumes, and sometimes a lot of money is spent, but you know what? Cosplayers are responsible. They budget. They plan. They make sure they have money for their cosplay AND the convention theyre going to, because a lot of people go to conventions to SPEND MONEY! Cosplayers go to cons for more than just cosplay. They want to meet guests, hang out with friends, go to the dealers room, check out artist alley, they want to enjoy the experience as a whole. I rarely meet a cosplayer whose like, Im just here to get my picture taken. If thats the case, why spend money on badges, hotel, food, travel, and all that? We could just take pictures at our house, post them online, and get attention that way. Is it fun to be stopped for pictures? Yes. But damnit I also want to meet J. Michael Tatum and hang out with my friends and look at art and buy things. People need to stop with this idea that all cosplayers care about is cosplay. There are people under those costumes, and they arent going to support your work if you make such assumptions about them. bleedingcool/2014/09/22/denise-dorman-asks-is-cosplay-killing-comic-con/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:21:35 +0000
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