Montréal Comic Book, Science Fiction & Anime Expo 2003 [site] Day 2 sat 15 nov: 3000 in attendance
These photos are from the second of three days at the convention, later on in the afternoon after things settled down enough for me to leave my table for a few minutes, and then later on from a panel I was on with Bernie Mireault, James Kochalka & Christ Oliver.
Arrived around 1:30 and the room was packed.
A small hopelessly gray convention hall with bad air.
For the most part this would be my primary bone to pick with the event. When will the fan-con circuit realize that cooperate convention hall don't cut it? They're the worst spaces in the world for a book fair or otherwise human scale event.
You want to sell cars or waterspouts vehicles then sure. But it just makes book fairs and events of this scale, a smallish comic con, seem sad and sickly. Not to mention the DRY STALE recycled air! ugh! If it's just a small event a large public space like Relais Mont-Royal is better by far. The space sets the character and feel of an event. For this the convention center format is generally not the nicest, and the new Palais des Congrès is one of the most sterile on the main floor. Perhaps the second floor could work, the carpeted floors help somewhat soften the space, and the blue is much more appealing than the stark gray/white main halls that feel like airplane hangers.
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Second bone would be that the Expo was wholly short of French content. There was more Japanese books than French BD- This is Montreal folks! a northamerican outpost in the European BD market, you can't really expect to take advantage of the majority of the local audience with just fandom and amine/manga. This could have been twice as busy/interesting if that market had been adequately represented.
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Also next year I'd put some energy into attracting the underground zine culture more extensively, give them a section of free 1/3rd tables or something. There'll pay for the space in the numbers of indy scene kids and adult indy readers who will come in the door.
Along similar lines James Kochalka [in attendance Saturday with local fellow expat Tom Devlin ] had this to say on the TCJ message boards
- "the number one question I heard this weekend at the Montreal Comic Book Expo (from nearly every person who stopped by my table) was "where can I find your comics in Montreal?" Which rather astounded me... it's their city, shouldn't they be the ones who know where the good comic book stores are? The moral is that Montrealers are desperate for indy comics."
There are problems here it seems with general broad awareness of where to find alt comics on the part of many Montréalers. I've talked to many of the local publishers and authors and both the home grown and imported indy comix market are not getting nearly enough attention yet in book shops. The shops here that do carry indy stuff aren’t doing much to market their where’s to a larger crowd right now. F52 is talking about it but no action just yet, Fichtre is ok, but really stays to the underground scene a fair bit. Mostly just getting it's name on events as a sponsors. The scene gets a fair bit of mention in the weeklies but I can't remember the last time I saw an add for any of the local shops in one of them...? Either it's not there or it forgettable, neither is good.
Been contemplating things that could be done at the grass roots level. Was thinking of posters, ‘where to find the comics’ maps. Post them online and slap them up around town. Strictly cheep photocopies or silk screens probably. Get the shops to pitch in the copy $ , like $20-$30 each to pay for printing. Possibly get the Slow Action Movement involved? (several indy creators here rank amongst their membership) Or at least take a page from their play book.
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Generally artist's ally could use better planing in it's layout.
This is what it looked like
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Felt strung out and the gaps left by no-shows were notable. I think something that crates more wandering and exploring is more interesting for both guests and exhibitors. Like these
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|__________________________________________Ask an artist to do it or something!
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Good turnout on the local creators side, obviously there is an interest in this sort of event happening in Montreal.
An informal survey on my part and a conversation with Francis Hervieux (BDQ/Mensuhell) suggest to me that the majority would probably agree with many of the above points to at least some extent.
The crowd that did show was very cool I found, though very few were there for the alt publishers and creators. The Anime voice actors and Humberto Ramos seemed to attract the most, largely young, 2 to 1 female to male singing audience - The usual hard core fans, and a smattering of parents with kids in toe.
A quiet moment on the 'celebrity guest's' side of the room ...
Bellow the recently reclusive J.Holder. Talked to him and some of his students, good bunch of talented artists.
Above Christ Oliver. He seemed like nice guy, a bit shy to talk in English and I'm much the same still in French myself, so we didn't talk much. But he was on the same panel as I was later, and it was cool to hear his thought and experiences. He's a Franco-Ontarian and enjoys a good amount of support from the government via his publisher. This allows him to work largely on stories of his own choosing.
Below on the left is Yanick Paquette and in the foreground...one of the grafiksismik crew i think, not sure who...?
Above from left behind the table to right is Gabriel Morissette Eric Thériault, Janet Hetherington, & Ronn Sutton. Talked to Ronn & Janet for a bit, I know Ronn from way back in the late 80's when I was first coming up and meeting artist at the cons at OCA. Visited each others studios I recall, I remember checking out where he worked and talking for a bit. He's been working on Elvira steadily for the last few years. He's doing OK, but lamenting the lack of opportunities/time to develop his own ideas a bit more. I know what that feels like :-\ - Still, he told me that the folks at Claypool are the best people he's ever worked with, singling out his editor for high praise. I tip my hat to any publisher who seems to honor it's freelancers so well.
This reminds me, We got to talking about the opportunities for grant money for comics creators on the panel later on, perhaps a mature author's grant from the Gov. would be just the thing? I know Bernie Mireault Received one a short while ago and that's helped him make a big dent in a GN he's working on. I also recently have been enjoying the benefits of grant funding. Maybe Ronn could get a grant to do the work and see if Claypool would take it when he's done?
Below is Tom Devlin from highwater and beyond him the irrepressible James Kochalka him self!
I did some doodles of people from the con from memory when I got home, I like the drawing of James here, and Matthew Mohammed as The Black Bastard...
Karl Kerschl meets with his shaven minions, behind in the BG next to the lady in red is Geof Isherwood
Bellow, Michael Peacock & Matthew Mohammed [L2R] of The Black Bastard were there with them bad selves, representing for the Rorschach Press.
Bellow Gabriel Morrissette & Leonard Kirk talk shop and make faces at each other. Leonard appears to suggest that something should be shoved up somewhere....?!
[All baseless conjecture on my part]
Niko Henrichon and Pierre-Andre Dery hang out and read comics...:)
Got to talk to the grafiksismik guys a bit and spoke to their talent manager about working/visiting with them in the near future for commercial gigs. Seem like a good people.
Sirkowski and friends were there as well. He defiantly has a steady fan base, he seemed to be busy talking and drawing every time I looked that way.
Mensuhell was there, Francis seemed rather disappointed buy the show. again the French issues mentioned above came up when we talked. He spoke with the organizers about the show and gave them some names to look up, as did i a few others. So it's unclear if the lack of French creators and book sellers was for lack of trying or lack of interest on the part of the authors and creators. Hopefully next year there's a better turnout.
At 4pm sat eve me Bernie Mireault, James Kochalka & Christ Oliver sat on a panel.
The topic was the old war horse, 'Mainstream vs. Indy Comics:working for your self or working for the man', or what I call Tops or bottoms, what are you?. Small but very good audience, about a 8th of the seats filled by the end, maybe less. A few good questions, Bernie pounded on the soapbox and James talked about the benefits of web publishing. Christ impressed us all with the perks of being a minority group representative and the advantages that's given him in getting his books published. At the far right bellow is the very cool audience member who volunteered to translate for Christ for the oddly majority English audience.
So that's it. Nice bunch of people behind the tables, some good crowds during the peek hours but there wasn't the sort of atmosphere that would keep anyone hanging around for too long. And the general word is that sales were poor all around. It was a first try, needs work.
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©Words Art and Photos By Max Douglas