Derby City Comic Con, Louisville, KY July 16,2011 Options

[Bill Nichols]

This is a (new) one-day show that being put on next year in Louisville.

I'm going to be a guest as is writer Marjorie Liu among others.

Some of the artists scheduled so far: Uko Smith, Mike Maydak, Jay Leisten, Terry Huddleston, and Stuart Sayger.

Derby City Comic Con

This post has been edited by Bill Nichols: Nov 15 2010, 03:51 PM

[livedog]

Thanks for the thread, Bill!

We've added a couple of artists in the past couple of days: Rodney Fyke and the Louisville Cartoonist Society. More to be announced soon!

I hope all of the regional fans of CR will be able to make it out to the show.

[Bill Nichols]

I think you'll get a few more local/area creators.

[G-Man]

Twilight Star is very interested in this show.

[Eric Adams]

I'm very interested, but keeping it on the maybe list for now. It's the weekend before SDCC, and if my plans for SDCC move forward, this might be hard to squeeze in.

[livedog]

I'm very interested, but keeping it on the maybe list for now. It's the weekend before SDCC, and if my plans for SDCC move forward, this might be hard to squeeze in.

If you can make it, we'd love to see you there! I liked your stuff that I saw at Kokomo-Con.

[Bill Nichols]

Let's see...local artists who might be interested (feel free to add to the list, anyone...)

Willie Peppers
Peter Palmiotti
Scottie Watson
Is Greg Land still in Louisville?
Jonathan Glapion (Owensboro?)
Mark Hester

[Gonzogoose]

I'm interested in it since it' only about 60-90 minutes from me, plus John lives there. We'll see.

[Sean Forney]

I'm also interested in the con, but I am in the same boat as Eric with it being the weekend before SDCC. I am waiting on that email from SDCC yet to see I am going again in 2011.

[ScottDMSimmons]

Highly likely I will be doing this show.

I am very much about supporting and doing regional shows, and will have regional shows as my focus of conventions in 2011.

Scott

[Ringtail Cafe]

Ringtail Cafe has added it to the potential list.

[livedog]

Bill - I think that Paul has contacted everyone on your list, but I will double check.

Gonzo, Scott, Sean and Ringtail - I hope you can all make it! Out of curiosity and a desire to make this the best con we can, what would push it from the maybe column to the yes column?

We have another great Special Guest we are set to announce after Thanksgiving, so stay tuned!

Thanks for your support guys!

[Ringtail Cafe]

Out of curiosity and a desire to make this the best con we can, what would push it from the maybe column to the yes column?

That's probably one of the best questions a convention has ever asked us.

I won't speak for the others, but I can tell you there are various factors that come down to it, for Ringtail Cafe.

Things we look at:

Website. Is it well organized, easy to navigate, and have the important info on it? (contact, dates, hours, etc). Derby City's certainly fits that criteria.

Time of year: Does it conflict with any of our other shows, is it hot on the heels of or just before another show (and would wear us out?)

Cost. How much does it cost us to set up there, and if it's necessary to get hotels, etc.

Size. For the amount of effort (eg, driving, number of days) is the size of the con worth the exhaustion?

Communication. This is probably one of the biggest ones. It's very frustrating to go to a website, and not be able to register, or find out information about registering for tables.


I'm not saying these things to sound critical, quite the contrary. I was the one who added the convention to the "maybe" list of conventions for the year. We just haven't looked at our schedule and everything yet.

Derby City Comic Con has a VERY nice website, all the important info is there, it's close, and it's very inexpensive. Those are all highly favorable attributes. For us, honestly, it will more than likely just come down to the question of time.

Hope that was helpful!

[Eric Adams]

I agree with everything on Ringtail's list, but would like to add one more item: Promotion.

I went to a lot of first year startup shows this year that had poor turnouts (I won't name them), and one startup that had a fantastic turnout (Cincinnati Comic Expo). CCE clearly promoted locally, unlike the other unnamed shows that promoted insularly in comics circles. CCE brought in a big crowd that wasn't already "in" with comics.

On that note, I ask, what are you doing to promote the Derby City Comic Con to the city of Louisville?

[livedog]

Thanks for the reply! It was very helpful. The bottom line is that this is the first convention we've put on and we want to do it right! We realize it has to be attractive to all parties involved (artists, small presses, vendors and attendees). We are very interested in any advice or suggestions we can get.

I think we did a fairly good job of not scheduling around anything else, except the Big One, but that boiled down to when the venue was open. The biggest problem with Louisville was that when there were some dates not around other cons in the early part of the year, we were competing heavily with the Kentucky Derby and we were afraid to get lost in the shuffle.

Thanks again for your input, it is very appreciated!

That's probably one of the best questions a convention has ever asked us.

I won't speak for the others, but I can tell you there are various factors that come down to it, for Ringtail Cafe.

Things we look at:

Website. Is it well organized, easy to navigate, and have the important info on it? (contact, dates, hours, etc). Derby City's certainly fits that criteria.

Time of year: Does it conflict with any of our other shows, is it hot on the heels of or just before another show (and would wear us out?)

Cost. How much does it cost us to set up there, and if it's necessary to get hotels, etc.

Size. For the amount of effort (eg, driving, number of days) is the size of the con worth the exhaustion?

Communication. This is probably one of the biggest ones. It's very frustrating to go to a website, and not be able to register, or find out information about registering for tables.


I'm not saying these things to sound critical, quite the contrary. I was the one who added the convention to the "maybe" list of conventions for the year. We just haven't looked at our schedule and everything yet.

Derby City Comic Con has a VERY nice website, all the important info is there, it's close, and it's very inexpensive. Those are all highly favorable attributes. For us, honestly, it will more than likely just come down to the question of time.

Hope that was helpful!

[livedog]

Hey Eric, that's a great question. I'll give as detailed an answer that I can.

The first partner that we signed up with was the LEO Weekly, the alternative weekly paper in Louisville. The circulation is 30,000, but with pass along it is estimated to have over 80,000 readers in the the Louisville area. We will be doing ads in there for the month running up to the show. One of the ads will be a full-color, full-page ad in their annual music issue, which is far and away their most popular issue. They will also be doing some ticket giveaways.

We have also signed up with one of the most popular local comics shop The Great Escape and the biggest indie record store in the Commonwealth (unless that's changed recently), ear X-tacy who will be selling advance tickets and promoting the show in-house.

We, of course, have our Web site, facebook and twitter pages that we will continue to promote. The focus of the Web site is to provide information. The purpose of the twitter is to provide updates and to interact with creators. The facebook page will serve as a way to build the community and the fanbase for the show. We will be selling tickets directly from the page (as well as our site) and we will be doing some giveaways there as well. Another thing we will be doing on the facebook page is our "Derby City Spotlight" where we will post a brief interview with an artist. There are many great independent artists out there that the general public simply aren't aware of. Our goal is to use the facebook page to actively introduce this audience to the creators who will be joining us for the show.

Even though superheroes aren't going to be the only focus of the con, we all realize that it is the superheroes that will bring in the person who isn't a comics fan or that read comics when they were little and now want to introduce their kids to them. Derby City will fall right in the middle of a summer of superhero movies. We will be reaching out to all of the local TV and radio stations for interviews and will be able to provide a local link to the national buzz these movies will bring. We have also approached some radio stations about also doing some ticket giveaways.

I have recently started a conversation with someone from the Louisville Metro Library on ways we can promote the show there and help draw in families and children. Fortunately this person is a big comics fan and a driving force in the Libraries own annual Animecon and is very excited about the con. I would love to see a lot of families turn out (much like they did in Cincinnati) because I feel like there are a lot of great comics out there and we need to hook in some younger readers for the art to survive (/editorializing). One of the charities our auction will benefit is the Library Foundation where our donation will be earmarked to buy graphic novels for the library.

We will also be producing two different posters that we will be hanging up anywhere we can in the region.

There is also something we are working on right now that I am not at liberty to discuss, yet, but if it should work out will serve to give DCCC some great exposure to a nice crossover audience of movie fans in the community.

These are all aimed, primarily, at the general public. To target the comics collecting audience we will also be posting updates on a variety of comic related (no pun intended) message boards and, as I said, the facebook and twitter pages. We will also be sponsoring some episodes of a popular comics podcast as well.

One more thing, and I can't go into details on at the moment, but we are in the process of signing on a great online comic store (that many of you will know) who will be including a handbill about the show in every order they send out for a period of time prior to the show, which will expose over a 1000 fans to the con.

We also know that the guest list goes a long way in getting some fans in, so we continue to work hard on that. We have one confirmed and will be announcing our second Special Guest next Monday. (I will enter this plea here: If anyone knows how to contact Robert Kirkman directly, we would love to get him to make an appearance. This is by far the No. 1 person that has been requested. Right now we have only had access through the Image publicist and, to be perfectly honest and open, it doesn't look promising. But I know from years of interviewing musicians, if you can approach them directly it is often a different story.)

I hope that answer your question! I'd be happy to answer any other questions or concerns anyone has in as open and honest way that I can. I've promoted concerts and helped with smaller events, but this is the first comic con I've organized. I know that many of your attend a huge amount of shows a year, so you have run across things you like and dislike. I am completely open to learning from your experience and we will do everything we can to make this a great experience for everyone involved.

I agree with everything on Ringtail's list, but would like to add one more item: Promotion.

I went to a lot of first year startup shows this year that had poor turnouts (I won't name them), and one startup that had a fantastic turnout (Cincinnati Comic Expo). CCE clearly promoted locally, unlike the other unnamed shows that promoted insularly in comics circles. CCE brought in a big crowd that wasn't already "in" with comics.

On that note, I ask, what are you doing to promote the Derby City Comic Con to the city of Louisville?

[livedog]

We are proud to announce that Tony Moore will be joining us for Derby City Comic Con 2011!

[Ringtail Cafe]

Do you happen to know how long the tables are? That, and whether or not there is a fair amount of space behind the table make a difference in how many tables we'll order for a show.

[livedog]

Do you happen to know how long the tables are? That, and whether or not there is a fair amount of space behind the table make a difference in how many tables we'll order for a show.

The tables are all 8' long. We are still finalizing the floor plan, but as it stand now the minimum behind the table will be 4' (there are eight feet from the back of the table to the back of the next aisle).

I'd also like to take a minute to shamelessly promote, er, I mean, direct everyone to our facebook page for more updates and info on some upcoming giveaways.

[Eric Adams]

I hope that answer your question! I'd be happy to answer any other questions or concerns anyone has in as open and honest way that I can. I've promoted concerts and helped with smaller events, but this is the first comic con I've organized. I know that many of your attend a huge amount of shows a year, so you have run across things you like and dislike. I am completely open to learning from your experience and we will do everything we can to make this a great experience for everyone involved.

Thanks for the thorough response. Sounds like you're making a pretty strong effort and for that, I'll be submitting an app. As a self-publisher, the one thing I'm looking for more than anything else at a con is an audience. I think a lot of con organizers get so overburdened with the physical needs of the con that they often stumble with promotion. IMO, the most crucial time to promote locally are the 10 days leading up to the con, which unfortunately will be the same time frame that all the physical needs start eating up time too.

That said, if there are promotional efforts I can assist or participate in, please let me know. After all, helping you helps myself and my fellow comicking folk.

Also, glad to hear there's 8' tables! I have a lot of merch.