Saturday at SPX cranked up at 10:00 in the morning and throughout the morning and afternoon the crowd seemed to just grow and grow. By late afternoon there were areas of the floor that were difficult to move through–something I’ve never witnessed before at an SPX. Again, though, given that this is a new venue, it’s hard to do a side-by side comparison between this show and shows previous. The biggest crowds seemed to be toward the rear of the hall where the bigger arthouse publishers were located—Fantagraphics and their ilk. I should revise my assessment of the layout from Friday’s post to say that, although the show was all in a single room, there were in fact a couple of “dunce areas” created in two corner spaces which were separated from the rest of the hall by doorways. Folks assigned tables here were very sad and lonely (and likely broke).
All in all, I did about three times the sales on Saturday that I did on Friday and was pleasantly surprized to return home with substantially less stuff (well, less of my stuff anyway) than I had arrived with.
Post-show thoughts/observations:
- Pretty much everyone I talked to sold a lot of stuff and was pretty happy with the turnout at the show.
- I overheard an “unnamed source” SPX official saying that the hotel was very pleased with the show’s ability to sell out its block of rooms. So, I’m guessing—like it or lump it—the “North Bethesda” Marriot is gonna be the location for next year.
- Most folks woud prefer to lump it. The general concensus seemed to be that, although the hotel itself was much nicer than the somewhat run down Holiday Inn Select (or whatever it was that the show used to be held in), the location was extremely problematic for a number of reasons and the increased expenses associated with the hotel cut into exhibitor’s potential profits from the show.
- Increased expenses – The room rate was about the same as the old location, but the Marriot milked guests for every nickel they could. Parking cost extra, in-room internet cost extra, wi-fi cost extra. And, unlike with the old location, the Marriot is the only game in town; The American Inn, right next door to the old location, would frequently undercut the official show hotel, offering rooms for under or about $100.00 a night if you booked in advance.
- Increased expenses – There was very little in the way of food available within a walk or even a short drive. The few nearby restaurants were on the expensive side and packed both nights, with 1-2 hour waits at some. This situation drove many folks to…
- Increased expenses – The hotel restaurant, which served mediocre, vastly-overpriced ($20-$30 an entree) food served at a snail’s pace and featured a surly, pissy wait staff.
- The production value of the books people were selling was very high and stuff that didn’t look professional wasn’t moving. The poor guy two tables over from me who was selling a single issue of a mini with a xeroxed black and white cover didn’t sell a single copy as far as I could tell. My perception is that this whole “foldover cover, hand silkscreened, stitched binding, chipboard slipcase” thing is getting a little out of hand in a form-over-content way which reminds me (oddly) of the whole “foil embosseed, limited edition, variant cover” mainstream thing from the 90s. Maybe that guy two tables over from me had a great book… but we’ll likely never know because no one bought it.
- There was at least one editor from the Marvel/DC contingent waking the floor.
- The hipster beard—AKA, the “Riker“—was in full effect on the floor. I blame indy rock beardos, The Kings of Leon.
- Buzz books: Brian Chippendale’s Ninja, a gigantic $35.00 book with a print run of 50, sold out. Fanta had so many new books (their table looked like a helicopter had dropped a load of those “Outstanding Debut Nominee” Ignatz badges on it napalm-style) that none seemed to be a clear buzz book. Adhouse’s Project Romantic looked to be selling briskly, but was not generating the same talk that the two previous “Project” antholgies did. But, hey, go figure: the first two were about robots and superheroes; this one’s crawling with cooties. Wide Awake Press #666 was in a lot of hands as well.
Here’re a few of my purchases that are standouts so far:
- The Mourning Star by Kazimir Strzepek
- The Flying Bear by Daniel Strange & Evan Larson (although this is old, dated 2004)
- The Beast Mother by Eleanor Davis
- Bugbear #1 by Eleanor Davis & Drew Weing
- Trackrabbit #2 by Geoff Vasile
- Don’t Leave Me Here Alone by J. Chris Campbell
- The Mother’s Mouth by Dash Shaw
- La Primavera by Alexis Frederick-Frost
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