GlitchCon diary

The first weekend of August saw my first attempt at running a vendor table at anything other than a video game convention (next year marks ten years of OVGE and ten years of me having a table at OVGE). The convention in question was heavy on anime and steampunk, though there was also a healthy science fiction contingent there, including authors such as Kevin J. Anderson (of Star Wars and Dune spinoff novel fame). A few days before the show, while looking over the vendor room layout, a light bulb went off over my head and I started looking up the other vendors online. Nobody with general sci-fi swag. I pretty much leaped into my closet and started hauling stuff out that could be sold.

While I was sitting at my table, I had my trusty MobilePro plugged in and charged, and was writing one of two things: a hasty “GlitchCon diary” of my observation and in-the-moment impressions, or slices and pieces of WARP!1 and/or VWORP!2. Unlike the other authors in the room, I was writing my next book on the spot as a spectator sport!

What follows is, with minimal editing, my “GlitchCon diary.”

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Friday

Vendor room is smaller than expected; close quarters retail combat. I’ve brought too much stuff for my single table (the upside is that I can replenish as other stuff sells).

GlitchCon vendor room layout

I brought some Daleks to draw attention to the books. The reason I don’t bring more stuff for show is because OVGE has taught me that display stuff in the middle of stuff for sale, with no clear, blazingly obvious neon sign line between the two, pisses folks off. The OVGE effect holds true: more people have tried to buy the Daleks than have tried to buy the books.

Salesdaleks

I was very late getting here and wound up setting up after the official start-of-show. I wasn’t alone. People (as in folks wanting to buy stuff) didn’t start showing up until about an hour in. By the time I sold my first item (a Starlog Magazine special devoted to “Stephen King At The Movies” circa 1984 ), I was no longer drenched in setup sweat.

The vendor room reeks of coffee. Good grief, folks, I stopped on the way and bought gum because I was worried about Dr. Pepper breath.

Some of the costumes are amazing. There’s a guy walking around with a Portal gun drenched in LEDs. He hasn’t opened any glowing gateways in the walls or floors yet, which is probably a good thing.

I’m trying real hard not to buy the Jayne hat from the booth next to me. Must… resist…

There’s an adorable service dog in here. May be my favorite neighbor so far.

Con staff = extremely helpful. I was anticipating an OVGE-style “haul it all in from the car myself” death march; a member of the convention staff commanddeered a cargo roll-around and helped me load it and unload it. I’ve got nothing against how we do things at OVGE – it’s a different show, and it’s just not OVGE if I’m not drenched with “setup sweat” when the doors open to the public – but I could get spoiled like this.

Several vendor tables still empty. Guess it’s not worth it for some of them to show up until tomorrow.

I don’t trade my books off for other stuff – they’re too expensive (even at my cost) to do that – but I did donate a signed one to the charity auction. I figured I could get away with it, just this once; if there’s an issue, I’ll make sure to take it up with the guy who gave it away. Oh… waitaminute.

Only vendors doing anything even vaguely sci-fi = me and Vintage Stock (and, I suppose, Kevin Anderson when he shows up), and virtually all of VS’s stuff is anime-related. I think I correctly found the “interest gap” that wasn’t being served in here. (Whether or not it’s a legitimate gap for this show’s crowd… well, the cash box will let me know by Sunday.)

I can has sci-fi-burger. You can has it too for right price!

Hey, here’s Kevin Anderson! By total coincidence, someone just bought the Starlog Blade Runner special, leaving the Starlog Dune special at the top of the stack. Old Dune (albeit Dune a la Lynch) vs. “new” Dune – it is officially on, buddy.

Goku has entered the building. Hot damn, I think this show is finally on the road.

I’ve seen one Matt Smith, one Amy (with hash marks), and one Captain Jack, and somehow the giant stack of Doctor Who books, with Daleks perched on top like cake toppers, does not lure these people to my table. “Amy” finally dropped by to ogle my Daleks. 😆

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Saturday

First vendor in the vendor room! W00t! Deploying things a bit differently. More action figures out today, and a few CDs and books. Going to give the Daleks another try, but if I sense they’re costing me book sales, then they get stowed away.

Kevin J. Anderson and the corset ladies both promise to name their next child after whoever will make a Starbucks run. The spice evidently must flow. (The lucky person who gets children named after them is Tori. If there’s a sudden glut of Toris a few years from now, remember, this is where it started.)

Had a very pleasant visit from a young lady in full Matt Smith gear (but dear, where’s your fez?), with her parents in tow. The whole family took a, lot of Who merch off my hands, and I was very pleased to see the whole fam geeking out together. I’ve also seen examples of families wandering through where the parents could barely stand to be in the room with all this geeking out. I can tell you right down the line which parents will have serious problems connecting with their kids later on.

The thought also occurred that the younger folks with the homespun costumes impress the hell out of me. There are so many options for just buying entire outfits “off the peg,” for those who have the money to spend on it. That they’ve taken the time to roll their own – even if it’s a bit rough around the edges – it most impressive. Which brings me back to the parents who obviously couldn’t wait to leave the con: your kids are having fun. They’re with you and you can see what they’re doing. They’re “with their tribe,” making friends and exchanging ideas. The skills they’re acquireing in putting this stuff together are not usless skills (says the guy who could stand to learn a thing about repairing his own clothes). There are far worse things to be doing with that time, talent and curiosity. Embrace and encourage it.

Holy crap, IT’S THE BORG. These guys were awesome. They’d break character if you talked to them, but other than that they had that slow-but-not-quite-zombie-shambling gait of the Borg down perfectly. Their wearable lighting was awesome. Their makeup was good enough that I just wanted to start filming a movie. They can’t possibly have been comfortable in there. Rock on, Borg hive.

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Sunday

Costumes seen so far: a somewhat chunky (but still impressive) Stormtrooper, and Jay and Silent Bob in their late 40s. Oh… wait. I’m not sure that was a costume.

Info sent out to vendors specified “please stay until 3”; not everyone did, and in fact one vendor in particular (right next to my table) never showed up for the whole weekend. I know some of the special guests have to bail out early to catch a flight home, but after lunch the vendor room starts looking like it sucks a bit. This hits the following year’s show as worth of mouth gets around – from folks who were only here on Sunday – that the vendors’ room has tumbleweeds rolling through it.

One guy stood in front of my table for what seemed like 15-20 minutes ranting about how awesome Deadpool is. That’s… awesome. Can you move over here out from in front of the books? (And you know, I’m not a comic book guy, but I can tell when your rant has descended into BS when you’re talling me about Marvel characters meeting DC characters. C’mon.)

And then there was this

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I had a blast at GlitchCon, even though I barely left the vendors’ room except to visit the can a couple of times. When I learned there was a photo booth down in the lobby, and what backgrounds they had on hand, I ran down there real quick to take this picture on Saturday right before closing.

A great time was had by all. Looking back, I think my table was probably too cluttered; the stuff that left were the old Starlog movie magazines, almost anything and everything to do with Doctor Who (except, of course, my book), and Star Wars stuff – I actually moved a lot of Star Wars comics and a bunch of carded figures from a box that’s been sitting on a high shelf, closed up, for almost a decade (the figures were all from Episode II if that gives you any indication). Even sold some Tron figures, if you can believe that, along with one of my trio of apparently-un-sellable Doctor Who figures (a clockwork robot from The Girl In The Fireplace). Some PDF DVDs sold, much to my surprise.

GlitchCon and Konsplosion had one thing in common: I was bummed beyond all belief when my time at each one was over.

We’ll get into that tomorrow, because it’s somewhat serious business that demands its own post away from all the fun.