Conventions

Last year our good pals at The Devastator magazine made news with an anonymous survey of convention exhibitors that showed average sales of $1300 at the shows surveyed, the differences between indie and comics shows and more. Well, as you MAY have NOTICED, there has been quite a bit of talk of late about exhibiting at conventions, profits and how it is changing. I thought it might be interesting to revisit this survey and after contacting Amanda Meadows at the Devastator, The Beat is proud to be co-sponsoring this year's survey. This survey covers sales at shows this year and general trends in staffing tabling and money making. It's intended for anyone who exhibits at Cafs or Cons, artists, small presses or crafters.

By David Nieves 2014 has been quite a year for Aspen Comics, following their 10th anniversary in '13, the house that Michael Turner built made...

Anticipating demand for next week's CAB programming, featuring Al Jaffee, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, Roz Chast and more, the show is making FREE tickets available in advance via Eventbrite . You can just go there now and sign up for the panels you want.

The last New York show of the year is on its way with Comic Arts Brooklyn taking place November 8-9th and this year the festival will be associated with several art shows and exhibits which all pretty top notch, including a very rare appearance by Julie Doucet, an Al Jaffee art show, a repurposed animation cel show and an exhibit of work by the Finnish collective Kutikuti. All FREE! Here's all the dates and times:

Comica is going on in the UK right now, a month long celebration of comics and graphic novels with a ton of event and art exhibits which you can see in the link. and here's another one; S.M.A.S.H. a series of three panels discussing various aspects of the art form. It sounds great—if we were in London on November 15th this is where we'd be. Info:

by Edie Nugent The main stage spectacles of NYCC saw panels filled with celebrity actors and moderators alike, whipping thousands of screaming audience members into...

I know there are a few panel wrap ups still coming down the pike here and there, but I wanted to essentially wrap up...

by Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Who else but the hipster indie publisher Top Shelf could possibly put out a book entitled God is Disappointed in You. Written by Mark Russell with illustrations by Shannon Wheeler of “Too Much Coffee Man” fame God is Disappointed in You is the Bible boiled down to its essential elements.

While most comics fans started New York Comic Con on Thursday, the die-hard industry insiders and watchers began their "con crush" on Wednesday. ICV2.com...

Okay...  I'm slowly getting back to "normal".  I still have a huge backlog of posts to work on, here's my con diary, mostly in...

While the harassment problems seems to have been put under control, by and large, there are a rather alarming number of reports of theft from the show, including this one, about a hand painted "Dunny" statue worth $2000 being stolen from a booth. The culprit was caught on tape taking the items at 7:25 after the show closed and fled on foot. I also saw tweets indicating that writer Amy Chu's laptop was stolen, and there's a report of an artist having some pages stolen as well. Thievery doesn't invite the same kind of "they were asking for it" response as other kinds of claims, but unfortunately, these incidents are a reminder that leaving valuable things lying around is not a good idea at a crowded con. It's also a sad comment on an otherwise peaceful crowd.

by Zachary Clemente In the incredibly crowded Artist Alley of New York Comic-Con, I sat down with illustrator Wes Craig to talk about his work...