This last weekend I headed north and went to the Granite State Comicon.
As I have stated in the past, this is usually a much calmer convention for me than the Boston Con. It is smaller. There are fewer creators and usually only a couple that I really want to meet. Usually, this is the con I go to actually (gasp) thumb through and buy comics.
So the youngest Supergirl and I went on Saturday.
There were only 2 artists I thought might be good to grab commissions from. Unfortunately, both priced themselves out for me. More and more I am seeing artists, regardless of stature or presence in the market, charge around $300 for a sketch. And more and more I am seeing creators charge for signatures on issues (some even charge more for autographs on specific issues).
With the commission quest put to the side, I instead looked for comics and stuff.
One of the best finds was an official Lego Supergirl figure. That meant I didn't need to buy a whole Lego set to get it.
She sports a nice Matrix version of the costume and some long, more classic hair. It also has a nice fabric cape.
If you are a fan of the Loeb/Kelly version of the character or the early New52 character, you can turn the face around into the red eyed scowling Supergirl as well.
The Lego figure now lives in the 'full shirt/red skirt' section of the collection.
Outside of that purchase, all I got for me was a bunch of great comics from $1 boxes. Lots of early Marvel Team-Ups, some Marvel Chillers, a great Wonder Woman Annual, the Flash issue where Iris is killed, and some old school Justice League of America including #132 - a Conway/Dillin issue guest starring Supergirl. Boy, I love Dick Dillin's art and he does a great Kara.
I also had the self-control not to drop silly money on this Dana Sterling doll. Although I did pick it up longingly every time I walked by that booth.
So I am going to call this con a success even though I left without commissions. I spent the day with a supergirl and bought comics. Happy!
3 comments:
I'm pretty confident that I owned a Dana Sterling figure as a kid, even though I don't know who she is. I bought a lot of those Matchbox Robotech figures, probably because they weren't very popular and likely sold cheap at K-Mart. Also, because the line was not only relatively flush with female characters at a time when they were rare in 3 3/4" circles, but also because the male characters were so androgynous that I could turn them "sissy" as additional functional females. I just Googled an archive site and specifically remember gender-flipping Zor and Rick Hunter. Prior to that, I did the same thing with an early Han Solo figure that struck me as looking more like Callisto from the Morlocks.
I don't know any of this to be fact, so please take it as pure conjecture. I've heard some artist may be, being pressured by other artists to raise their prices on sketches and commissions. The whole issue being that if someone charges less, then that becomes the expectation of everybody and doesn't bode well for those who charge higher prices. I don't mind artist making their money for the time and effort put into commissions, but sometimes even a simple quick sketch can cost a pretty penny. Like I said though this is just from conversations with people, and based purely in conjecture. Take it for what its worth. I personally could see that being possible. I will say though that every artist I've gotten commissions from have been wonderful and very fairly priced, if not cheap in comparison to some I've seen.
Charging more for what issue gets signed I see as a garbage move personally. Charge for your sig if you want, but to base it on what's signed? Are you trying to punish scummy resellers? If that's the case, I can understand some frustration, but why also take it out on people who love your work purely and just want their favorite issue signed, no matter what that issue may be? It's like graded comics and games, I just don't get it. I dunno maybe Ive just become jaded in my old age, but that's my two cents.
Thanks for comments.
Gender flipping Zor and also a true TV rock star in the Invid series which followed the Dana one! Robotech was ahead of its time!
As for commissions, I just think that $300 is pricing out almost everybody. When I get a full color full figure piece from a serious and established talent like Yanick Paquette for $200, then a mid-level less established artist charging more seems crazy.
What it has done for me is to target younger artists or newer artists breaking into the field or just making a name. That's how I got Aaron Kuder a couple of years ago and Joelle Jones and Annie Wu this year.
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