GraniteCon 2014 saw a return to the Radisson Expo Center in Manchester, NH for Jesse and I, and after last year’s GraniteCon being our best show of the year, we had high hopes and expectations! Let’s see what was good and bad about this year’s show (what we playfully dubbed “The Con of Thrones”) and also look at the friends and new artists I met along the way!
Overview
The Theme this year was made known months in advance of the actual con. This year GraniteCon managed to land 5 guest actors from the very popular HBO series “Game of Thrones.” Now, while I’ve read all 5 “Song of Ice and Fire” books and DO enjoy the show, the focus on this element of the convention clearly had an impact on other aspects of the show. I could feel attendance was up this year, it was their second year being a 2-day show and people felt a bit more used to the format, but because of the sudden injection of popular, non-comics media to the show, many of those new attendees were there “just for the celebrities.” and way way less for the actual comics artists for which the show is named.
There was an air of indifference shown to the artists this year, more like we were just there to amuse folks until the next Game of Thrones panel was loudly announced over the convention PA. There were influxes of people in-between the events, and there were times of very heavy activity on the show floor proper, but the gaps of just dead sales with little to no people walking around the artists tables was maddening and long. Especially on Sunday afternoon when one usually expects a bump in sales as people look to unload and make their choices.
I heard from many, many artists that sales were way down this year and while it’s easy to blame the Game of Thrones theme or the length of the show, or even the layout (which was no different than the previous years layout really, actually I liked the space we had between lanes much more this year!) But it was just a plain down year at GraniteCon for us, the artists, the backbone of said cons.
I basically broke even, which is more than I could ask for usually. To conclude, I’m not saying GraniteCon is entirely at fault for the sluggish sales, there are plenty of X-factors here that are not easily quantifiable. I plan to take the pro-active route and shaking up my table presence for the next convention I do and make the changes I can to better represent myself and my art to the convention-going public. I hope GraniteCon works hard to do the same for us artists.
Beyond Mode 7
Beyond Mode 7 the SNES themed comics and art anthology Jesse and I have been working on for the better part of 2 years now. GraniteCon was our public premier for the book and we sold…1 copy! I suppose a convention like MAGFest is much more suited to a game-themed book such as ours, but the reception to game based art and comics was much stronger over all at the prior year’s GraniteCon.
Thanks to our one purchaser, a fine Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds cosplayer!
Artists
Now that all the negativity is out of the way, let’s talk about some of the awesome artists I meet every year at the show, and the new faces I got introduced to, and their amazing art of course!
I actually met Amanda very recently at the unfortunately totally-bust RockCon in Salem, NH. A New Hampshire Native, she combines wicked fast ballpoint pen on paper skills with vibrant splashes of color! Focusing on superheros and a HUGE Legend of Zelda fan, keep an eye on her and her art, definitely suitable for the frames she sells it in!
Brandon was back again for yet another GCon, loaded up with his great self published comics and various published writing such as articles in Heavy Metal! Check out Jack Hammer, for some superhero, detective noir mix action!
Blair is another long-time Granite Con tabler. You probably know him from his awesome Dr. Who art on the IDW line (before the licence moved elsewhere) as well as his amazing representational illustration work and his self published The RAPTOR superhero comic. Keep an eye on him in 2014, big things are happening for Blair very soon and it all promises to be very awesome!
Rare Earth Comics is the brain child of writer Ian Ally-Seals and features the art of fellow CCS graduate
Carl Mefferd on their leading title Doctor Atlantis! They were seated directly across from us this year and sure had a great bunch of stuff to show off!
Chris was a new face for me at GraniteCon. Friendly and quick with a joke, his comic First World is RIGHT down my alley, and definitely something to look towards as inspiration for my own Fantasy comic!
Cosplay
I don’t normally talk about cosplay much on my wrap up, but Granite Con’s cosplay seemed to even have a theme this year…BIG! Here’s a few shots I managed to take real quick!
Wreck It Ralph meets Enormous 10-foot creepy clown!
The Thing stopped by to say hi to Wolverine!
See that ENORMOUS white and green robot thing towering over everything else? Crazy!
The kids-con area even had the candy car!
It’s not GraniteCon without the Tardis randomly appearing!
Wrap-Up
Despite being a down year, and hearing a lot of complaints from other artists, I still have a lot of fun every year at Granite Con. Manchester is easy to drive to, the hotel is right off the highway, and parking is a sinch! I also love the folks that table and typically the crowd that attends. I don’t know if I’ll do GraniteCon again next year or not, it’s obviously quite a ways off, but we’ll see what happens!
Maybe next year I’ll do MAGFest 9.5 instead…if they do another fall show? (Tee-shirt representin’!)
My next convention is going to be Portland Comics Expo (run by the MeCAF guys!) on October 26th so come on out to the sea-coast and check out what’s new at RKDIA Comics!
-RD
Rick Lowell of Portland, Maine’s Casablanca Comics is no stranger to putting on conventions. He’s had 6 straight years of a successful spring indie comics show called MeCAF. So with those experiences at his back, he launched this year a more mainstream show called Portland Comics Expo. With convention season wrapping up and a whole half a year separated from MeCAF, the timing seemed pretty good for one last hurrah for comics in Portland before the long, cold winter sets in. Unfortunately for us vendors/artists and Rick, the public interest in the show did not seem to match our enthusiasm. Let’s discuss why that might be!
Unlike the abject failure that was RockCon earlier in the year, I place no blame on the organizers of the show for it being a slow day. Rick is a great host and everything about the set up and organization of the program went as smoothly as any MeCAF I’ve been to. He kept his advertising focus on the artists attending, and unlike GraniteCon there was no extreme distraction in the form of a bunch of b-list TV show actors from a popular show. So why was it so slow?
I think this boils down to two factors: Convention fatigue and the mysterious x-factor. There are a LOT of conventions out there, more every year. I’m beginning to suspect that con-goers have too many options right now and their time and money are being spread a bit thin. The other factor, is an unknown quantity. Vermont ComicCon, which took place the same weekend as Portland Comic Con, and run by the organizers of the failed RockCon was an enormous success, according to other cartoonist friends of mine who tabled there. What was the difference? Why was that show successful while the Portland show was mostly flat? There are far too many factors that could effect the answer to that question, and it’s just the nature of business in a given year to have ups and downs.
All that said, I did make back my cost of tabling, but not much else. I did still have a great time and I also met some amazing new cartoonists. I’ll take some time now to talk about them!
Amanda Kahl is the self publishing power behind a fine fantasy epic called Age of Night.
After a brief 70’s dance-off with my table-mate Matt Young I wandered over to join the conversation and discover what this SCAD grad’s work was all about. The art style is definitely very well fit for the genre, a tight mix of realistic character designs, attention to details in textures and dense, dark contrasts to set a good mood for a bar fight!
I’m a few chapters in already and love the ramshackle group of adventurers she has coming together, full of witty con artists, innocent mages and failed attempts at debauchery! I’m excited to see where the story and this rag-tag crew goes!
Andrew R MacLean is a Mass-based cartoonist who’s Head Lopper was the most interesting comic premise I saw at the show. A tongue-in-cheek adventure about swords and monsters…and a talking severed head. Very cool, very bold, sharply illustrated with tight character designs and crisp, simple, well placed lines that express to the n’th degree! Definitely a fun romp of a comic and very polished work! Check out his blog too, he’s been doing some great Alien related sketching this month!
Caught up briefly with Christina Siravo who is a staple at MeCAF. She approaches fantasy art with a child-like wonder and beauty. Her designs are flush with vibrant color and subtle lines. She’s always got a smile on her face and one of the nicest tables you’ll happen across at any show!
I love visiting Portland, it’s a fantastic city with a lot of great comics fans. I definitely hope MeCAF continues to be a successful show and perhaps next year Portland Comic Expo, with a little tweaking, can be just as great!
-RD 
This week Beyond Mode 7 officially became a reality! I picked up the print run and boy do these things look snazzy! The quality is superb and I cannot wait to start sharing these things with all our backers, and then very soon with everyone else!
Rewards posters have also been printed, including a bunch of 
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