"every artist here is stacked so if you want to feel bad about yourself, go to Fanime" LOL god i wanna go to fanime's artist alley 😭 This was such a fun video to watch, Ink!!! Love your energy so much
It's so comforting to see that even a super high quality professional artist still experiences the ups and downs at various shows. I was set up at Origins too! And man was that a long disappointing con.
Ohayocon was really on to something by doing a 10% fan art rule, I did it this year and it was so dead because everyone boycotted the convention due to the leadership being absolutely terrible. I highly do NOT recommend it. I think it’s going nowhere. And after hearing more about the controversy, I’m ashamed that I even tabled at the convention. It was so slow on Saturday and Sunday. I packed up early. 24:18
I've been doing artist alley for 6+ years, selling Niche Gundam + Anime, and have a very similar tier list and experiences. I hope newer artist can break through with all the lottery and competition but even my best S shows can turn into "risky af" for wild reasons like panini, conflicting city events, or capped attendance (ANYC). Very good video, Its always good to have more info, especially shows I was on the fence to fly out to.
Hi, I grew up in Reading, PA; as an art collector myself I can explain the mentality behind the IX show. People growing up around Southeast PA are accustomed to seeing valuable art pieces; from Monet, Rembrandt, and van Gogh in the Philly Art museum, to historical artifacts in every small local museum. So when we finally start making money we start looking for art that fits what we grew up seeing. Namely hand made originals, which is why Amish woodworking, Mennonite crafts, and the 3D art of Abner Zook are ridiculously popular. We tend to appreciate the time and effort put into a piece, not just the art itself. The IX show caters to that taste (also the idea that they own the original and no one else has it) . As someone with no artistic ability myself, I appreciate your talent, and I love your use of the digital medium. The IX show is just a local beast, catering to the local whims. Give it another decade and it will probably begin to change and be a better show for digital artists.
Omg I was so excited to see your con tier list! I also went to a lot of these and I loved hearing your perspective on them! I have had a lot of the same experiences! It is interesting hearing especially about the Florida cons (I’m biased to cus that’s where I’m a local). I have the softest spot for holmat, it has the best vibes and I love seeing everyone’s Christmas themed cosplays. Also very surprised about how you do at ANYC, because your stuff is so insanely good and ANYC is in my kind of A-B tier!! I struggled a bit at both Dragoncon and Gen con money wise, BUT they were so good for vibes I would still return! Lastly I also agree with the cons that are lottery. My gacha luck is the worst!!!
I do miss the Florida cons now that I'm not local! Also everyone tells me such good things about Anime NYC but every year it tries to kill me, maybe ill give it a few years and try again.
This was really fun to watch! Having done many of these conventions myself it was cool to see your insight on the shows. Thanks for making these awesome con videos, my friend and I always love to check them out.
Really great to hear your perspective on all these cons - so many of which I haven't even heard of. As someone who is interested in tabling one day, this was incredibly valuable. Huge thanks! And nooo hahaha, poor Otakon. First time visiting your table was there actually in '23. But so true, those hours seemed really rough.
ngl I watched this video because I wanted to explore more conventions. Also shout out to your art assistant who tabled at Megacon recently. She was super sweet and helped me pick out some gorgeous postcards ( I was indecisive haha - wanted to buy everything but my wallet would have died)
I love your videos! You listed a bunch of cons I’ve never been to from an artist alley vendor standpoint & it was fascinating. Thank you for taking your time to make this vid & for all the info!
I love videos like these so much, it's very informative and besides, thank you for being super honest about each of those cons and not sugar coating the reality of how these events are for the artists selling there. I'm personally from Canada and the convention landscape is a bit different here, but it's still very interesting to know how good (or bad) cons are in the US either way. I would also love to see you make a video on how you found your way to being successful without going the fanart route like most con artists end up choosing. I feel like, as someone who mostly does original art too, I often find myself discouraged by how much harder of a path it is to take and I'm probably not the only one, so seeing you succeed the way you do is very inspiring, but also intriguing and I would love to hear more in a video about how you found your own path to success without relying on popular IPs to do it. Thanks again for the video, can't wait for the next one! (‘∀’●)♡
@Inkwell I was soooo surprised when you said you didn't do well at Fan X. That's one of the shows I'll do every year as it's always such a good one for me. Give it another go! I'll look for ya in 2024. Great video! Thanks so much.
You caught one of the your white whales! I saw you're in the Anime Boston lineup! Congrats 🎆 I was actually surprised when you said you hadn't done that show before. Your work is amazing! Thanks for making this video. It was interesting to see your take on the events you've done. :)
Dude, I feel that drowning in AA lanyards and badges 😂 Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on these cons; I’ve been to a handful of them and appreciate your perspective, and your humor!
Thank you soo much for this!! I've been trying to get into more cons lately, and I was literally just in the process of going through every single convention on Artist Alley Confidential and cross checking the reviews on there with any others I can find online. This will save me so much time lol
I really enjoy your channel and videos so much! You have such insight into a lot of different things and it’s so helpful. Thank you for sharing so much with us 😊 I live in CT and I was wondering about Connecticon especially for the expensive table pricing!! I knew people who did it years ago, so I’m surprised you mentioned it. It’s more of a local thing I thought.
This is a really great breakdown! While I haven't done many of these shows, I was considering a lot of the ones in your list I haven't had a chance to try yet, such as Megacon Orlando, Fanime or Metrocon. I was just selling at Magfest last month and finally got to grab some art from your table after finding your youtube a couple weeks before. I really appreciate your channel, as a newer artist to the con circuit with a bit of a niche focus (pixel art themed stuff digitally design by me, currently all handmade with beads but I am working on branching into some smaller merch to offer cheaper options), I'm not feeling the most confident in how competitive the circuit has gotten, so seeing it broken down from a more professional and experienced standpoint with transparency helps me gather more data. I did just get accepted to Sakuracon (I was lucky enough to get in last year too but ended up having to decline for overwork reasons) but Anime Boston is my current white whale too ;_;. Hope to see your table again later this year, it looks like I've done a lot of the same shows in the Midwest and east coast areas.
I hear you on Anime Boston. I live in Mass and only got a table ONCE and that was before the stupid lottery system. Thank you for the info I will def take your advice for cons I vend at in the future. It wasn't on your list but I have vended at Anime Weekend Atlanta and I did very well profit wise. The only negative was I got some rude comments from some of the attendants there. The staff was nice tho!
Oddities and Curiosities is a really good show if you’re in that niche. They’re strict about jurying for a cohesive, high quality show so you don’t wind up competing with a bunch of mass produced resale stuff.
Oh hey, that Connecticon where they "forgot" to get the arcade was my first Artist Alley! They did pay attention to everyone on discord complaining about it being missing, and blamed the arcade supplier guys for the lack - but then said they had "set up a mini arcade in one of the smaller halls"? Too little, too late, but they tried. The next year they made sure the arcade had prime space, and everyone did a lot better.
The issue for me isn’t that it wasnt there, it was that it was advertised as being there when it wasn’t, that’s just a little bit to much fraud for my taste
Lmao, Anime Boston never changes it seems. My strat 7 years ago was splitting a booth three or four ways and having me and my friends enter the lottery, and hopefully one of us would get a golden ticket. I heard that there were more expensive booth spaces with less competition, and that they opted for the lottery system bc the artist alley staff has always been critically understaffed for the amount of demand. Like it used to be first-come-first-served and you had to be immensely lucky to get an application in before the website crashed. The lottery system is definitely better, but I wish they had enough staff for a jury.
loved this video!! so as a connecticut native, im doing a connecticon table for the first time, and first table ever, next year. what you had to say was super interesting. ive been attending as a guest for soo many years and it has gotten way smaller while prices have gone up. but im close friends with some people who have tabled every year including just last week and they say its always worth it profits wise even with the nearly 500 dollar table, so i think despite it all im still gonna table since its my hometown convention. Although this year interestingly they added a "daily market" upstairs where you can pay less for a 1 day table, it definitely doesnt seem worth it because the saturday an friday tables were still over 300 dollars, atp just pay over 400 for the full weekend lol. and the traffic didnt look great up there. so id say, if youre local, connecticon might still be worth it, but dont do the daily market.
I'm still doing local fairs this year, but next year I plan to actually remember to apply to some cons. I really want to do gencon, as board game art is something I really want to get into. I'm doing art for a couple of games in development right now, which is really exciting!! I'm thinking about snagging one of the showcase tables for illuxcon, if I can. They sell out in like five seconds. 😂 Great video, thank you! ❤
Comicons: if you have a good CV with the right list of publishers, sometimes shows will comp you a spot. Sometimes. It's a crapshoot for me while having a decent CV I don't always get the free spot. Even then, I don't fair well at cons that have a celebrity guest list. Haven't tried anime show yet. Next year I might attempt Gen Con or Dragoncon.
In my experience, I'm always suspicious of cons offering me a free table, if they also offer comped travel then hell yeah whatever. But most decent shows don't need to offer free tables to get professional artists. there are exceptions of course but I always make sure to background check a show a bit closer in these instances. if the show is using you as the whole draw of the show, it's not normally going to be a super profitable show.
Update with Ohayocon seeings I attend it every other year: The con is officially no more and a new convention is debuting in April as a one day event. It may not be worth going to the event now, but maybe in a few years, it will be. And the best thing is it was funded by the attendees thanks to gofundme!
I came to fight in the comments, then remembered how weak I am 🤷♀️ Love the list, so many shows I've had my eye on from the forbidden lands of Canada 👀
very cool vid.. i want to go to conventions starting this or the next year n probably have my own table over there.. I think only Comic Con is available in India among other gaming conventions.. but imma try my luck.. good to see Comic Con almost at the top of the list!! Thanks Inkwell Bro!! 👊🏻👍🏻
Thanks for dropping the knowledge! I'm about to do Katsucon flying out from LA so it was reassuring to hear a review from a pro. I've done a few Texas cons, and some California cons. Agree on doing terrible crimes to get into San Jose shows, the people there are amazing and they buy the weirdest original art. The SoCal cons I've done like Designercon and AX Chibi have been the worst by far but ymmv :x
Katsucon is great money, just be aware that service inside the artist alley can be super bad! I've never been in offline-mode on square so much during a show 😂 I had to do runs outside the alley to refresh and process the offline sales when it got busy on saturday.
@@HayleeMorice Ahh this is great insight I saw that they charge $280 for wifi and I was wondering if it was possible to avoid that hit, do you think it was worth the savings or nah? My stuff is mostly handmade so the margins are pretty bad T.T
@@tatianaquigley7534 I wouldn't pay for it unless you really think it's worth it, what I did running back and forth to refresh payments worked well enough, albeit stressful. If I remember right I think T-mobile did worse in there than my Verizon phone.
I hosted my first booth at Kawaii Kon in Hawaii this year and it was great experience for me. Since Hawaii is a big melting pot, I recommend visiting there when you get the chance.
I’m so glad you put pop con on the black list. It is the worst show I have ever been to and it was less than a month or two after gen con. I think Indiana comic con is okay, I’d put it in the C tier, and it is actually the first show I ever saw your work at so maybe a little higher?…. C2E2 was a high grossing show for me as well, but they don’t consider my wood working to allow as an artist and so I had to pay the super high cost of the exhibitor hall which I don’t like…. Another great video!
I was SO excited to hear Connecticon on the list, as I grew up in Hartford County and had so many of my friends hype it up in high school. So sad I never had the chance to go while it was good :(
I’m nervous now! I’m in the artist alley for conneticon 😮 I hope it’s better for me. The guy I’ve been emailing has been hard to communicate with. I’m not hopeful
I see Inkwell's new video, I press click! Thank you for always creating very informative videos! I have been boothing in artist alleys for 16 years now and if you happen to need any info on south-east asia cons, feel free to hit me up :D
question, This video (great job by the way) seems to lean towards if your work leans into Anime or Mange a bit. Do you think someone that is a bit more realistic or graphic without the Anime or Manga tilt would do well at the Anime shows that you have listed here? Thanks again for all the hard work on your videos, really appreciated
I think in general the artist alley at anime shows seems to be a more popular location compared to say comic cons and other events like that where the draw often is celebrities at those events. So if you make good products and have good work I don't see why you can't succeed at an anime show, it may be harder for you to get in however you might stand out which could be beneficial in that situation.
Hey Dustin, thanks for the video, it was super helpful! With this many conventions, how many times are you flying out in a year? And do you have a team that helps you with business side of things like permits and taxes? Thanks for the info!
DesignerCon this year was also very lackluster- the booths and tables were so expensive for a show that's been floundering the last two years, and they partnered with SheinX which is a very irresponsible choice for an art convention with artists that have actually had their work ripped off by Shein in the past... >.
@@Inkwell Also, I tabled next to you (lol two tables to your left) at ACEN last year and your display left a lasting impression on me. It's really nice, and I like your fancy vibes. I actually thought you were from the UK or something since you were so polite and proper. I hope that doesn't come across as weird, I just think you're a really cool dude.
If I'm located near Reno NV, do you think it would be worth driving a camper to the California conventions or Emerald City vs paying for a flight, room & shipping my product? Assuming they still allow sticker sales, I hear there are some sticker bans now.
@@inuendo6365 I mean sounds like a fun road trip, my bigger worry would be parking something like that in a big city, I also know uhauls get targeted during con weekends by thieves so if you can find a safe place to park that thing then maybe, or just be okay ubering in from you camp location
Thank you Inkwell for all the helpful info! I have one random question: looking at dragon con’s rules they mention “merchandise is to be limited to no more than 10% of total print art in the table space”, which confuses me a bit since I’ve never done an artist alley. Would you have any insight on it? Thanks in advance!
So if you look to much like a re-seller or manufacturer of some sort or something like that they want you to apply to the vendor's hall over the artist alley
I loved this video. Though I’m not a vender myself I love art and it was cool to see an artist’s perspective on con vending. Just out of curiosity have you been to a furry con? Lol If so which?
Furry artist here. I did not know that furry nsfw art sells that well at most conventions lol. Been actually making tame and non furry stuff for conventions.... Thank you for calling me out at the beginning xD
I have not done any shows in Canada, I hear getting through customs with a tone of product gets tricky, I would love to try Anime North one day but it is always the same weekend as other shows I typically do
@@Inkwell Anime north and fan expo toronto are really good! I can imagine customs always gets me nervous. I never looked into how much i could bring over.
@@Inkwell someone roofied the free water jug things last year that they have set up all over the con and it was a huge deal locally. it was either '23 or '22 i remember it was after the year i went (the nazi incident). holmat is actually infamously Insane to locals because weird bad stuff keeps happening and their response to it isn't great like the year i went someone was in a straight up nazi uniform and they had to get a lot of backlash online to do anything about it
@@Inkwell i think i said some no no words because the comment vanished right after i sent it but if you google "holmat r00f13" uncensored the reddit post that shows up summarises it. it was a massive deal locally, especially after the "incident" from the previous year.
Oh nooooo I’m going to be tabling at indypopcon for the second time 😂😂😂 their hotels r cheap and nice but yea was def slow. I’m still within my first year of tabling, so I’m taking anything haha
Can I ask which year you went to ECCC and had a really bad show? ECCC created some really bad blood with artists and local congoers with their mishandling of the cancellation during the pandemic, and they also switched the con to a totally different time of year (which some people weren't even aware of), so if the bad year was 2021 I wonder if those were factors. I can't speak from experience, though.
Whoa I'm super surprised to see Sugoi Saturday on this list. Me thinks you're based in SoCal? But if that's the case, I'm surprised Comikaze/LA Comic Con wasn't mentioned since that's supposedly a big con (~90K+ attendee) and pretty easy to get a AA table imo. Just wanted to hear your opinion on that but understandable if you've never done it.
I’ve recently moved to SolCal originally from the east coast, Everyone I know tells me LA comic con is really bad for sales so I’ve avoided but I haven’t been there my self
I would not recommend going to conventions in Seattle at this time. The Artist Alley and the Exhibitors/Vendors located at separate buildings, the internet is slow, and hotels and parking got more expensive.
When I lived in Florida I did metro every year, but it’s just hard to fly out there from CA, I hope to do that show again in future, it definitely was one of my favorites
I'll say as a guest at katsucon you also can still feel how poorly run it is at times though the volunteers do their best I'm not to hear that about the higher levels
It’s a okay show, they put it the same day as Gencon a few years ago and of course the show bombed so as long as they don’t do that again, it can be worth going to, nothing crazy tho
@@Inkwell good to know. I’m local to Chicago so I figured I would dip my toes into the artist alley/con scene via C2E2. I’ve applied but haven’t heard anything yet since applications closed like 5 days ago.
@@Inkwell 2022 we paid for it and when majority of us got Covid, we had to pull out. The employee over here who handles convention booths, checked it out anyway, and they last minute gave our spot to our neighbor, who expanded it. Then in 2023 we did go, there was no traffic, and I think we made like $1800 with a 20x10 exhibitor booth.
ConnectiCon stepped up since then. This past July they just had their biggest attendance to date. I spoke to vendors, they said they made decent money and the con was enjoyable. But it’s okay, you don’t have to come back to CT
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
"every artist here is stacked so if you want to feel bad about yourself, go to Fanime" LOL god i wanna go to fanime's artist alley 😭
This was such a fun video to watch, Ink!!! Love your energy so much
thanks Emily!! ✨
It's so comforting to see that even a super high quality professional artist still experiences the ups and downs at various shows. I was set up at Origins too! And man was that a long disappointing con.
Ohayocon was really on to something by doing a 10% fan art rule, I did it this year and it was so dead because everyone boycotted the convention due to the leadership being absolutely terrible. I highly do NOT recommend it. I think it’s going nowhere. And after hearing more about the controversy, I’m ashamed that I even tabled at the convention. It was so slow on Saturday and Sunday. I packed up early. 24:18
I've been doing artist alley for 6+ years, selling Niche Gundam + Anime, and have a very similar tier list and experiences. I hope newer artist can break through with all the lottery and competition but even my best S shows can turn into "risky af" for wild reasons like panini, conflicting city events, or capped attendance (ANYC).
Very good video, Its always good to have more info, especially shows I was on the fence to fly out to.
So true!
Hi, I grew up in Reading, PA; as an art collector myself I can explain the mentality behind the IX show. People growing up around Southeast PA are accustomed to seeing valuable art pieces; from Monet, Rembrandt, and van Gogh in the Philly Art museum, to historical artifacts in every small local museum. So when we finally start making money we start looking for art that fits what we grew up seeing. Namely hand made originals, which is why Amish woodworking, Mennonite crafts, and the 3D art of Abner Zook are ridiculously popular. We tend to appreciate the time and effort put into a piece, not just the art itself. The IX show caters to that taste (also the idea that they own the original and no one else has it) . As someone with no artistic ability myself, I appreciate your talent, and I love your use of the digital medium. The IX show is just a local beast, catering to the local whims. Give it another decade and it will probably begin to change and be a better show for digital artists.
Also I will be at Magfest later this month, feel free to stop by my table and say hi if you're attending the event!
Omg I was so excited to see your con tier list! I also went to a lot of these and I loved hearing your perspective on them! I have had a lot of the same experiences!
It is interesting hearing especially about the Florida cons (I’m biased to cus that’s where I’m a local). I have the softest spot for holmat, it has the best vibes and I love seeing everyone’s Christmas themed cosplays. Also very surprised about how you do at ANYC, because your stuff is so insanely good and ANYC is in my kind of A-B tier!! I struggled a bit at both Dragoncon and Gen con money wise, BUT they were so good for vibes I would still return!
Lastly I also agree with the cons that are lottery. My gacha luck is the worst!!!
I do miss the Florida cons now that I'm not local! Also everyone tells me such good things about Anime NYC but every year it tries to kill me, maybe ill give it a few years and try again.
This was really fun to watch! Having done many of these conventions myself it was cool to see your insight on the shows. Thanks for making these awesome con videos, my friend and I always love to check them out.
You have me cracking up less than a minute in! Your videos are very inspiring and fun, thank you for making them.
Thanks for watching!
Really great to hear your perspective on all these cons - so many of which I haven't even heard of. As someone who is interested in tabling one day, this was incredibly valuable. Huge thanks! And nooo hahaha, poor Otakon. First time visiting your table was there actually in '23. But so true, those hours seemed really rough.
ngl I watched this video because I wanted to explore more conventions. Also shout out to your art assistant who tabled at Megacon recently. She was super sweet and helped me pick out some gorgeous postcards ( I was indecisive haha - wanted to buy everything but my wallet would have died)
Ahhh thanks for stopping by!
I love your videos! You listed a bunch of cons I’ve never been to from an artist alley vendor standpoint & it was fascinating. Thank you for taking your time to make this vid & for all the info!
I love videos like these so much, it's very informative and besides, thank you for being super honest about each of those cons and not sugar coating the reality of how these events are for the artists selling there. I'm personally from Canada and the convention landscape is a bit different here, but it's still very interesting to know how good (or bad) cons are in the US either way.
I would also love to see you make a video on how you found your way to being successful without going the fanart route like most con artists end up choosing. I feel like, as someone who mostly does original art too, I often find myself discouraged by how much harder of a path it is to take and I'm probably not the only one, so seeing you succeed the way you do is very inspiring, but also intriguing and I would love to hear more in a video about how you found your own path to success without relying on popular IPs to do it. Thanks again for the video, can't wait for the next one! (‘∀’●)♡
@Inkwell
I was soooo surprised when you said you didn't do well at Fan X. That's one of the shows I'll do every year as it's always such a good one for me. Give it another go! I'll look for ya in 2024.
Great video! Thanks so much.
As someone who is taking their first step into selling by doing a craft market this weekend this was an absolutely doozy of a stray to catch 🤣🤣
You caught one of the your white whales! I saw you're in the Anime Boston lineup! Congrats 🎆 I was actually surprised when you said you hadn't done that show before. Your work is amazing! Thanks for making this video. It was interesting to see your take on the events you've done. :)
I’m excited to finally go, will you be there as well?
@@Inkwell Yes! It will be my first time there and I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. 😅
This feels like a late christmas present! Thanks for the upload 😌
This is fun to watch and very helpful
no you
Dude, I feel that drowning in AA lanyards and badges 😂 Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on these cons; I’ve been to a handful of them and appreciate your perspective, and your humor!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you soo much for this!! I've been trying to get into more cons lately, and I was literally just in the process of going through every single convention on Artist Alley Confidential and cross checking the reviews on there with any others I can find online. This will save me so much time lol
Best of luck on your artist alley journey
Thanks! :D@@Inkwell
I really enjoy your channel and videos so much! You have such insight into a lot of different things and it’s so helpful. Thank you for sharing so much with us 😊
I live in CT and I was wondering about Connecticon especially for the expensive table pricing!! I knew people who did it years ago, so I’m surprised you mentioned it. It’s more of a local thing I thought.
This is a really great breakdown! While I haven't done many of these shows, I was considering a lot of the ones in your list I haven't had a chance to try yet, such as Megacon Orlando, Fanime or Metrocon. I was just selling at Magfest last month and finally got to grab some art from your table after finding your youtube a couple weeks before. I really appreciate your channel, as a newer artist to the con circuit with a bit of a niche focus (pixel art themed stuff digitally design by me, currently all handmade with beads but I am working on branching into some smaller merch to offer cheaper options), I'm not feeling the most confident in how competitive the circuit has gotten, so seeing it broken down from a more professional and experienced standpoint with transparency helps me gather more data.
I did just get accepted to Sakuracon (I was lucky enough to get in last year too but ended up having to decline for overwork reasons) but Anime Boston is my current white whale too ;_;. Hope to see your table again later this year, it looks like I've done a lot of the same shows in the Midwest and east coast areas.
Best of luck at Sakura
Invaluable information presented in a hilarious and personable manner by like a master class artist?? Thank you 🎉
This is brilliant, thank you for sharing ☺☺
I hear you on Anime Boston. I live in Mass and only got a table ONCE and that was before the stupid lottery system. Thank you for the info I will def take your advice for cons I vend at in the future. It wasn't on your list but I have vended at Anime Weekend Atlanta and I did very well profit wise. The only negative was I got some rude comments from some of the attendants there. The staff was nice tho!
Oddities and Curiosities is a really good show if you’re in that niche. They’re strict about jurying for a cohesive, high quality show so you don’t wind up competing with a bunch of mass produced resale stuff.
Oh hey, that Connecticon where they "forgot" to get the arcade was my first Artist Alley! They did pay attention to everyone on discord complaining about it being missing, and blamed the arcade supplier guys for the lack - but then said they had "set up a mini arcade in one of the smaller halls"? Too little, too late, but they tried. The next year they made sure the arcade had prime space, and everyone did a lot better.
The issue for me isn’t that it wasnt there, it was that it was advertised as being there when it wasn’t, that’s just a little bit to much fraud for my taste
Thank you - you’re so funny and so busy! Wow - you’re rockin it 😊
Lmao, Anime Boston never changes it seems. My strat 7 years ago was splitting a booth three or four ways and having me and my friends enter the lottery, and hopefully one of us would get a golden ticket.
I heard that there were more expensive booth spaces with less competition, and that they opted for the lottery system bc the artist alley staff has always been critically understaffed for the amount of demand. Like it used to be first-come-first-served and you had to be immensely lucky to get an application in before the website crashed. The lottery system is definitely better, but I wish they had enough staff for a jury.
Some day 🙏
loved this video!! so as a connecticut native, im doing a connecticon table for the first time, and first table ever, next year. what you had to say was super interesting. ive been attending as a guest for soo many years and it has gotten way smaller while prices have gone up. but im close friends with some people who have tabled every year including just last week and they say its always worth it profits wise even with the nearly 500 dollar table, so i think despite it all im still gonna table since its my hometown convention. Although this year interestingly they added a "daily market" upstairs where you can pay less for a 1 day table, it definitely doesnt seem worth it because the saturday an friday tables were still over 300 dollars, atp just pay over 400 for the full weekend lol. and the traffic didnt look great up there. so id say, if youre local, connecticon might still be worth it, but dont do the daily market.
Super helpful video. I've done a couple of large cons like AX and Katsu and have been looking to branch out more to other large cons.
Best of luck!
I'm still doing local fairs this year, but next year I plan to actually remember to apply to some cons. I really want to do gencon, as board game art is something I really want to get into. I'm doing art for a couple of games in development right now, which is really exciting!! I'm thinking about snagging one of the showcase tables for illuxcon, if I can. They sell out in like five seconds. 😂 Great video, thank you! ❤
best of luck!
Hi Annie! 😆 Yeah, Gencon sounds really good & a great fit for you.
@@thinkerdreamersketcherspy yeah!! I think so. Hopefully someday. 😊
Comicons: if you have a good CV with the right list of publishers, sometimes shows will comp you a spot. Sometimes. It's a crapshoot for me while having a decent CV I don't always get the free spot. Even then, I don't fair well at cons that have a celebrity guest list. Haven't tried anime show yet. Next year I might attempt Gen Con or Dragoncon.
In my experience, I'm always suspicious of cons offering me a free table, if they also offer comped travel then hell yeah whatever. But most decent shows don't need to offer free tables to get professional artists. there are exceptions of course but I always make sure to background check a show a bit closer in these instances. if the show is using you as the whole draw of the show, it's not normally going to be a super profitable show.
do i live in Australia and will never have enough money to attend any of these con's... Yes...Did I watch the whole video... Yes, yes I did.
Update with Ohayocon seeings I attend it every other year: The con is officially no more and a new convention is debuting in April as a one day event. It may not be worth going to the event now, but maybe in a few years, it will be. And the best thing is it was funded by the attendees thanks to gofundme!
I came to fight in the comments, then remembered how weak I am 🤷♀️
Love the list, so many shows I've had my eye on from the forbidden lands of Canada 👀
very cool vid.. i want to go to conventions starting this or the next year n probably have my own table over there.. I think only Comic Con is available in India among other gaming conventions.. but imma try my luck.. good to see Comic Con almost at the top of the list!! Thanks Inkwell Bro!! 👊🏻👍🏻
Thank you for the list!!!!
Hope it helps
Thanks for dropping the knowledge! I'm about to do Katsucon flying out from LA so it was reassuring to hear a review from a pro. I've done a few Texas cons, and some California cons. Agree on doing terrible crimes to get into San Jose shows, the people there are amazing and they buy the weirdest original art. The SoCal cons I've done like Designercon and AX Chibi have been the worst by far but ymmv :x
Best of luck at katsu, I think SoCal just has to many shows happening, the market is flooded which is just making the majority of them bomb
Katsucon is great money, just be aware that service inside the artist alley can be super bad! I've never been in offline-mode on square so much during a show 😂 I had to do runs outside the alley to refresh and process the offline sales when it got busy on saturday.
@@HayleeMorice Ahh this is great insight I saw that they charge $280 for wifi and I was wondering if it was possible to avoid that hit, do you think it was worth the savings or nah? My stuff is mostly handmade so the margins are pretty bad T.T
@@tatianaquigley7534 I wouldn't pay for it unless you really think it's worth it, what I did running back and forth to refresh payments worked well enough, albeit stressful. If I remember right I think T-mobile did worse in there than my Verizon phone.
I hosted my first booth at Kawaii Kon in Hawaii this year and it was great experience for me. Since Hawaii is a big melting pot, I recommend visiting there when you get the chance.
The live action chess game is a huge reason to do metrocon lol. Love it.
“Furry kink art sells everywhere your gunna be rich” LMFAOO
I love your humour ^^
Very informative video as well
Thank you!
I’m so glad you put pop con on the black list. It is the worst show I have ever been to and it was less than a month or two after gen con. I think Indiana comic con is okay, I’d put it in the C tier, and it is actually the first show I ever saw your work at so maybe a little higher?…. C2E2 was a high grossing show for me as well, but they don’t consider my wood working to allow as an artist and so I had to pay the super high cost of the exhibitor hall which I don’t like…. Another great video!
I was SO excited to hear Connecticon on the list, as I grew up in Hartford County and had so many of my friends hype it up in high school. So sad I never had the chance to go while it was good :(
It sucks, I would still go every year if it hadn't gone so far downhill. 🥲
I’m nervous now! I’m in the artist alley for conneticon 😮 I hope it’s better for me. The guy I’ve been emailing has been hard to communicate with. I’m not hopeful
This was so much fun to watch ^_^
28:11 Ha..Ha.. Love the "end credit" melt down. Almost spit out my coffee laughing. More comedy plz! :)
I see Inkwell's new video, I press click!
Thank you for always creating very informative videos!
I have been boothing in artist alleys for 16 years now and if you happen to need any info on south-east asia cons, feel free to hit me up :D
Oh! I will keep that in mind, thank you!
I've been banging on O and C's doors too! my art would be perfect, I'm local and close to a couple of them but after several years cant get in!
thanks dude!
Great video! You're hilarious.
🙏🙏🙏
question, This video (great job by the way) seems to lean towards if your work leans into Anime or Mange a bit. Do you think someone that is a bit more realistic or graphic without the Anime or Manga tilt would do well at the Anime shows that you have listed here? Thanks again for all the hard work on your videos, really appreciated
I think in general the artist alley at anime shows seems to be a more popular location compared to say comic cons and other events like that where the draw often is celebrities at those events. So if you make good products and have good work I don't see why you can't succeed at an anime show, it may be harder for you to get in however you might stand out which could be beneficial in that situation.
I know you as a CA artist, and looking at this list seeing “HolMat, Megacon, Supercon, & Metrocon” like 👀
I lived in Florida for a long time!
Saving your list. I'm based in Texas and am looking at venturing out to Cons next year. Texas is too oversaturated with Cons.
Hey Dustin, thanks for the video, it was super helpful! With this many conventions, how many times are you flying out in a year? And do you have a team that helps you with business side of things like permits and taxes? Thanks for the info!
DesignerCon this year was also very lackluster- the booths and tables were so expensive for a show that's been floundering the last two years, and they partnered with SheinX which is a very irresponsible choice for an art convention with artists that have actually had their work ripped off by Shein in the past... >.
That’s sad to hear, I was interested in trying that show
I watched this to see your thoughts on SakuraCon, cause I just got accepted, but you haven't gone, so I guess I'm going in blind!
I hear it’s very good from others, best of luck!
@@Inkwell Also, I tabled next to you (lol two tables to your left) at ACEN last year and your display left a lasting impression on me. It's really nice, and I like your fancy vibes. I actually thought you were from the UK or something since you were so polite and proper. I hope that doesn't come across as weird, I just think you're a really cool dude.
If I'm located near Reno NV, do you think it would be worth driving a camper to the California conventions or Emerald City vs paying for a flight, room & shipping my product?
Assuming they still allow sticker sales, I hear there are some sticker bans now.
@@inuendo6365 I mean sounds like a fun road trip, my bigger worry would be parking something like that in a big city, I also know uhauls get targeted during con weekends by thieves so if you can find a safe place to park that thing then maybe, or just be okay ubering in from you camp location
Thank you Inkwell for all the helpful info! I have one random question: looking at dragon con’s rules they mention “merchandise is to be limited to no more than 10% of total print art in the table space”, which confuses me a bit since I’ve never done an artist alley. Would you have any insight on it? Thanks in advance!
So if you look to much like a re-seller or manufacturer of some sort or something like that they want you to apply to the vendor's hall over the artist alley
@@Inkwell ohhh makes sense! Thank you for replying! I hope to see you at a con some time this year
Oh man have you ever contemplated going to Animenorth in Toronto or Toronto Comiccon?? I hear it's pretty sick!
I hope to try anime north at some point but have not as of yet
@@Inkwell Canada awaits you, my brother.
I loved this video. Though I’m not a vender myself I love art and it was cool to see an artist’s perspective on con vending.
Just out of curiosity have you been to a furry con? Lol
If so which?
I have not, I keep joking that I'm going to do one and dress as a fish! time will tell
Furry artist here. I did not know that furry nsfw art sells that well at most conventions lol. Been actually making tame and non furry stuff for conventions.... Thank you for calling me out at the beginning xD
Do you do any shows in Canada? Just curious I watched this even tho I probably wont be attending any american shows yet lol.
I have not done any shows in Canada, I hear getting through customs with a tone of product gets tricky, I would love to try Anime North one day but it is always the same weekend as other shows I typically do
@@Inkwell Anime north and fan expo toronto are really good! I can imagine customs always gets me nervous. I never looked into how much i could bring over.
putting holmat up that high RIGHT after the water drugging is crazy
@@edaaaah water drugging???? I need more details
@@Inkwell someone roofied the free water jug things last year that they have set up all over the con and it was a huge deal locally. it was either '23 or '22 i remember it was after the year i went (the nazi incident). holmat is actually infamously Insane to locals because weird bad stuff keeps happening and their response to it isn't great like the year i went someone was in a straight up nazi uniform and they had to get a lot of backlash online to do anything about it
@@Inkwell i think i said some no no words because the comment vanished right after i sent it but if you google "holmat r00f13" uncensored the reddit post that shows up summarises it. it was a massive deal locally, especially after the "incident" from the previous year.
Oh nooooo I’m going to be tabling at indypopcon for the second time 😂😂😂 their hotels r cheap and nice but yea was def slow. I’m still within my first year of tabling, so I’m taking anything haha
Can I ask which year you went to ECCC and had a really bad show? ECCC created some really bad blood with artists and local congoers with their mishandling of the cancellation during the pandemic, and they also switched the con to a totally different time of year (which some people weren't even aware of), so if the bad year was 2021 I wonder if those were factors. I can't speak from experience, though.
2021 was the last year i went
Great format and information but FYI it is us boomers that created all the code that supports those computers you work on 😜.
Thanks for the shout out
~ a furry kink artist
Professor artist alley Inkwell 😮 WW ❤
Whoa I'm super surprised to see Sugoi Saturday on this list. Me thinks you're based in SoCal? But if that's the case, I'm surprised Comikaze/LA Comic Con wasn't mentioned since that's supposedly a big con (~90K+ attendee) and pretty easy to get a AA table imo. Just wanted to hear your opinion on that but understandable if you've never done it.
I’ve recently moved to SolCal originally from the east coast, Everyone I know tells me LA comic con is really bad for sales so I’ve avoided but I haven’t been there my self
15:18 I’ve noticed multiple Florida conventions mentioned. Any advice for queer artists????
Amazing
I would not recommend going to conventions in Seattle at this time. The Artist Alley and the Exhibitors/Vendors located at separate buildings, the internet is slow, and hotels and parking got more expensive.
That seems very venue-specific, are you talking about a particular event?
@@Inkwell Sakura-con. Pax West and ECCC decided to split the Exhibitor vendors into different buildings.
I found you at metrocon, is that not a convention you frequent? if not im happy i was lucky enough to discover you there
When I lived in Florida I did metro every year, but it’s just hard to fly out there from CA, I hope to do that show again in future, it definitely was one of my favorites
i dont know how i missed the portion on metro, lol
HAHAAH i did ocala comic con this past year just because i wanted to do a local show. it was not good.
I'll say as a guest at katsucon you also can still feel how poorly run it is at times though the volunteers do their best I'm not to hear that about the higher levels
I'm from Columbus, and you're right about Origins. They suck. They do not treat people who volunteer to run things well.
Thats sad to hear...
Waits to hear thoughts on C2E2. Has minimal thoughts on C2E2 😅😂.
It’s a okay show, they put it the same day as Gencon a few years ago and of course the show bombed so as long as they don’t do that again, it can be worth going to, nothing crazy tho
@@Inkwell good to know. I’m local to Chicago so I figured I would dip my toes into the artist alley/con scene via C2E2. I’ve applied but haven’t heard anything yet since applications closed like 5 days ago.
Best of luck!@@MahmudTheMedium
@@Inkwell appreciate it 🙏🏼
No man, Supercon is so bad we abandoned our booth. Black list. :D
Oh no, was this the most recent one?
@@Inkwell 2022 we paid for it and when majority of us got Covid, we had to pull out. The employee over here who handles convention booths, checked it out anyway, and they last minute gave our spot to our neighbor, who expanded it. Then in 2023 we did go, there was no traffic, and I think we made like $1800 with a 20x10 exhibitor booth.
I hate lottery jury system too😭😭😭
Anyone have San Japan or Galaxy con experience ?
I’ve heard San Japan is pretty decent but I’ve never been my self
I can't tell if you were serious about your kink art comment 😂 do furries actually sell at these conventions?
my boyfriend makes furry kink art and hes just making 8000 euros per year :c
ConnectiCon stepped up since then. This past July they just had their biggest attendance to date. I spoke to vendors, they said they made decent money and the con was enjoyable. But it’s okay, you don’t have to come back to CT
I live in C'bus, and they've neglected the artists for literal years! Origins is sleeping on the artists' alley, big agree.