So What Are Conventions For, Anyway?

A few of you have e-mailed me links to this post by the cartoonist Geoff Grogan, whose time not at SPX led him to dissect the entire convention-going experience both in terms of its positives (feeling as if one belongs, having a deadline for which to prepare material) and its negatives (no hopes of making the money back; encountering cliques). It's a pretty good piece, and I think honest, and from the number of you that passed it along to me I would guess it struck a chord. It's also appropriate, I think. If you read some of the pieces in the Collective Memory below, SPX seems to lead the way in descriptions from attendees that have nothing to do with traditional convention functions like commerce, or the sharing of ideas about industry and art form, or even a build from personal relationship to a solidarity that might affect meaningful change on one's artistic milieu. It's almost less of a convention than a big ol' hangout in the form of a convention.

I have no answers for the questions Grogan asks or for those that arise naturally from observing conventions. It's hard to run around saying negative things about people finding joy in each others' company. When you add in the fact that for some artists the positive feedback and feeling of belonging they receive from their peers and a certain kind of engaged customer is such a significant portion of the overall good they can expect to receive back for their outpouring of art and craft and personal expression and sheer effort, it's almost monstrous to suggest anything other than that this is totally awesome and to run one's own pictures of one's friends with arms around each other, standing in front of a handmade sign or random hotel furniture. Still, it's worth taking a step back and seeing this from someone else's eyes every once in a while, even if your experience is outstanding, and question whether a sub-economy consisting of "I like your comic" as the basic monetary unit is the best we can do for the 40 or so weekends a year when there isn't this kind of gathering, and all the days in between. It's okay to be dissatisfied. It's perfectly fine to want more.
 
posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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