February 19, 2014
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Cons And Shows
By Tom Spurgeon
* Thought Bubble in Leeds
put up a gigantic informational post on Monday, basically announcing their November show and its first burst of special guests. Scott Snyder stand out there for me; I think you're going to see a lot of these mainstream creators do a lot of different kinds of shows over the next few years because nearly all of them have creator-driven projects that are appropriate to multiple venues.
This article at The Beat tells me that they'll be building this first wave of logos from the work of Annie Wu.
* that Denver Comic Con slapfight -- and I don't mean to diminish it by saying that, but until we see some financials that's all it is right now -- will likely remain its own posts for a while after this brief update. I'm playing catch there a bit: neither side returned an initial e-mail, but I will try to see what happens today for a full post tomorrow. I haven't said too much about it but I'm not sure that anything to be said about it that isn't just repeating accusations and denials. If you missed it, what I can figure from a rough read: one of the co-founders, a man named Charlie La Greca, resigned from the board to take a paid position with the show. That person had a limited contract. That contract was not renewed. There were differences on some level. Some attempt at reconciliation was tried and seemingly did not work. That person
has launched a site accusing the convention of neglecting its educational mission and potentially abusing available funds. The convention
has responded by saying it is moving forward with its educational programs and that all of its financials are required to be released by laws governing non-profits and this is up to date. This seems a mix of things that can be proven when records are released, like if there's blatant misuse of funds, and things that can never be proven because they involve emphasis and rough appraisals, like if the con is doing enough or moving rapidly enough. It is worth watching, though, because a lot of conventions end up in an acrimonious situation comparable to this one -- a lot of theater companies with a non-profit set-up involving a board do, too -- and there are a lot more conventions now. If good fences make good neighbors, good contracts make good collaborations.
*
this looks like a super-fun event of a kind we could see a dozen of on college campuses 10 years from now. I hope in particular that Mr. Sakai has a great weekend given how tough the last several months have been.
* finally, I don't do very well with store events in this column, but it's great to see Desert Island
celebrate its sixth and I hope all the good-looking people in New York comics and a few of the not as attractive ones will stop by and wish Gabe Fowler the best.
posted 3:25 pm PST |
Permalink
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
Full Archives