Comic Festival Conclusions

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, this weekend, as you may have gathered from my last post, was the first comicon of the year for myself and for TanraStudios - which is to say, True Believers Comic Festival (or TBCF, as its sometimes referred to as). Today, I'm going to give you all heads up of the events and how I felt the con went for anyone who might be thinking of going to said con another time.

So, for those of you who don't know, TBCF is a comic festival that takes place at Cheltenham racecourse in Gloucestershire, and mostly caters towards the indie comic scene, though there are still stalls that do have other kinds of merchandise as well. This year's event is the second TBCF that I have been to, if one doesn't count the smaller Mall Con, which was also ran by the True Believer's team

This year, Myself and Nadia were running a stall for TanraStudios, where we were selling the comics Susanoo, Unbound, Dreamwalkers and Pandora, along with our prints and the Lucky Dip, which usually is well received. I unfortunately had to refrain from doing commissions this time, though, as both of my wrists are currently needing supports. A bit of a shame, really, but its better to not do them this time than potentially permanently ruin my wrists, right?

Sorry about me not being in the picture. Don't worry, I was not absorbed by the coat on my chair - I was the one behind the camera lol!

Here's me, for those who might be interested in seeing me. :P If not, then oh well, I hope I didn't put you all off. lol

Anyway, we even had the trailer running for the Pandora Comic as well, though perhaps we needed it to be on a constant replay so we could have placed it in the middle or on a stand. As it was, we had to keep nudging it once it reached the trailer's end. Still, it's the first time we tried something like this, so it was a learning curve.

The event was pretty interesting. This year they allowed the stall members to pre-order food, which was very helpful, especially since they delivered the food to the table, which was a godsend during busy times when you can't leave the table, as usually, by the time you can get to the food stands, most of the food would already be gone. So I do hope that this is something they continue on next time.

As for the event itself, it did seem quieter this year, though it was possibly due to placement - last year we were situated on route to the café areas, so had a fair amount of constant through traffic, whereas our placement this time was further away from there. Of course, it was entirely possibly that it generally was quieter, but that was just how it appeared to me. We did sell less this year as well, unfortunately, which was a shame, but again, this might have been due to placement or their being less people. Some other stalls had mentioned similar things.

Speaking of, we did see some people from last year. We even got recognised, which was awesome, and some people bought our new books after having bought our older titles last time. We also got to see some old stall friends too, which was pretty awesome. The people on the stalls were all pretty friendly. One person from a bake-stall even came around and we got these really nice cupcakes too! I wish I could have taken a photo of that, but....well, I kinda ate it too fast. *blushes* It was really nice!

So, while it wasn't quite as successful as last year, it was still pretty enjoyable. I do hope that things do improve somewhat next time, though.

If anyone attended True Believers this year, tell me what you thought of the events, maybe if its only to comment on a cosplay you liked, or if anyone attended any of the podcast events. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

But, until next time!

Tara