Monthly Archives: August 2009

For those of you who’d be interested in this sort of thing, I set up a Flickr account and am loading pictures I took at ConnectiCon. Currently up in its own set is the Comiku Girls Japanese Tea Ceremony, along with some pictures of random convention cosplayers. Seeing that I’ve already reached the limit for Flickr for this month, I’m afraid more pictures will have to wait, but I’ll upload them when I can.

I have to apologize for the general lack of reviews last month. I had started a new schedule at work (four 10-hour days) and while the new schedule is more productive at work, between the changes in my sleeping schedule (no more 2 a.m. reviews for now!) and preparing for ConnectiCon this year, I’ve not had much opportunity to write reviews. Fortunately, now that the convention has gone by, I’ll likely have a little more time to work on reviews (and the new work-schedule is only for the summer).

ConnectiCon 2009 was very likely the most successful year ConnectiCon has had; there were huge crowds, even more webcartoonists with booths than 2008, and an excellent program to be had. The only real flaw (outside of a situation concerning Connecticut taxes which I’ll get into later) was that I couldn’t attend every panel I wanted to! (Indeed, general exhaustion from a lack of sleep Thursday night forced me to cut back on the number of panels I wanted to go to.) Of the panels, three stand out in particular, two on webcomic creation and a panel on Japanese tea ceremonies.

The first webcomic creation panel was hosted by Peter Tarkulich of Bardsworth and Alex Heberling of Garanos. I must admit I had a lot of fun in this panel, as Peter and Alex didn’t mind my piping up and adding my two cents worth; I’ve seen a bit in the four years I’ve been writing reviews, and like to think I know what I’m talking about. I don’t, of course, but that never stopped anyone from spouting nonsense and sounding like a professional, so I undoubtedly tainted dozens of hopeful cartoonists with bad advice. All joking aside, there was another gentleman who also spoke up a bit, giving advice on web marketing and building audiences. Peter and Alex know a lot about webcomic creation, and were able to take outside comments and questions to bring the audience fully into the discussion.

The second webcomic creation panel was headed up by Brad Guigar of Evil Inc. and Kris Straub of Starslip, and used a rather fascinating concept Guigar and Straub had come up with during the San Diego ComicCon: they would take questions from the audience and answer it in 20 seconds or less. Guigar, Straub, Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Dave Kellet (Sheldon) were behind the book “How To Make Webcomics” and did a much better job than the hack job I had been working on last year, so Guigar and Straub definitely knew what they were talking about. A combination of stealing the sole microphone from each other and diligently timing one another over the 20-second spots made this panel a lot of fun, and a lot of ground got covered even if it didn’t get quite as detailed as the previous panel had in places. There was surprisingly little overlap between the two panels, and both were definitely worth going to.

My favorite panel, however, was the Comiku Girls’ yearly Japanese Tea Ceremony. Li and Akiko actually wore kimonos this time around (though I must admit, seeing them dressed in Ravenclaw outfits while performing the ceremony in 2008 was enjoyable) and the combination of delightful banter and the level of knowledge these two have of Japanese ceremony made this panel a delight to watch. Li and Akiko have developed a strong chemistry working together and take what could be an uneventful and confusing custom and make it lively and approachable.

Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts resulted in the Japanese Tea Ceremony panel happen at the same time as the Webcomic Auction. From what I’ve heard, the hijinks went into high gear this year, with Chris Malone (Blue and Blonde) and Brian Wilson (Geist Panik) upping their prank war against each other (Wilson said he stole Malone’s guinea pig and sold it, while Malone hacked Wilson’s site, changed the passwords, and is putting up a guest comic from the person who won that bid – fortunately, the money all goes to charity and I suspect the feud is faked anyway). Peter Tarkulich sold a basket of cookies, a book of his comic, and a throw pillow, which went for $101 from what I hear (they were really good cookies apparently!), and unfortunately I didn’t hear what else was auctioned off.

I commented on the growth of hug-me signs in 2007, and these signs once again cropped up in 2009. Amusingly enough, some of these signs crew in complexity as well, with some signs with a bit of effort put into them. Sadly, I didn’t see the young lady who in 2007 ridiculed the sign-holders with her anti-sign, but I suspect I was not the only person who was rolling his eyes at the multitude of tweenagers begging for glomps and the like.

Artist’s Colony was likewise a lot larger than it was in 2008, with a number of new comics present along with a number of old favorites. There were also plenty of artists and other small vendors offering sketches and various small wares. Unfortunately, this wayward band of artists caught the attention of that most dire of critters – the taxman. Yes, it seems that the Connecticut state government has decided that tax revenues have shrunk too much, so they are going to squeeze every last drop of blood they can from the artists and small-time vendors, requiring them to pay $50 for a five-year license and then charge eight percent sales tax.

Naturally enough, the tax people arrived and let the Artist’s Colony know this after they had been running for a day. This is on top of the fee that these artists and pin vendors pay for a table in Artist’s Colony; from what I hear, most of these people don’t even make up the money they spent on the table. Literally, this is a labor of love for them, allowing these artists to draw sketches for people and showcase prints and the like. It also draws more people to ConnectiCon itself for the main moneymakers in the Dealer’s Room (which also included some of the larger webcomic artists). I understand that times are tight for the states right now… but for Connecticut to pull this bulls##t on simple artists after they had already spent the money on tables without prior warning is absolutely detestable.

From what I heard, ConnectiCon is offering the affected artists a free auxiliary membership for next year (as this was out of the blue for them as well), but I honestly suspect that 2010 will see far fewer cartoonists setting up booths at ConnectiCon thanks to the greed of a few bastards in state government. Seriously, there were fewer than 100 artists there. The fees for licenses will garner maybe $5,000 (for one year), the sales tax collected will be maybe a couple hundred dollars out of the pockets of the artists as they had no idea they had to charge sales tax ahead of time, and people are going to not bother setting up next year; they may decide not to go to the convention at all, which will reduce the number of people who go to the convention, lower the number of sales at the dealer’s room, reduce the taxes collected for hotel room rentals, and so forth.

I doubt anyone in Connecticut’s state legislature reads this, but let’s get word out. This is a list of Connecticut State Representatives. Mail them and complain about the persecution of artists, pointing out how little taxes will be collected and how much revenue will be lost if these people and their fans don’t return to ConnectiCon in the future. Several years back ConnectiCon was almost screwed over by the greed of the people at a convention center. Now, it’s the Connecticut state government that’s the threat, through the slow death of chasing off the artists and smaller webcartoonists who are the heart of ConnectiCon. Let’s stop this now. Spread the word.