2014 US Comic Show Analysis

I see that Heidi MacDonald of the always interesting, The Beat, has posted the results of their team up with The Devastator news site for an analysis of US comic shows from 2014. You may recall that they first did this last year based on replies from 46 exhibitors returning surveys which I linked to here, this year there were more than 100 responses so makes for a more informed result.

The full survey results and commentary are contained in a detailed report on The Devastator's main site here  and makes interesting reading, albeit a little harder going, given that there's so much there but they've retained their sense of humour in their concise and witty commentaries on each show.

So if, like me, you like looking at numbers and charts this is the place to go, particularly for those comic folks trying to plan their 2015 schedule of which US comic shows to apply for. There's still nothing like this for the UK or Europe that I've seen so this is the best that's out there and is still interesting in weighing up the economics of exhibiting.

For ourselves at Accent UK Towers, we've moved our attention away from the US and Canada for a bit, concentrating in the UK and Europe as we hopefully further develop our own audiences. We've already mentioned that a 're-think' of our own show schedule (thankfully) resulted in a boost in sales as we swapped uneconomical shows for more rewarding ones and we're again applying the same principals for 2015, which shouldn't be quite so radical as last year which saw us make some 6 or 7 changes to our itinerary. Watch this space for further details when available.

Comic Calendar!

 

 

Hi the 2014 comic calendar is starting to shape up with a few shows now confirmed. At the moment, the definite ones are all within the mighty MCM Comic Con brand with the Accent UK tour bus calling at; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We of course are very familiar with the MCM Manchester and Glasgow shows but Birmingham and Belfast are both new to us. We've not been to the MCM London show since 2010, when I think they had a mere 14,000 or so attending which was pretty impressive but I understand that they're now up to some 60,000+ !!

 

It's numbers like that and the recent success we've enjoyed at Glasgow and Manchester which helped convince us to make more of an MCM effort this year. It also helps that MCM themselves are expanding with some of these events being new or extended from before. We also quite fancied their Dublin show in April but it clashes with something else, but I think we're doing okay!

 

This doesn't of course mean that we're only doing MCM shows this year, we're aiming to match last year's total of 11 events, out of a long list of 24! Not all these shows have yet released tables/confirmed dates but we have applied for a further 3 and should find out soon if we're confirmed or not.

 

It is a fine art deciding which ones to attend and there's a number of factors that determine whether an event is right for us. Sometimes even informed choices don't work out so it can be a bit of a gamble and we've had to carefully look at the calendar and 'drop' a couple of our normal events to accommodate these newer ones. Particularly it was with regret we decided not to apply for this year's London Super Comic Convention and New York's MoCCA. These are both great shows and ones we'd enjoyed becoming regulars at but you can't do them all and its good to freshen things up.

 

Watch out for more announcements and see what new goodies we can take with us!

US Comic show exhibitor analysis

A taster of The Devastator's analysis - its much clearer on their site!
(click the above image for link) 

 

The always interesting Beat blog has a great link here to The Devastator's analysis of recent comic shows from an exhibitor's sales point of view. This is a rare if not unique occurrence and for anyone interested in comics, festivals and a bit of clearcut comment is fascinating.

Being a US site it of course concentrates on American shows of which only the Emerald City Con in Seattle is one that Accent UK have exhibited at (and it has to be said we found it slow) but its still pretty useful. The site's compilers are at pains to point out that the analysis is based on those exhibitors who responded to their survey, some 46 in total, so the results are not overly scientific but interesting nevertheless.

It would be interesting to have a similar UK survey but as recently commented on, sales, while obviously important are not always the only factor which determines if a show is successful or not. Certainly for us while our Seattle sales were disappointing we were breaking new ground with our first US show and had we been able to follow up, we may well have grown our audience there, similar to what we achieved with our European shows in Copenhagen and almost achieved with New York's MoCCa but its a difficult thing to sustain on available resources, particularly now that our 'home' UK market has a vibrant convention scene of its own.

Enjoy the article and analysis and perhaps give your own findings some thought?


An eager looking Accent UK in Seattle 2010

 

Howard Burke of Seattle's Zanadu Comic shop has a surprise Accent UK vist
(Zanadu were already stocking our books - Yey!)

Dave made a few new friends on our Seattle trip including the famous Pike Market Pig !