|
Friday, September 3, 2010
‘They Came’: SNAP Comics Art Festival
Many comics retailers have a wealth of business savvy when it comes to marketing the corporate comic titles, but few combine that knowledge with an equally canny appreciation and respect for the independent books as well as Dearborn, Michigan’s Green Brain Comics. For years, Green Brain has been a haven for not only the popular superhero titles, but for the books of all genres from small publishers and self-publishers, including the work of local artists from the Detroit metropolitan area. So it is only fitting then, that proprietors Dan and Katie Merritt would be the ones to successfully organize a small press convention to showcase local creators and others from around the Midwest.
SNAP: The Comics Art Festival was held October 29 in Dearborn’s Al Matta Hall, just off of Michigan Avenue on the outskirts of Detroit. The exhibition space was a good-sized area, with a stage, a kitchen with a corner for dining (and decently priced food – burgers and fries and such), good lighting, nearby facilities, and an adjacent parking lot. And it was to this fledgling convention that dozens of the Midwest’s finest self-publishers flocked. It was this reporter’s opinion that fan attendance was solid. For most of the seven hours SNAP went on, the aisles were consistently flowing with fans of all stripes, and exhibitors reported sales comparable with shows like the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) in Columbus and better than the bigger Motor City Con, also in Detroit.
“I’m really happy with the show. This is exactly what I had hoped for,” said Dan Merritt in assessing the con. “We had good foot traffic, all of our exhibitors showed up and they’re all smiling. I’m just real happy.” In describing the process that led to creating SNAP, Merritt talked about witnessing other small press cons like SPACE and the Small Press Expo (SPX) and the Alternative Press Expo (APE) and getting feedback from the creators at these shows about what they want in a con. SPACE in particular was the model he and Katie used. “We had gotten feedback on some questions that we had from creators at SPACE about what they would like to see in a convention in the Detroit area. It really started to become real to us. We were asking pertinent questions about what they wanted us to do, what they wanted to see. We started realizing that we’re not doing this show for any other reason but to make a good place for these people to come up and exhibit; to create an event that they can come to and know that they’re gonna get some exposure. They’re gonna see a new crowd. They’re gonna be around artists they may not have even met outside of the regular circuit.”
After looking into venues like Holiday Inn (“It was completely out of our budget; not a good place to start”), the Merritts came upon Al Matta Hall. “We thought that this room was perfect for the event; a large hall, not overly large, but we accommodated 45 different exhibitors here. We just thought initially this would be the perfect place for it. And it’s worked out really well. They came. We opened the doors, we gave them the event date, and we told them what we wanted to do with it, and before we knew it, our tables were sold out. We gave out the date in late May/early June expecting a good response from the locals and maybe pull in a couple of people in from Columbus; we’d made some good relationships down there. When we expected to go to SPX, we expected to have to hard-sell our last couple of tables. As it turned out, we hit SPACE with a waiting list! And we added people from that.”
Selling out all the tables was a mixed blessing for Merritt. “People tell me, ‘It’s not something to be disappointed about; selling out is not something to be disappointed about.’ I come from the retailing sector of the comic market. When I sell out of something, that means I don’t have any left to sell anymore to people. And that’s not a money thing – 100%; I gotta pay my bills – it’s also a feeling like I let somebody down. Like I didn’t do my job. And with this particular event, I feel like I could’ve done a little bit more, but people are telling me, ‘No, you did just the right amount.’”
The Merritts advertised SNAP through a series of press releases to both the comics media websites and the local media, on a staggered schedule all through the summer, coupled with print advertising. There was one bit of hype though, that money couldn’t buy. “Beyond all of the promotion that we did, be it over the Internet, through the e-mails to local media, through dropping off flyers at colleges and record stores and like-minded businesses, the thing that I had no control over that wound up really blowing me away is the word of mouth. The good communication that was kinda passed out amongst people about the spirit of the show. These people didn’t have any idea what this show would actually be like; they’re taking it on my word and trusting me, which, I think, is an amazing compliment.
“I appreciate everybody that took that at the face value that I sent it out at. We built up a lot of good positive relations with local talent, Midwest talent, by seeing them at conventions, talking to them, engaging them and supporting their product. It’s scratching each other’s back in a way, but it’s really just the identification of our feelings about comics. They can see our business practices at the store, that it’s important for us to make money and pay the bills and we’ll do that in a businesslike manner, but we’re there because a big part of our business is to promote the art of comics. And that has gone a long way. It’s really helped strengthen a lot of relationships and start a lot of new ones.”
Among the lineup of guests at SNAP included Phoebe Gloeckner (who appeared on a panel spotlighting her work), Paul Sizer & Jane Irwin, Rob Worley, Pam Bliss, Sean Bieri, Matt Feazell, Tom Williams, Yul Tolbert, Suzanne Baumann, and many more. Top Shelf Comics had a table as well.
The biggest name in attendance, though, was writer-artist Bill Messner-Loebs, known for his popular runs on Wonder Woman, Flash, Jonny Quest, and The Maxx, among other titles. Messner-Loebs made news in recent years when he and his wife Nadine were forced out of their home after failure to keep up the mortgage payments. The creator had received fewer and fewer work assignments from Marvel and DC, who were bringing in younger talents and stars from outside the industry, such as screenwriters and novelists. Thanks to the efforts of creators and fans around the Net, including the organization ACTOR, he and his wife were able to not only relocate successfully, but to drum up some more work, including this past summer’s Green Arrow #53 for DC.
“It was fun, and fortunately there was actually a couple of people there [at DC] who still remembered me and were friends of mine from the old days,” said Messner-Loebs in talking about working at DC again. “The comics world is pretty much divided into people who’ve been DC editors and people who haven’t. Green Arrow was one of the few characters that I had read growing up that I hadn’t gotten a chance to write yet.”
Messner-Loebs talked about his current and future prospects at Marvel and DC. Among the obstacles he has faced, he said, is an ever-younger editorial regime and finding a project that jibes with the companies’ interests. But there are other difficulties as well. “I had been given a couple of contact names by Neal Adams, who has been talking to people over there, and I haven’t followed through the way I should have, probably. It’s really weird – I mean, yes, I need more work, but I’m trying to also do the work that I’ve been given in some sort of a timely fashion. Ordinarily what happens when somebody offers to get you work is they say ‘Well, these are the sort of characters we’d like you to work with,’ you know, this group or that group, ‘or whatever you’d like to do, Bill, and give us half a dozen springboards for ideas and we’ll get back to you.’ And so you realize oh, they haven’t gotten back to me in a couple of weeks; I should call them. So I call them, and leave a message, because nobody ever answers their phones.
“Nobody ever answers their phones in comics! Ever! And there are good reasons for that – everybody’s trying to put out comics that they’ve already decided to do. But it’s extremely hard to get hold of people, and it’s hard to remember that you haven’t gotten hold of this person in awhile and so you should call them back and make sure that they actually got the springboard proposals that you sent. And then they call you back and they have some changes and you make the changes and you remember to send it to them – and the process just takes forever. It’s one of the reasons you like to be on a regular book – all of that is now moot. You can now concentrate on actually coming up with the stories. But I should call up my Marvel numbers again and find out what people would want. There are other people who want to talk to me at Marvel… I’m never sure exactly how to do this. And I don’t think anyone else is sure how to do it either.”
Still, Messner-Loebs has been occupied with projects. Among those include a forthcoming young adult novel set during the Revolutionary War, commissioned pieces, his Three Tenors anthology with Dave Cockrum and Clifford Meth, and possibly another Green Arrow story somewhere down the line. In addition, he says, the money he received from the benefit book Heroes and Villains has been of great benefit to him and Nadine. “It’s helped me considerably. We just got our first check from that and it enables me to see ahead for at least four months without having to worry about where the money for our storage bin and the money for our motel is coming from. And we were able to go out without any twinges of guilt and buy ourselves new shoes! It’s hard to explain to people that we actually could’ve bought new shoes before, but it’s a question of, y’know, your not having to worry about, are you gonna be running a little short at the end of the month on the rent? And so this is a huge weight off my back and I can now concentrate on getting the next Green Arrow story done, which would create another relatively big chunk of money. The fill-in issues, they just get published when they’re published. I was quite surprised that [GA #53] came out as soon as it did.”
Messner-Loebs’ personal life is improving also. Nadine is recovering well from a debilitating sinus infection from the summer. They both continue to volunteer at the Brighton Senior Center, which has helped them during this period. He teaches a Photoshop class and works on children’s illustrations and touching up old photographs on the computer. And they have a new place to stay in. “It’s cheaper, it’s a little bigger, it’s much better laid out. We had a whole refrigerator in the other place, but only a half refrigerator in this place, but it’s placed – you almost couldn’t find a way to not block the refrigerator in the other room. And this one, you can use the refrigerator all the time. There’s any number of good things, and the one who runs it is much more on the ball and much more willing to fix things as they break, and that kind of thing. Overall, it’s a much better situation. We’re still looking for a permanent residence, but… I’m leery of moving into a place now because we’ll be trying to get the rents and all of that settled, and then there’s the heating [which] is going to be so much higher this year, whereas the heating is taken care of where we live now.”
SNAP was a delight and a success by all accounts. Will it return next year? Merritt remained non-committal on the odds. “Everybody’s asking me, when’s the date? All I can tell you right now is I’ve gotta heal for a couple of weeks. My mind and my body are kind of… they’re not all here right now! Once I gather myself, and of course Katie is in the same shape, we’re really gonna consider it. We see that there is a need for this show in this town and I think it’s time for us to really consider having a second SNAP.”
|
April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
