Comicpalooza is a big event every year in Houston - a four-day long festival of comics, art, fandom and entertainment. I've been to the event for the last couple of years and it gets bigger and better each time. This will be my first time as a dealer (of sorts), so I will have a different perspective of the event that I promise to tell about later.
The Comicpalooza event usually has a big entrance that has patrons entering through the dealer's room area to get to the other events in the big rooms. This tactic seems to be a good idea for getting everyone to visit the dealer's room portion of the event - you have to go through to get to most everything else. The only exception is the panels in the smaller rooms that are held elsewhere throughout the George R. Brown convention center. It's an amazingly large event, bigger than any other science fiction/comic convention I'm aware of in Texas.
There is a lot to do at Comicpalooza: book, toys and film aficionados can find most everything to their tastes in the dealer's room and events planned throughout the weekend. A large cosplay fandom shows up every year at the event including some of the largest steampunk and anime cosplay groups in the Houston area. A great costume competition goes on and there's a stage where live entertainment of varying degrees plays on pretty much constantly throughout the length on the con. Roller blade teams and live wrestling events also pepper the huge facility and there's an awful lot of activity for pretty much every aspect of fandom. Live interactive gaming, video and table games are also available for those interested in that aspect. I will say some of the louder live acts do tend to resonate throughout the huge convention room - sound carries well in the George R. Brown convention center.
Check out the immense star power at this event! Chloe Bennet from S.H.I.E.L.D., Cobie Smulders from Captain America: Winter Soldier (& How I Met Your Mother), George Takei (Star Trek god!), Jason Isaacs from Harry Potter, Hayley Atwell from Agent Carter (& Captain America), Jeremy Runner from Avengers (& Captain America, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Bourne Legacy and The Hurt Locker), Summer Glau from Firefly (& Serenity, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Dollhouse and Arrow), Raymond E. Feist (big-time author!), Henry Winkler (aka The Fonz from Happy Days) several stars from the Gotham series and, of course, the comic book icon Stan Lee! That diverse group of stars will be sure to pull in a bunch of fans, so getting attendance up won't be a problem! There are some behind the scenes film and TV personalities as well, and a large group of comic book writers and artists. Heck, go to the web site and browse - it's amazing, pure simple.
As for my attendance at the convention, I'm there as a guest of Triscelle Press. Very nice folks who offered to display my books amongst there own for sale. I'll be at the booth signing, selling and chatting with anyone who stops by. Triscelle Press has no science fiction authors of their own, but often are asked if they have any science fiction books, so it's a synergistic type of arrangement. My own publishing house has a smaller portion of their catalog devoted to science fiction than other genres, so it wouldn't be likely they'd get a booth at Comicpalooza. That may change in the future, but for now it's not worth their investment to the limited science fiction/fantasy genre inventory they have.
I may get to tag along to a panel or two even, but that's not a guarantee. If I'm very fortunate, I'll get to meet a celebrity or two who will see my books and them a try. I'll stick with regular old fortune and hope I get a lot of new readers.
The big key for Comicpalooza is the extreme volume of people that will be traveling through the dealer's room. The star power at the event will virtually guarantee a record crowd for this year's event. If I can get just a fraction of that gigantic influx of people to stop by and check out Mishaps and Mayhem or The Adventures of Reztap, I'll consider it a win-win!
Happy Fandom Everyone!
Regards,
Artemus
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