The Ohayocon 2009 Saga...

[ghostfire]

...or, how to abuse your position in a non-profit organization for maximum personal gain.The first convention I ever went to was Katsucon 2003. In six years of attending conventions, almost always in the artist alley, never once have I been told I was breaking the rules. No stickers at your convention? They get left at home. No adult work at your

Comments

[yamiko_michi]

what? D: omgosh that is completely ridiculous! I would've be ready to find the con chair and bitch them out, it is not cheap to go to a con and they made that last one up!
jealousy is just sad in artist alley I know I've only done like 5 alleys now but I've seen some girls snearing at all the hard work we do with green eyes in the last 2 we went to which already sucks but it's seriously sad that someone who runs the alley is that petty and childish.
I hope the rest of the year goes a bit better for you, I'll see you around at at least 3 :)

[ghostfire]

Either the artist alleys have been getting worse, or I've been becoming more observant. With six years experience, only in the past 2.5 or so years have things really started to go downhill. It was slow at first, but it's getting more ridiculous with every passing year. There's so much backbiting and in-fighting... If you do good work, and you're at your table long hours with a nice-looking setup, you'll get a lot more negativity then someone who's barely there and only brings a few pencil drawings on typing paper.

Good luck on the conventions you do attend, though! :P

[ghostfire]

Thank you. I'm definitely going to look into it.

[ghostfire]

ToraCon was a blast last year... one day concentrated craziness.

I think, based on their other activities, that they've both firmly placed themselves in the "artiste" camp. I count myself as an artist - pragmatic and hard-working. I can't afford to shell out thousands of dollars to be an "artiste" and rove the country for the love of art.

We definitely should have been fighting it, but I have a tendency to react to unbelievable incidents with shock, rather than rage. :/

[shinotenshi02]

Many more have better, or more appropriate advice than I do. Furthermore I only 'work' one con, and not in the artist's alley.

That said, allow me to add my voice to those expressing sympathy, as well as shared-injustice and anger on your behalf. I mean...wow.

How...petty, that they can't be grateful and appreciate that talent brings in more people over-all, and instead they must get rid of someone ELSE who is more talented than they are, to feel bigger.

Bullies. I hope Karma bites them HARD on the ass.

YOU, are amazingly talented; both your originals and your fan-art. I've followed you since 2001 and I adore your work, and tell others about it and SHOW others. (And buy gifts... ^_~)

Keep doing what you do, and go to cons that respect you. I'll try to make it to the artists Alleys to at least say hi, and hopefully stock up on new stuff. ^_^

[ghostfire]

:) Thank you. The support since I posted this here and at deviantart has been overwhelming. I always prefer to sit back and let karma work itself out on anyone who treats me like that, because it's a far better use of my time and effort to keep creating new work and promoting it then wasting my time on them.

[osmandias]

After working at AnimeNorth and Otakuthon for over two years as first a volunteer and then a head on the con set-up table, those people either didn't look through your portfolio when you submitted it (which isn't likely since nobody else got the same problem) or jut had it out against you. I'm more inclined to believe the second.

Otakuthon has the policy that con co-ordinators and the heads of the sections can't open their own table, as it might be biased (I'm glad that rule was instated) but obviously that con needs it because the jealousy coming from the other table isn't just horrible, it's unprofessional. I'm pretty sure that con is going to have more problems in the future for other reasons, but there's some condolence that they'll shot themselves in one foot and then the other before the con goes down.

[ghostfire]

Hopefully they'll replace those two as artist alley coordinators soon, and I like the idea about not allowing heads of sections to profit from their section. Having the AA heads with tables has just as much potential for conflict of interest as having the dealer's room head snatch up a dozen prime dealer's tables for their business. As someone else already said, all I have to do is step back and let Karma work its magic.

[hemlock_inyx]

While I can agree that you had a very shitty experience, and should be demanding a refund, I can't agree with not allowing the heads of AA's to have tables. I am the new head of AnimeNEXT's Artist Alley, and the reason I work so hard for it, is because I am an artist and I know what Artist's want and how they should be treated, because it's how I want to be treated.

The head of Anime Boston's Artist Alley is also an artist and has a table as well, and her AA is very well run. I think it's more that they were jealous ass-shats and little to do with if they were allowed to have a table or not. I see the real problems happening when the people who run Artist Alley's are not Artists themselves. They seem the most out of touch with what is going on.

[ghostfire]

Yeah, it's been a year or so since I wrote this, and I was very angry then. I don't actually have a problem with artist alley heads having tables, especially at more close-knit cons like AnimeNext or AnimeBoston (I can't imagine wrangling hundreds more people, like at Otakon, would be very conducive to running a working AA, though). The problem comes when power goes to someone's head... but that's always the way of it, isn't it? I'm also very grateful for ANext's posted rules being very reasonable.

[chefakito]

Like I told Mark and Eric... if you want to shoot me that in an email, I'll send that off to the con head and attempt to get your money back and the apology you guys deserve.

[ghostfire]

What email should I send it to?

[chefakito]

Check your LJ messages