Cons are getting expensive for both creators and fans. What are we gonna do about that?

My solution was to start my own comic convention for indie creators and fans. What are you going to do?

Making profit at comic conventions is harder than ever because of enshittification. So what did I do about it? I started my own convention. Virtual Creator Con.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Conventions have been the life-blood of comics for decades, providing an opportunity for fans and creators to come together to celebrate the medium.

For indie creators, they were a great venue to sell books, make connections, and even get onto the radar of bigger publishers.

But no longer.

At many shows, indie comics are barely visible, but table prices continue to rise, as do travel and accommodation costs. Some of the big corporate shows now charge $400-500 US just for the able. If you’re a creator going to one of these shows from out-of-town, you could very well struggle to break even.

On the flip side of the coin, cons are also becoming increasingly expensive for fans to attend. Prices for day and weekend passes often run into the hundreds of dollars, which leave people with much less disposable income to spend at the shows.

As with many things, consolidation of the con market has swallowed up many of the smaller conventions, which were critical for indie creators, offering cheap table prices and low or no entry fee.

This is what Cory Doctor would call enshittification of the convention world.

What does this mean?

At first, cons make it easy for creators to table, and cheap for fans to attend. But over time they start to claw back value, first from fans, and then creators. Prices rise, safety becomes an afterthought, and the only people who make money at the show – are the corporation who run it.

So what are we supposed to do about it? Are creators and fans just gonna eat the higher costs?

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

I thought about this problem for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion: I had to start my own convention; one that’s online, independent, and completely free to creators and fans.

With that one idea, Virtual Creator Con was born. You can read more about it here:

But having the idea is one thing, turning it into reality was something else entirely.

The con runs twice per year and each one last for two-days. We have an artist alley, panels, workshops, and other programming just like a typical comic convention.

Only this is one you can attend from home.

But everything is time-limited. The panels, programming, artist alley, and other events are only available for the duration of the show – which is two days.

After that, everything goes offline. You want to watch that one panel about indie comic printing? You better do it while the convention is on, otherwise you’ll miss out.

This isn’t a big money event. It’s about building a digital community around indie comics that benefits creators and comic fans alike.

Will it succeed?

Only time will tell.

If you want to learn more about Virtual Creator Con, visit the website at www.virtualcreator.org, and if you have ideas about what you’d like to see at future shows, or want to tell me what you are doing to make cons more affordable, drop a comment below.