It was then time for the Q&A session between Ferran, Carl, Jon and Kev. This was a great little section of the day, a lot of information was found out regarding the development of the comic and working practices. Jon Haward also revealed that he’d love to work on the comic again if it were still around and even take on more modern Sega games, to which I couldn’t help but yell out “Yakuza & Shenmue cross-over!”
After the Q&A session, Nigel Dobbyn returned from his art class and we decided to say hello. Nigel recognised me from previous Summer of Sonic’s and from also the fact that he’s joked about me being his number one customer, as well as asking me if I was mad when I told him I really wanted to buy his original artwork of ‘The Spice Maidens’ a parody which apparently generated a lot of complaints from fans of the comic.
During this time we also conducted a little business with Mr Dobbyn, we noticed he was selling some of his artwork, and being a fan of his colouring I couldn’t resist but pick up a piece. After the business I informed him about the My Favourite Fleetway series I’m writing for this site. Dobbyn thanked me for the praise I gave the issue and for the next few moments we just talked about classic horror movies and how Nigel felt that he may have included some horror references into his works that even he hadn’t realised that he’d included. After a while we shook his hand and left his area.
Realising I met everyone, I headed downstairs to the merch and art tables. Merchandise wise there was a huge table full of Sonic the Comic’s all bagged and boarded along with a small selection of merchandise, ranging from plushies to other bits of media such as a Japanese Sonic 3 VHS tape.
Art table wise, a few people were taking part in some of the art competitions which were running throughout the day. But otherwise, this area was noticeably quiet compared to the main hall.
Returning to the main hall, we found ourselves socialising with a number of old and new friends. It was nice to catch up with the friends I’ve made over the years, both from various fansites and past conventions. From speaking with people, I found out a few interesting things about a number of the people attending the convention.
First of all, not everyone here had read an issue of the comic, this was very surprising, a number of people commented on how they had never read an issue of the comic before and that the comics they had purchased at the convention were the first time they had ever picked up an issue. A few people said that the main reason they had come to the convention was to meet friends that they hadn’t seen for over a year.
I could understand this, one of the main reasons I keep going to SOS is to see my friends who I don’t get to see anywhere near as often as I’d like. Finding out the majority of your friends are attending a cool party is a hard thing to pass up.
Though it did make me wonder for possible future events, would Sonic the Comic see a form of renewed interest from people attending future events just because their friends were attending?
Wait… stop… am I the only one who see’s the obvious here?
We’ve just had a convention, for a comic which has had a cult following for the best part of over a decade, there’s just been a convention for it which made over £1,400 in not even 24 hours, which made a total of £3,674, over 150 people attended the convention, which was held on a Sunday in the North of England, some came in cosplay despite not advertised cosplay competition. Which saw some people buy their first Fleetway issues for the first time, some people attended were not fans of the comic, but left as fans of the comic.
Yet the only way for these new fans to get access to these issues is to try their luck with the second hand market. Original fans of the comic book have to fight one another for mint/good condition issues in order to complete their collection, and for mega rare issues this is becoming less and less likely.
Am I the only one who see’s this? That there is an obvious market here for these issues? Why is this not happening? It’s not like Egmont (who owns Fleetway) can’t do this, they’ve done it with other comic books they once published, Sega cannot be completely oblivious to this comic or how successful it was back in the 90′s.
We’re not asking for the comic to be re-activated, or a complete re-release of every issue. But why are some of the sagas not in trade paperback form? Run a kickstarter yourself if you’re afraid there’s no demand.
Anyway, tangent over…
The final big event of the day was a Q&A session with Nigel Kitching & Richard Elson. Now this was advertised as a Q&A, though it probably should have been advertised as a comedy double act. As informative as it was, there was a lot of laughs to be had here as the banter between the two was hysterical at times. I hope someone has this on video because it really was a great end to the day’s events.
To finish the day, we went around each of the various former STC staff and thanked them for coming. Which reminds me, earlier in the day when we spoke with Richard Elson, we asked him about a very obscure piece of sonic history, and then did a bit of a deal with us. It’s going to take some time, but hopefully it’ll be worth the wait, but that’s for another time.
So overall how was the day? Well.. to compare it with Summer of Sonic, this was… very relaxing. According to STC-Con, around 150 people attended. But, there were no long lines to see people, it was very easy to move around, and temperature wise… it was good.
It was also a very sociable event, it was quite easy to strike up a conversation with anyone, this was probably down to the fact virtually everyone there had one thing in common, that being the comic book.
In fact, it was incredibly laid back and relaxing. Typically at these conventions I’m running around doing things, it’s almost like a military operation. This though was so laid back and relaxed it took me by surprise. You want an example of this? I normally video a ‘tour’ of the venue and take some other video of the events. Only this one was so laid back and relaxed, I just didn’t want to, I just wanted to enjoy the day. There is some video of the event, hopefully other attendees took more, but nothing that extensive this time.
The biggest lesson here, you do not need to have something on the epic scale of Summer of Sonic in order to put on one hell of a good event. You just need an idea which has some appeal, the finance and the team to put it into place. You do not need to have special or exclusive announcements, nor do you need to rely on special VIP guests from overseas. Your convention will be a success without those things.
You just need a good idea, the money and the team to make it a reality.
Should STC-Con return some day? It would be nice to see it come back, though next time it would be great to get more non Sonic artists/writers on board. Jon Howard was a welcome change to it just being ‘another Sonic convention,’ whilst a convention like Summer of Sonic is slightly restricted, STC-Con does have a slight advantage in this area.
STC-Con can be considered a success, everything about it shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and it surpassed expectations. There are things which could have been improved, though I suspect the organisers are already aware of them, having times by the day’s schedule would have made planning the day much easier for guests. But for a first convention, this one was pretty good.
I just hope I don’t have to wait another 20 years!
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Sonic the Comic Con, an adventure 20 years in the making.
