| word from publisher is the opinion column Pedro F Medina †@Studio_Kato), editor-in-chief, responsible for licensing and social networks fandogami and the journalist with the face of an undisguised entertainer at the events of comics and manga |
Recently, when the Valencia Comics Fair ended (a really cool event, um, the attendees said they would repeat, even though they just recouped the investment, because they smelled it will continue to grow) I wouldn’t share the details of setting up a booth at a comics event on Twitter. was asked and I thought, come on, come on. When I started writing this column, we were in the middle of a pandemic and rarely went out, but now that we’re back in the ring, this is something worth writing about. So I take advantage of the fact that I’m taking the train to the Angoulême Comics Festival (one of those trips where I didn’t drive a minibus full of comics) to give some detail.
The first is to rent the space. There were contests with a few weeks notice but Due to the busy schedule and overlapping dates, they now tend to open their recruitment applications with great anticipation. This is great for getting hotels at a good price, especially if they let us know in front of the general public… This doesn’t usually happen. What I always do is get accommodation with free cancellation, and I book as soon as I have proof of dates, even if we’re not sure we’re going yet. Then look for last-minute accommodation in places like Madrid or Barcelona. There’s something to improvise.
I remember the president of an event whose name I don’t want to remember, the person who showed up with a briefcase when the competition was over to pay you for next year’s booth, which will be held in twelve months. In cash, there weren’t many digital trails, you understand me. I never went through that circle because it sounded obscene to me. One thing is being aware of the success of your event, the other is this ridiculous blackmail. When I got up to set up the booth, I found out that they had robbed him in front of his house on closing night for a year. No one deserves to experience such a situation, but the bag with the Euro symbol on it made a lot of noise.
Then there’s the matter of guessing, aligning your posts with event dates. That makes me ball. We’re currently only posting on purpose for two big events in Barcelona (Comics and Manga) and if there’s something in Madrid for Japan. But we don’t kill each other either. If there is an author, we value it more, and this happens especially in national works. At manga events, we’re releasing new manga out of total stagnation: all publishers are doing it, and this is when all the media talking about manganime await releases and announcements. So we stay true to the core, often counterproductive: If you’re playing at our level, you better not make big statements with Norma, Panini, or Milky Way at the same time, and you need to strike the balance. Force and please people. Greetings to all the expert media editors who are reading me, I love you (especially YOU).
The decoration of the stand is part of the show. I admit this is something I’ve spent enough time on because we already have a clear picture of where everything is going and posters and tags are used over and over again. The only thing we update frequently are the latest news posters hanging on the wall, which we ordered from an online printer at the earliest a week before the event. What happens next, what? three price plates are breaking and I forget to replace them because it’s the last thing on my mind. Maybe the grandstand image has deteriorated a bit, but let’s be honest: We were miserable at Fandogamia. No matter how beautiful our booth is, it will not be able to compete richly with large designed modular booths that cost thousands of euros. With our bright corporate orange and lots of Efe everywhere, we try to showcase the comics well and get to know them from afar. F always marks the point.
We use an indexed list when loading the van, otherwise it would be impossible to remember everything. Tables, shelves, tablecloths, chains, seals, boxes with decorative material, samples, bags, promotional gifts, posters, etc. And of course the strips. Comics are the most important, but we already have so many titles that we always leave something forgotten in storage. A different one each time. And depending on the type of event, we have more or less of each, with 8 to 10 copies of the background material being the most common, 20 to 30 copies of the bestsellers, and many of the latest releases and drawing sessions planned. If something is really on fire, depending on the weather, you can get a few boxes. If it’s manga, then more manga; if it’s funny, then it’s funnier; As for Zaragoza, a lot of Spanish artifacts. And if Manga is Barcelona, well, EVERYTHING HAS A VAN UNTIL THERE IS A FREE HOLE. We also ask the distributor for extra supplies to send us directly to the cabinet. How ruthless this help is. But the van is not the only limitation: so is the space available at the stand, because strips that don’t fit on the table must be stored where they can be replenished as they’re sold. Only years of experience and intuition tell us more or less what quantities are appropriate depending on the arrangement, because once you have the boxes ready, alea jacta est is.
And then comes the assembly itself. A little hit. The usual team is quite internalized and splits the work so it’s easy to set up a booth up to twenty square feet in about four hours, sometimes less if there are no queues or if they don’t come to get accreditation from a crowded counter. Don’t make me move the van five times to make way for other vehicles. The scary thing is when we can’t get the transporter closer to your contracted area (let alone, Madrid Comic Pop Up) and we have to carry boxes and more boxes that are in danger of collapsing, either by tram or by hand. . They collapse when they fall to the ground. This is an interesting effect because when a package is dropped and opened, the strips dissipate like mercury. splosch. Book a pond.
We have done many activities before. It’s been twenty-four years and this is no joke. If you exclude the summer holidays and Christmas, this is every fortnightly departure. It’s a pity, but we didn’t publish it in the cadence we are currently doing. It would not have been possible for us to maintain an adequate editorial production rate at such a scale today, but having liquidity was crucial back then. Things like family reconciliation or adequate rest are a boon to this movement, and with great sadness (because there are cities and organizations that treat us with the greatest love), we now only go on a few dates that make a lot of money. several days.. They can’t make ten a year. Unfortunately, our comics are hard to find if we don’t go to the amusement park. The few bookstores that set up stalls will always ask for the tastiest stuff from other, more famous publishers because they sell better and the space needed to showcase material is limited. So if we don’t go to sites, we don’t have much of a third-party presence… but if we go to too many sites, they say we’re closing bookstores that might carry our material. And I keep thinking: What came first, the comic book or the bookshelf?
