Rhode Island Comic Con 2017 Review
I was at the Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend as a vendor and I'll tell you about my experiences. I'll start with the good experience I had because there wasn't many so this will be quick.
The people I got to meet and fellow collectors were great. Its always fun to meet like minded people and get to hang out with old friends. I got to see some great creators and purchase some original art from them. I got a Scarlet Witch piece from Jeff Dekal, he was a real nice guy. I purchased a Harley Quinn piece from Chad Hardin, another great person. I also got an original page from Xmen gold issue 8 from Ken Lashley, I've met him several times and hes a great dude so I try to pick up art from him every time I see him. Last but certainly not least I met Joseph Michael Linsner and his Wife Kristina they were wicked awesome people. I had never met them before but they were so nice and a pleasure to talk to. I had Joe do a Zatanna piece for me that came out amazing. Just great people. I'm not big into meeting celebrities but I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and Claire Kramer who played Glory was there. I met her and she was super nice, that was a cool experience. So that's pretty much it for what was enjoyable.
The main problem with this show is that its simply outgrown the venue. Its held in two buildings, the Dunkin Donuts center and the Convention center, both buildings are connected by a sky bridge, which is basically a long hallway. The problem is that the promoters collect money from all the vendors for table space then sell as many tickets as possible and then its like they just don't give a shit was happens after that. They have your money and that's all that matters to them. They couldn't care less if you enjoy the show or not. You would think with two buildings they would have 2 entrances but no they funnel everyone through the entrance of the Dunkin Donuts center. These attendees had to wait outside in the freezing cold for hours. And once you got in the building they made everyone walk around the entire Dunkin Donuts center before they could go over the sky bridge to the convention center and with that many people packed in there it probably took an hour just to get from one building to the next. I'm sure this was a fire hazard as you could barely move at all. They only had one way for you to go to the bottom level of the Dunkin Donuts center where the celebrities were and there was only one way to get back up. There was no management at all at this show. No volunteers or security guards seem to have any idea what was going on. Each time I tried to go somewhere someone would give me a different answer on where I needed to go or which way I could walk. At some point I just stopped listening and just walked where I wanted to so I could get there in a timely manner. So once you finally made your way over the sky bridge to the convention center, there were two entrances and one they were only letting people exit and of course that was the entrance you see when you come out of the sky bridge, so of course that made no sense. And the other entrance they let people come in and out, why they did that who knows. The floor plan was horrible once you got inside. The isles were going in all the wrong directions so when you entered you could only see the first row of booths, again a terrible decision. Once you made your way through the mess that was the convention center you would think you could go back through the sky bridge to go back to the Dunkin Donuts center, however you would be wrong. You had to go to the ground level of the convention center then exit outside and walk back to the Dunkin Donuts center, because simply walking back over the sky bridge would be way to convenient for people. I can't even tell you how many people I talked to that didn't even know there were two buildings. It was a pretty miserable experience and I had a vendor pass so I cant imagine how much more aggravating it was for attendees. Oh and if that wasn't bad enough a couple hours before the show was supposed to start they cancelled most of their Walking Dead guests including the biggest name on the guest list, Norman Reedus. Mark Ruffalo also cancelled that morning. So if you were a fan coming to the show and only wanted to see one of them you were out of luck. I guess they refunded the photo opp tickets but of course not the admission, such a scam. I was at this show for a total of 28 hours over the course of 3 days and I may have enjoyed an hour of it. I wont be going back and I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone.
My experiences with the artists were amazing but the show as a whole was not fun and more aggravating than anything. Only because of the artists I met I'm going to give this show a 5/10 overall. If it wasn't for them it would have gotten a 0/10 for sure.
Did any of you guys attend Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend? If you did, how was it for you?
The people I got to meet and fellow collectors were great. Its always fun to meet like minded people and get to hang out with old friends. I got to see some great creators and purchase some original art from them. I got a Scarlet Witch piece from Jeff Dekal, he was a real nice guy. I purchased a Harley Quinn piece from Chad Hardin, another great person. I also got an original page from Xmen gold issue 8 from Ken Lashley, I've met him several times and hes a great dude so I try to pick up art from him every time I see him. Last but certainly not least I met Joseph Michael Linsner and his Wife Kristina they were wicked awesome people. I had never met them before but they were so nice and a pleasure to talk to. I had Joe do a Zatanna piece for me that came out amazing. Just great people. I'm not big into meeting celebrities but I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and Claire Kramer who played Glory was there. I met her and she was super nice, that was a cool experience. So that's pretty much it for what was enjoyable.
The main problem with this show is that its simply outgrown the venue. Its held in two buildings, the Dunkin Donuts center and the Convention center, both buildings are connected by a sky bridge, which is basically a long hallway. The problem is that the promoters collect money from all the vendors for table space then sell as many tickets as possible and then its like they just don't give a shit was happens after that. They have your money and that's all that matters to them. They couldn't care less if you enjoy the show or not. You would think with two buildings they would have 2 entrances but no they funnel everyone through the entrance of the Dunkin Donuts center. These attendees had to wait outside in the freezing cold for hours. And once you got in the building they made everyone walk around the entire Dunkin Donuts center before they could go over the sky bridge to the convention center and with that many people packed in there it probably took an hour just to get from one building to the next. I'm sure this was a fire hazard as you could barely move at all. They only had one way for you to go to the bottom level of the Dunkin Donuts center where the celebrities were and there was only one way to get back up. There was no management at all at this show. No volunteers or security guards seem to have any idea what was going on. Each time I tried to go somewhere someone would give me a different answer on where I needed to go or which way I could walk. At some point I just stopped listening and just walked where I wanted to so I could get there in a timely manner. So once you finally made your way over the sky bridge to the convention center, there were two entrances and one they were only letting people exit and of course that was the entrance you see when you come out of the sky bridge, so of course that made no sense. And the other entrance they let people come in and out, why they did that who knows. The floor plan was horrible once you got inside. The isles were going in all the wrong directions so when you entered you could only see the first row of booths, again a terrible decision. Once you made your way through the mess that was the convention center you would think you could go back through the sky bridge to go back to the Dunkin Donuts center, however you would be wrong. You had to go to the ground level of the convention center then exit outside and walk back to the Dunkin Donuts center, because simply walking back over the sky bridge would be way to convenient for people. I can't even tell you how many people I talked to that didn't even know there were two buildings. It was a pretty miserable experience and I had a vendor pass so I cant imagine how much more aggravating it was for attendees. Oh and if that wasn't bad enough a couple hours before the show was supposed to start they cancelled most of their Walking Dead guests including the biggest name on the guest list, Norman Reedus. Mark Ruffalo also cancelled that morning. So if you were a fan coming to the show and only wanted to see one of them you were out of luck. I guess they refunded the photo opp tickets but of course not the admission, such a scam. I was at this show for a total of 28 hours over the course of 3 days and I may have enjoyed an hour of it. I wont be going back and I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone.
My experiences with the artists were amazing but the show as a whole was not fun and more aggravating than anything. Only because of the artists I met I'm going to give this show a 5/10 overall. If it wasn't for them it would have gotten a 0/10 for sure.
Did any of you guys attend Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend? If you did, how was it for you?
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