New England Web Comic Weekend 2…

New England Web Comic Weekend 2 arrived this weekend. With NaNoWrimo Write in on Saturday, I decided to go on Sunday.
With no airfare or hotel fare to worry about this is probably the cheapest con I’ve gone to ever with the exception of the Star Trek Con years ago to meet James Doohan.
The drive up and across via RTE 146 was fun, after driving up and down RTE 95 so much the buildings get boring after a while.
Arrived around 10am, stood in line for a bit. Thankfully, the staffers advised us the one and only ATM Machine in the building was out of money and the closest was the “skeevy” convenience store down the block. Their air quotes by the way, not mine. This got a good chuckle and once the doors opened for admissions the line move fairly quickly.
NEWW did something interesting this year, they had a VIP option for the two day passes. The VIP Option included a NEWW 2 bag, a well designed and crafted sketch book, a cute sharpie and premium seating at the panels. The sketch book, bag and sharpie are probably the best things that happened at this con since last year I remember tables like LICD handing out free bags to carry stuff.
If there is a NEWW 3, I highly recommend keeping the sketch pad/bag/sharpie idea. Next year I will bring my poster sleeve so multiple trips to the car are not needed.
The ID Badges were a step up for their first year, instead of Hello My Name Is, the 4×2 official NEWW ID Badges were cute, their laniards needed some work though.
The set up for the “dealers room” was longer than last year, the problem was: No map. The listing of artist/authors/creators being there was great, the slight problem: It was just a list with no map and no description and no website address and the PDF wasn’t even hotlinkable. And everything I’ve just mentioned did not come with the bag, sketch book and sharpie. I can understand saving paper and all, who doesn’t want to do that, but there’s saving paper then there’s just not giving the attendees enough info.
The last downside, I promise this is the last one: The “dealers room”, needs to move. As much as I enjoy ambience of everyone out in the main corridor at Eastworks, this is not San Diego Comic Con and I should not have to be asked to ease over due a gawker/aisle blockage. I completely understand where the staff is coming from: Nobody wants the Fire Marshal to show up and shutting down the fun fun.
Beyond the downsides, it was a great experience, managed to meet and buy stuff from: Ananth and Yuko of Johnny Wander, Danielle Corsetto from Girls w/ Slingshots, Evan Dahm of Rice Boy, Karl Kerschl of The Abominable Charles Christopher and Sam Logan of Sam & Fuzzy.
I couldn’t tell if the absence of Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub had an impact this year or not. There were many creators from different webcomics and everyone’s table looked busy. Everyone was having fun and there was enough empty areas for people to sit down, read their books, draw and otherwise chat. The cafe at the end of Eastworks was getting used quite a bit and overall the con was worth the 2hr drive (including the $3.20 for tolls on the Mass Pike).
Missed most of the panels, so can’t report on those except the only one that caught my eye was World Building on Saturday.
Beyond the pictures I posted on Twitter, pictures have been uploaded to Flickr.
Now, back to the beast that is NaNoWrimo…