Tulsa Comic Expo 2015: Wak Review
Tulsa Comic Expo Review
I've been avoiding doing this for fear of stepping on peoples toes, or making someone mad at me. Though I may end up doing just that from time to time; I feel it's more important to Con-goers and to the workers of a con to know the bad as well as the good. If I'm to call myself a Convention Coverage Specialist, then I can't be afraid to let everyone know how it is. Here's how I'm going to do my grading.
All of the following will be graded on a 1/10 scale, and the scores combined will be averaged out for a final score. The subjects are: Guest, Atmosphere, Staff Awareness, Vendors, Panel Intrigue, Events, Local Base, Con Cost, Cosplay Presence, and Location. For a total of 100 points. Here is my review for Tulsa Comic Expo 2015.
Guest: 4/10
When I was first given the opportunity to go to Tulsa Comic Expo in 2014 I wasn't the Convention Coverage Specialist you all know me to be now. I was ecstatic to get to meet some of the guest there. This year, aside from a few names, I wasn't nearly as excited. I did get to have short conversations with about all the guest. But not much interaction was really made aside from Kane Hodder who hung out in the gaming area for most of Sunday and Nick Palma showing kids how to Ka-ra-te Turtle's style and taking pictures inside the “Michelangelo Suit.” My Biggest Gripe comes from the fact that I didn't see Robbie Rist once during the entire convention. Dispte the fact that they had said on their website that we could “Catch Robbie all 3 days at Tulsa Comic Expo” He was no where to be found.
Atmosphere: 7/10
The atmosphere around the convention wasn't the best I've ever been too but it was still pretty good. I can say that despite every gripe I do have with this Con, I still had a lot of fun and that is mostly because of the attendees being kind, and easy to talk to. The vendors we're easy going and let me browse around despite me telling them I had no money to spend. I always enjoy meeting those who love fandom, and talking with them.
Staff Awareness: 1/10
Oh boy, remember when I was talking about “stepping on peoples toes.” This is where that comes into play. What easily has to be the worst part of the convention, was the staffs awareness to everything around them. Between some of the vendors being moved around up to 3 times over the weekend, technical difficulties at every panel I heard about, one of the guest being charged at the door, and the late to near non-existent response to any problem had around the con, the short staff made a lot of mistakes handling the smallish size con that they were. Though they were a little bigger then last year, they crammed there size into one room making the con feel smaller then before. Lastly there were a few of the gaming tournaments that would have turned out better if they would have had the right type of screen. Older consoles can't run on HDMI like newer consoles, when you try the games lag up. It's a minimal amount but more then noticeable to me. It's impossible to do Strider/Doom things in Marvel 2 with lag being a factor.
Vendors: 9/10
One of the best parts of the convention had to be the diverse Vendors. It wasn't just comic book collectors trying to sell comics, or even all comic book related. They had everything, Indie Comics, rare comics, Funko Pop figures, custom string dolls, retro video games, and it would take me half a page in Open Office to explain it all. It was cool to get to check out everything that was for sale at this con.
Panel Intrigue: 3/10
The Panels of Tulsa Comic Expo mostly suffered from being unorganized by the staff. Some panels were canceled due to the panelist being told a different day then the panel itself. Others didn't get many attendees because there was little to no way of knowing where the panel rooms were located. It felt as though the Panels were thrown into there little corner and unadvertised. Other then of course the Q&A's with the guest. BDC Wrote a Review over the screening over the Independent movie screening. “Click Here” to go read that. Otherwise maybe next year there will be a little better direction with that.
Events: 4/10
There's really only two things to talk about here. The Gaming events and the cosplay contest. The gaming tournaments included many popular fighting games Friday and Saturday. Last year they threw a retro game tournament of Shaq-Fu, and despite that game being awful all those who participated had a great time. I guess this year they decided to play retro fighting games that competitive players cared about, but didn't care enough to understand that retro consoles don't play well on HDMI monitors. I've already mentioned this so I won't go back into it. The cosplay contest, like everything else, was a little lack luster. Having a PreJudging no one was told about until the day of the contest itself. Lack of communication and preparedness... sensing a pattern? You should be.
Local Base: 5/10
Tulsa represented, as always, in hi
gh fashion. Being the life force of the con in my eyes, it was great getting to meet some of my good friends I only meet at conventions. First the good, then the bad.. It seems to me that because this is the newest convention in a circuit of cons that travel from Kentucky to Louisiana, and now here in Oklahoma; that there aren't many, if any, connections made with local businesses and organizations in the Tulsa Area. The Magic the Gathering tournament had 2 people entered simply because no one knew about it, despite the owner of local tournament store Alien Games being just across the room, there was no effort to ask them to run the tournament for them. It's sloppy to try to do everything yourself in this already short staffed convention in my eyes.
Con Cost: 3/10
Call me cheap but I'm not a fan of everything costing money. I understand that this is a “Comic-Convention”, and that the guest are guaranteed a minimum amount of money. If that's the case then don't offer so many guests. I'd much rather have a few guests that you can flat out pay an amount of money to have them come by and give everyone free autographs and pictures, then too have a plethora of guest and make me pay 20$ to breath in their direction. It makes no sense to me that you expect people to have 40$ just to walk into the room, and then another 20$ for an autograph, about 200-300$ for a hotel, and about 50-300$ for food depending on where you eat. The feeling left me thinking that Tulsa Comic Expo wanted to live up to Wizard World's example and failed miserably in every department. Part of this is my bias against Comic conventions sure, but this is mostly because of how ludicrous Comic Conventions have become in terms of how much they cost.
Cosplay Presence: 8/10
Now another thing I can say Tulsa Comic Expo did well was their cosplay presence. The convention may have not handled the overall contest well, but they did bring in many well known cosplayers in our area including: Twilight Cosplay, Raven Beauty Cosplay, Hrist Cosplay, and Out of the Box Cosplay. They were all cool to meet and take pictures with. All in all a good move on their end and the con was better for it.
Location: 7/10
the Cox Business Center in Downtown Tulsa host many of Tulsa's big events so I've been there quite a few times, It is a good spot for the area and it's really helped us grow as a fandom community over the years. Tokyo in Tulsa is expecting 10k this year. That's something I never thought we'd get in Oklahoma for an anime con to be honest. Seriously can't wait for that convention! Foods a bit pricey for my cheap ass, but I feel it's probably cheap comparatively. And it's across the street from 3 large hotels now.
Final Thoughts
Tulsa Comic Expo all in all, is a con that's wearing pants too big for it's body. The staff is short, the help is few, the guest aren't big enough. I appreciate the effort but maybe with fewer guest and a bigger budget to care about things like organization It would be a little better. My Final Score for this convention is a 20$ cover charge to know the final score (5.1), out of ten.
