TWO SIDES OF THE COIN
I got in a few hours ago from Wizard World’s Chicago Comic Con — which was excellent, by the way — and started going through days of piled-up Emails. Two in particular caught my attention — opposite sides of the coin:
First, this one:
David,
A nice letter, for which I wrote a nice reply.
Also in my in-box was this letter:
I just returned from the Chicago Comicon where I had the intention of submitting my portfolio to your supposed portfolio review at your booth. I won’t bore you with the details of my personal life, but you have no idea what I went through to not only to complete my submission but to make it to the convention itself. When I made it to your booth it was completely barren save a standardized black and white nameplate and one lonesome individual who appeared to be crating off some boxes. When I inquired as to the portfolio review I was told, “We’re Done”. This seemed quite strange to me as the ad on the wizard world page claims that your booth would be taking portfolio submissions for the duration of the convention. The duration of the convention is until Sunday August 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Not 4 p.m. which is the time that I came by your booth. So thank you for wasting my time, effort, money, and energy in this futile pursuit. And thank you as well for inflating my hopes and dreams and then smashing them like a grape beneath your heel. This action by those in charge of your booth is completely unprofessional and misleading. And regardless of the quality of my own artwork, for them to treat any prospective artist with such a callous attitude is horrendous. I doubt you can even begin to understand what I had to go through to get to the convention and how such an overwhelmingly negative (actually complete lack of) reception by your staff the has left me vehemently angry and quite disappointed. So perhaps you should change the wording in your ad for the portfolio review: that it will run for the duration of the convention, or as long as we feel like it. COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL.
Jason
Stunned, I replied:
Hello, Jason —
I’ve ready your Email. You sound like one angry individual, lashing out at the person from whom you supposedly wanted free career guidance.
At Chicago Comic Con, we had a THIRTY-FOOT BOOTH at 511A & 511B & 611, where we were reviewing portfolios THURSDAY and FRIDAY and SATURDAY and SUNDAY plus Mike Deodato and Will Conrad and Jinky Coronado were constantly busy doing signings and sketches there. We even arrived early each day to be there for the VIP crowd. I probably reviewed 130 portfolios over the 4-day weekend. What’s more, Deodato and Will and I did a Creating Comics panel from 2 to 3 on Saturday, the busiest day, and the room was packed — standing room only.
One of the key things about a professional working with other professionals is putting yourself in THEIR shoes: On Sunday, Deodato’s return-to-Brazil airline ticket was booked for around 5 pm, so he had to rush to the airport in time for the flight. My flight was about two hours later….the last flight of the night sending us back to Florida. We stayed at the Con until the last possible moment we could without missing our planes.
I think it is a tad unfair that you blame US for you waiting until the last moments of such a wonderful show before bringing your portfolio to our booth. We all put in a hard, full four days for Wizard and will happily do so again. Not every person coming in the door is guaranteed a review, just as not every person is guaranteed an autograph or a celebrity photo-op. I do it to help talented people get a chance.
It’s sad you came only during the last hour of an extremely long 4-day-long Con and missed us, but folks also know that they can submit portfolios at any time to my EMail, and I usually respond pretty promptly, providing the people are not rude. Professional behavior is as critical as storytelling, drawing ability, and style in this business, and being nasty to the very people who train and build careers for so many artists worldwide is probably not the best idea.
— David Campiti, CEO
Glass House Graphics
