jennypinky

Behind the Scenes: Loving Reaper's first booth (DOKOMI)

Published: June 7th 2022, 6:49:05 pm

I had already shared some photos of the preparation with you, today there is a small Beind-the-Scenes report about Loving Reaper's first booth! :) 

Dokomi is Germany's biggest convention about books, games, fashion, crafts, anime, etc,  it lasts two days and for artists like me it's a fantastic chance to get in touch with my followers or meet new people.
At the trade fair itself, Dokomi occupies a whole 4 exhibition halls with over 54,000 m² of space, the Congress Center Süd with approx. 20,000 m² and an inner courtyard with approx. 20,000 m² of event space. It's HUGE!

I had the impression that most of my readers come from the USA, so I could not estimate how successful my booth would be at a German fair. But maybe that's why it's even more important to introduce my comics to the German audience. 

But the convention was apparently not under a good star, on the way there the manual gearbox of my car just randomly... died. Just like that and without a warning. Stranded somewhere on the highway with a car full of merchandise, books and posters, I had to call the ADAC (ADAC is an automobile club in Germany that provides roadside assistance to its members). But fortunately we were not too far from my hometown and the ADAC, which had to tow my car, took my car to my father's auto-workshop. Luck of the draw.
Because I have a great and supportive father, he drove me and all my stuff to Dokomi (Thanks Dad, I love you). 

The first thing I noticed when setting up was that I had forgotten the large roll-up from my publisher. The thing is huge and without it my booth looked kind of empty. I'm still mad about that. But what the heck, my stand helper did her best to make the stand look ok anyway.

Because I didn't know how well known my comics were in Germany, I only had about a hundred hardcover books with me. Apparently I had massively miscalculated, the books were completely sold out within the first 4 hours. That's good, of course, but the day had just started and my booth looked even emptier now. But not the good " sold-out empty " but more like the " poorly prepared empty " (I mean... maybe it was kinda both lol).

But I still had dozens of the little booklets, posters, buttons, stickers and postcards. So it could go on.

There were three people who started crying right in front of my booth. I'm not sure if they remembered something or if the designs triggered it, but I was a little overwhelmed. I was equipped with tissues though, just in case. But I whole-heartedly didn't know what to do.
Despite stand helpers, I could not get away from the stand at all. Either we were selling or people told me about their pets. It was partly very deep, honest conversations and I was surprised how much trust I was given.

If I look exhausted in the photos, it's because I was lol. I barely slept during the fair and barely had a chance to eat.
In the afternoon of the second day, I was about 90% sold out. I only had a few stickers, postcards and maybe 2 posters left. But it was a helpful experience, next time I have to take significantly more stuff with me. I left the fair a few hours early because I could hardly offer anything more. But that was okay, I was really at the end of my rope.

So Anyway! This is a small Patreon-exclusive glimpse into Loving Reaper's first booth experience. If you have some creative ideas for my next booth, feel free to post it in the comments, I'm always open to suggestions :)