Image by Jeffrey Pidgeon

A ‘movement’ started on Facebook this week that picked up a lot of steam on Tuesday. I saw that writer Steve Niles had posted something about ‘Creator-Con, IT’S ON!’ so I checked out the Facebook Page. There were just over 300 fans on the page that morning. 12 hours later when I looked at the page again that number was sitting at 1266 fans. Clearly it was something that has struck a chord with people in the comic community.

Their mission statement reads:

This page was created as a forum for the artists, writers, designers, self-publishers, retailers and fans that have become disillusioned and frustrated with what the flagship of comic conventions has become (y’all know the one…in San Diego).

The Creator Con idea was hatched a few years ago by a few exhibitor friends as a reaction to the popular media takeover of a convention that used to celebrate artists and creators. We were tired of being pushed further and further aside each year to make room for the bigger, louder and flashier attractions that had nothing to do with the convention’s humble beginnings.

This page hopefully will give us all a platform to get the ball rolling on something new or at the very least, voice our opinions. So let it ring! We want to hear what you have to say.

There’s a lot of activity and comments on the wall and quite a few engaging conversations have started up in the ‘Discussions” area. A lot of comic creators feel marginalized at mega-cons like San Diego and are looking for alternatives where writers and artists can connect with fans and each other without the booming background noise of Hollywood and the video game industry.

Creator Michael J. Ruocco seemed to sum up best with his comment:

I didn’t spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to fly clear across the country, book a cruddy hotel room for 5 days, get my pass, wait on lines & wade through thousands of people just to see screaming fans of vampire romance novels, Harold & Kumar’s latest blockbuster hit or Fox’s upcoming Fall lineup. What kind of a…rtistic integrity is that? Sure, it was nice to see old friends again & to meet new ones, but it’s not really worth it anymore. Conventions like the Creator-Con or the CTN Expo would be/are much better environments for artists, cartoonists & animators to get together, show off their work and have an all-around good time! I’m totally up for it!

Jeff Pidgeon the artist of the image above wrote a bit more about Creator-Con on his blog as did Amid Amidi over at the animation site Cartoon Brew.

Should be interesting to see how this Facebook page shapes up over the next few weeks. People seem energized.

-Jay