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Archon 22

Archon 22 was held over the weekend of October 2-4 at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, Illinios, a suburb of St. Louis. Unfortunately this year's Archon was a disappointment. Programming was weak, and the con suite continues to only serve sodas and beer without any food, even chips and other snackies.

We arrived early so that we could set up in the dealers' room as soon as they opened. However, although we had everything set up by the time the doors opened on Friday, we didn't get a single sale that day. My art had similarly disappointing results. The only upside was all the time I got to work on new art while nobody was buying anything.

There were two rather disappointing haunted-house parties on Friday evening, one of which took forever to get open. We finally decided to turn in early and get a good night's sleep after the wearying process of hauling in a ton of books.

On Saturday we got an early start, so that we'd be ready when the dealers' room opened. We actually got a few sales, although mostly for small items that really didn't make any significant return for costs. By midafternoon we were seriously debating whether or not to return to Archon in future years. I didn't get any bids on my art until the very last second before the art show closed, which was an additional disappointment.

However, the art auction was very large, so someone was buying art and offering some fairly large sums for a few pieces. Because it was so long and set right over the supper hour instead of in the late evening, we decided to miss part of it to get supper. However I was able to catch the last bit when we returned from supper.

There were a few more parties Saturday evening, but not much was going on at them. Yet again we decided to turn in early, although we got disturbed by a fire alarm moments after we'd gotten to bed.

Sunday we rose early to gather our things and get checked out of our hotel room in plenty of time to get over to the dealers' room before the doors opened. Sales got a little better, although still not really enough to change our minds about coming back in the next few years. I got my unsold art checked out of the art show, and then it was time to start packing in preparation to load and leave.


Copyright 2012 by Leigh Kimmel

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Last updated October 21, 2012.