Creator stories are central to our philosophy of putting creators first. Sharing their experiences and celebrating their personal triumphs are integral to building the type of community we want to see the comics industry evolve into. We've partnered with Catalyst Press in the past to share stories, and we wanted to help them get the word out about the recent Comic Con Cape Town, the first edition of the convention to come to the South African city.
What better way than to tell the story of the convention, from their perspective? I now hand things over to SarahBelle Selig, head of Catalyst Press' South African office and publicist, for her recount of the event.
Over four long, wonderful days, tens of thousands of festival goers graced the halls of the Cape Town Convention Center—decked out in their best homemade costumes and armed with tight budgets and a lifetime supply of enthusiasm—to celebrate Cape Town’s first ever Comic Con. Meant to be three years ago, but delayed due to a certain—ahem—worldwide shutdown, this brand-new festival is the youngest sister of Comic Con Africa, the beloved celebration that happens annually in Johannesburg.
It was my first Con, and Catalyst Press’ first Con too, but with our ever-growing list of African graphic novels, it was an opportunity we didn’t want to miss. When we booked our booth, we didn’t know quite what to expect. Crowds, yes. Long days, certainly. Book sales, hopefully. But what we didn’t expect was the sheer force of Cape Town’s comics culture, which came out swinging, hit a homerun, and put the Mother City on the map of some of the best Comic Cons worldwide.
I couldn’t help it; the excitement was contagious. Every time a new festival attendee walked past my booth, words were spilling out of my mouth before they’d even looked my way. I always loved a chance to tell Catalyst Press’ story, and maybe even brag a bit about being one of the other North American presses dedicated to publishing African authors. And the best part is, all those passersby—they all stopped to listen to what I had to say. Four full days, huge throngs of people… and almost every single person that walked past me wanted to hear about our books.
People couldn’t believe that an international publisher was releasing local comics. From local South African creators. Their faces lit up as I told them about our newest graphic novel, Pearl of the Sea, from three Cape Town creatives at Triggerfish, a world-renowned animation studio just a stone’s-throw from Table Mountain. I’ll never forget the feeling of watching a group of older teenagers (several years older than our target market for that book) page through it with such awe on their faces—at the drawings, at the story, the main characters that all looked like them, at the fact that someone from here, right here, in Cape Town, was quickly becoming a bestseller overseas.
We did a festival discount of 20%, which surprised them even more; a trip across the exhibition hall to the booths of some of the corporate booksellers had similar books going for twice the price or more.
We sold completely out of Pearl of the Sea, and sold a heck of a lot of other books, too. Our King Shaka series, co-published with Jive Media Africa through our Story Press Africa imprint, from South African artist Luke Molver was a hit, as was Madame Livingstone, an adult comic from Congolese artist Barly Baruti. I was thrilled to see that it was such a diversity of buyers from young Europeans to older Africans, educators, teenagers, tattooed forty-year-olds and fully costumed eight-year-olds with a pocket full of change. Other exhibitors, wanting to support, stopped by to buy a book or two.
The energy in the hall was staggering. You could tell when the visiting celebrities came on the main stage: people like Kat Graham from the Vampire Diaries, or Tati Gabrielle from Uncharted. The roaring clapping and high-pitched screams said it all. But all day long, from 9am to 6pm, the whole room pulsed.
On Saturday afternoon, a friend guarded my stall while I took a turn around the place. I took in the costumes, many of them characters I didn’t recognize. (Why are so many comics characters wounded? There was more gauze in that convention center than at our local Mediclinic.) A personal highlight was a tiny, newborn baby dressed as Hedwig the owl, while his proud parents donned Hogwarts robes; Ravenclaw, naturally. The queues for food were long but a great excuse for ogling at all of the amazing outfits.
In the main exhibitor hall, there was a little bit of everything: from hip hop dance performances, to Dungeons & Dragons workshops, animation classes, full-fledged tattoo artists, and even a mixologist. Upstairs, Streamercon was a terrifying labyrinth of screens, gaming centers, and live-streamers. (I only lasted 10 minutes in there before my palms were sweating profusely and I ran back downstairs, seeking refuge in my little quiet corner of the Artist Alley. Still, it looked like fun.)
The days were exhilarating but exhausting beyond compare. By Sunday afternoon, most of the exhibitors were slouched in their chairs, with determined but wan smiles on their faces, feeding each other snacks out of desperation and giving each other motivational nods from across the aisles. Just a few more hours, we silently prayed.
But when closing time came, we found we were all reluctant to leave. To board our planes home, to climb onto buses, to trudge to our cars and start the long drive home—be it just down the road, or 16 hours away in Pretoria. We were sad it was over. We were sad to say goodbye. Monday was a public holiday in South Africa. I have no doubt the majority of us spent it in bed, nursing aching feet and backs and brains. I sure did.
But I’d do it all again, as often as I can. I’ve got new friends from all walks of life, all talented creatives eager for a chance to connect with each other and with the wider world: a jewelry maker from Pretoria, a tattoo artist from Johannesburg, a videographer from Brackenfell, an illustrator from Wilderness, an artist from Zimbabwe.
And I can’t wait to see them at next year’s Con.
SarahBelle Selig
Catalyst Press
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