Cosplayer as Cammy from Streetfighter

They came in droves, flocking to downtown Baltimore's Convention Center, and by noon on Saturday, the number of attendees at this year's Otakon, held August 8-10, registered at 24,400. "That's the number of people who showed up and paid," said John Nadzam, vice-president of Otakorp Inc., the company that organizes the East Coast's largest fan convention for anime and manga aficionados. "That doesn't include exhibitors, staff or press,” he added.

Differentiating between fans and dealers is important at the convention where, just two years ago, fire marshals required that attendance be capped at 25,000. To accommodate the number of fans, Otakon rearranged the layout of the convention to spread the crowds throughout the rooms, and the cap was removed. Next year, the development of a new Hilton hotel will add 45,000 square feet to the convention center, with a minimum of 30,000 square feet promised to Otakorp for its event.

While fan enthusiasm is a constant at Otakon, changes in the industry have brought about shifts in the dealers’ room. While Tokyopop and anime/manga publisher ADV were both absent, small publishers like DramaQueen—which has a strong and dedicated fandom—and DMP, were also absent. Udon, Aurora Publishing, ALC Publishing, Media Blasters and Yaoi Press exhibited, with Media Blasters, Yaoi Press and Udon holding panels, although no new announcements were made. Frank Panone of Media Blasters was excited about the publisher’s forthcoming yuri (girl-girl romance) anthology, Maka Maka. Maka Maka is a two-volume anthology. Volume one will be available in the U.S. in October of this year, with volume two following in December. "This is the first book I'm putting my name on [as managing editor]." Panone said.

Dealers' Room

Vendors selling books, like Pandora's Cube, a Maryland store that sells manga, anime and video games, say that manga is a constant seller for them at the show. "We've come every year since 2000," said Kevin Dragotta, who also said that he and his staff bring pretty much everything in the store. "We brought 30 cases of books,” he said. By midday Saturday, they were down to 10 cases.

Anime Pavilion also moved high volumes of books. The Virginia store brought an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 books to this year's show. "We move a lot of product,” store owner Steve Lin said. But Lin has noticed a slowdown in consumer spending. "It started stagnating about two years ago,” he said.

At the Kinokuniya booth, the Japanese bookseller brought manga in the original Japanese, but noticed a shift in fan spending. "I can't sell comics," said store manager Shingo Nozaki, who observes that people seemed more interested in art books. "Sales are good this year—but from art books,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Artists Alley, business was brisk. "I don't go to the dealers room now that I’ve discovered Artist Alley," said con attendee Justin Owens on Sunday afternoon. "Dealers jack up their prices for the con and it's cheaper to shop online anyway. Besides, I like to support the arts.” Owens was not alone in his opinion. Many attendees prefer the Artists Alley to the Dealers’ Room, for the lower prices as well as the artwork and variety of unusual products.

Aurora's Mikako Ogata (l.) and Satoshi Tanaka

According to one staff member, Otakon had roughly 300 artists in its Artists Alley this year. Otakon's Artists Alley is probably the biggest of its kind in the country. It differs from a traditional American comic convention’s artists’ alley in that the artists are primarily selling "fan art" of anime, videogame and American cartoon characters (Avatar the Last Air Bender was a popular subject this year). Although commissions are taken, it has become more and more popular in the past five years to sell small runs of screen-printed T-shirts, buttons of various sizes and small "character goods" such as key chains and cellphone charms. Letter-size to poster-size prints were a big hit this year, as many attendees could be seen carrying purchased prints throughout the con.

Longtime Artists Alley participant Marc McKenzie was interviewed by the Associated Press for more than 20 minutes about his art. The reporter asked why McKenzie wasn't in the Dealers Room. Besides the price of tables, McKenzie said he like the social aspect of artists hanging out together.

While anime and manga companies are facing hard times this year, the artists in Artists Alley seemed unaffected. Most of the artists interviewed were enjoying better sales this year than last year.

Ouran High School Host Club cosplayers

Gina Biggs, author of the Web comic The Red String Diaries (three volumes currently available from Dark Horse), described her business in Artists Alley this year as "fantastic." She brought 90 books to the convention and was down to just two by Sunday afternoon. Many of her books went to fans, but some new readers picked up all three volumes of Red String on the spot. Biggs also met two cosplayers of her characters, the first she had seen since someone cosplayed as one of her characters at Metro-Con. Biggs was also selling cute T-shirts and buttons featuring a smiling rice ball, as well as a portfolio of prints for sale.

Hilary Florido, an artist living in Astoria. Queens, who has also sold her minicomics at New York City’s MoCCA Festival and the New York Anime Festival, said she sold the most art Sunday. "I used to sell a lot more minicomics," Florido explained, "and there were more comics and crafty things in the Artists Alley." Florido thought that Photoshopped prints had overtaken comic sales.

Otakorp's Nadzam told PWCW that the organizers’ "try to enforce a no-bootlegging policy" that forbids bootleg video and art from being shown. But as Nadzam said, "We're not professionals. We rely on friends in the industry to self-police." Nadzam also said that he would like to see publishers back at the show. "We're trying to get as much as diversity as we can in the Dealers Room,” he said.