How two Irish mates are taking on the global might of the Comic Con empire

MANY PEOPLE HEARING the phrase ‘Dublin Comic Con’ over the weekend would be forgiven for being a bit confused.

Although there was indeed a Comic Con in Dublin last month, it wasn’t the Dublin Comic Con. The conference held in the RDS in July was organised by MCM, the group behind an international chain of conferences.

The company organises multiple events across the UK and Europe, with its convention in London in May pulling in an enormous crowd estimated at 130,000 people.

MCM held its first Dublin show in 2014 – and Derek Cosgrave thinks that he helped give the firm the kick in the pants it needed to sit up and take notice of the Irish market.

“Before we did our show they didn’t deem the Irish market viable, so they didn’t come over here,” he tells Fora.

Cosgrave, alongside partner Karl Walsh, is the main organiser of the Dublin Comic Con, which is its own company independent of the international MCM brand.

The pair held their first Comic Con in 2013 and since then the event has snowballed.

After pulling in about 6,000 people for its maiden attempt, Cosgrave expects to see nearly 20,000 people come through the show doors at the the Convention Centre in Dublin this weekend.

Why not Ireland?

“We had gone to cons around Europe and though, ‘Why is there nothing like this in Ireland?’” Cosgrave says.

“I collect movie props and costumes and Karl is the same. We started talking to people on various forums on the internet, started meeting and socialising, and the conference grew out of it.

 “We had some connections in comic book stores around Dublin and looked for help. We got some traders that we knew and pulled some influence with writers and people we knew and it has grown from there.”

From its early days, the conference managed to pull in big names from the comic-book and entertainment worlds, such as Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in the hugely popular Batman: The Animated Series and Arkham games, and Ernie Hudson, who played Winston in Ghostbusters.

Dublin Comic Con was never able to match the financial muscle of its larger rivals, so Cosgrave has had to rely on the pull of Ireland and the dedication of its fans.

“We used the Irish connection, it was the unique selling point,” he says. “A lot of the people would have had big guarantees – like (Guardians of the Galaxy star) Michael Rooker – and they would have lowered their prices to come here.”

Guarantees

‘Guarantees’ are a method of paying the creative talent that appears at Comic Con conferences.

Rather than forking out cash up front, Cosgrave instead pledges that the stars would earn a certain amount from their appearance in Dublin through activities like signing autographs and drawing sketches for fans.

However if a guest doesn’t hit their guaranteed earnings during the event, the organisers have to make up the shortfall.

In many conferences if stars earn more than their guarantee, organisers would take a cut of the surplus. However, in Dublin the talent keeps any extra earnings.

“We would check in with them and see what they hit and we don’t keep the overspill,” Cosgrave says.

“We tend to offer lower guarantees, but we say that they can get 100% after it which is usually enough to get them to sign,” he says, adding that the firm has only had to make up a shortfall once.

Cosgrave also claims that their conference has a more ‘inclusive’ feel than MCM’s events, which he described as “like a trade show”.

“If you go to two or three the format is the same and you will see everything in 15 minutes,” he says.

“We have a trade hall as well, as the traders pay the bills, but we also have an interactive area for kids, there are great panels and you can hang out with guests and we have a gaming area.

“Sets are a big thing as well, Karl handles it all and preps months in advance. We have sets to correspond with the shows for our guests and we also have the classics like Batman.”

“There isn’t dialogue between us (and MCM), but the competition is healthy and keeps us on our toes, they drive us to be a better show.”

Possible expansion

Nevertheless, Cosgrave admits that financing the event has been difficult so far. Although the conference has had some success in striking up advertising partnerships, such as a partnership with Just-Eat, he says attracting large corporate sponsors has been difficult.

People dressed in cosplay at the 2015 Dublin Comic Con

“Bigger companies don’t write a lot of cheques and we find it very hard,” he says.

“It is frustrating because we go to other shows that don’t have attendances like we do and they have sponsors hanging out of the rafters. We thought that we would have more sponsors coming in but it hasn’t happened yet.”

Despite the difficulty in nailing down corporate backers, last year the company behind the Dublin conference made a modest profit of about €4,500. Cosgrave and Walsh are now hoping to take their conventions countrywide.

Although Cosgrave works full-time in a family fuel-distribution business, he says that Walsh would be keen to make the comic conferences his full-time job.

“We are going to have another show in the south of the country in early April next year,” he says. “We would like it to be on a par with the Dublin one in 2013, about 6,000 people over two days.

“It will be a trial (but) is is nearly getting to a stage where it could be done full-time, maybe even some smaller satellite shows around peak times like Christmas and Halloween.”