#MCMArtistAlley 

All over the world Artist Alley's are one of the most loved and enjoyed parts of pop culture conventions. They are places for artists to show off their works and for participants to enjoy. Some people (myself and many included) attend just to visit those tables. 

However MCM Expo is the biggest pop culture convention in the UK and yet still doesn't have this amazing feature? They do however have a Comic village which is where artists can sell their original comic book work only, and as lovely as this idea is... it leaves out so many different kinds of artists that are welcomed at artist alley's!

MCM has recommended that artists who want to sell fanart can buy a dealers table which are considerably more expensive then comic village tables. There is (at the moment) no place for individual artists selling prints, small merchandise, and fan-made items. Since most of the artists are hobbyists, getting a huge (and expensive) dealers table is impossible- besides the fact that getting grouped with mass-produced items is confusing for the public. 

MCM can by all means still have Comic village since its a great idea but please do consider a Artist Alley as well since they are not the same thing and a Artist alley is high in demand!

So what are we asking MCM for?

An Artist alley where artists can freely

• Buy a table (for the same price of Comic Village tables or similar prices since hobby artists can not break bank with a dealers table) 
• Sell both original and fanart 
• Sell products ranging from prints, merchandise, plushies and other house hold hobby crafts that are not in mass production
• Fanzines and other artist community group efforts 
• No bootleg work (which fill a lot of the dealers tables)
• Meet artists with similar interests and therefore adding and contributing to the artist community 

Let artists have their own space!! 

[EDIT]

Ok so from what I can see there are quite a lot of misconceptions of what this is really all about? So I'm gonna clear that up now.

We want a artist alley that will be available for all kinds of pop culture artists! They're not in any way similar to a dealers table since this will have artists home made art and crafts on sale. This will be the individual artists work of which they spend hours of their personal time creating.  Much like how original comic artists work incredibly hard to create their work, so do other artists since as well all know creating any form of art requires large amount of imagination and effort. Most of these artists are just young hobbiests who want to create and show their work and therefore grouping them up with larger companies is just cruel.  

Comic village is great and we in no way want it to go! we just believe that there should be another area of where people can sell more diverse art. This should benefit both parties since the con goers can go to the area looking for what they specifically want. Artist Alley isn't just about fanart, this area will hopefully be a more relaxed area for small time artists who want to purely sell and show their work rather then advertise themselves/comics. 

Also about the whole "fanart is copyright" fanart would be filed under the parody law. So long story short depending on the company/show as long as you make it clear you do not in anyway represent the show then fanart can pass. Whilst about anime & manga related art, Japan endorses fanart since they believe its the same as advertisement, so large cons such as comiket (where fanartists purely sell Doujinshi's) are huge in Japan. However it can not be in mass production so therefore you must have a limited amount.  (Of course this can get much more complicated but thats the very basic gist of it)

Artist alleys are in almost every single con? Yet why is MCM so different? Why would a Artist Alley not work? Even in Comic Con New York they have a Artist Alley! Comic village should stay but consider a larger audience to be had when you have a Artist Alley!

(also I edited a bit about the prices because I can understand the Comic village tables being cheaper since they are aiming for a smaller audience however we still do not agree for Artist Alley to be the same price as a dealers table)