Things I Learned at FanX.

Well, not just at FanX, but it did drive the education home:  Sometimes I’m just too clever for my own good.

My latest poster, Clan of the Cave Mouse, got absolutely no attention. Partly that was because the prints I got from a local print shop were a lot darker than the image looks on my computer (I came home and used the prints to calibrate my monitor, so that in the future I’ll know how it will actually look when it’s printed), but partly is was because, in order to appreciate it, you have to know that it’s a takeoff on the novel and movie The Clan of the Cave Bear. And absolutely no one gave any sign of recognition.

Similarly, I believe I have sold a grand total of one postcard of The County That Time Forgot, because that one relies on familiarity with the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels (and resultant movies) The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot. I didn’t think those were too obscure for a fandom audience, but if anybody in the 120,000 attendees at FanX has the background to get the joke, they avoid my table.

And given the relative popularity of those properties, you just know that even fewer know a more obscure property like the Blind Dead movies, and thus don’t recognize that The Catacombs of the Blind Dead is a nonexistent continuation of that franchise. (Plus that poster isn’t jokey. My fault.)

I’ve found the dividing line to be the Shoggoth! poster — enough people are familiar with both the Lovecraftian Mythos and the Roger Corman Poe movies to get that particular joke. But future posters need to be based on nothing more obscure than general pop culture, not specialized B-movie knowledge.

The more you know.

(On the other hand, it’s absolutely amazing to have people say, “Oh good! I bought stuff from you last year, and I’ve been looking for you all through the con! What’s new?”)