LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-04 AT 05:10 PM (PDT)
 
I'm just going to post a general response to all replies made to my rather impassioned plea for autograph session reform (rather than over-analyze each one separately). I'm sure that each of those people who replied back might have made one or two decent counter-arguments, but nevertheless I firmly believe in this policy change and will do my best to change your minds for future conventions.

Although I readily admit that the complaint I made was probably too late to make any difference to this convention this year, I really do firmly believe that the pre-made sketch policy I recommended (although maybe not perfect) is a better policy overall and will help much more than hinder everyone's convention experience.

So let me leave you with some major points as well as address some feedback given back to me so far, and you can decide for yourself if I'm being too unreasonable or not:

#1 > "We should try to make the experience as enjoyable for the most people as possible." - This ultimately means that the more people who can receive a service (sketch or autograph), the happier everyone should be (including the guests and staffers too!).

With the current policy, sketch-drawing for 10 people in one sole session severely reduces the amount of time left to assist the remaining 30-80 con attendees also waiting in line. This is bad for the majority of con-goers (for obvious reasons). And why should most convention attendees who are not the sketch-winners be forced to wait the majority of their time in line while the sketch-winners are served first? Didn't everyone pay the same admission fees and didn't they all invest the same amount of time and interest attending the Guest panels? So why should the majoriy of paying convention attendees be unfairly treated just to cater to a handful of others?

This is ALSO bad for the Guests who are sketching non-stop for nearly an hour, because then they are faced with the guilt of disappointing the greater number of their fans who were waiting for them to the end. Or if the Guests are nice enough and able to, they could extend the autograph session up to another half-hour or so, tiring them out. That's completely unnecessary strain on them, either way.

And this is equally bad for the Staffers managing the Autograph Sessions, who are faced with turning away a crowd of disappointed people when the autograph session has to be closed on time or before the rest of the line can be accomodated. Or if the autograph session is extended by the Guest, the Staffers will be forced to work longer than they are scheduled to. Shouldn't staffers be allowed the free time that they earned?

(I've waited in lines long enough to talk with the low-level Staffers who were there beside me. Trust me, they hate the situation just as much as the people in line do. And these Staffers are nowhere close to anyone in charge; they have no control over fixing anything and they repeatedly tell me so. Still, these available Staffers unfortunately have to bear the resentment of those waiting forever in line while the actual decision-makers generally are not there to see the problem in person. And these brave Staffers tell me that their suggestions aren't usually given any more credence than those of convention-goers.)

It's a situation that is not fair to anyone involved outside 5-10 individuals who happened to be lucky enough to win a random raffle. And even then, if I was a sketch winner myself, I should feel at least a little guilty for holding up a line of dozens of fans who are probably just as passionate about the Guest as I am. Personally, I would gladly sacrifice the chance to personalize a sketch for the good of others (c'mon, I'm already getting a sketch!). And if that's not the case, now that's just being plain inconsiderate.

#2 > "Counter-argument: There is the open autograph session and you should be happy with that." - A rebuttal to my comments included the mention of the open autograph session as the outlet for the fans who were turned away from the earlier autograph sessions. So I'll go over why the open autograph session isn't really the best solution (it's more like a consolation prize) as some people would like to believe.

First, the open autograph session should not be considered as the second autograph session that the original policy promised there would be. Guests are not guaranteed to be there (it is only voluntary) as a secondary autograph session would be. So attendees cannot count on the Guests they want autographs from to be there. Also, all past conventions that promised 2 autograph sessions per Guest will hold any open autograph session IN ADDITION to those two, not as a substitute.

Second, it still does not help many of the one-day or two-day attendees who were counting on a better-than-25% chance of getting autographs from the Guests they wanted to meet on the days they attended. For a young convention, PMX cannot ignore this sizable number of their attendees. The only way to help these people is to improve the efficiency of the regularly scheduled autograph sessions themselves. If the goal of the autograph session policy is to help as many people as possible, the final-day open autograph session alone simply will not meet that goal.

#3 > "Some Guests prefer the spontaneity of personalizing sketches for fans." - I don't want to contest that argument, but people who say that also tend to ignore that most artists, particularly in anime, would prefer to do a good job rather than rush any drawings. In fact, many Guests are perfectionists who are VERY uncomfortable with drawing in a hurry. So that means that Guests will have to spend most of their autograph session time drawing each sketch to their satisfaction or they will rush drawings to their discomfirt.

I want to point out a Guest Artist might average 5-10 minutes per sketch, which under PMX policy already translates to most of the allotted hour. But there are also perfectionists like AMG character designer Hidenori Matsubara and Cowboy Bebop designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, who each averages 20-25 minutes per sketch! At a previous Anime Expo, even many of the sketch-winners from their panels were TURNED AWAY! That's utter folly!

If there are Guests who prefer to draw sketches upon request, then I would suggest that there should be at least an additional sketch-only session outside the regular autograph session. Separate the sketch winners from the autograph seekers. Why should all the non-sketch-winners be forced to wait on other people's sketches? And a sketch-only session can realistically replace the secondary autograph session.

But overall, encouraging the Guests to draw pre-made sketches should be the best alternative. Guests can easily spend a little of their spare time during the weeks before the convention to work on at least half of their required number of sketches. And the quality of these non-rushed drawings will be better overall (and no, they still don't have to be charity-auction quality!), which should easily make up for attendees not being able to make personal requests. Guests will then be able to finish their autograph sessions on time (and that's good for the Staffers too!) and enjoy the rest of their stay in America much more relaxed and with more spare time to do what they really want to do.

(I really have to applaud Shino Masanori, who realized that he takes a lot of time drawing, and went ahead and provided pre-made sketches to raffle winners at PMX, just like I recommended!)

#4 > "What other conventions do..." - I'll apologize for claiming that some conventions are run better than others (whether or not my personal beliefs say otherwise), but obviously the PMX policy is flawed and there should be a willingness to examine what other conventions do. There is a reason why everyone I've spoken to over the years compliment the lines at ComiCon (which is several times larger than PMX) and Anime Central over the lines at Anime Expo (which PMX is based off of).

Outside of the pre-made sketch policy I have been advocating, there are still other choices. Sketch-winners can also make requests and receive their sketches later on in the convention or through the mail. As I previously mentioned also, there can be a separate sketch-only session devoted to sketch-winners (who will then get the best quality sketches possible). And finally, artists can grant requests on comission, OUTSIDE of the official convention autograph sessions.

Really, burning away so much of an autograph session's allotted time for personal sketches is a very outdated dinosaur of a policy. I really don't see how anyone can defend it any more.

THAT'S MY FINAL SAY ON THIS ISSUE:

If we could eliminate or at least minimize the amount of sketch-drawing taking place during the autograph sessions, obviously everyone will benefit.

As you can probably guess from Points #3-4, there is also room for compromise. If the convention wants to, they can reward half the sketch winners with pre-made sketches and the other half with personal requests. That still will free up much-need time in the autograph sessions for everyone else. You can try any combination of the suggestions from Point #4 to produce a better result as well.

Finally, I would like to take this time to thank Hiroki R. Onodera for his reply in particular. I truly wish the Staffers I've spoken to (who unfortunately weren't informed enough to point me to convention ops) could have directed me to you sooner. No one I spoke to even knew who was in charge of this particular issue. So I really had little choice but to post my grips on this forum.

Thank you very much for your time time and consideration.