Year 4 for the Swiss Comic Con

I’ve been attending the Fantasy Basel for the second time and I’m still curious where it will lead in the future but here are some impressions from my short visit. First things first, the number of places to get some food has greatly improved. There were so many places to get something to eat that there weren’t long lines and you could actually get some food in a reasonable amount of time. The variation of food was also quite nice I must admit.

But of course, people don’t go to conventions for the food, so let’s talk about the important things, and keep in mind, these are my opinions. The convention was split up into 3 floors, the games/e-sport floor, the Film & TV floor and the Cosplay/Japan/Art floor.

Since I’m not so much into gaming the first floor wasn’t really my thing. I wanted to test out some VR but there were too many people waiting so I only tested one with mixed feelings. The resolution has to improve and then we’re talking. There were many gaming booths with people playing games and also lots of companies showing and selling their products. Like I said it wasn’t my thing.

The Film & TV floor was a disappointment, I don’t know if there wasn’t any interest from companies to really fill up the floor but half of the floor was games and e-scooters.

But the main reason for me to go this year was the Art part of the third floor. I wanted to see independent artists and their work and get inspired. There were a few that I really liked and it’s the thing I take away from the convention. You can draw simple things and still make them look cool and special.

So, all in all, it was an ok Convention, sometimes a bit too many people or not enough space to walk around (note for next time, keep the Backpack at home) but compared to two years ago I thought there was a decline in quality. there are also more sketchy booths which all seem to sell the same stuff. I might be wrong with the sketchy part but I could do with less of them. There are also some cool booths with very rare stuff and surprisingly my favorite place to get my posters was there too this year.

To summarize, I think it would be important to have a good mix of Big Players showing up to attract the crowd mixed with Independent Players who could use the exposure, so here’s me hoping for next year.