Otakon 2008 Artist’s Alley-ooplah

I’ve heard recently that there was some kind of scheme going on at Otakon’s Artist’s Alley this year, where one or two artists bought around 14 tables and put their friends at each table to sell their artwork. Otakon is apparently looking for ways to prevent this incident, provided it actually happened.

I couldn’t find any reliable sources stating that this actually occurred, but it makes sense given the content of the artist’s alley this year, awesome Vegeta’s aside. As I went through the alley, I kept seeing this one specific, airbrushed style used on largel Shounen Jump characters. At first I wanted to make the joke that, huh, these asian girls sure do draw alike (and also draw like asian girls), but after the fourth and fifth artist’s table with the exact same style I started to get concerned. While I was there, I just thought it was an incidence where a bunch of artists really liked another artist and so they aped that style. I’ve seen one artist copying another’s style before, so it wasn’t too farfetch’d.

At best, this was just coincidence, and all that needs to happen is for a bunch of girls to try and find their own style, not just copy what they think looks good.

At worst, these people took away valuable artist’s alley tables that could have been better-used by those more deserving, regardless of the quality of the artwork itself. After all, the artist’s alley isn’t really about selling huge amounts, though I won’t fault you if you do make some hefty sacks of change. Well, provided it wasn’t done by completely eliminating someone else’s opportunity to show their art at a convention.

Looking back, it is pretty unusual that artist’s alley tables sold out so quickly this year, and this may go a long way in explaining it, provided it happened.

Anyone got any reliable sources I can use to verify this whole incident?