Old Man Yells at Boxes
How do artists at conventions get all that gear in their car? How do they pack things up? How do I pack things up?
We are in the thick of the convention season. My Subaru Forester is getting back into the groove of hauling a full load several hundred miles. Meanwhile, I am looking at my load wondering what the hell I can do differently.
Most of the time, when I write an entry for Fighting the Good Fight, I want to come off as coherent and sure of myself as possible. Yes, I promote doubt and think that uncertainty is a clearer path to truth than rigid, black and white thinking. But, something I wish had more solid, or certain answers is how I pack my stuff.
An oft obscured secret in the comics and art show scene is that no one has a good resolution for lugging their wares around. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t artists with a packing set up that they like. In fact, there are several artists who are happy and content with how they pack things in for a show. I am claiming that no one has a one-size-fits-all, actually good solution to packing.
The vast majority of the work I take to shows is 12x18, or smaller. You’d think there’d be a perfect, affordable storage solution to packing up pieces that are all the same size and lay flat, but there isn’t. If there is, I’m far from aware of it, and so are the majority of artists I meet. Storage solutions are easy to lock down when you’re looking for long-term, heavy duty, stationary options. It’s the mobility factor that becomes the pickle in going to shows.
When I am at conventions, I am often shocked at what folks use to bring their product with them. There’s plenty of creators who fly with their stuff and pack suitcases with clothes, prints, and books. While I’m not ready to have my unmentionables keep something you might buy safe, I get it. However, there are oodles of people who keep things in an array of sad looking cardboard boxes, ill-fitting tote bins, and anything in between.
Aside from my massive metal walls, I try to keep everything concise. I know too many people who can take several hours to set up and tear down, and I don’t want that. On good days, I can tear down in about forty minutes, and I love that. I also love getting everything in, and out, of an event in one load. But this means I am heavily prioritizing speed over optimal security for my goods.
Since 2017, I have sworn and lived by the Greenmade InstaCrate. The two things I positively love about InstaCrates are that they stack nicely, and that they’re perfectly square all the way down. The major flaw with most totes and plastic tubs is that they’re designed to nest into one another, meaning they taper at the bottom. Ultimately, a taper means that optimal storage of flat items is restricted to the space at the bottom of the tub, not the top. What I hate about InstaCrates is that it’s ever so slightly smaller than I need for lugging around 12x18s comfortably. Sure, they fit in the crate, but good luck getting your fingers in there to get them out. Everything is just a bit too snug which comes with a greater risk of damaging my items. Add to that the fact that no crate is designed for the mileage I’m going to put it through with their modular design, and I’m perfectly at risk for blowouts and catastrophe.
In my mind’s eye, I can perfectly imagine a storage solution that holds my artwork in a format that is horizontal, but upright. It’s padded, and heavy duty, with a weight limit of at least fifty pounds. It would have a lid, and it could stack with counterparts of itself, and they’d all fit perfectly on a cart.
What madness am I living in that has me fantasizing about boxes? Is this what adults do, construct perfect storage units?
It feels like I am asking for the impossible. I need a solution that I can part out and pack into the Subaru with ease, and it needs to hold all my stuff like it loves it. When I ask other artists, they all propose simplistic ideas that, when I consider them, all cost an arm and a leg, or ultimately result in options that are less ideal.
There are no perfect solutions.
There are oodles of poor and middling solutions that all leave me unsatisfied.
Travis and I spent a good deal of time debating various options while winding down from iMagicon, in Minot, North Dakota. We have the same crates, so it’s easy to discuss what we do and don’t like about them. But it’s more than what we experienced at iMagicon. For the last several years, every show we do together comes with the chance that one of us will mutter, “there has to be a better way.” The moment it slips out, we’re immediately down the rabbit hole of searching for something. Anything.
We find so much nothing that here I am, writing a newsletter that could be summed up as, “old man yells at box.” Am I destined to build my own? I hope not. Am I doomed to being frustrated forever? I better not! It’s just a box. It’s just a box!
It all fits on one cart!
But it’s not just a box. An optimal traveling storage solution means a lot when headed off to shows. Right now, the challenges of the disorganized crates I have make reorganizing them a chore I loathe. It’s hard to ensure my products are secure and safe, and it’s hard to find a better way. I want things to be the best they can be, but I don’t want to agonize over it, either. Being critical of my packing options is unfortunately leading me to paralysis.
While I do my best not to pull my hair out over boxes, I’ll throw it to you. Do you have that perfect solution I’m not seeing? If you do shows, what do you do differently? What works for you and what doesn’t? Let’s spiral into madness together.
Great idea for a post. You ever see Kingston pack up? It’s like a work of art.
Oh man I feel this in my bones. I've gotten lucky with my product storage and finding a solution that has worked well since I was just starting. But transportation of my displays has been another story entirely, I'm on like my 3rd iteration of containers for that and thankfully it works mostly well, but even finding that was tough. because of the odd shapes and sizes.