Let's be honest—many Webcomic creators are fans of anime, video games, etc. Thus, when they look at their schedule and notice a Fan Convention rolling into town, it's entirely possible that said artist will want to visit it. There are no shortages of reasons for this:
- It's a great way to connect with fans and other similar-minded people
- They can make money selling merchandise related to their comic
- The comic gets more exposure, resulting in more readers telling their friends about it and/or buying their merchandise, etc.
- An artist can make friends with other artists, providing link exchanges, networking, et al.
- It's their freaking convention (okay, so this one just applies to PAX and Digital Overload, but still).
Naturally, like most people who attend a convention, they'll want to tell everyone about it, including their readers. This gave rise to this trope.
Webcomics that are Life Embellished, Journal Comics, or in a Gag Per Day format will stick these in anywhere, while some fantasy-based comics will take a break from the story to recap the convention (which could mean no updating for the duration of the convention). If it does update during a convention, you can expect a filler strip or two.
Contrast Recap Episode, which are episodes that recount In-Universe events from previous episodes. For the In-Universe version, i.e., characters going to a Show Within a Show's fan gathering, see Fan Convention.
When l isting examples, please remember to mention the convention's topic and what the author did there.
Examples:
Webcomics
- And Shine Heaven Now:
- Parodied as one character spends a whole storyline
recapping a convention... of fellow religious fanatics, including Bible cosplayers and great deals on holy water.
- Also played straight with a strip or two each year after Otakon.
- Parodied as one character spends a whole storyline
- Enjuhneer: The author has done several of these, usually for Genericon but also recently for PAX East.
- Hijinks Ensue: Joe's gone to an Star Trek convention. He dedicates one episode to recounting it as well as making sure for the nth time his fans know he loves the franchise.
- Least I Could Do: It has this in more recent times in the form of "Con Tales (Woo-ooo!)"
- Mac Hall: Began popping up once the comic got popular enough for the creators to begin attending conventions.
- Narbonic: The Sunday comics are always for extra material or separate stories, so Shaenon's Con Recaps go in there. Ultimately, this included special recaps of the annual Narbonicons.
- Penny Arcade: With filler strips. One of them is about the dubious quality of the food vendors working the convention circuit. Tycho is Reduced to Ratburgers.
- Scandinavia and the World: Humon has drawn a series of cartoons describing her experiences at conventions as a creator. Diva Humon describes the way convention organisers (at the better cons) have fallen over backward to look after her needs.
- VG Cats: The comic has done recaps of conventions such as "E3 2011," with Nintendo introducing the Wii U, Sony not introducing anything, and Microsoft pushing for customers to buy the Kinect.
