Ohayocon's artists alley was a bit of a joke this year. I walked in on my way to the dealers' room,a nd saw several empty tables... and down the one aisle I walked, I walked past THREE lolita top hat dealers. Apparently spacing similar artists out would have been far too difficult despite the emptiness of the room.
Into the dealers' room, a vendor was selling directly copied from screenshots airbrushed t shirts, journals, bags, etc. I can not name all of the images, but the one that sticks out to me that I attempted to get a photo of was of FLCL's Haruka in her bunny costume, arms crossed with guns. IT was a DIRECT copy--I know a lot of his other works were too. He also had some woodburnings. His work was also being sold at a table across from this one, which was selling DVDs as well.
Sorry if I sound angry, but I raged after hearing what some of my friends and the artists I respected went through... this table was up all weekend. It was clear no staffer noticed or cared-several walked by and his work was VERY prominent.
So the message I get from Ohayocon, is that if you don't want to go through their "portfolio" review, don't want to follow their copyright policy, and want to be guaranteed a table, then just spend a little extra and get a table in the dealers' room!