Go-Go Granite City Comic-Con!

Gary Erskine's Splendid Granite City 2017 Poster Art

The Accent UK tour bus is revving up once again to complete 'Colin's Celtic Comic Trilogy Tour' with this weekend's Granite City Comic-Con in Aberdeen!

Can't believe its a whole year since the last Aberdeen show but there we are, although in some ways its come round a little too quick as my planned launch of the second Moments of Adventure collection is sadly not quite there. That's the problem sometimes with doing a large number of shows, there's no time to make the actual comics!

Having said that I have been busy producing some new sketches to go in the special Moments print packs:

......and there are still several new Accent UK titles since our last Aberdeen appearance.

So if you happen to find yourself in the North East of Scotland this weekend why not visit Granite City Comic Con, enjoy the fun and say 'Hi' to us.

Colin's Celtic Comic Tour!

So I'm just about set for this weekend's return to Edinburgh Comic-Con and realised that the next three shows are all in Celtic countries of Scotland (twice) and Northern Ireland - I just need Wales to complete the set! This little 'Celtic Tour' is also different as I'll be 'solo' at them as, my Accent UK partner, Dave West is unable to make the trips :(

Don't feel sad though it's only logistics which is keeping Dave from accompanying me as we juggle this year's schedule of shows - the eagle-eyed may spot that we've already added two more since the last update - both in England to balance these Celtic ones! Its been a long time since I flew solo, so we'll see how I get on. It shouldn't be that bad though as the comics community is a friendly bunch and I should see a few familiar faces at each of them to I'm sure keep me company.

Mind you this is what happened at Edinburgh last year when Dave was keeping an eye on me!

A couple of weeks after Edinburgh will be Accent UK's first ever trip to Enniskillen who's Comic Fest returns for its second year. The show was highly recommended by our good friend Jenika Ioffreda and I'm quite excited about, particularly as its to be held in Enniskillen Castle itself!

Tharg has also recently awarded the Fest Official 2000AD 40th anniversary partner status as the mag continues its celebrations so expect several art & script droids to make the trip. While its our first time in Enniskillen, we have of course exhibited in Northern Ireland several times at the popular MCM Belfast shows so know there are many enthusiastic comic fans over there. At the moment though Enniskillen is likely to be our only NI trip this year as the MCM Belfast dates clash with Birmingham Comic Festival and as I've previously commented on, we sadly can't do them all.

The final leg of my wee tour suitably winds up at my North East homeland in Aberdeen's Granite City Comic-Con which is now in its third year. I shouldn't be quite so lonely here as, apart from catching up with relatives and comic chums, I should be joined at the table by Ace sales team Adam and Joe who did a sterling job last year, freeing me up for an occasional wander round the show which I, apparently, am prone to do!

Then a week after Aberdeen, the Accent UK team are re-united down south at the mighty MCM London show where both Scott and Dave will be in attendance while I perhaps take things a wee bit easy!

Please say hello if you're at any one of these shows where hopefully you will find a few new books and surprises since the last time you saw us!

Some of the new Moments of Adventure sketches ready for the tour!

Moments of Adventure!

Printer's cover proof !

Aha, well finally I can confirm why I've been fairly quiet despite some amazing events and times these last few weeks (months? years?), the release of my new comic strip collection is here!

Suitably, the unveiling will be in my hometown (well close enough anyway!) Aberdeen at the Granite City Comic-Con show, which makes a hotly anticipated return this weekend - and kindly includes me, (wearing my Accent UK hat) on a 'Breaking into Comics' panel on it's launch event!

Not sure that Team GCCC got my image right on this one?

The comic is a new collection of four of my strips (and more) all newly re-mastered and in full glorious colour from the talented duo Matt Soffe, who coloured three of the strips and Aljoša Tomić, who does one strip and the cover, all amazing.

I will post more about contents and previews but need to be heading North to sunny Scotland for it's launch, so after recent fab events in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Birmingham - of more see Dave's always timely reports here - I'll finally be attending an event again with my own new comic, which I am soooo excited about!

A wee snippet of one of the panels!

It's been a long journey and will lead to more as I also work to finally complete the collected Zulu graphic novel (again with Matt) and onto something totally new that only a few folk know about! 

So many folks have helped and encouraged to make this happen, too many to name all here but you know who you are, so big thanks for now and see you in Aberdeen and beyond!

2015 Comic Reflections!

Accent UK's impressive two table spread in Copenhagen, June 2015

Plans are already well underway for this year's comic convention season so while the Accent UK tour bus receives it's annual service I can briefly reflect on what a cracking year 2015 was.

Accent UK attended 12 shows in all, a new record for us, throughout England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and our usual bi-annual visit to Denmark. A few of these were new to us including one of my personal highlights, a trip to Aberdeen (just North of my native Stonehaven!) where we and the organiser's were blown away by the Granite Cty's overwhelming response to it's first ever comic show, virtually selling out of the stock we brought.

Adam & Colin in Aberdeen's Extreme Indoor Climbing Centre!

In fact most of the shows we attended were top performers meaning we intend to return to them all, if possible, this year which makes for an even fuller schedule than normal. Disappointingly at the time of writing, we don't know if the successful (in terms of sales at least) shows in Blackpool and Warrington will return but this does free up space to accommodate new locations in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Oxford. While some of these are still to be confirmed - see full list on the right - it potentially makes 2016 even busier than 2015's record. Whether it proves to be as successful remains to be seen and no doubt depends on what new books we can release this year, more of which to be revealed later!

Accent UK's 2015 releases - did you catch them all?

We released 5 titles in 2015 which, alongside cracking reviews helped to propel us to our best ever sales performance. These included the ongoing WesterNoir series which is really building a solid audience keen for Josiah Black's latest exploits as creators Dave West and Gary Crutchley put him through the wringer with surprise, intrigue and danger around every corner!

WesterNoir spread at London MCM May 2015

We were also delighted to  publish a new book from the talented Martin Flink with The Troll which like his earlier Man of Glass was well received both in reviews and with a healthy advance sales order through Diamond distributors.

Martin Flink, Dave & Colin at The Troll's Copenhagen launch

It seems that finally after all these years the audiences are there for quality independent comics and graphic novels. Most cities we attend on the convention scene have at least one well stocked comic shop which helps promote the industry but people genuinely enjoying stepping out to local shows and making new discoveries as we, and many other indie creators, have seen our readerships grow.

It's a great time to be involved in the creation of comics and we are grateful for sticking it out these long years to now be able to enjoy this particular purple patch, hopefully this will continue into 2016 and beyond, if so we best get cracking on our new releases - watch this space!

In the meantime, here's a few snaps from some of our 2015 shows;

D C Thomson legendary artist Ian Kennedy & fan in Birmingham

Fredrik Stromberg hides Martin Flink!

The WesterNoir creative team in action in Copenhagen

Team Mathieson fly the flag in Glasgow

Colin and Steampunk Alan share a moment in London

Jemma, Scott & Dave at work in London

Spider-Man doing his thing in Aberdeen!

A happy Anna & Neil with their signed Troll in Leeds!

Jemma & Dave in Leeds

Erm, make your own caption here I think......

Made of Granite!

Aha, so for those attending Aberdeen's first Granite City Comic-Con, I will be flying the Accent UK flag along with young son, Adam at Table 26 in the climbing wall balcony. Now normally I wouldn't be overly worried by that odd name but since this show takes place at an extreme sports venue, Transition Extreme, I guess that erm, actual climbing may be involved, no wonder Dave wanted to sit this one out!

Well if you've a head for heights and relish a challenge in seeking out your quality comics, get yourself up to Aberdeen on Saturday, just make sure you call Mountain Rescue first! 

Extreme Sports Superheroes! (pic from TE's site)

Comics Elevator Pitch Challenge!

Okay lots of comic madness these last few days, a fun and happy Warrington Comics Market and London's MCM Comic-Con now a very happy blur, see Dave's timely report here. I'm now busy organising for our next convention appearance in Aberdeen at the first Granite City Comic-Con this weekend, followed closely by our regular Danish appearance at the Copenhagen Comics Festival....phew!

In meantime see me put on the spot by Barry of the BBC featured Geek Syndicate who challenged me to an elevator pitch for Stephenson's Robot #1, not an easy thing to do and one that Dave was only to eager to volunteer me for! I was given a minute...

Accent UK a Go-Go!

Well the Accent UK tour bus is properly revved up after Dave & Gary - and WesterNoir issue 5's debut at last weekend's enjoyable DemonCon show in Maidstone - see Dave's report and a few pics here.

Next up for us is a new Birmingham show, The Comics Festival in April at the Cricket ground in Edgbaston which is shaping up nicely as you can see at their site . In fact I was recently told that there are now around 50 comic shows and festivals in the UK alone which is incredible compared to a few years ago when Accent UK started when literally there were only 2. The influential Bristol International Comics Festival and the much smaller Caption in Oxford - we'd sadly missed the old London based UKCAC shows which had finished a couple of years before we started. Later these shows were joined by the equally important and enjoyable BICS, (Birmingham International comics Show). Of course all things come to an end and both Bristol and BICS are long gone and I've lost track of Caption which itself has had several committee and venue changes.

The Accent UK 2014 table spread - will hopefully be very different in 2015!

This range of shows makes it really tough to decide which ones to do, particularly as we try and do at least one European show as well, although we've now 'dropped' the US from our schedules as the economics are not just there. Sadly costs are a very important factor in our decisions, you of course want an enjoyable time at a show, catching up with friends, making contacts etc but if you're not covering costs then its difficult to justify, and with so many choices, you're perhaps best to try elsewhere.

The Accent UK table in Helsinki September 2014

Our biggest cost is usually accommodation as sometimes we, rightly, make a weekend of it with our families but its sobering to see that for theses prices you could perhaps attend a show in Europe instead! It was with these thoughts that we made a fairly radical change from our 2013 to 2014 show schedules which, as reported, thankfully paid off with record sales and some great experiences, exciting contacts made, new creators and opportunities discovered.

                                     The buzy Accent UK table at Copenhagen 2010 with Tales Of WesterNoir                                             Pedro Lopez, Fanny Bystedt and Man of Glass creator Martin Flink

Thankfully that all made selecting our 2015 show schedule much easier as we intend to return to most of the show attended last year, dates and table availability allowing. You'll see therefore that our provisional tour schedule is now available on the right of this blog including a very welcome return to probably our favourite show on the planet, Copenhagen Comics. This will be our 6th time at this bi-annual festival, where it took time for us to grow and develop and audience - of course totally breaking my above advice on 'covering costs'! - but we now have many friends over there and hopefully have sustained a readership of our books, justifying the expense, plus its so darn fun!

As well as the above mentioned Birmingham Comic Festival, the other 'newbie' on our list is Aberdeen's Granite City Comic-Con, which I'm really excited about since this is real close to my North-East of Scotland hometown and where I worked after first leaving school all those years ago! It's even closer than the recent Dundee shows which I've really enjoyed and, sadly with family commitments can't make this year, so to say I'm fair-tricket is an underestimate!

All this means that sadly its unlikely we can attend other shows at the moment, (but never say never!), its going to be another busy year and we need new books to sell! At the last look though, we have six books currently in production for release this year - in addition to the newly released WesterNoir 5 - including this wee one which is gathering steam.....

Another preview panel of Matt Soffe's Zulu Re-Mastered colouring!

Blimey indeed!

Glasgow here we come!

Still buzy, buzy, Carlisle was good fun, quieter than last year but still good to catch up with a few familiar faces, we did okay but we'll see if they run the show next year? As ever, Mr West is far more timely than me so has a little write-up at Accent UK's blog here.

I've been very lucky to have had a great little holiday trip (maybe some pics to follow!) and am now zipping up to Scotland, firstly Aberdeen then this weekend we're exhibiting at the first MCM show in Scotland at the Glasgow SECC which if its anything like the recent Manchester show will be a blast!

This of course follows on from my earlier 'solo' outing at Dundee earlier this year but with Dave in attendance will be the very first time that the full Accent UK team and range of books will be available North of the Border!

And if that wasn't reason enough to be excited I'll also be making my very first trip to Hampden Park to watch the mighty Scotland take on Belgium in a World Cup Football qualifying match ! Okay so Scotland can't qualify but I'm still excited!

 

 

Manchester Moments - Champ20ns!

Fergie Waves Goodbye 13th May 2013

Well today Scott and I finally had a chance to add our voices to the chorus of congratulations and farewells to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, following his announced retirement and the team's clinching of a record 20th League title!

Fergie of course has been in charge at Old Trafford since November 1986 after enjoying unprecedented success with Aberdeen, my local team. I followed shortly afterwards, moving south in March 1987 at a time when United had the likes of ex-Dons players Gordon Strachan and Jim Leighton so of course there was only one English team I could possibly support!

Skipper Willie Miller with Aberdeen's 1983 Cup Winners Cup triumph!

With a young family and living in North Wales, I was a committed armchair fan although we had enjoyed the Old Trafford stadium tour a couple of times. It was though shortly after moving to the Greater Manchester area that, in November 1997 with the boys, we attended our very first match, a Champions League game against the mighty F C Kosice of Slovakia, with the likes of Schmeichel, Pallister, the Nevilles, Beckham, Giggs, Scholes and Sheringham.

The match finished 3 nil to United and we were away! We've been lucky to have gone to a few matches most seasons since and have never seen United beaten! Highlights include seeing the thrilling 3-3 Champions League draw with Barcelona, attending matches from each of the 1999 treble winning competitions, Ronaldo doing his stuff and of course Fergie giving us a wave!

There's many, many more memories of course but with Fergie's retirement we were keen to attend tonight's victory parade and salute both the team and arguably the greatest manager this country has ever seen. As you'll see in the pictures, Old Tafford and the parade route was totally packed, the atmosphere electric and despite the threat of rain in the air, this was the place to be. Scott and I had attended the treble parade in 1999 which was very special but this was another level altogether.

So Congratulations United and Thank you Sir Alex for all the wonderful memories!