Denmark Return!

Copenhagen Comics 2025 Poster by Craig Frank

Delighted to have the opportunity to return to our spiritual Comics home this summer!

Martin Flink's distinctive 2004 banner artwork

Since making the initial trip in time for the first 'modern' Danish comic convention, komiks dk, all the way back in 2004, Dave West and I as Accent UK regularly made the trip at subsequent events, (see here for a few of them!) through committee, venue and re-branding changes to Copenhagen Comics until covid, brexit and changes of our own brought things to an end.

I'm further delighted to confirm that Dave West will again be my travel and table sharing buddy as we attempt to roll back the years and try not to bore everyone about the good old days when it felt that we were trailblazing pioneers of British comics or something like that anyway!

Trailblazing Pioneers of British Comics or just a couple of naive chancers?

It was thanks to an encounter with Copenhagen Comics committee members and some old Danish pals  at last year's Thought Bubble Festival that led to Dave and I sharing a pint and discussing the possibility of returning and here we are now confirming plans. It will be different with another new venue and need to showcase samples of our latest endeavours, but we'll look forward to it and seeing who remembers us, Mange Tak for the opportunity!

Coming to Copenhagen!

The splendid show poster from Kerascoet!

Excusing the bad grammar above, Accent UK are dusting off their passports to make our first convention appearance of the year and what better place to start than Copenhagen Comics!

One of, if not, our favourite show which is always very different in approach and atmosphere to every other show we do and one we've been attending bi-annually since it started in 2004!! Really looking forward to catching up with our many Scandinavian friends and creators as well as fellow Brits including Garen Ewing and Cliodhna (Ztocial) who are making their own return trips.

That said the move from Summer to Winter may test us so maybe we should seek some local beverages to keep us warm! We'll see! For those attending we're at a large stand - number 23 - at the same central venue as recent years;

Details of all fellow exhibitors can be found here and details of homegrown and international guests here  and here including Tom Gauld who we've not seen recently. The guest list is always electic and apart from Tom (and Garen obviously!) I'm really excited to see Boulet again (John Anderson of UK's Soaring Penguin will be equally delighted), one half of Kerascoet (see poster above and the wonderfully macabre Miss Don't Touch and Beautiful Darkness) and Grzegorz Rosinski of Thorgal fame, of which Scott and I saw a wonderful exhibition of at the Comic Art Museum in Brussels a couple of years ago!

 

Hopefully there will be some new discoveries too!

Both my wee Moments of Adventure and the WesterNoir trade will be making their Danish debut along with, I think, 6 releases since our last trip, so something new for everyone!



















Sadly in a very late development, Gary Crutchley is now having to miss the trip which he was eagerly looking forward to and will watch proceedings from afar and hold the Accent UK fort at this end. We'll be thinking of you Gary and trying not to enjoy ourselves too much!

Right, off we go! 

More Moments of Adventure!

Hee! Hee! Yes a little reveal of the cover of the forthcoming Moments of Adventure: Collection Two, containing four short self-contained comic strip stories featuring Robots! Pirates! World War Two! Scottish GhostHunters & more!

More details to follow but all being well MOA#2 will be released at Copenhagen Comics Festival end of February 2017 and all subsequent conventions and festivals Accent UK attend!

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......

Re-United in Manchester!

Well after a fun Glasgow and wee trip round Scotland, we're back and revving up the Accent UK tour bus for this weekend's Mighty Manchester MCM Comic-Con! This is a special one being as it's our hometown gig and re-unites the full Accent UK Team, including Dave West and WesterNoir artist Gary Crutchley, after Team M went solo at Glasgow!

Scott, Colin & Adam aka 'Team M' in Glasgow! (photo by Jeremy Briggs)

          
(Speaking of Glasgow Comic-Con, as I'm super slow with show reports at the moment, please see these links from those fine folks at Down The Tubes for their show and photo reports, where you might recognise one or two familiar faces!).

Last year's Manchester MCM was an incredibly busy and enjoyable show and I hear that ticket sales for this year's have gone even quicker so fingers-crossed It'll be another good one. Accent UK should have six new titles since last year's show which itself is amazing including the first English appearance of Martin (Man of Glass) Flink's gorgeous The Troll, successfully launched at Copenhagen and proving very popular in Scotland at the Glasgow show, it's a timeless all ages title featuring a young boy's imaginative walk through the Danish woods where he encounters a strange creature which may or may not be real.....

Also released in Manchester should be the second issue of our new serial Stephenson's Robot, after issue one was launched at Thought Bubble late last year. This features Kingdom a steampunk robot with a mysterious past and a forceful present as he fights to protect his circus friends from an invading enemy which threatens the hard-won peace of an alternative Europe at the turn of the 20th century...

Kingdom aka Stephenson's Robot by Indio!

Written by Dave West and lavishly illustrated by Indio, issue 2 propels the action further with a Dave West and Jon Ayre co-scripted back-up story featuring the circus's Carnival Master's reflective past, illustrated by WesterNoir's own Gary Crutchley!

Gary Crutchley's Carnival Master

There will be our customary special offers at the show where you can find Accent UK in the Comic Village at tables CC2 & CC3 - yes that's right two full tables to contain our full range of books, including the unexpected return of an old friend in the shape of the long out of print Zombies anthology which gets a new airing for 2015!

Steve Bissette's classic Zombies cover

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!

Finland Here We Come!

Aha, been doing a wee bit of travelling recently both home and away so had a break from comic shows but now its time to confirm our imminent departure to Finland for the 29th Helsinki Comics Festival!

The trip has actually been on our agenda since meeting some of the show organisers during last year's Copenhagen trip and with the Danish shows normally being bi-annual, we thought why not. This was also in our minds in not returning to MoCCA and the US this year, saving the pennies for a Nordic trip instead.

As it happens after we'd made our decision we'd heard from our good Danish friends about a different comics festival happening there this year, Art-Bubble in Horsens on 27/28 September 2014. This sounds special too but it would be pushing to do two overseas trips in the same year after a busy schedule already taken in Belfast, Glasgow and London trips etc so Finland it is.

Dave West and I will be accompanied by WesterNoir artist Gary Crutchley despite his unease at flying - good job its only a 3 hour flight (I think!), so its all systems go.

We'll be in the main tent for international exhibitors which I understand will be placed in one of Helsinki's central public squares and with free entry promises to be busy. There are special exhibitions planned for the likes of Tove Jansson and Tom of Finland and the festival's spotlight country, Germany so we'll hopefully get a chance to see some of these.

Following Finland we've also confirmed our final comic shows for this year being welcome returns to London MCM in October and Leeds's Thought Bubble in November, where we plan to launch a couple of new books!

 Right best go we're flying tomorrow, Finland, Finland, Finland, the place I want to be.....

  

US Comic show exhibitor analysis

A taster of The Devastator's analysis - its much clearer on their site!
(click the above image for link) 

 

The always interesting Beat blog has a great link here to The Devastator's analysis of recent comic shows from an exhibitor's sales point of view. This is a rare if not unique occurrence and for anyone interested in comics, festivals and a bit of clearcut comment is fascinating.

Being a US site it of course concentrates on American shows of which only the Emerald City Con in Seattle is one that Accent UK have exhibited at (and it has to be said we found it slow) but its still pretty useful. The site's compilers are at pains to point out that the analysis is based on those exhibitors who responded to their survey, some 46 in total, so the results are not overly scientific but interesting nevertheless.

It would be interesting to have a similar UK survey but as recently commented on, sales, while obviously important are not always the only factor which determines if a show is successful or not. Certainly for us while our Seattle sales were disappointing we were breaking new ground with our first US show and had we been able to follow up, we may well have grown our audience there, similar to what we achieved with our European shows in Copenhagen and almost achieved with New York's MoCCa but its a difficult thing to sustain on available resources, particularly now that our 'home' UK market has a vibrant convention scene of its own.

Enjoy the article and analysis and perhaps give your own findings some thought?


An eager looking Accent UK in Seattle 2010

 

Howard Burke of Seattle's Zanadu Comic shop has a surprise Accent UK vist
(Zanadu were already stocking our books - Yey!)

Dave made a few new friends on our Seattle trip including the famous Pike Market Pig !