Stoked for More!

Just a few words about Sunday's Stoke-Con-Tent which was good fun in a bright sunny day in the potteries. Gary and I were making our second appearance at the twice yearly show and were joined by Gary's long term chum Chris Przygrodzki who is also making his Accent UK artistic debut with Tales of WesterNoir 3!

The Staffs University team couldn't have made us feel more welcome with smooth friendly set-up and regular check-ins throughout the day offering us teas and coffees and water - they even offered a certain Dave West's favourite tipple of Earl Grey which I'm sure he would approve of, even if he couldn't make the trip this time.

The Accent UK emporium all set up

Fun and enjoyable as it was, it was noticeably quieter than our previous October experience, possibly only half as busy? A number of factors came into play, the warm day, a number of rival shows (we counted 5!) including one in North Wales, not too far away, but the biggest one was that with it being the start of Easter, the uni itself had just 'broken up' the previous Friday, meaning many students had already made the trip home.

Things you only see at Comic-Con's, Chewbacca, a Dalek and a Starship drinks vendor!

This reduction in attendance was reflected in our sales which were just over 1/2 of the previous October, but being a local show, its inexpensive to attend so we were still happy with things and there are worst ways of spending a Sunday - Gary had skipped doing DIY for example!

Oliver had great taste as well as a great costume!

We all took the opportunity to have a look round the show and although I didn't make it to all the attractions, it was clear there was a nice vibe about the place. In addition to the uni staff who run the cartoon and animation course, Gary and I caught up with some of the students we'd previously met when we'd been invited in to speak after the October event, and see how their work was progressing - as well as the challenges of the course itself, the students are all encouraged to prepare for and exhibit at the con which is a real test for them to display and sell their work for the first time! What a great opportunity to learn from though in this friendly environment, both Gary and I were impressed when we visited and bemoaned the fact that there was nothing available to us when we were their age, however long ago that was!

Gary and I at the uni last October - hope I was talking sense!

 

Cheesy grins all round!

I was particularly pleased to catch up again with Jessica Martin, a musical actress and entertainer who we've gotten to know these last 2 or 3 years as she's bravely added 'comic creator' to her resume. Her energy and enthusiasm are infectious and I was pleased to hear of her forthcoming comics projects, including turning her own colourful life into a graphic novel to be published by Unbound, and is currently the subject of a fund raising campaign which I had already happily backed. Jessica was at Stoke embracing her Doctor Who pedigree where she played werewolf 'Mags' to Sylvester McCoy's Doctor, so it was good to chat to her about that and also with her long time chum, Bob, who frequently accompanies her on these excursions.

Jessica and Bob

Caught up with most of the other comic creators attending, albeit briefly in some cases - see the poster in my previous Stoke post for full line-up! Also met Marc Jackson for the first time who is an artist who's worked for the Beano, ACES Weekly and produced his own work and, it turns out, is fairly local to me in Cheshire. We have a few mutual contacts and Marc is also involved in comic events, more of which later!

Right, so yes a good enjoyable day in the sun and a show we'd hope to return to again - possibly this October, if they'll have us!

My little Stoke haul including some student comics

Stoke Con-Trent !

Here's a spiffing new image for this Sunday's Stoke-Con-Trent Comic Convention where Gary Crutchley, new Tales of WesterNoir artist, Chris Przygrodzki and yours truly are all attending! This is a popular show held every 6 months or so at Staffordshire University campus with a fine mixture of new, established and up and coming comic creators alongside some familiar names from TV & Film including Doctor Who, Star Wars, Game of Throne, Power Ranger and Walking Dead etc actors!

Here's a few pictures of when we first attended last October and if its anything like that one, it should be fun, come along and say 'hi' if you're around :)

Doctor WHO and the Angels!

 

 
Here's a pleasant surprise, although I'm not a big fan of Doctor Who, I've just finished reading a recent Father's Day gift (thanks Scott!) of the Tenth Doctor's graphic novel and really enjoyed it!

The collection from Titan Comics contains the 4-part Weeping Angels of Mons and the shorter Echo story, both written by Robbie Morrison and illustrated by Daniel Indro and Eleonora Carlini respectively.

The 'Mons' story cleverly ties in the good doctor's adventures with World War One in both respectful and entertaining fashion as The Weeping Angels, (of the TV episode 'Blink' I think?), descend on the war torn French town of St Michel where the defending German soldiers have strangely disappeared.

The story moves along at a fair clip and suites the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant's personality of the TV series, being equal measure frantic, playful, beligerent and arrogant. The supporting cast, paticularly the Scottish soldiers are surprisingly well rounded given their limited space and, minor character identification confusion aside, you find yourself emotionally invested in them.

That this story comes from well respected comic scribe, Robbie Morrison should be no surprise given his back catalogue (of which White Death is a classic war story) and the art from, unfamilar to me, Daniel Indro perfectly captures the characters and the action.

The short Echo story suffers in comparison with the main 'Mons' event but is a fine, fun disposable tale with servicable art and shouldn't detract from a quality collection.

London Film & Comic Con (sort of) report!

Now for the show that wasn't, the London Film and Comic Con! Accent UK didn't have a table for the show but Scott wanted to visit it and I was intrigued to see a show from the punter's side, something I've not done for gosh, maybe 12+ years!.  Well I'm sorry that I can't tell you anything about the show as we didn't get in! This is despite setting off at 7 in the morning from Manchester, and queueing at the Earl's Court venue for 3.5 hours!

The LFCC queue about 2 hours in! The folk on the left are in the same queue!

The same queue looking behind us - snaking all the way behind Earls Court and back again, don't forget that the folk on the right are in the same queue and theres more people behind them yet! 

There were huge, huge queue's and with the advance pre-paid tickets the venue was virtually full as soon as the doors opened. Of course there was no information to tell you this it was only after 2.5 hours or so that rumours started to spread that the venue had closed its doors for health & safety reasons and were now operating on a "one in one out" policy! The organisers had gone to ground and there was no way of confirming the rumour and in the meantime the queue behind us had grown to gargantuan proportions, all of this in the baking heat of one of the hottest days of the year!

2 1/2 hrs in, towards the front of Earls Court but not even 1/2 way in the queue - note folks still arriving on the left!

Well, Scott zipped off for some much needed water and did some investigating to discover that we were no better that maybe halfway in the queue and likely faced another 2 hours to maybe get in, that was enough for us so we finally did the sensible thing and gave up. Not before I should add, our very good friend Chris, (who was helping at Lucky Target's table inside) collecting and coming outside to deliver Scott's pre-ordered Stan Lee funko figure which was one of our main reasons for visiting.
 

The Q around 2pm just as we'd had enough

The same Q behind us and stretching at least 2 1/2 hrs behind!

The show was attended by Excelsior himself, Mr Stan Lee, in his last European show and this together with a huge list of Dr Who and media stars had caused the huge turnout and apparently caught the organisers on the hop, not helped by their own website encouraging people to turn up on the day as tickets would be available!

And it was one of the hottest days of the year with no refreshments available !

There's already been quite a bit of reportage on this with Bleeding Cool having a video report of the queue and chaos and The Beat having their own report and there are numerous horror stories if you search online. Needless to say there's definite lessons to be learned and although I didn't get to experience the show I can now sympathise with punters who have queued at shows we've exhibited at in the past and hope all was worth it once you got inside.

Photo of Scott to prove we were there

Having said that, Scott and I were determined not to let it spoil our day too much and in between catching up with Chris, made a wee visit to the nearby Natural History Museum and back into town to visit Accent UK comic stockists Orbital Comics, chatting with Camila and Chris and a wizz round a few other places before having a well deserved burger n pint before travelling home.

Happy to see Chris and head off for a cup of tea, 3 1/2 hrs in and not setting foot in the venue!

Thankfully there's not much travelling involved for us next week, making our third appearance at the extended MCM Manchester Comic-Con, which promises to be another well attended event. Its just been previewed in a full page spread in our local Manchester Evening News paper and online, so we'll see. Hopefully the queues will be manageable for all concerned and like our trips to Belfast and Glasgow be a worthwhile one for comics?