A Hard Country's A' Coming!

Just launched on Kickstarter is a cracking new graphic novel from WesterNoir's own artist (and co-author) Gary Crutchley and Andrew Elliot, Hard Country!. It's been a long cherished project for the creators which a successful kickstarter campaign will bring to life.

Check out its page here  and also a preview of the art & prologue at Gary's own blog here.

Worth checking out and supporting for all WesterNoir and western fans!

New Interview with Gary Crutchley!

Time has flown here at Accent UK Towers with much happenning these last few weeks so I'll try catching up starting with this recent and well deserved spotlight interview with WesterNoir's artist and co-writer, Gary Crutchley!

Once again its the hard working 'G-Man' of Comics Anonymous who does the honours and its revealing, touching on Gary's artistic process and new projects - read it in the link here!

Thought Bubbled 2014!

TB14 with the new TB TeePee!

And relax, or maybe I should say stop smiling as that's all I've been done since last week's wonderful Thought Bubble Comic Arts Festival in Leeds, or TB14, to give it its hip tag!

Accent UK have been lucky to attend and support each and every Thought Bubble since its modest 2007 start in Leeds Town Hall basement and while its had its up and downs, (which I commented on last year,) at TB14 everything really seemed to come together to finally deliver the potential the show has long promised.

Build it and they will come....TB's TeePee!

Now don't get me wrong, Thought Bubble has always been one of the most enjoyable and inclusive comic conventions/festivals in the UK but rather strangely, for us, has never produced the level of sales that other, less celebrated shows have. A lot of factors affect this and while Dave and I are experienced enough not to purely judge the success of a show on sales alone, it has been a puzzle and we've often deliberated whether its down to location, attendance, competition or maybe just fatigue, coming as it usually does, at the end of a long convention season.

Inside the TB TeePee - Travelling Man stall

Well whatever the reasons, TB14, blew all our doubts and expectations away, it may have been the innovative new layout - hello TB Teepee! - an increase in numbers or maybe, just finally our range of books 'clicked' with its audience but our sales started briskly with many return readers and steadily carried on the whole weekend. A quick tally at the end of Saturday surprisingly revealed that we'd comfortably thrashed the whole two days of TB13, and by the festival's close we'd more than doubled last year's numbers!

The Accent UK table stock at the start of TB14

Most 'long-time' exhibitors we spoke to were similarly happy but one or two and a few of the newer ones were more restrained in their praise with some table placements and guest queueing said to be problematic for some. I suppose the truth is that with an eye-watering 400+ exhibitors, most with new books, the TB14 competition was fierce and sadly punters have only limited funds so there will undoubtedly be a few casualties, which maybe applies to us too in our previous TB outings?

Certainly I know that despite having a few wanders around I missed seeing lots of people that I'd hoped to catch up with and again failed to see any panels or any of the guests - with a brief exception of White Death's Robbie Morrison and The Goon's creator Eric Powell - which perhaps indicates the scale to which TB has grown.

The new books on the table - note WesterNoir book 4 sold out!

New books always seem to go down well at TB, and this year Accent UK had two, Tales of WesterNoir and Stephenson's Robot, as well as the latest WesterNoir issues which had debuted earlier in the year. Dave and I were again joined by Scott and WesternNoir artist Gary Crutchley, who's enthusiasm is contagious and grin grew bigger and bigger as the WesterNoir sales continued, selling out of the latest, Book 4 on Sunday afternoon.

Andy, Dave and Scott raring to go!

Our table neighbours this year was none other than Andy Bloor, Wolfmen artist and Accent UK book designer, who with writer and fellow AUK contributor, Mo Ali were launching their debut book Midnight Man which seemed to sell very well at the show. On the other side was familiar convention face and another talented AUK contributor Richy Chandler who is really prolific at the moment and one of the UK's rising stars. Further down was another rising star, Sally Jane Thompson, but such was the busy nature of the show, other than a wave and smile I didn't get the chance to chat.

Ed Murphy and Jim Alexander share a moment

Letty Wilson and fellow Dundee Mlitt in Comic Studies graduate Nathan Langridge

I was though able to catch up with many familiar faces at the show and for once won't attempt to list them all but special mentions for recently 'discovered' creators Danny McLaughlin and the Irish Uproar  Comic Crew, Neil & Anna of the Scottish Treehouse Comics Crew, fellow Dundee graduate, Letty Wilson (who was selling the terrific 'Weird Moose' comic I saw her draw page by page at Glasgow Comic-Con in the summer!), Erin Keepers and the delightfully talented Sara Dunkerton (more of whom in a later post!) who were all enjoying making their Thought Bubble debuts. Also pleased to catch up with new comics dynamo Jessica Martin who launched her Vivacity book and the returning talented Portuguese trio, Andre Caetane, Ines Galo and Antonio Silva.
 

Portuguese artist trio of Andre, Ines and Antonio who we'd first met at TB13

Meanwhile here Gary Spencer Millidge & Col share a moment

Returning TB stalwarts included Sean Azzopardi, Matt Brooker (D'Israeli), Mark Buckingham, Gary Spencer Millidge celebrating Strangehaven's welcome return, Selina Locke & Jay Eales, Gary Northfield and the unexpected appearance of the awesomeness of Bridgeen Gillespie whom Dave and I had somehow missed last year and promptly fell out over her last Kate Bush pocket mirror - only joking Bridgeen, I think Dave's going to surprise me with it for Christmas!

Mark Buckingham & Gary Crutchley catch up!

I should look happier here - see the gaps of sold out books!

I could go on but for Dave and Gary's thoughts on the show go here and here and there will I'm sure be lots more reportage out there for those who want it. Needless to say, we had a great time and for us, TB14 has finally cemented its position as the UK's most important and fun pure comics show, well done all concerned, a perfect way for us to finish the 2014 convention season.

The obligatory TB14 haul photo!

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.....

  

The Demons Are Coming!

 

Demoncon 7 kicks off this year's comic convention season down in sunny Maidstone. Well I say sunny, with the current dramatic weather, wet and windy may be more likley!

The Demoncon series of shows are run by Graham Beadle of local Grinning Demon comic shop and have become quite a regular feature of the comics calendar down in the South East. Despite knowing Graham and hearing about the show for a few fair years we've never been able to take up his warm offer of a visit down there until now! Well not quite all of us but Dave West and Gary Crutchley will be winding their way down South to fly the Accent UK flag, sadly family commitments and a hectic schedule will keep me away*

But there will be a treat in store as with the able help of Stuart Gould of UKCOMICS, the latest issue of the acclaimed WESTERNOIR series, Book 4 will be launched! Gary promises to have some very special sketches with him so if you are in the Maidstone area please drop by to what promises to be a fun show.

* My non-appearance and the fact that, according to WESTERNOIR 4's cover, that there is a price on my head are not connected in any way, honest!

Loading up for Thought Bubble!

Excellent timing sees another great review of Gary and Dave's latest WesterNoir issue by Jeremy Briggs at the Down The Tubes site here with this fantastic concluding paragraph;

WesterNoir is one of the best small press series being published at the moment and Book Three maintains the high standards of the previous two while not sticking to any plot formula. The stand-alone nature of the stories means that new readers could read this one as easily as any of the other books in the series but, with their combination of strong writing and impressive art, it is worth seeking them all out.

So if that doesn't make you want to mosey on down to the Thought Bubble Comics Festival in Leeds this weekend then have a wee gander at a sample of the sketches which Gary has produced for the special limited sketch and print WesterNoir packs!

The Accent UK posse will be at Table 14 within the main New Dock Hall sandwiched in between Image Comics and Ian Edginton with our full range of books and goodies - hopefully see you there!

 

Comiket Moments

The Quiet Comiket Accent UK table

Well that was a little disappointing, we made the long way down to London last weekend for the twice yearly Comiket Comic Fair show as part of the ongoing Comica Festival and well it was slow, very slow making for a long day, made worse by various train delays on the return journey meaning that I didn't get home till well past midnight,when of course I turn into a pumpkin - not recommended at Hallowe'en time!


The quiet hall

On the upside we met up with Gary Crutchley, stalwart artist on Accent UK's WesternNoir series, on arrival at Euston who joined us at the show. Its always good fun catching up with Gary and his infectious enthusiasm for comics in general and the WesternNoir series in particular and, with Dave, I was delighted to see a preview of Book 4's art which is almost complete and promises some real surprises. Book 3 has just had another great review here and Book 4 should be ready to make its splash around March next year when the new convention season gets underway, until then sorry you'll have to wait!

Gary Crutchley & Dave West pass the time (Add your own caption HERE!)

Back to Comica and this was the second show at Central St Martins College just behind Kings Cross Station London following the one back in April where although there was clearly some signage problems that show was a resounding success, being our best ever showing at Comiket. We therefore had high hopes for this one and despite again having signage problems and a change in the interior layout we weren't unduly worried by the slow start as things had picked up last time, however the 'kick' never came and things remained very slow throughout the long day to its 7pm finish. In the end we sold less than 1/2 what we had in April and although covering table costs we were well short of covering our travel costs down.


The live drawing parade with Takayo Akiyama

Everyone we talked to had a similar slow day but it was difficult to pinpoint why as the show had its usual talented guests bravely undertaking the on stage live drawing parade and eclectic mix of exhibitors but despite being free to enter it didn't have the attendance we'd experienced last time. Maybe a lot of students hadn't returned from half-term (do College students get 'half-term'?) or maybe it was a wider comic show fatigue, certainly the calendar is far more crowded than ever before and much of the exhibitor's talk was about the recent success of both The Lakes and last weekend's London MCM show where apparently 88,000 folk attended!

Whatever the spectre of other shows, Comiket remains unique in its eclectic mix, celebration and optimism of the comics medium and is a really friendly show with a pretty decent soundtrack too, so we really hope this was a one-off blip. In any case there were exciting plans announced for 2014 with Comiket's Spring outing likely moving to May or June to coincide with a new exhibition of British Comic Art which Paul Gravett (and I think John Dunning) are curating at the British Library with it planned that the Comic fair will also take place at the library!!

The full Joe Sacco Great War panoramic 'tapestry' at full length!

That exciting news and the great time we had in catching up with many good friends and familiar faces of the UK comic scene - including the recently returned world traveller and friend of Accent UK Cliodhna Lyons (and a host of others that there isn't enough room to cover), that and as always the glimpse of one or two potential interesting new projects, made the trip to London and Comica worthwhile - phew!


Unfortunately Blurry Col, Cliodhna & Dave



Accent UK Interview !

 

Dave and I, wearing our Accent UK hats, were recently interviewed by the talented Mr Crutchley for the top indie on line magazine, Self-Publisher, and the new edition is now available to download to your ipad and android device here if you would like to read more about Accent UK and our approach to comics publishing alongside some other very interesting articles and previews.

Mermaids Ahoy!

Funny how sometimes a few good things all come together at the same time, all sharing something, a common link, all by a happy accident, well that's how it seems to me recently with Mermaids and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing, although it has to be said that Mermaids can seriously harm your health if you let them!

From left to right above is firstly Gary Crutchley's unadorned cover art for Westernoir book 3 (see the printed version below), the latest in his and Dave West's excellent new series following the exploits of a certain Josiah Black. The book of course is from Accent UK and I may be biased but don't take my word for its excellence, check out the latest reviews here and here. You can catch up with the series from us direct at any of our forthcoming shows or buy direct from our website here, you won't be sorry, the story's gathering pace and Gary's artwork oozes style and confidence.

Next up is the sign of The Mermaid pub from of course the new Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost movie The World's End which we saw at the weekend. It's a wonderfully silly, sweary, boozy movie, very British (in a good way!) with lots of funny moments and cameos. Perhaps not quite hitting the heights of the earlier classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz but still great fun and well worth a look. The World's End Mermaids are very modern in a late 80's school disco way but true to form are dangerously alluring...

Which leads me nicely to Mark Siegel's elegantly old school Sailor Twain graphic novel and the tragic tale of the Mermaid in New York's Hudson river. I was vaguely aware of Mark's book and was delighted to pick up a copy and meet him at this year's MoCCA festival where he drew me a wonderful Mermaid sketch - which I think is worth repeating;

I've now read Mark's book and its a wonderfully dark, comic, dangerous tale featuring the eponymous Captain Twain, the alluring Mermaid with unpronounceable name, steamboats, saucy liaisons and mystery, all told in absorbing pencil and charcoal. Well worth setting a course for!

These Mermaids all offer something different and may be dangerous to approach but can you resist their siren's song?

Westernoir Book Two Reviewed

The ever reliable Down The Tube website has a great review from Jeremy Briggs of the second issue of Westernoir which I really should draw your attention to!

It includes the following quote;

"Anyone considering writing or drawing their own comic title could do a lot worse than buying, reading and analysing just how this book is written and drawn, as well as how the package as a whole is presented to its reader, because they are bound to find something in here that would improve their own work."

Gosh high praise indeed! Well done chaps but doesn't mean you can rest easy with Issue Three which is shaping up to continue and dare I say even improve on the high standards!

At the moment, Westernoir is only available directly from our website or from us at shows and festivals, but when issue four (and the first story arc) are complete, the separate issues should be listed with Diamond and available to order worldwide through your local comic retailer.

If you can't wait that long it is worth checking out artist Gary Crutchley's blog for sneaky looks at forthcoming pages and his creative process, such as this unlettered one from Book 3!