Dare2Draw at New York Comic-Con!

Surfing the New York Comic-Con's news on the always informative, The Beat's website and found this enthusiastic posting of our old friends at Dare2Draw and their NYCC line up including new artist talent portfolio reviews! Accent UK have been proud to sponsor the Dare2Draw team's activities for some time now so great to see that they are continuing their work in giving new talent a much needed break.

Well worth checking out if you're lucky enough to be at the show - as many of my Facebook friends from Denmark, Dundee and Staffordshire seem to be, hope you're all having fun!

It's been some time since we last exhibited in the US, (the last being the final of our trilogy of appearances at New York's MoCCA in 2013), and while it would be great to return, the landscape and economics of independent comics makes that unlikely at the moment, but never say never :)

Comic Calendar!

 

 

Hi the 2014 comic calendar is starting to shape up with a few shows now confirmed. At the moment, the definite ones are all within the mighty MCM Comic Con brand with the Accent UK tour bus calling at; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We of course are very familiar with the MCM Manchester and Glasgow shows but Birmingham and Belfast are both new to us. We've not been to the MCM London show since 2010, when I think they had a mere 14,000 or so attending which was pretty impressive but I understand that they're now up to some 60,000+ !!

 

It's numbers like that and the recent success we've enjoyed at Glasgow and Manchester which helped convince us to make more of an MCM effort this year. It also helps that MCM themselves are expanding with some of these events being new or extended from before. We also quite fancied their Dublin show in April but it clashes with something else, but I think we're doing okay!

 

This doesn't of course mean that we're only doing MCM shows this year, we're aiming to match last year's total of 11 events, out of a long list of 24! Not all these shows have yet released tables/confirmed dates but we have applied for a further 3 and should find out soon if we're confirmed or not.

 

It is a fine art deciding which ones to attend and there's a number of factors that determine whether an event is right for us. Sometimes even informed choices don't work out so it can be a bit of a gamble and we've had to carefully look at the calendar and 'drop' a couple of our normal events to accommodate these newer ones. Particularly it was with regret we decided not to apply for this year's London Super Comic Convention and New York's MoCCA. These are both great shows and ones we'd enjoyed becoming regulars at but you can't do them all and its good to freshen things up.

 

Watch out for more announcements and see what new goodies we can take with us!

Dare2Draw New York Moments!

 

Nelson D Martinez gets ready...

while model Ann McManus Strikes a pose!

 

Received a great update and photos from Charles D Chenet the other day regarding the latest Dare 2 Draw event held at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Established a few years ago now, this is a great 'not for profit' drawing workshop and mentoring platform available to all artists. It gives them opportunities to connect, hear from professionals, have portfolio reviews and most importantly draw in an exciting live setting with actor/models in a series of short timed dynamic poses.

 

 

Charles is ably supported by his dedicated team to ensure the events are professionally run and with their industry connections, a 'top drawer' guest mentor usually attends alongside regular professional artist - and all-round nice guy - Simon Fraser. Last month was none other than Klaus Janson who by the looks of the pictures enjoyed his time in front of a packed house.

Klaus Janson in full flow with host & regular art mentor Simon Fraser

Previous guest mentors have included Kyle Baker, Dean Haspiel, Rebekah Isaacs, Phil Jimenez, Amy Reeder, Bill Sienkiewicz, Paolo Rivera and many more!

D2D's Eric Flores name checks one of the events sponsors!

 

Accent UK became involved when Dave and I met Charles during our first trip exhibiting at MoCCA in 2011 and we've been proud to support the Dare2Draw initiative since. We had an enjoyable taste of the lively D2D experience when Charles insisted we join him and his team during MoCCA 2012's workshop event and it was a blast.

 

Can you spot Accent UK in the crowd at MoCCA's 2012 D2D event?

It may be the other side of the Atlantic but its great to be part of something positive for comic artists of all levels to experience and be inspired by. If you live stateside, particularly in the New York area, its well worth checking out. Everyone can get involved by supporting the D2D volunteer team through donations which go towards venue hire, providing art materials and competition prizes.
 


March's D2D features Cliff Chiang!

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 !

London Calling!!



CSM student Josh Saunder's Comic artwork!

Hi, well I'm still flagging from recent trips, unfortunately picking up a trans-atlantic flu bug along the way so no time to bring you my Dundee and New York reports just yet, but will do so as soon as possible - promise!

We've also been busy behind the scenes arranging a few more shows for later in the year so I'll announce those shortly too with 2013 shaping to be our busiest yet with almost a show every month, we just need to release a few new books I think to keep this demand satisfied.

This weekend then is almost upon us and Accent UK will be making their third comic show appearance in four weeks as Dave and I again head to London for the always enjoyable Comica Comiket show. I mentioned this a few weeks back coming from a spanking new venue so should be even more fun than normal, see Comica's own website for full details where I see they've just produced a table plan and a full exhibitors list so you can track down your favourites and us!

We're in The Studio theatre, Table 12.

Please say 'hi' if you're around and check out our latest books and ask us about our recent travels if you can't wait for the blog updates!!

Coast to Coast Comics!

Exciting few days ahead as I embark on a mini comics tour to the East Coast of Scotland and the Dundee Comic Expo over Easter (snow permitting!), followed closely by a trip to the East Coast of America and New York's MoCCA Festival!

And if that's enough its then only a couple of weeks until we return to London and the always enjoyable Comica Festival, but last time I checked London wasn't on the coast, let alone the East coast, so that doesn't really count as part of this Eastern seaboard tour!

I doubt I'll have a chance to blog between the shows but I've posted recently on both the Dundee show and MoCCA, so check those posts and their respective sites for full details and latest news on guests etc, but if you are in the area for either - or both! - check them out and be sure to drop by the Accent UK table.

In fact, if anyone is able to say 'hi' to me at both shows they can have a Free Accent UK comic of their choice, surely that's worth the expense of a transatlantic trip!

The Dundee show is the first time Accent UK has exhibited in Scotland and being so close to 'home', quite exciting for me. As Dave has difficulty finding his beloved Earl Grey Tea North of Cheshire, he won't be making the trip so I'll be 'flying solo' at a show for I think the very first time so we'll see how that feels!

You'll find me in the College Hall of the university's Tower building on Table 5, which is along the right on the tiny map below!;

We'll be making our third visit to MoCCA, (see here for my summary of last year's show) and as in previous visits, I'll be joined by my son Scott who will I'm sure keep me from getting lost but sadly Dave can't make this one as the 'heat' hasn't quite died down from his antics last time - this is what happens when a gentleman can't find a decent cup of tea in the big apple! In Dave's absence I doubt I'll be much help to Scott in deciphering the NBA Basketball games we should see on the pub TV but at least there should be less snoring this time! 

Anyway for those who can make it, the MoCCA table plan has been revamped from previous years and talks I think now held upstairs and a cafe downstairs.We'll be on E150, which you can see below if you're eyesight is good!

MoCCA 2013 - Who Are You?

Getting excited now, we're all booked for the forthcoming trip back to New York and the MoCCA comic festival! We really enjoyed last year's show meeting the likes of Jason and Tom Gauld but this year sees some changes with the show now under the control of The Society of Strip Illustrators who took over MoCCA last autumn. Thankfully the handover and communication has been very good with little apparent disruption to its organisation.

While they hadn't made any inital radical changes to the show, the last few weeks have seen things gathering pace with the preparation of a specially produced shows brochure, now called a 'journal' featuring an image and blurb from each exhibitor, so look out for ours based on the cover gallery below.

They have also started a tumblr feed which is regularly featuring exhibitors (including a certain Accent UK back in January which I somehow missed!) and news on the show including the inaugural Awards of Excellence to be awarded at the show whose announcement of has (finally) got the US comics reportage excited in the event!

The essence appears to be that heavyweight (in terms of comic industry stature!) judges, Karen Berger, Gary Groth, Nora Krug, David Mazzucchelli and Paul Pope will stalk the exhibitors hall on the Saturday, select their favourite publications, debate them and that evening announce the winners of the most outstanding work on show....gosh....no pressure then!

The show runs the first weekend in April and this year's guest of honour is Bill Griffith of Zippy the Pinhead fame!

(Zippy [who else?] the Pinhead by Bill Griffith)

I only really know of him from his entertaining section of Ron Mann's late 80's comic documentary 'Comic Book Confidential' which among other things showed said live action Zippy in his bestest housecoat out shopping and generally being happy while singing that annoyingly catchy tune, "I'm Zippy - Who Are You?". It will be interesting to see the man behind the man himself!

 

Bill Griffith has also recently been mentioned by Robert Crumb through a collection of Robert Crumb's interviews and comments on other artists and various cultural figures such as Jack Kerouc, Jean Paul Sartre, Hugh Heffner (!), Moebius and others. For a fascinating insight into Crumb's thinking and much, much more see the excellent 'Crumb on Crumb' collection here.

 

Did I mention that we're getting excited about MoCCA!!