Zulu War Comic Scenes!

Following up my earlier 'pictorial' post of the actual Zulu battlefield sites, here's my own recreations featuring in my trilogy of Zulu War related comic strips. Written and illustrated by me, colours by the rather talented Matt Soffe;

iSandlwana from 'Day of the Dead Moon' strip from Moments of Adventure 1

 

Rorke's Drift from 'Water Cart Rescue' strip from forthcoming collection

Rorke's Drift (after the battle) from 'Pointy Heads' strip from forthcoming collection

1 Down 14 to Go!

 

Well the 2016 comic convention season is well and truly underway, Dave and Gary kicked things off last weekend with their successful trip down to Maidstone's Demon-Con, (which you can read about on their blogs here and here) and this Saturday we set up at Bolton Comic-Con!

Bolton is a new one for us but being a local one we thought we'd give it a try hearing good things about it's inaugural show last year so we'll see how we get on. You can find out show details on their facebook page here.

We'll take our full range of books but after a stock take we're getting pretty low on some, Zombies2 sold out last year and Who on Earth is Thaddeus Mist? won't be far behind it....

 ....and perennial favourite, Robots anthology is now down to it's last couple of  boxes so will also likely sell out in the first few months of the year. We normally don't reprint - last year's Zombies was an exception - so if you do fancy any of these, best grab them when you see them.    

If you've been keeping an eye on our convention list on the top right you'll see that we've a total of 15 planned at the moment for this year, with most of these already confirmed, so it promises to be a very busy one indeed, hope to see some of you around on our travels and maybe we'll surprise you with a new book or two!

Blackpool Rocks?

Aha, so much to update on and so little time so I'll come straight up to date with a few thoughts on yesterday's Accent UK trip to Blackpool's very first Comic-Con;

 

With so many comic conventions to choose from these days it's a tough call as to which we can do but when we heard about a new show in Blackpool, which is only an hour's drive or so away, we were interested, when we saw their impressive line up of actors from Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Thunderbirds, we became very interested and when we heard they'd sold in excess of 8,000 tickets we booked!

Chewie & Princess Leia try to mug Colin for his ticket

Dave Photobombs Darth!

The potential of another big local comic show was too good to miss but how would it shape up? We'd already tried several debut shows this year, namely Aberdeen's wonderful Granite City Comic-Con, Birmingham's inspiring Comic Festival and Warrington Market's surprising Comic-Con. Blackpool, like all those new shows sensibly chose, to make their first convention a one day, 'Saturday only' affair but helped by their impressive media guest list they sold out of tickets well in advance meaning that on the day, despite being a wonderfully high profile busy central location, you couldn't just turn up and pay on the door.

Movie cars in Blackpool's busy shopping centre!

Still with that 8k+ tickets sold what could go wrong? Well I think we as exhibitors got off lightly as, although the pre-show information was poor and there was some uncertainty with getting in and finding our spot, (late comers found they had no spot!) we did find and settle into our allocated balcony table and quickly got set up for the show anticipating the busyness to come.

Can you spot the Accent UK balcony table ?

Ah there it is!

The show opened at 10 but upstairs in the balcony you wouldn't have known, it seemed like an age before anyone actually came upstairs, confirming our fear of the multi-roomed labyrinth location swallowing up the punters. But we were oblivious to the chaos outside where indeed, at least 8k ticket holders had turned up and couldn't get in. I think it took about 2 hours before our first sale, but it remained very quiet, then around 12:30 or so things took off and the trickle of browsers became a flood and we struggled to keep up with them all as our books began to fly with the recent Zombies reprint quickly selling out, then mid to late afternoon, it slowed and died again as visitors evaporated.

The Crowds Arrive!

From our customers we heard of 2, 3 and 4 mile queues snaking round and round the building while staff struggled to cope with the crowds, apparently bringing the Blackpool traffic to a standstill! Finally the convoluted entry system was abandoned and the crowds swelled in which was great for us and our sales but not so great for the punters who, once inside had no floor plan, no programme and no schedule of where the various media guests, panels and (pre-paid) photo shoots were taking place. That and the overcrowding and problems with disabled access left many people very disappointed with their comic-con experience.

It's a tough one for us as we of course want the crowds and we're so busy manning our own table we're largely oblivious to anything else going on and so it was at Blackpool. We enjoyed our day, meeting new readers, seeing great cosplayers and catching up with comic show regulars such as Mike Garley, Nick Brokenshire and Sumyra of Lucky Target Comics. Despite our very odd sales pattern, we comfortably covered costs and finished with our second best ever one day tally, (Yes Morgan & Chris you're number one!) proving that we'd found a new audience for our books.

Dave and Scott man the table!

It's really subsequently that I've heard more and more of people's disappointing experiences with threats of legal action against the organiser's which have cast serious doubt whether there will be another one. That would be a real shame as Blackpool proved that there is a huge appetite for another regional comic show so we'll have to see if lessons can be learnt and a way forward found to deliver a safe and popular show to cater to the fans.

Enjoying the spectacle of the Winter Gardens venue

One thing we do have though is even more respect for the organiser's of the shows that we attend, we don't get to see or hear of whatever issues might be affecting things behind the scenes. A well run show is so smooth, we and visitors just concentrate on having fun and enjoying the experience without worrying about anything else, so hats off to all you unheralded show organiser's out there, if we don't notice you its because you're doing your jobs right!

That is particularly true of the afore-mentioned 2015 debut shows at Aberdeen, Birmingham and Warrington, where they may not have had the huge crowd that Blackpool had (although Aberdeen came close), and no doubt had some teething issues along the way, but my recollections are of have fun, enjoyable trouble-free days, promoting this wonderful world of comics which of course is what its all about, so thank you and good night!

The obligatory tower shot!

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

LSCC Moments 2013

 

 

Well that was fun, the Accent UK crew are now rested after attending last weekend's second London Super Comic Convention or LSCC to you and me! 

 

The event was held at the huge Excel Centre in London's Docklands and do you know what, it was pretty good, great guest list, plenty of attendees, well organised and even better than last year's sales. Although it didn't feel quite as busy as the inaugural show this may have been as the hall seemed bigger and there were many more dealers and exhibitors, obviously attracted by the positive reports from last year's amazing show.
  

Zombies 2 Cosplayer Undead Mousey!

And maybe that was the only problem, last year of course had the wonderful showman Stan Lee in attendance and his presence, energy and enthusiasm infected everyone to such a level that there was a palpable excitement in the air, something that I (and most other UK comic veterans) had never felt at a show before and that buzz had heightened expectation this year to unrealistic levels.

The result, for me anyway, was that the show was perfectly good and decent in every way except that nagging feeling that something was missing, which it was after all, in that there was no central focus or sustained buzz. Whereas in the first year, Stan's charisma and the crowd's positive reaction to him rose to fill the sometimes cavernous space of the large hall, this time sadly it often just felt that you were in a rather large hall. This should though not be seen as a criticism of the LSCC organisers as in the 12 months since the first show, I've had many conversations with various comic-related people and not one could come up with a credible suggestion as to who on earth could possibly follow Stan? Now we know the answer was what we had all sadly suspected, no-one can.

Scott & Dave spot Colin's new hat under the table  

Our Accent UK blog has our good friend Chris D's take on things but I will add that while the show was perhaps missing that magic spark, it was still one of the, if not the best guest-lists of comic creators assembled in the UK for a long, long time. I can't list them all but they included, legends Neal Adams, George Perez, Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob Layton and current hot contemporaries Simone Bianchi, Mark Buckingham, David Finch, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Dan Slott (who happily signed for hours and hours both days with queues that would have done Stan proud!) delightful table neighbour Lee Garbett, together with UK legends Brian Bolland, Alan Grant (who I congratulated on his work on The Loxleys and The War of 1812 - which made my best of year list - and he said there may be a sequel which I'm excited about), David Lloyd and John Wagner (who I discovered is a fellow Manchester United fan!). Check out the LSCC's own website and other reports for the awesome full list of guests and spot your own favourites.

Happy Cosplayers bag Westernoir for birthday present! 

The event staff I spoke with all seemed happy enough too and were fairly confident that LSCC would return in 2014 and that is really great news for everyone connected with UK comics. While it may not have had the razzmatazz of the first show, the event has quickly become an important and welcome addition to the UK calender and what better way of starting the year's schedule!

I'll follow this event overview with my own personal LSCC highlights tomorrow!


Colin & Tripwire's Joel Meadows show Dave how many hours the slow train home takes!
(or of course it may have something to do with Tripwire's deserving  kickstarter campaign!)