Dundee & Comic Calendar Update

Well we're truly in the comic convention season now with Accent UK getting set for a return to the Dundee Comic Expo this weekend! The date's been known for a while but confirmation's have only recently been made but I can't wait. I really enjoyed last year's show, (see report here!) and this year promises to be a little different being a joint show with the manga/anime focused Dee-Con. 

Dundee Comics Expo 2013

This will again by a solo comic show from me but I may be accompanied by youngest son, who is currently studying in Scotland but I'm looking forward to catching up with the talented bunch of Scottish creators that I'm getting to see on a more regular basis now.

Speaking of Scotland, we're now also confirmed for a return to Glasgow for July's Comic-Con. We've also applied for our regular table at Leeds Thought Bubble which hopefully, under their new revised registration system will avoid the frustrations and uncertainties of last year. Less positive we won't be returning to this year's The Lakes festival as our application wasn't accepted which we're told is a symptom of the venue being small and heavily over-subscribed, so you can't win them all.

Actually looking at last year's record breaking event calendar, we are only planning to return to 5 of the 11 shows attended in 2014! Some such as Copenhagen Comics, (and presumably Carlisle's Mega-Con?) aren't being held this year, others like MoCCA, (held this forthcoming weekend too!) and the London Super Comic-Con are down to economics while as mentioned we've been declined for The Lakes, so a few changes.  Its perhaps a reflection of the current healthy number of comic festivals, that all 6 of these shows will be replaced with several new (to us) ones planned, so quite exciting really.

Gary Crutchley's cracking artwork

WesterNoir Book 4 - $100 reward? never!

 

At the moment, we have no overseas shows confirmed, (unless you count Belfast!) but are currently in communications for a show in a country we've never ever visited before which is exciting, with another under serious consideration, so we'll see. Just need to work on a few new releases to follow WesterNoir Book 4's earlier successful launch......

First glimpse of Martin (Man of Glass) Flink's new book 'The Lizard'!

Thought Bubble Moments!



Thought Bubble 2013 is that-a-way!

Gosh that was quick, the weekend's Thought Bubble festival in Leeds brought Accent UK's long year of comic shows to an end and was a suitably good way to wind down 2013.

Given the problems the organisers had with fulfilling exhibitor table requests, the addition of a new hall in vacant shopping units gave everyone who wanted to, the opportunity to exhibit, for which the organisers deserve thanks in responding to the unprecedented demand. However the question was always going to be whether this demand would be matched in increased attendance and spend to warrant the extra investment?
 

Thought Bubble 13 Crowd

On this point, and purely on our numbers and observations, I would say the jury's still out. Its hard to say but would reckon that attendance was pretty similar to previous years which of course meant with even more exhibitors, people's spend was spread even further. Its not surprising therefore that our own sales were down from 2012, but in fairness we had a host of new books last year which helped boost our sales to a record tally. With only a couple of new things this time we expected a modest showing which is exactly what we had, although we still comfortably beat 2011's sales, so it's not all bad.

Most exhibitors I spoke to were similarly 'okay' with things with no-one saying they had done amazingly good or bad, just 'okay' and in fairness for a cold November weekend at the end of a busy convention year that's not too bad really, considering everything else the show had. 





Colin eagerly mans the AUK table - note Dave's lego boxset centrepiece!

A close up of Dave's lego set of Accent UK comic characters - can you find them all?



And that's the key thing, much like the recent Lakes event, its not all about the numbers, its as much about the community and social aspect as you catch up with familiar faces and discover new works, this combined with brisk early sales helped remind us that despite the table booking problems, Thought Bubble is still the place to go for the best mix of professionals, independent and small press creators and arguably the UK's best comic show in an increasingly crowded market.

That said, I don't envy the organiser's job in planning for next year when they'll be keen not to repeat the online exhibitor lottery but presumably they won't have the option of those vacant shop units?

 

Anyway back to this year and Dave and I had a blast in catching up with old friends and chatting to new and repeat readers of our books. Once again Gary Crutchley was able to join us and work his sales patter to ensure that his and Dave's Westernoir series be the top seller with the latest book 3 outselling everything else by a good margin!

 

Dave and Gary happy with Westernoir's Thought Bubble reception



Sadly Dave and I again failed to see any of the programmed talks and events - thats' none in the 7 years we've attended which is a shame especially as we'd greatly enjoyed the talks we caught at The Lakes recently. Mind you with a show the size as this you can't hope to see everything and certainly that was something I heard people repeat time and time again that it was 'too big' and they couldn't absorb it let alone buy everything they liked as there was just 'too much'!

 

Thom Ferrier (Ian Williams) & Me catch up

During my little escapes from the table I did manage to track down a few of the books I was looking for and a few that I'd not heard of before - see my 'haul' pic below - including an enjoyable book previously unknown to me, 'The IT Girl' by Jessica Martin based on the silent movie actress, Clara Bow. Its well executed and despite being a little short is a promising debut from the impressively enthusiastic Jessica, who has only recently entered the comics field after a varied and interesting show biz career!

Other highlights was again meeting Frederik Peeters this time for his new sci-fi series Aama from Self Made Hero which I am looking forward to reading especially after his previous excellent Pachyderme book which I had a lively discussion with Gary Spencer Millidge about as we tried to second guess its meanings and imagery - great fun!

  

Gary Spencer Millidge & GM Jordan strike a Thoughtful pose!



It was discussions like that throughout the show with numerous people - too many to list - that makes Thought Bubble special as most comics people will be there and its a great chance to catch up and chew the fat and with the show being so late in the calendar there's very much an end of term feel to it as you say your goodbyes and reflect on the close of another convention season.

 

Neil Cameron during his 'Draw an Awesome Robot' workshop

One final bit of very welcome news was when old comics pal, Neil Cameron told me that our very good friend and very deserving talent, Garen Ewing had won the British Comic Award for Best Young People's Comic for his Complete Rainbow Orchid book! Great stuff, we're all delighted for you Garen and will enjoy seeing you squirm with embarrassment with all the plaudits coming your way! You can read Garen's own report here and here's the full list of the 2013 award winners.

 

I'll let Dave say more about Thought Bubble at the main Accent UK blog but for me, after a fairly indifferent expectation about the show, I was pleasantly surprised and reminded how special Thought Bubble really is and I sincerely hope they can come up with a workable solution to its exhibitor popularity so no-one who wants to be there misses out, lets see what they come up with?

The 2013 TB haul and I still missed out on a couple of books!

 

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



The Lakes Comic Festival!

 

Wow, well that was The Lakes last weekend or I should say The Lakes International Comic Art Festival to give it its full Sunday name, but 'The Lakes' will do just fine I think, although 'The Rain' would also be a close second!

 

Actually its maybe a bit unfair to mention the weather for a comic show, however when that show takes over the whole lake district market town of Kendal and involves a wee bit of walking around, the weather plays its part, more so than the normal convention centre set show that we're used to. However although the frequent drizzly rain did its best, it failed to dampen the spirits of attendees, guests, exhibitors and volunteers as we encountered probably the friendliest and best-run debut show we've ever attended - no mean feat when we recall the previous contenders.

 

The Comics Clock Tower & some of Kendal's Signage!

But its true, the enthusiasm of the organisers and volunteers was infectious and helped overcome the few teething problems and the vagrancy's of the local weather. Our location, The Comics Clock Tower was in fact Kendal's town hall and as such, slap bang in the centre and not one you could really miss and ideal for reaching the nearby Brewery Arts Centre where most of the talks and events were held. I'm reliably informed that it was pretty close to the various other exhibition sites, library and 'pop-up' shops too etc but we didn't venture too far from the Clock Tower so sadly missed out on much of what else was going on but that tends to happen when you're exhibiting, but for attendees there was a lot more to see to keep you fully occupied both fun packed days and evenings!

 

John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra take the stage

And that was true of Accent UK too, we had a fun, enjoyable time at the show and in Kendal, with this, like the recent Glasgow MCM show being accompanied by (some of ) our families which is good to all get away and share the comics fun. We were delighted to also be accompanied by long term friend Garen Ewing of Rainbow Orchid fame and I note that Garen has already posted his thoughts on the show here before scooting of to Essen in Germany for another show, busy man!

Dave, Garen and Col - add your own caption!

Its always fun sharing time with Garen and as he was also staying with us en-route before and after the show, we had plenty of time to catch up which was great and that's one thing that perhaps Dave and I have missed a bit in more recent comic shows, in terms of catching up properly with other comic folks. Too often its just a quick hello and wave then you're busy behind your table and before you know where you are, the shows over and you've still not had a decent chat with these seldom seen friends.

10 or even 5 years ago, there weren't that many comic shows in the UK so you could almost guarantee that 'everyone' would be there and you'd usually see them about town or in the same hotel etc but since those heady heights of Bristol and Birmingham, the UK has seen an explosion of shows so there's less need to chase round the country when you can just as easily stay closer to home, meaning though that the UK comics 'scene' has arguably become more splintered than it ever was, albeit independent comics are themselves possibly more accessible than ever before?



However, The Lakes had that good old fashioned feel of 'everyone' being there as you could hardly walk down the street without bumping into familiar comic faces in unfamiliar surroundings which was nice, seeing how many people had made the effort to travel to the show.

Still I heard of a possible 3 new UK shows next year and its unclear whether the UK can really support them all? Anyway The Lakes should have no such worries, confidently announcing its 2014 dates alongside its debut programming. With the promise of even better to come, it could really become the jewel in the UK comics' crown with the real potential to match France's revered Angouleme Festival which it is using as its model.




The view of the Clock Tower first floor from the gallery

While we happily give The Lakes a positive endorsement, it was difficult to say just how busy it was with actual attendees as judging purely from our Clock Tower view, it was steady footfall without being spectacular - bear in mind our last show was MCM Glasgow's amazing 20,000 crowd! - and sales, particularly during Saturday were slow but unusually almost busier on the Sunday and while overall, our sales were respectful, they were not the high numbers we'd recently encountered. That in some ways is to be expected in a new show when really everyone is investing in the shows future and of course there was a great choice available for the punter's pound - I won't list everyone here or all our shout outs as it would take too long, but have a look again at the Clock Tower's floorplan for the names of many great creators, publishers and dealers! 

Ivan and his Elsie and Mairi new book

One special 'shout-out' I will give is to Ivan Petrus, he of 'The Nieuport Gathering' book I picked up when first meeting him at the London Super Comic Convention earlier this year. Ivan had bravely driven from his home in Belgium to Kendal, which is a long, long way and he didn't have the best of journeys but accompanied by his very good friend Gert, he settled into the show and again turned out some wonderful full water coloured paintings in his books. Sadly although he had finished the next book in his World War 1 series, Elsie en Mairi, the English version is not yet available but I had a good look at the Dutch version Ivan had brought with him, which again looks great, so fingers-crossed I won't have too long to read it, if not I may just have to try and learn Dutch!



The Brewery Arts Centre

The Graphic Memoir panel

The Lakes was also special for the fact that both Dave and I took the opportunity to attend a couple of the talks, one each each day which was a rare treat with it being years since we'd done so but The Lakes programme was so good we couldn't resist! I saw the 'Graphic Memoir' panel with Al Davison, Katie Green, Nye Wright and Mary Talbot which was very good, moving and thought provoking in places with the panelists being very open with their experiences behind their very personnel stories and the reactions they'd encountered. Ably chaired by Nicola Streeten, the hour flew by very quickly.

 

Joe Sacco with Steve Bell (can you spot Tin Tin!) 

The following day was the Joe Sacco in conversation with political cartoonist Steve Bell event which I was very excited about, I am a huge admirer of Joe's work and was genuinely excited about the prospect of hearing him talk. I was pleased to again bump into Jeremy Briggs of comics news blog Down The Tubes (see Jeremy's own Kendal photo report here) amongst the packed audience and we greatly enjoyed the casual and revealing discussion between these two talented artists as they explored each others creative styles, deadlines and sensitivities in dealing with often challenging material. Their talk veered around different subjects in the same way that a conversation between two friends does and while always interesting I would have liked to hear a bit more about the nuts and bolts of Joe's techniques but I did learn that he kept very detailed journals which he carefully indexed, the art for a finished page usually takes him 2.5 days to complete and with a book like Footnotes in Gaza taking some 7 years to complete, he's now turning his attention to shorter form stories as seen in the recent Journalism collection.
 

One of Joe Sacco's amazing panoramas from his new Great War book

I was though very delighted to meet Joe at his signing afterwards and spend a few moments with him as he kindly signed my books, he was indeed as gracious as I'd hoped and, as far as I could see, made time for everyone who queued for him, a real gent and a real joy.

And that joy was mirrored around everyone I encountered at The Lakes, chatting to volunteers, strangers in event queues, signings, the locals and is a major factor in the success of the show. Despite the weather and the respectful sales, this was a timely reminder that a true comics festival is more about the experience rather than just numbers and on that level The Lakes is a major success and one we hope becomes a regular fixture of the UK calendar, so congratulations and thanks to all involved, see you next year please!



The Lakes Haul

Looking To The Lakes?

 

Here's another of my recent sketches, again I see showing someone looking wistfully into the middle distance! Well this was inspired by the old Victorian book covers for boys adventure stories that became very popular leading to the likes of (of course) Boys Own magazine, Union Jack, Chums and many, many more leading up to the popular range of boy's adventure comics from the mighty D.C Thomson!

Maybe though our friend above is looking for the way to The Lakes International Comic Art festival  this coming weekend in sunny Kendal, Cumbria. Getting quite excited about the show now and will be catching up with good friend, Garen Ewing (he of the wonderful Rainbow Orchid) later as he makes the trip up for the show, so an ideal chance for anyone not yet  acquainted with the adventures of Julius Chancer to purchase a copy and maybe, if you ask real nice, have it sketched and signed by the man himself!

The Complete Rainbow Orchid Collection

The Very Special Rainbow Orchid Supplement



Oh and  I would be remiss not to remind you that you can of course also catch up with all the latest Accent UK titles at The Lakes show including the recent Missing:Have You Seen The Invisible Man? which has just received another fine review thanks to Jeremy Briggs and those good folks at Down The Tubes. 

 

A fine example of Joe Campbell's artwork from the Dave West scribed story

 

New Shows! New Shows!

Well as you know us Accent UK guys don't get out very often (yeah right says Mrs M!) so we're pleased to confirm the final show schedule for the rest of this year!


Bryan Talbot's Lakes festival poster 

First up for us is the very exciting The Lakes International Comic Art Festival on 19th and 20th of October, which is starting to gain momentum since first being announced ages ago, it has a stunning guest list with festival founders, Bryan and Mary Talbot, Sean Phillips, being joined by literally a who's who of great comic creators such as Charlie Adlard (fresh from his Copenhagen trip!), Steve Bell, Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Hunt Emerson, Duncan Fegredo, David Lloyd, Posy Simmonds and the one I'm most excited about, Joe Sacco!

A great line up plus dozens of invited indie creators including Accent UK, Garen Ewing, Ivan Petrus, Black Hearted Press, Jenika Ioffreda, Owen (Thaddeus Mist) Johnson, Scar Comics and many more in a special Comics Clock Tower market place right in the centre of Kendal.

It's aiming for that wonderful European feeling with the whole town of Kendal embracing the event so why not give it a go, it promises to be a very different comic experience.

Next up, the first Saturday in November  (appropriately the 2nd), will be our second trip of the year to  Comica's Comiket in London. The show will return to its latest venue at Central St Martins College, close to Kings Cross station where we had a record selling fun day way back in April, see my wee report here (scroll down!).

No guests have been announced yet but as you'll read from previous shows, there's usually no shortage of willing artists to 'drop-in', soak up the atmosphere and maybe take part in the on stage drawing parade in one of the most relaxed comic shows of the year which seems to have become a welcome fixture on the Accent UK calendar.

Our final show of the year will surprisingly be.....Thought Bubble in Leeds on the 23rd & 24th November! I say surprisingly as you may recall that we were one of the many regulars who missed out when the tables went viral and sold out on twitter in 2 hours flat in February!.

The speed of the sell out surprised everyone and didn't go down well in the normally forgiving comics community, however the organiser's came good on their word to try and find a solution and recently added a third hall close to the main venue at Leeds Royal Armouries which we booked a table at while remaining on the 'reseve list' for the main New Dock Hall -  and we've just heard from the lovely Sarah that thanks to someone dropping out that we are indeed back in the main hall - phew!

We're obviously pretty chuffed with this and you have to admire the organiser's ambition in adding floorspace to an already packed arena, and we are grateful that our unbroken attendance at the festival since the very first 'town hall' show in 2007 will now continue.

With that final thought, Dave and I are already planning ahead for 2014 which promises to be even busier than this year's record breaking 11 shows. Our 'long list' has 18 different events and dates at the moment which is crazy, we obviously can't do them all so will sadly have to 'drop' some of our existing shows to make room for some exciting new ones.

Of course we better have some new books to present at these events so watch this space!