Belfast 'catch up' comic report

Okay been busy, busy these last few weeks and sadly no room to properly catch up with many of the fun things we've been up to, so I'll stick to the recent comic shows attended, starting with Belfast!

A Belfast view from City Hall

The trip for the new MCM show there was amazing, I didn't expect Belfast to be such a great wee city nor the people to be so friendly and really into their comics. It's strange as, despite being fairly well travelled, Belfast just wasn't on my radar at all and if it wasn't for the MCM show I doubt I'd ever think about visiting. That's me being honest as growing up in the 70's you have a negative view of the place which, now having been there, I feel really guilty about. I'm sure, like most cities, it still has problems but don't let that put you off visiting its got much to offer.
 

Colin n Dave try to hide the fact they'd not packed the AUK banner!

Dave, as always, did a timely report on the show here, so I'll just add that, yes we did have fantastic sales, second only to the recent MCM London, so were pleased to discover a new audience. Special mentions to MCM regulars Jenika and Jeremy Biggs for also making the trip and being good company and also new friends, Leeann Hamilton, Danny from Uproar Comics (The Voice of Derry!), 2000AD's own P J Holden and Patrick Brown, whom I've long admired his work since his Tamara Knight days and was chuffed to catch up with his long running historical series, The Cattle Raid of Cooley and many more. It seems there's a really healthy indie comic scene in Northern Ireland, although maybe more creators were from Derry than Belfast?

Paddy Brown himself!

Jeremy Biggs surveys his dwindling stock...

The talented Cool Bean lady herself - Leeann Hamilton

Special thanks to our old friend (the original) Jeremy Briggs who had flown home to his native Belfast for the show and cordially gave us an informative tour of the city and introduced us to the delights of its Red Panda Chinese restaurant - see Jeremy's Down The Tubes reports here & here.

When Jeremy's collide - Jeremy Biggs meets Jeremy Briggs!!

Several titles sold out including these last copies of Zulu!

The show had a great atmosphere with many families in attendance and everyone seemed so upbeat that Belfast finally had its own big comic show. Exhibiting there had a great sense of comradery that you don't always get at the bigger shows (although with over 16,000 attendees this was clearly still big!). There was lots of banter amongst punters and exhibitors themselves and both Dave and I found ourselves moonlighting at other folk's tables to gave them a break and there was much sharing of food and coffee runs etc. It reminded Dave and I of the early Bristol shows when you pretty much knew everyone and supported each other and its a credit to both the organisers and the people of Northern Ireland that this big show had the same fun informal feeling. We'll be back!

Dave moonlighting at Jeremy's Subversive comics table

Col moonlighting at Leeann's Cool Bean table

My Belfast haul - all books not just Irish creators but Irish based stories!

Belfast Bound...

Very happy to be heading off to Belfast later this week for the inaugural MCM Comic-Con this  weekend. Its been held at the King's Hall with full details here on MCM's site.

As I've been reporting, Dave and I under our Accent UK disguise have really embraced the MCM shows these last couple of years starting with the local Manchester, then Glasgow and Birmingham culminating in the recent London extravaganza.

These 'multi-media' shows are good fun and exceptionally well attended and combined with more 'traditional' comic shows like Glasgow Comic-con, Thought Bubble and the like give us a great platform for our books. We approach each show differently which (usually) works in improving sales and also keeps things fresh and exciting for us.
 

Although I've not seen Game of Thrones, I understand its a great programme and is filmed not far from Belfast and I think James Cosmo, (of GoT, Highlander, Braveheart and others fame) will be there. Actually I spotted Mr Cosmo at both the recent Birmingham and London shows and a thoroughly decent bloke he seems to be. Strangely amongst the thousands of fans around he didn't seem to recognise me from our short chat in my hometown Stonehaven some 10 odd years ago, mind you I didn't have the beard then! 

So its off to Northern Ireland for the very first time and we've been having fun wangling with the baggage allowances and the like to see how many of which titles we can bring with us, sadly I don't think they'll all fit into a single suitecase......

Rabbit Rabbit - Record Sales in London!

 
We had high hopes for last weekend's MCM show in London and it didn't disappoint, record crowds - over 100,000 reported! - and record sales made it a show to savour!
 

Mr Stay puft shares Accent UK's joy!

Held at its usual Excel centre in London's docklands the shown has continued to grow since our 2010 visit. If I recall that show had around 16,000 attendees, a record at that time, but although we did well, the travel down from Manchester by train, carrying stock and bags ultimately put us off as we concentrated on 'purer' comic shows instead.

The truth is though that while comics are not the main attraction at MCM events, the comic village is an integral part and enjoys its share of the huge footfall so the opportunity is there to reach a new and potentially huge audience. Our successes at recent Manchester and Glasgow MCM's had tempted us south again and while we were a little nervous after our disappointing Birmingham experience, the vibe was good coming into the show.

These were the Saturday lunchtime queues - still huge!

'Bravely' I had decided to drive to London, the first time I've ever ventured beyond the M25 by car and while I had a few moments, Dave's borrowed sat-nav, voiced by Aussie Bruce saw me through. I all but missed the Friday setting up slot, but was pleased to find the venue and parking relatively easy. Caught up with our good friend Chris and his son on Friday for an enjoyable Mexican tea.

We then arrived nice and early at the venue on Saturday morning to properly set up. This was about an hour before the show opened and already there were big crowds forming, so much so that when Dave and Jemma arrived later by train, they had a 45 minute wait just to find the exhibitor's queue!

Anyway we didn't have much time for chatting as the show got busier and busier with us enjoying steady and brisk sales all weekend long, comfortably beating our highest ever MCM total by the end of the first day and with a new all record high the following day!

Chas n Dave man the stall - Rabbit Rabbit!

As the crowds were so big and diverse, many folks were newish to comics or at least new to indie comics but willing to have a look at what the comic village had to offer among its 200+ tables! We were delighted to find that all our stock sold pretty equally, not just the new stuff. Zulu was again very popular and quickly sold out on Saturday afternoon!

The re-jigged stall on Sunday morning with the last few Zombies, Wolfmen & WesterNoir 1's

The Sunday started slowly as it tends to do before again gathering pace with Man of Glass, Zombies 2,  Wolfmen 1 and WesterNoir 1 soon selling out along with our older Accent UK packs. We of course found it hard to sell Wolfmen 2 and WesterNoir's 2-4, after selling out of their first issues otherwise I'm sure we would have sold even more. As it was, Sunday was about 2/3rds of Saturday's sales and overall we enjoyed our highest ever show total of books sold in some 12 years of exhibiting, no mean feat!

Sadly Dave wouldn't let me spend Accent UK's takings on a new car....

The scale of the show does make life difficult in terms of getting out and about and looking round so although the Comic Village was huge we only had a glimpse of some of the stalls. Delighted though to have familiar faces as neighbours in John Maybury, Siobhan Hillman of Spacebabe 113 fame and talented brothers, Art and David Goodman,  who we've known for a long time. this gave me the perfect opportunity to pick up their Oscar Charles Drayton newspaper strip collection which they'd all contributed to. I'd heard about it some time ago but not had a chance too see the finished collection, in the style of a scrapbook, for myself, its an intriguing, unique and rewarding read.

Interior page of 'Oscar Drayton's' Newspaper collection

Behind us was the irrepressible Jim Alexander of Planet Jimbot fame, who I seem to be following round these days. On our other side was the crazily creative Cristian Ortiz and his wife Alice who worked incredibly hard at the show selling his Golden Campaign books and prints and were also rewarded with great sales.  Thankfully with so many familiar and friendly faces around us, life was never dull during the shows surprisngly regular lulls and time passed really quickly. I did also manage quick hellos to Gary Erskine, Sean Azzopardi, (one of the few comicy folks I can talk football with, even if he is a Chelski fan!), Dave O'Connell and a couple more but not many such was the nature of the show. Shout outs though to Accent UK contributor Danny Hayles who with writer Gareth Wood was tabling his intriguing new Atlantis comic and also to Lyndon White and Rudra Purkayastha who were launching their Cosmic Fish book first discussed at Comica last year.

Dandy Island's impressive Funko collection!

We enjoyed a bit of socialising on the Saturday with Chris and again long time friends Sumyra and Darren of Lucky Target Comics, including some unforgettable Greek music - Chas n Dave it wasn't! -, but we were all too sensible or tired for a heavy night after a long day and more to come on the Sunday.

Even the Johnny Depps couldn't remember the words to 'Snooker Loopy'!

Er, 'Snooker Loopy, nuts are we?', no thats not right......

That said it was really a great show for us (see Dave's MCM thought here) and although we didn't get to see much ourselves we're delighted to have found so many new readers for our books so, all being well, will make MCM London one of our regular shows - next stop MCM Belfast!

My MCM Comics haul

A Corner of An African Field...

I will post soon about my wonderful tour of Zululand but first, on this special date of 15 May, I wanted to share something totally unexpected that we found in a small lonely cemetery across the Buffalo River, not far from Rorke's Drift;

The small cemetery containing civilian and 1880's British soldier's graves

The large headstone of the grave on the right immediately stood out for me;

 Here's a closer look at the inscription;

'Mathieson' is my surname, (complete with the rarer 'i' spelling) and 'Alexander' is both my late father and my elder brother's name. You can see therefore why this particular 'find' really affected me.

 

Rather touchingly the headstone also bore the message " This stone is erected by a few of his friends".

At the moment I'm not aware of a direct family link with this particular Alexander Mathieson but the "Jock" confirms that he was of course Scottish. His age was 53 when he died in 1903, so sometime between 1850 and then he'd likely emigrated to South Africa and ended up in this remote spot.

Had he witnessed the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 or had he made his journey after that and the later Boer War conflicts? At this stage I don't know and it won't be easy finding out but, seeing 'Jock's' grave all the way out here close to Rorke's Drift with the infamous iSlandwana hill in the background was really quite moving. To think that I may have a family connection so close to the sites that I have been fascinated with for much of my life is really quite something.

Jock's headstone looks towards iSlandwana hill

I of course wanted to show my respect and together with a local flower, placed a small cross on Jock's grave which Kate from our group had kindly and selflessly given me.

Today is the 15th May, the anniversary of his death so, whether we're related or not Jock, I'll be thinking of you, rest in peace.

Out in Africa!

Wish Me Luck!

Bannockburn: On Dangerous Ground!

Wonderful panoramic panel of Conor Boyle's Battle of Bannockburn artwork!

Just a quick mention of an unexpected comic bonus from my Dundee Comic Expo trip when avoiding our usual motorway service station stops, we instead stopped for lunch at the newly refurbished Bannockburn visitor centre near Stirling.

Mighty impressive the centre looked, befitting for the forthcoming 700th anniversary and is one we will defiantly plan to visit properly when we have time, maybe as part of this year's Homecoming festival?. However my wee foray into the gift shop provided unexpected dividends when I discovered that the much anticipated Battle of Bannockburn graphic novel had been released and was on sale!

My excitement stemmed not just from my natural Scottish historical and comic connections but from the fact that the book's art is provided for by the talented and very good friend of Accent UK, Conor Boyle! I first heard about the book over a year ago from Conor and his wife, Lizzie, (of Disconnected Press fame!) and had short updates as we bumped into each other at last year's comic shows. I've not seen them so far this year so this was indeed an unexpected find and one i look forward to reading.

The graphic novel written by historian Fiona Watson comes partly in colour and 3D no less and can be purchased direct from the National Trust for Scotland's website here. Good luck to all involved with its production.

Moments in Dundee!

Dan's surprised that Colin's much shorter in real life!

Aye, Aye fit like? Oops sorry gone 'all Doric' after being home for the Dundee Comics Expo - that's what happens when Gentleman Dave isn't around with his Earl Grey tea!

Anyway I'm glad to report that the Dundee Comic Expo was a good one with decent sales for Accent UK, actually selling more books than the year before so quite happy. This may have been down to my son Adam's keen promotional skills as he joined me on the table for the first time since last year's amazing Glasgow MCM, but probably was more to do with the joint manga/anime event taking place across the quadrant, Dee-Con, which attracted big crowds which were shared across both venues.

A glimpse of the Dee-Con  crowd after the queue had gone down!

Actually next to the beast that was Dee-Con, the Comic Expo was a modest affair with less exhibitors than the year before and no 'big' comic names in the way that Bryan Talbot, David Lloyd, Gary Erskine (and others) had previously provided. There wasn't a huge attendance but rather a steady flow of folk which made for a nice relaxed stream of browsers and buyers. Many were new to Accent UK but there were also returning readers, so the show was great value to us in showcasing our books north of the Border.

The obligatory 'stand by your table' picture!

The University of Dundee's Chris Murray and Phil Vaughan deserve great praise in organising and setting up the Comics Expo. They ensured that the cream of Scotland's independent comic creators were there in abundance including Black Hearted Press, Planet Jimbot, Rough Cut Comics and Team Girl Comics alongside D C Thomson's Commando and Glasgow's Plan B shop and others. It's a shame that their fine programme of talks and panels wasn't better attended but that was probably just a symptom of the casual flow of visitors into the expo making things seem a little sparse at times.

Jim Alexander holding fort

Being based 'doon sooth' I'm still finding my way round the Scottish comics scene so was pleased to have time to chat to many of the other exhibitors especially the likes of Jim Alexander who I've met a few times now and like me had his son there to help him out!

Colin and Treehouse Comic's Andy Herd do a bit of neighbourly sketching

Our table neighbours were new to me, Treehouse Comics, a recently established Dundee based collective who have already released their second anthology title, called of course Treehouse issue 2! They were a fine friendly bunch with 4 or 5 of their creators in attendance playing table tag. It was enjoyable chatting to them and hearing their enthusiasm and I'll be very interested to see what they come up with in the future.

Can you tell what it is yet?

I also caught up with Graham Neil Reid and Jeremy Briggs, Allan Lowson (of Back Street Heroes biker magazine fame), and a few others which is always fun and another valuable part of these shows. Adam's help meant that I wasn't stranded behind the table as I'd largely been the year before but the friendly relaxed atmosphere encouraged lots of conversations but maybe that's just the Scottish friendly nature?

Kirsteen, Colin and Winnie!

To my delight, my Zulu:Water Cart Rescue comics again sold well and I was even asked to do a special Zulu themed sketch of Winnie the Pooh which I enjoyed doing - thanks Kirsteen! Actually my Zulu comic stocks are now very much depleted so I am seriously considering a reprint to bring both issues together in a single volume? Of course I also desperately need to produce something new which an event like this always inspires me to do, so let's see what I come up with. I think maybe that July's Glasgow Comic-Con is a realistic deadline to aim for finishing one of my in progress projects....

Anyway thanks again to the Dundee Comics Expo team, I hope that they were as pleased with the day and that it becomes the regular comic event that Dundee deserves. Thanks also to Adam for his fine company and for taking the day's photos!

Zulu Pooh reporting for duty Sah!