Bye, Bye Bowie

What words can convey what it means to lose a Hero? It's a cliche to say that someones music was the "soundtrack to my life" but in David Bowie's case it's as true for me as it is for so many others around the world who, like me are shocked by today's news.

It seems that I was always aware of his music but most likely it was Space Oddity and, truth be told, The Laughing Gnome that I first heard and made an impression on my very young mind. I do remember seeing the colourful Diamond Dogs gatefold LP sleeve on display in our small town's only record (and combined toyshop!) window, so that was in 1974, although I didn't 'get' that music particularly at the time, at only 9 years old I was too young.

For me it was 1980's wonderful Ashes to Ashes which finally allowed me to embrace Bowie, rushing out - as you did back then - to buy the album, Scary Monsters and Supercreeps on cassette which I played to death. This remains my favourite Bowie album, subsequently buying vinyl and CD versions which I still play, and famously also having a 'bubblegum' version which was a very brief craze in the early 1980's of popular records - sadly I no longer have this!

Once Scary Monsters had been absorbed, I was hungry and bought virtually his whole back catalogue including early Deram material with obscure but enjoyable tunes, such as Love You Till Tuesday, Come Buy My Toys, Little Boy Blue and the wonderful creepy Please Mr Gravedigger!

I followed his influences into Iggy, the Velvets and Lou Reed and championed his corner when most of my contemporaries didn't, moving on to the likes of Phil Collins, Rod Stewart etc when I proudly remained (and still do) on the edges of popular culture.

I was lucky enough to see Bowie live three times, following my own life moving through the UK, Serious Moonlight, Scotland 1983, Glass Spider, Wales 1987 and Heathen Tour, England 2002. I kept on with his music throughout with a slight lapse after Tin Machine and was delighted that recent releases, although more sporadic, were still quality and worthy of his talent. We even went to London for the excellent V&A retrospective a couple of years ago, which didn't disappoint.

I bought 'Blackstar' on Saturday so had only played it a couple of times before today's sad news, but it's lyrics, atmosphere and of course those preceding videos were obviously prophetic and it seems his parting gift to us all. I don't mind admitting that I cried when I heard the news but take comfort from the fact that I'm not alone and never will be as I still have his music to accompany my life, bye, bye Mr Bowie and thank you x

Accent UK Recognised!

 
One thing that Dave and I worry about at Accent UK Towers is whether we do enough to shout about our books and raise our talented creators profile, it ain't easy and not a terribly British thing to do, we usually take the view then that quality will (eventually/hopefully!) be recognised and someone else will raise our profile for us, which is why we're always grateful when someone takes the time to review our titles or give us a mention somewhere.

Imagine my surprise and delight therefore when catching up after the Christmas festivities, I see that word is getting out there and respected indie comics blogger and reviewer Patrick Scattergood, gives an honourable mention to Tales of WesterNoir #1 in his 2015 Best Comic Book Awards list, making Stephenson's Robot #1 his runner-up! Not only this but WesterNoir Book 5 (and Andy Bloor's Midnight Man) get honourable mentions in the Best Graphic Novel Awards category too!

Check out Patrick's comments and the fine company our book's keep in his always interesting blog, Curiosity Of a Social Misfit here and here!

Shortly after reading this Paul Miranda kindly drew our attention to Accent UK's inclusion in the Canada based Comix Asylum website's Directory of Current Comic Book Publishers! This is an unexpected recognition of our status as we find ourselves listed alongside Dave Sim's Aardvark, AdHouse, Abrams books and many more! Check out the full list on Comix Asylum's site here.

These in themselves may be 'small' things but when you're working in pretty much of a vacuum it is validation of sorts that your books are being seen and you are regarded as an established presence, so thanks to both Patrick and Paul and their websites and if you've enjoyed what you've seen this year just wait till you see what Accent UK has to offer in 2016!!

Comic Work in Progress!

Aha, well when it's quiet here it means that things are happening in the 'real' world and in my case, apart from work, Christmas and family etc I'm actually beavering away on producing my new Zulu comic strip to accompany the re-mastering of my classic Water Cart Rescue story.

I'll post some pictures of the new pencilled pages once I have them scanned in etc but in the meantime here's another wee look at the wonderful colour work that Matt Soffe has performed on the original black n white pages;

MCM London Indie Comics Interview

Aha stumbled on a wee interview that Dave and I gave at the vibrant MCM Comic-Con in London a few weeks back, worth a wee read on The Daily News Service website

Would you buy an indie comic from these fine chaps?

Thanks to Pat Lunn for the time and questions and his friend (sorry didn't catch the name!) for the recording and photos much appreciated. It seems the chaps did a few related interviews while at the show, under their British Comics Industry Spotlight banner, so follow the links for interesting reads from a variety of comics folks.

The Troll Lands!

Been lovely hearing people's feedback on Martin Flink's wonderful The Troll book now that it's shipping it's way across the world courtesy of Diamond Comic Distributors.

It's been well received at the comic festival and shows we've done since it's preview launch back in June in Martin's native Copenhagen but now everyone can appreciate it's silent beauty.
 

A happy Martin Flink at Copenhagen Comics festival

The Troll has been warmly embraced by all most recently and notably by Stephen Holland, of renowned British independent comic shop, Page 45 who, in today's review calls it;

"..an unexpected silent pleasure and treasure!"

Read Stephen's full review here and if you're in the Nottingham area make sure you visit Page 45 to grab yourself a copy! If though you're not local to Page 45, you can try your own retailer - whether UK, US or anywhere worldwide, providing they have a Diamond account. Just ask them to order a copy using Diamond's code AUG150933 with which re-orders are being taken.

Alternatively catch up with Accent UK at November's Thought Bubble comic festival in Leeds or check both this blog and here for our 2016 comic festival schedule which is taking shape.

A page of Martin's delightful art from The Troll!

A perfect Hallowe'en or Winter treat to yourself!

Desktop View!

Mmm what's this I wonder? Well there's a reason for my quietness and not just my memorable African adventure but work is continuing on my re-mastered Zulu comic! The finished book will not only feature the splendid re-coloured and re-lettered, Water Cart Rescue story, thanks to Mr Matt Soffe, but also a brand new bonus story, following the events at Rorke's Drift 1879!

Matt Soffe's colours on a panel from Zulu:Water Cart Rescue

I had of course hoped to be further on by now but I'm notoriously slow at this writing and drawing lark but there are a few other things bubbling away too so I'm hoping that soon, very soon, there will be several new things from yours truly appearing on the Accent UK table before too long, including a much cherished project, watch this space!

Me somewhere special 2 weeks ago!

 

Somewhere Special (from the other side)

Someone Special (shaded!)

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!