Leonieblog: Brighton Comics Expo

Photos should be up soon, we used a 'proper' camera, so everything is being developed. Just like in ye olden days.
Saturday highlights: Seeing old friends, playing with Slaines sword, catching up on what everone was up to, meeting a dalek, going for a meal with some other small pressers and hanging out in the bar.
Read on for full review.

Having set off at 4 in the morning, we were unstandably groggy when we reached Brighton.
The hotel we were staying in was easy to find and best of all, it was also where the event was being held, so it was a hassle free weekend!
We went to one of Brightons many bagel shops for some food before heading in to the convention itself.
The hotel was an inspired choice of venue. The function room was huge and very airy with good lighting which is unusual for any comics related event. There were two floors of stuff and everything was really well sign posted. Children were also well catered for, which is really important as the industry needs to hold on to its younger audience and conventions are usually very much for adults.
The Dr.Who stand, which was opposite the main door, had a ful size dalek which could move about and talk. Andy was keen to have his photo taken with it, which worried me as I remebered the Bristol con a few years ago where he posed with R2D2 and managed to break off part of it's head somehow (there is a picture of the exact moment on the net somewhere). Luckily, the dalek survived and went on to conquer the ground floor but was unable to conquer the upper level due to the stairs.
Imagine how worried I was when we got to the stall with a full sized replica of Slaines sword (made out of steel, this was a proper replica not a mantel piece sword). Thankfully Andy didn't accidently murder anyone, but he did knock over their stand of mint condition Transformer comics. I wanted to run away, but Andy stood by while the guy checked for damages. At £30 each, Andy was pretty relieved to hear that they were all okay.
There were a lot of very snazzy small press stalls, all of which seemed to have a range of toys or toy prototypes to go with their comics, but I guess that's the way the market is going these days.
Artists there included: Al Davison, Bryan talbot, Mark Buckingham and Glenn Fabry (when we passed Glenn's stall Andy said "he isn't bad". Maybe they can quote that on his next collected edition.)
My five recommended titles of the year reviews got into the special expo edition of Comics International ( I reviewed Malcy Duff, James Kochalka, Doug TenNapel and two Darwyn Cooke books). Redeye 4 gave excellent reviews of two of my comics, which I was really happy with!
I brought some sample artwork from the graphic novel I am working on. I left some with Knockabout comics and Turnaround Publishing services. Everyone seemed to like the colours and the frayed panel edges. Gary Northfield noted that it's very different from my other work, which is very true.
Here's the news round up: Apparently Brodie's law has been picked up or optioned as movie rights or some such thing and Modern Toss has been picked up by Channel 4. Gary Northfield is hoping to move Derek the sheep into animation and Dave West is moving into doing more writing in future. Panini are going to start publishing a range of graphic novels, sounds like they will do a mix of styles and formats.
We went out for a meal in the evening with a group of small press pals, including Andy Richmond and Shane Chebsy who launched their new horror anthology this weekend. Selling from Shane's smallzone stall, they didn't have a very well positioned table, with most people walking straight past their aisle, which was very unfortunate.
Then we went back to the bar, which is always the best part of any convention. Saw Mark Buckingham again, which was lovely as we haven't seen him in years. Fables is going very well for him and he's incredibly busy but very happy, which is always good to hear. Also chatted to Bryan Talbot, who was giving two talks this weekend and congratulated Dez on hosting such a good event. At least, I that's what I meant to do. In my drunken state I probably just slurred something and then fell over. Missed out on the screening of the Alan Moore movie, but we were having too much fun to care.

Leonieblog

Brighton Comics Expo - Saturday

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