Thoughts on Bristol (long overdue)

Cast your collective minds back to the second week of May and the Bristol Comics Expo 2008. We were there and we had too much to drink but a grand time over all. What's more, as ususal, we promised a report of sorts that never really surfaced. Well, consider this a far too late, sorry excuse for said report.

First of all, we completely failed to take any pictures of the convention despite having our fully charged camera and several spare memory cards with us. We did however have an iMac in our hotel room with free internet connection (which we utilised only to listen to Last.fm really ;-/ ) and therefore can offer the following evidence of our visit.


Now obviously I can't really remember what happened very well now suffice it to say we met up with lots of lovely people including Oliver Redding, Matt Timson, James Fletcher, Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox, Al Ewing, Misako Rocks, Sonia Leong, Emma Vieceli, Ian Whelan, Al Nolan, Bob Byrne, Colin Mathieson, Dave West, Andy Bloor, and seemingly millions of others. Thanks to everyone who bought stuff and got stuff signed by us and, of course, to everyone who set us on to new, exciting things and/or bought us a drink.

We did come home with a massive haul of stuff as ususal and this was due in no small part to Mr. Mike McLean of Asylum Books and Games (a very fine establishment) who pressed a big pile of (mostly zombie related) comics into our hands as soon as we ventured near his stall. Though we were very grateful to receive them, it has to be said that many of these books (without naming names) were, to be perfectly honest, awful. The standard of zombie series out there is, sadly, pretty uniformally dreadful with occasional blips of good stuff and the odd true gem. Why do people think they can get away with just putting a load of crap out? Anyway, enough of that. Mike also saw to it that we got our Elephantmen and Goon fix so we really couldn't fault him. Top chap!

Other noteworthy items which traveled home with us included...

The Art Of Cake Diving- by Cliodhna (www.ztoical.com)

Rock and Roll Love- by Misako Rocks! (www.misakorocks.com)

The Hookah Girl and other true stories Vol 1- by Marguerite Dabaie (www.hookah-girl.margoyle.net)

Robots- by various (including us) (http://www.accentukcomics.com/)

Mister Amperduke a story in pictures- by Bob Byrne (www.clamnuts.com)

Sancho the Life and Death of Jose Maria Garcia- by Alan Nolan and Ian Whelan (www.20000-leagues.com)

Duke Etrange's World of Weird One Step Beyond- by various (with us, again). (Nova X-press)

Omnivistascope Model 4- by paul scott and various (www.omnivistascope)

Marraquai The Forest and the city- by Ben Disckson and Joames McKay (www.scarcomics.com)

Other favorites included Finland Finland Finland- by Philip Barnett Bevis Musson and Tony Lee (http://mrtonylee.blogspot.com/) and Al Ewing presents- Iron Man noble defender of fascism in "hippy Trouble"- by Al Ewing (beatgirlcomics@gmail.com).

*PHEW* So then, there you go; we did go to Bristol and we had a great time and we loved meeting both new folk and old friends and the comics were better than ever.

Here's hoping we see you at the next one, or perhaps Leeds or Birmingham? Cool, see you there.

Comic News Insider Podcast Interview

We met many, may very nice people while at the Bristol comics Expo last weekend (pseudo report coming soon, although we did forget to take any photographs :-/ ), one of whom was Mr Jimmy Aquino of the Comic News Insider. Jimmy did an interview with us (as well as one with our good mate Paul Cornell of Doctor Who, Wisdom and now Captain Britain fame) which can now be heard at http://cni.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=339129
Amazingly, we don't even sound all that hung over...

Accent UK's Robots ready to order

Accent UK's 2008 anthology Robots will be launched this coming weekend at the Bristol Comics Expo but , if you're not going to be there, you can now order a copy online at...

www.accentukcomics.com

As per ususal, this year's anthology features just about anyone who's anyone in the UK small press scene (oh, and us as well...) and looks to be even bigger and better than last year's Zombies!

Get ordering!

New comics and signings coming up soon.

Coming this week from Dynamite Entertainment: The Darkness vs. Eva- Daughter of Dracula #2 (23rd April USA, 24th UK and Europe).

"This crossover of dark and demonic dimensions continues as Eva and Jackie Estacado are drawn together by mysterious forces and when they meet - darkness meets darkness and you can bet there's gonna be a fight"

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As you probably already know, the Bristol Comics Expo is next month, running from the 9th until the 11th. It's probably the single most important yearly event in UK comics and, naturally, we will be there (along with pretty much everyone else involved in British comics).


We'll be signing both Saturday and Sunday from 1-2pm and generally lurking around the Accent UK table for much of the rest of the weekend. Please come and say hello and maybe get you hands on a signed Raise the Dead hardback or two. ;)

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Before Bristol however, we will be doing a little signing back in Leah's hometown of Northampton at Phoenix Comics.


The signing will take place on the afternoon of Thursday the 8th of May at
Phoenix Comics
29 Abington Square,
Northampton,
Northamptonshire
NN1 4AE
UK

If you're in the area then please do pop in and say hello.

A very busy few weeks.

Over the last few weeks we seem to have been up to all sorts and now that we're into June it's time to stop, take a breath and, well, Blog...

Over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of May we missed the Bristol Comic Expo (for the first time in something like four years) because we had a family wedding to attend.

Lots of people have since informed us that is was the best Bristol ever (which, we hope, had nothing to with our not being there).

Lots of images and even videos (isn't modern technology marvelous?) of the convention can be found here, here and here (and probably loads of other places):
http://flingk.com/10dh84jz
http://flingk.com/15fei7fi
http://www.ndcomicsmag.com/bristolcon/

On Saturday the 19th of May Leah and I headed down/over to Stoke on Trent where our old chum Shane Oakley had somehow managed to wangle us a day as extras in a zombie film called Out of Space. Ostensibly, this was so that I could write a piece for www.RevenantMagazine.com about the film and whole experience (which will be appearing online very soon) but it was also a very good laugh. Very nice popping into the pub over the road for last orders still dressed as zombies afterwards too. The bar man's reaction: "Alright, you doin' a film are you?".

The wife and myself (with photoshop enhanced eyes)

Sickly Suzanne and Icky Oakley

Sunday the 27th of May saw us over in the historic market town of Market Weighton for Giant Bradley Day which I will be writing an article about that will hopefully appear in Fortean Times during the next few months.


In addition to all the historical giant stuff (which I'm saving for the article, obviously) not only did we see what was professed to be the world's biggest garden spade...

...we also had a dream opportunity to take loads of photos of classic cars and produce the following Coop style post (with a uniquely British twist)...



That's right my friends, Morris Minors by the dozen. Look at the engine on this little bugger; that's an Austin designed 0.8 L overhead valve A-Series, unless I'm very much mistaken. A top speed of 63 mph. What a beauty, but I digress.

In addition to all the above mentioned shenanigans we've also completed (this very evening... or is that morning now?) the script for the very first issue of a brand new Dynamite Entertainment/Top Cow crossover series. Details coming soon.

Oh and don't forget, Raise the Dead #3 is out this week so make sure you pick up a copy before it sells out (did that sound too cocky?).

That's it I think. Time for my supper.

J.