Comics Up North

(click on the flyer to veiw full size)

The site is only just online but keep checking www.lancastercomics.co.uk for breaking news.

J.

Bristol Comics Expo 2006

We had a very good time at Bristol this year, so much so that the con just seemed to fly by (not that it usually drags or anything).

This was the first year that we've ever had our own table in the main hall and it showed us a totally different side to the festival; one which involved sitting down (which always helps with the hangover).

The Expo was the fourth con we've done in so many months so it was also kind of the "last gig" on our little tour (which took us to Manchester, Dublin and Copenhagen previously).





We were stationed next to the Control Arms table and did our best to try to get people to take part in the Million Faces Petition. You should even be able to see our contributions (and all of those made over the weekend) in their fully searchable Gallery very soon.

We were flogging Albions #1 to #5 plus signature cards (signed by us and Dave Gibbons) for £2.50 a pop and managed to raise a grand total of £130 for Oxfam (which will also go towards the Control Arms Campaign).

Our good friends from Accent UK were there (Dave West and Leon Hewitt pictured) flogging there wares.
Their Monsters Anthology (in which Leah and I achieved our dream of working with Dave Hitchcock for the first time) seemed to be selling very well on Saturday but, I supect, that their sales might have been even better on Sunday after Dave won a well deserved Eagle Award for his fantastic series Springheeled Jack.

All in all it was pretty much the best Bristol con we've ever been to.
We had a brilliant time and got to hang about with tonnes and tonnes of cool folks like Paul Cornell, Matt Timson, Dave Gibbons, Paul Scott, Oliver Redding and Mary, Al Davison, Al Nolan and Ian Whelan, Andrew Sumner, Boo and Gemma Cook (in a kind of constantly running past each other and saluting way), Al Ewing, the mighty Lew Stringer, etc, etc, etc

Thanks to everyone who made this year so special (an apologies to the many whose names I've missed out).
Shall we say, same time again in 2007?

A few random images from the con.

Colin Mathieson, Leah and the award winning Mr. Hitch (congratulations Dave).

Barry Renshaw of Engine Comics and Voodoo Macbeth creator Norris Burroughs.

Lorenzo of Studio Blink Twice hard at work.

Mike Molcher of The End Is Nigh and one of his boyz in full effect...or something.

The Future Quake / Death Camp Jones crew. Would you buy a comic from these people?

Everyone always says what a nice bloke Gary Millidge is but Chris Staros knows the truth and now so do you.

The collage that the ridiculously talented Borin Van Loon did for us.
What the hell do you mean you dont know who he is? Get over to his site now!

I'll follow this post up with one about all the cool comics and mags we managed to grab at a later date as it's taken me all bloody day to do this one.

For more Bristol 2006 reports check out:
http://lewcomix.tripod.com/id7.html
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg

J.

Updated look for the Blog

Inspired by MacPherson, Barkman and Mauer's shiny new Schlauchthaus Blog I have re-jigged our Blog once again.

Hopefully, it should look and work better and be more easily understood than my first, rather ham fisted, modification.

We're off to the Bristol Comics Expo as of noon tomorrow. Hope to see you there.

Cheers

J.

Bristol Con Charity Events

Only 6 days to go...

Click on the screeshot (above) to visit the Comic Expo's charity page. 

J.

Copenhagen International Comics Festival 2006

We had a fantastic time in Copenhagen last weekend rubbing shoulders with the likes of Gilbert Shelton, José Villarubia, Peter Snejbjerg, Jason, Andrew Wildman, Simone Lia and Hugleikur Dagsson (to name but a few).

The convention was easily the best we've ever been to and other event organisers should get in touch with Kim Jensen, Jan Robert Andersen and company to learn a few things about con running.

Thanks to everyone who we met, hung out with and got far too drunk with.

If you'll have us back we'll be there!

(click on the images below to enlarge them)


Jan delivering his speech at the reception on friday.


Colin, Leah and Chris behind the Accent UK table.


Leah and me ready to sell, sell, sell!!!


Steve Bissette being interviewed.


Marv Wolfman getting a grilling.


Teddy Kristiansen and Warren Ellis answering a few questions.


Hugleikur Dagsson signing copies of the sick filth he peddles as entertainment.


José Villarubia signing and sketching.


the con in full swing.

J.

The End Is Nigh #3 Coming Soon!

The latest issue of tEiN will be launched at the Bristol Comics Expo one week from tomorrow. #3 looks set to be the best issue yet, dealing with asteroids, alien invasions, unexplained falls of deadly foreign objects and much, more!

One thing's for sure: Armageddon it! *groan*

Visit www.endisnigh.co.uk for more info.

J.

New look MooreReppion.com

Yes, we finally got our new look website online yesterday evening and we've been online tinkering with it ever since (is that really the time?).

Who knew that Firefox was so much better than Internet Explorer? Well, we suspected it but we had no idea that what looks great in FF would look so poo in IE.

We're working on it.
Constructive criticisms are welcome.

We do have a Shop now though. :)


Click on the screen shot to visit the new site.

J.

Monsters Anthology Launch

Accent UK's "Monsters" anthology goes on sale from the 28th of April.
Check out their new website at www.accentukcomics.com for more info.

J.

Dont Forget: Million Faces Petition @ Bristol

Next month at the Bristol Comics Expo, we'll be stationed in the main hall next to the Control Arms table offering our support to The Million Faces Petition.

About The Campaign
Lack of controls on the arms trade is fuelling conflict, poverty and human rights abuses worldwide. Every government is responsible. The Control Arms campaign is asking governments to toughen up controls on the arms trade.



Our Million Faces petition is collecting photos and self portraits from around the world to reach our goal of one million faces by June 2006. We will use these faces to send a powerful, global message of support to the world's governments for an International Arms Trade Treaty.

Basically, there are two ways you can get involved in The Million Faces Campaign:

1. If you're going to be attending the Bristol Comics Expo then all you need to do is drop by our table or the Control Arms table and pick up a special Expo Action Card. Sketch yourself a quick self portrait (or take a little time and create a masterpiece) and hand the card in to the Control Arms people.
2. If you're not going to be at Bristol in May then visit www.controlarms.org and upload your own self portrait to add your face to the petition.

All portraits will be uploaded and displayed on the Control Arms website in a fully searchable gallery. Who knows, you're picture might end up next to some of comics biggest names.

J.

New Stuff Coming Soon...

Lot's of new Moore & Reppion stuff coming your way very soon:

We received out boxes of Albion #4 a little while ago and we couldn't be happier with it. #4 will be on the shelves in the USA on the 12th and here in the UK on the 13th (un-lucky for some).
Visit http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=4256 for more details.

The Accent UK "Monsters" anthology, featuring a story written by Leah and myself and drawn by the brilliant Dave Hitchcock as well as a cover by Shane Oakley, will be launched at the Copenhagen International Comics Festival at the end of the month.

We got the lettered pencils through from Th3rd World for our Space Doubles story drawn by Jeremy Dale. Which looks like it's going to be fantastic! (watch this space for a release date).

The Dark Horse Book Of Monsters (featuring a story by us and Timothy Green) should be out in June/July as should Strange Attractor Journal Three which contains an article penned by yours truly.

At present we're working away on our first Dynamite Entertainment project, issue one of which should be in the bag before the end of this month.

Busy, busy, busy.

J.

Steel Claw Competition Result

And the winner is...

Darkglobe.

Congratulations! The book is on it's way.

Images Of Liberation: Comics, Cartoons & Graphics

Last Friday we received an email from Mr. Richard De Angelis informing us of an article which he has produced based on a presentation he gave in New York City last year at the Grassroots Animal Rights Conference.

The article is about the use of art, particularly comic strips and comic books, to convey animal liberation philosophy. Comic series mentioned in the piece include Animalman, WE3, Bloom County and our very own Wild Girl.
We are very proud indeed to have been cited in such a fascinating and thought provoking article and Mr. De Angelis has very kindly granted us permission to link to a dowloadable PDF of the piece:
http://homepage.mac.com/vicnrich/FileSharing1.html

The piece totally blew us away so we emailed back to let Richard know and ask him more about how he got into doing all of this.

"I was asked to give the presentation in the first place because of my work for the Doris Day Animal Foundation as director of its Comics for Compassion program, which produces superhero comics that promote the humane treatment of animals in the hopes of inspiring young readers to adopt an ethic of compassion toward all beings.
We produced Superman for the Animals through DC Comics in 2000 and worked with Marvel Comics on the story "Can They Suffer?" in 2003, which appeared in X-Men Unlimited #44. If you would like to learn more about this program, please visit www.ddaf.org/comicsforcompassion

While "Images of Liberation" was my attempt to educate animal rights activists about the artistic merits of comic books, I had previously tried to educate comic book scholars about the merits of animal rights philosophy through a paper I wrote for the Spring 2005 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA) entitled "Of Mice and Vermin: Animals as Absent Referent in Art Spiegelman's Maus." If you are interested, you can read it at http://homepage.mac.com/vicnrich/FileSharing2.html"

Who would have thunk it eh? Intelligent people reading comics, What's the world coming to?

Thank you very, very much for all of your work Richard and we'll definitley be looking into the whole comics for compassion thing ourselves.

J&L

Dublin - And finally...

Right, here's the final pic from the emerald isle: Pádraig standing infront of just part of his massive graphic novel collection.


Saint Pádraig of Méalóid

Also, we forgot to mention the two trades and couple of issues of Freak Show that we picked up from Rob Curley while we were there. Good stuff.

That's the end (phew, only took one week to post it all!).

J.

P-Con III - Tales Of A Long Weekend In Dublin: Monday

On Monday Pádraig and Deirdre were kind enough to take us on a walking tour of Dublin despite being knackered from the con and an early awakening by cats.


The statue of the late great Phil Lynott on Harry Street.


Bloody tourists.


"I don't care how full of Hare Krishna food you are. Walk faster you English eejit!"




The amazing statue of Oscar Wilde in Archbishop Ryan Park.

After wandering around, discovering that most Museums in Dublin are closed on a Monday (who knew?) and eating cake we met up with Brian and a lovely lady called Bob. After eating a lovely Korean meal (yes, lots of eating; mine was a big bamboo thing full of seafood) we all headed of to the preview screening of V For Vendetta but, that's another story.

Back at Pádraig & Deirdre's house later that night...


"Just take the bloody photo will ya?"


"Arrgh! The flash!"

All in all we had an absolutley wonderful time in Dublin; everyone made us feel very welcome and looked after us brilliantly. P-Con was fantastic (and will be again next year) and we'll be heading back over to Ireland as soon as we have an excuse.
Hugest possible thanks to everyone and especially to Pádraig, Deirdre, Ian and Nicola.

(Note: Blogger has been behaving weirdly for the last couple of days and won't let me upload our final picture from Dublin at the moment so I'll sneak that last little gem in at a later date.)

J.

P-Con III - Tales Of A Long Weekend In Dublin: Sunday

12:00: Is It About a Bicycle? Flann O’Brien: Ireland’s Master Storyteller
With Leah, Pádraig and Nicholas Whyte. Which went very, very well despite Leah's having only re-read half of The Third Policeman in preperation.

14:00: Comics Are the New Black,Graphic Novels Are the New Rock’n’Roll
With Leah and myself and Bob Neilson. Very interesting and much less pessimistic than Saturday's comics panel.

15:00: The Other Inkling: C S Lewis
With Susanna Clarke, Caroline Symcox and Colin Smythe. Proved very fascinating indeed.

16:00 SF & F Pictionary
The boy's team won (thanks largely to my expert rendering of "Wind In The Willows" I think).

After the raffle came the closing ceremony which was very moving as Mr. Pádraig Ó Méaloid announced his retirement from con running and handed the reigns of P-Con over to Mr. Frank Darcy. A few tears were shed but it was genrally a fittingly happy end to a fantastic convention.


Deirdre, Fluffcthulhu and Leah after the ceremony.


Fluffcthulhu, Leah and Juliet.


Leah, Susanna, Pádraig and Brian in the lobby before we left for an Indian meal.

J.

Fake Autographs On V Posters...again!!

Yup. Once again there are posters on Ebay which have apparently been signed by Alan Moore. If someone got him to sign a V poster i'd be more than surprised...I'd give them the £50 myself!! Watch out merchandise hunters, all is not what it seems....
L.

Edit: 01:05 AM:

Curiously, the images seem to have been removed from the auction. However, the following text is still there:

A genuine, movie poster of "V FOR VENDETTA" signed by Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt, Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Fry, Rupert Graves, Roger Allam, Tim Pigott-Smith, John Standing, set decorator Peter Walpole, production designer Owen Paterson, writer Alan Moore, illustrator David Lloyd, the screenwriting team of Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski, producer Joel Silver, and director James Teigue. These are actual, handwritten, AUTHENTIC signatures obtained in person at Saks Fifth Avenue's Unforgettable Evening Benefit for the Entertainment Industry Foundation Women's Cancer Research Fundraiser held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and at other venues which are intentionally omitted here for security reasons.

So there was Alan, in California (without having held a valid passport since the 1980's) having a right good laugh with Joel Silver and the Wachowski's. Yeah right.

J.

P-Con III - Tales Of A Long Weekend In Dublin: Saturday

Saturday morning: We missed the opening ceremony and arrived too late for Leah to take part in the "Just A Minute" quiz because of heavy traffic on the way to the con.
We basically hung about for a couple of hours chatting to various people, reading comics and buying books.

From the 20,000 Leagues stand we picked up:


A grand little tale of revenge accross the generations produced in partnership with Rad Comics.

And...

Issue 2 of Sancho, which is even better than #1 (of you can believe that).


The back of the issue bears the above quote from some pair of little known comics folk. Some people will endorse anything I suppose.

At 13:00 I was lucky enough to attend a screening of "Loving The Alien" a short film about UFOs and UFO culture by Ronan Gallagher.
They even stuck me on the panel afterwards with Ronan and Frank Darcy which was loads of fun and very interesting.
Ronan is a fantastic film maker with a really down to earth and honest approach to even the most weird and wonderful of subjects. I am reliably informed that his new website should be up an running soon so keep an e-eye out for it.

14:00: Susanna Clarke's big interview, which was fascinating enough to make us buy "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" as soon as we got home.

16:00: Charity auction, which went fantastically well thanks to John W. Sexton's unparalleled compering skills.

17:00: How To Break Into the American Comics Market panel, with us, Bob Byrne, Paul Cornell and John Hendrick. I believe the conclusion was "don't bother".

19:00: Nice meal in the hotel restaurant.

(Clockwise round the table: Pádraig, Michael aka captainlucy, Deirdre, Paul, Juliette, Colin, Susanna, Caroline, Leah and some big fat bloke)

20:30: Table quiz. On our team were Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox and Colin Greenland.

We won!

J.

P-Con III - Tales Of A Long Weekend In Dublin: Friday.

Right, I suppose we'd better start at the beginning.

On Friday the 10th of March our plane touched down in Dublin airport at about 17:30. We were met at the arrivals gate by one Mr. Pádraig ÓMéalóid and a very nice man called Peter. The latter drove us to the Ashling hotel whilst the former pointed out landmarks and places of note and interest.

Arriving in the Ashling hotel (the venue for Phoenix Convention) we soon found ourselves sitting in the venue's very pleasant bar area. In between seemingly endless pints of Guinness we were introduced to myriads of fantastically nice and interesting people including (but by no means restricted to) Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox, Susanna Clarke, Colin Greenland, Bob Byrne, Juliet E. McKenna, John W. Sexton and Bob Neilson.

Pádraig and his lovely wife Deirdre had to leave reasonably early as they (understandably) had a lot to sort out before the next day. However, before retiring to bed Mr. ÓMéalóid made this entry in his live journal.

It seems fair to say that we were slightly the worse for drink by the time Ian Whelan and Al Nolan arrived (both of whom stuck to diet coke). Ian and his bride to be Nicola had very kindly offered to put us up in their home so, after prising us away from the bar, he drove us off to Wicklow where we fell sound asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

It may very well prove to be a blessing that we forgot to take any photographs on Friday night.

J.

P-Con III Post Con Pre-report

Our plane landed in Liverpool at 18:25 so we've not been home long.

P-Con III was so fantastic and so much happened that I couldn't possibly hope to just sit down and sum it all up so quickly and easily. I do believe that Leah and myself will be attempting a reasonably detailed account of the whole event here on the news blog very soon.

In the meantime, all I can say is: "wow!" and "Thank you so very, very much Mr. Pádraig ÓMéalóid".

Thank you also to the entire fan community of Dublin who are without a doubt the most devoted and organised bunch of lovely folks we've ever met.

J.

WIN: The Steel Claw -The Vanishing Man

Win The Steel Claw - The Vanishing Man from Titan Books over on our message board.

"Now starring in Albion - a brand new US comics series plotted by the legendary Alan Moore - the Steel Claw joins the Spider as the next classic British comics character to receive the beautifully packaged hardcover archive treatment! When a lab experiment goes disastrously awry, Louis Crandell discovers that when his right hand - the eponymous steel claw - connects with electricity, he becomes invisible! But to what nefarious ends can he put this new power?

Never-before-collected, boasting a stunning new cover by comics legend Brian Bolland (Batman: The Killing Joke), and featuring exclusive new articles exploring the history of the Steel Claw, this collection is the perfect introduction!"


Click to enter.