Convention Photos & Reports

2D Festial, Derry, Northern Ireland - June 2008

I do not think I've ever had quite so much fun at a comic festival.

When considering the amount of events, both large and small, I've attended over the years that's quite a statement to make. This year at 2D I was honoured to be an invited guest, and was able to contribute with panels as well as exhibiting in the main artist and publisher area.

Guests present included Charlie "Walking Dead" Adlard, Garry Leach, Jock, Dave Hine, Simon Furman, Will Simpson, Ilya, Tank Girl creator Alan Martin and the ever awake Rufus Dayglo, who emits pure enthusiasm through his pores.

I already knew Charlie, Gary, Ilya and Rufus, but the others I'd not met before. However, by the end of the event we all felt like old friends and the atmosphere at both panels, workshops and the small convention itself was a uniquely relaxed while electric mixture of comics heaven.

There was healthy selection of indy creators on the guest list too, including Declan Shalvey, Mark Stafford, Bob Byrne and Bridgeen Gillespie.

My personal highlights were reading Bob Byrne's Mr Amberduke, seeing Charlie, Jock, Will, Mark and Bridgeen  dance like nutters (not forgetting Declan's stunning display of break dancing ability), and taking a very relaxing walk around the Wall of Derry with Ilya on a beautiful Sunny day.

I really liked Derry. The people were incredibly warm and friendly, and the place is filled with history. Some of it is bloody as we all know, but I think this is only further testament to the character and strength of the people who live there - to see how it has survived and flourished since the troubles.

Unlike here in England, events in Northern Ireland are supported by local government, so David Campbell - the organiser - was able to really make this event something special, and not have to charge either punters or exhibitors, which would be a dream come true if it happened here.

 Huge praise is due to David and his helpers for creating such a wonderful event.

Bristol Expo 2008 - May

So here we are again at yet another well attended Comic Expo in Bristol. There are some truly legendary creators in attendance, and the usual vibrant bunch of small pressers.

This year our Marraquai comic made it's Bristol debut and sold really well, probably due toe the presence of the supremely talented artist James McKay, who was doing great sketches for those who bought copies.

The writer Ben Dickson was also at hand doing a superb job of selling his books and telling people all about them.

Despite being two years old Falling Sky also sold very well, the other Scar Comics titles did ok too.

Once again the whole BICS crew where there informing fans of what to expect in October, and I found this year's expo to be really fun, and very relaxed compared to previous events. I think that after organising an event being just an exhibitor seems like a walk in the park.

I also found that I was much more analytical about how the event was put together. Overall, I think Mike and Dave now have organising Bristol down to a fine art. My only slight gripe was with the portfolio reviews. They seemed somewhat chaotic, but after our first effort with that at BICS 2006, I can hardly point a finger of superiority in that department, as it took us a couple of years to perfect a workable system for this.

So once again thanks to all the Scar Comics creators who helped at the table, and thanks to everyone who came along and said hi, or bought comics from us. You helped make our Bristol Expo one to remember.

Shane Chebsey

Bristol Expo 2007 - May

This year the Bristol Expo saw a marked improvement in attendance. Why? It's hard to say.  I think all the movies being made that are based on comics characters has helped the medium gain a little more respect and interest amongst the general public.

Especially films like History Of Violence and V For Vendetta, which are far less corny than the more superhero based efforts.

This year, as part of the BICS organising committee, I attended the show with my fellow organisers James Hodgkins and Andy Baker.

Of course I was also still selling comics on the smallzone and Scar Comics tables. Andy Richmond, my partner at Scar was not able to attend much of the show this year, so thanks to Sam, Tom, Lauren and Ben for all the work you guys put in over the weekend.

The event itself way also a marked improvement on previous years. The new layout design with booths helped to create a much less 'car boot' type atmosphere and made the expo look much more like a book fair or trade show.

I met up with most of the usual suspects and really enjoyed the whole weekend. Myself, James Hodgkins, Andy Baker, and Staz Johnson all went out for a curry on the Saturday night and had a great time coming up with names for hilarious 'dot. coms', the humour of which would be sure to escape any sober person reading this, so I won't go into details.

As usual the Sunday was much quieter but, as usual, no one minded as takings seemed to be good for most exhibitors and some serious rest was needed after a late night on the Saturday. This day I had chance to go around the exhibitors and meet some old and new friends. I was able to briefly say hello to Chris Staros from Top Shelf Comix, Jeffrey Brown, who I'm a huge fan of, the guys from Monkeys with Machine Guns, Accent UK, and Modern Monstrosity to name but a few. All seemed to be having a great time!

We then headed back home which in itself proved to be eventful when you have a completely drunk Ben McCool in the back of the car. He had us in stitches all the may home.

Thanks to Mike and Dave for another great Expo.

Shane Chebsey

Left: Can You Spot the enforcer of evil Imperial Rule?

Web & Mini Comics Thing 2006 - London, March

This was indeed a weekend to remember for many reasons. It all began with my usual 5 hour trek from Shrewsbury to London on the National Express. Nothing out of the ordinary here, apart from my back hurting far more than usual by the second hour of the journey. I must be getting old.

When arriving at the coach station, I met up with Andy and Sam both of whom are part of Scar Comics. They'd taken the coach from Bristol, so hadn't had to get up quite as early. We then went to the venue at Mile End to set up our tables, expecting to meet up with other exhibitors and go for a drink. However, it turned out we were the only ones setting up on Friday.

We did meet up with Jeremy Dennis and Jess and John Paul who were helping out at the tables. So we went for a drink and met up with a few other folk. We then decided to go check in at our hotel. 

This is were things started to go downhill. After the hotel was suggested by Pat Findlay, the organiser of the event, we assumed it would be close by, and in easy walking distance. However...Jeremy being a woman, and therefore far more organised than us males was the only one who actually new how to get to the hotel....well she had some idea.

So off we went on our 5 mile trek across the wastes of London in search of the legendary Etap Hotel.

After about three trains on various networks, a walk of about 2 miles and phone calls to various publishers, we'd hoped were already there, we finally came across the hotel. It was situated in a charming area of town, were red crosses adorned the interiors of the pub, which could only be assessed as open when one looked through the window, otherwise it appeared derelict. 

Why is it that such areas of towns always have pleasant sounding names, like paradise row, or Utopia Avenue?

"Anyway, enough of these ramblings" I hear you say.

The next morning we all awoke pretty early, although Andy was the only one who wanted to get out of bed. We decided to take a taxi to the venue this time round, and get there about 9.30. By now everyone was setting up, and the atmosphere was starting to develop.

This year thanks to the many helping hands from Scar Comics creators, I was able to have a proper wonder about, and bumped into lots of interesting artists and writers. If there was an award for most friendly table it would surely go to the lovely gang of folks at the Two Sides Wide table. They gave me a free key ring, and were infectiously enthusiastic about comics and manga.

It was increasingly encouraging to see so many young people, and not just lads - showing an interest in comics, and comics other than the mainstream too. I was on the panel for the Marketing Your Comics talk, and the attendance was very high, showing that more small publishers are taking the distribution and marketing of their work seriously.

The whole thing seemed to be over very quickly, and everyone reported good sales, which is amazing when you consider the total attendance was only around 400 punters, and there were over 40 exhibitors. If only this rate of expenditure occurred at the bigger events.

Thanks again to Pat for a superb weekend. We only hope that next time, the recommended hotel is a little nearer the venue.

Shane Chebsey

It's always really exciting when a new comics event hit's the calendar. I remember my first Bristol...I was so excited, I think I had about 2 hours sleep the night before. I was going to sell my comic - my little baby - to the unsuspecting public.

As a veteran to the scene, I don't really get that excited anymore, however, at Brighton I met plenty of artists, writers and budding publishers who certainly felt the way I used to, and as Andy Richmond and myself were launching our new book at the event, those old convention tingles started to come back.

The atmosphere was really buzzing on the Saturday, and as well as meeting up with old friends, I met new young creators from the Brighton area, who had never before visited a convention. I got to see some wonderful portfolios and the venue it's self was perfect for such an event.

Unfortunately many publishers reported low sales, which I'd imagine is due to the timing of the event, and the extremely high admission fee.

The whole idea of an Expo is to introduce comics as a medium to a larger mainstream, yet I doubt any passer by would fancy shelling out 10 quid for something they don't normally have an interest in.

Hopefully next year the entrance fee will be lower, allowing the attendance, and exhibitor's takings, to be higher.

I was exhausted the day after the event, so thankfully my 5 hour journey home went smoothly.

Shane Chebsey

I've been attending this event since it started in 1999, and some years have been better than others. The one consistency throughout is that it's been terribly hot at both venues, almost unbearable. However the atmosphere has always been electric amongst the small press crowd, and this year was no exception.

In fact I personally enjoyed this year's event more than the last two. Of course having such a great time in the evenings with the Accent UK gang was part of that. A lot of beer ( or Red wine in my girlfriend's case) was consumed each evening in the Holiday Inn Bar, and we all participated in a sketching Jam started by Barry Renshaw on the last night (which was great fun after being intoxicated by alcohol).

But anyway, apart from the fun evenings the event itself was also a great buzz, with yet another packed out small press talk, and a huge self publishing presence at tables. Unbelievably I met even more new publishers and creators and I even got the chance to actually walk around the comics fair which I never usually do, and the diversity of comics goodies both small press and corporate was huge.

Well done to Kev F Sutherland and Mike for yet again organising a really great weekend.

Shane Chebsey

Web & Mini Comics Thing 2004, London, March

I really wanted this event to be a success, and in many ways it was.

All 40 publishers who booked tables turned up. Also I had three tables, and Gosh the comic shop apparently had a table, but I never actually noticed it. The atmosphere was full of anticipation, and then concern, as no punters arrived at the start time of 9.30am.

This was definately too early to start the event. However, by about 11am people started to trickle in, and I'd guess about 100 paying guests attended over the day.

Much fun was had, and I met up with old friends and missed the presence of a bar and food. Thank god for Roger Mason, who was everyone's stomach's hero when he went out and got sandwishes for the under nourished.

Barry Renshaw hosted a Panel, which explored the merits of Web Comics, and discussed the posiblities of how to make them profitable. This was very interesting and brought up some very valid ideas.

The venue was really good, but was let down by it's location. I was very nervous when going out after dark, after getting off the tube to be greeted by a Police sign asking for witnesses of a brutal attack outside the University Campuss that the Octagon Venue was a part of. Also many people said they found the venue hard to find, although I didn't experience this problem.

The most enjoyable part of the weekend for me was sharing a pint or three with Dareen Worrow in the nearby Oasis Bar on the Saturday evening. A great end to an enjoyable weekend.

Overall, I felt the event was very worthwhile, and with some adjustment should continue. There was no advertising for the event, other than on the net, so I think there is a huge potential for a bigger event next year.

Well done and much praise to Patrick Findlay for organising the whole thing more or less on his own. And well done to all those who supported and attended the event.

Shane Chebsey

If you have any photos or a report of a comics event  please email me with the details, and I'll ADD THEM TO THIS PAGE.

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