East Coast embrace.

This starts out as a convention review and deviates into ruminations on the creative impulse. You have been warned. Get out, while you still can.

Yesterday I hauled ass to Newcastle for the annual Canny Comic Con - held in the City library. After the mega-event that was Thought Bubble, I have to admit I didn't expect an explosive show out of this one. Boy was I wrong. 

With winter raging on, this gig - hosted by the wonderful team of Alex and Stacey Whittle - was a genuinely warm surprise. This was a free event. This was a small event. But this was by no means a 'cheap' event, or one of limited quality. There was an authentic joy about the days proceedings.  It all seemed...well, effortless. At least, that's how it appeared. A lot of hard work went into making it so relaxed and friendly. To Alex and Stacey, as well as all the staff who volunteered, you have my highest recommendation. 

Happiest point-of-view: Coffee, Comics & Copics.

Let's put this straight up front. This was my first solo show. Previously I had hitched a ride on the Accent UK  circus-train. They are the best. All my con experiences with them have been astounding (and freeing, as I was able to dementedly flit, bat-like, around the other stalls). Although I was primarily there to sell the company's book, at Canny Comic Con I was on my own.

 I. Freaking. Loved. It. 

This was a great deal to do with having such talented and supportive table-buddies like Tom Boyle, Gary Bainbridge, Andrew Waugh, the ever genial (and forever smiling) Daniel Clifford (seriously, the guy's teeth are perfect) beside me.   

Manning a table alone is HARD WORK. You don't get to coast. You can't wander off to stare at other people's comics (at least, not for the most part). You are there to meet the people you do all this for: comic book readers. Although I've been writing comics for a while, it wasn't until the last couple of years that I felt it was time to actively sell my material to others. This was partly to do with self-confidence (first attempts were, and should be, pretty embarrassing for creators who seek to develop) and partly to do with fear. I can't express accurately how energizing it is to have others lay down money to read your work. 

 Despite refusing to get my hopes up, the copies of Thaddeus Mist I brought sold out! Thanks must go to the last-minute-purchase gentleman for my clean slate. People seemed to really dig the book, many commenting on the design by Danielle Horton. My favorite response seems to come from Northern folk: "It's like a proper book, isn't it?" 

I also secretly loved sketching the Turtles, Ben 10 and Dennis The Menace for the young ones. There were loads of them! Many of them weren't old enough for our book, but it's really encouraging to see children at shows like this. They are the ones that are going to be buying the best-selling comics of the future (with jetpacks!) after all, so best to get on their good side.  

In the family.

Brilliant chats were had with Al Ewing and Bryan Talbot, both of whom offered sage advice.

One of the highlights, however, for me (and this is totally unrelated to comics) was meeting a real-life Thaddeus Mist -  Dr. Charles Davis: international adventurer and gin sampler (as his facebook page will attest) - the nom de plume of reenactment agent Andy Davis. Shortly after the show he left his condolences for the death of a fellow eccentric. He was a joy to wax lyrical about reenactment (the trick, with the Victorian's is to wedge one's tongue firmly in one's cheek), fiction and the British Empire (a topic synonymous -at least in my head - with my grandfather, who traveled in search of Bengal tigers at a young age). As I type that sentence and think on that meeting it appears to perfectly symbolize what making Thaddeus (and writing for me in general) is about; that weird blurring of the lines between fact and fiction - what we live and what we choose to create.

Dr. Charles Davis: International Adventurer & Gin Sampler

Without getting all soft and cuddly about it (I'm a sickeningly sentimental blogger at the best of times) I believe art and writing are the only forms of practical magic currently available us - beyond the realms of scientific discovery. Meeting a flesh and blood character called Charles Davis, whom I am convinced would have sat down for opium and biscuits with a character I created, gives me a strange shiver of delight. The wall between our two worlds is only so thin...

Peace
OJ
OX

The day I made a comic book convention.

Well that was intense...

On Saturday August 18th all the hard work of the last four months paid off when Megacon Carlisle lifted off the ground. I was one of three organizers for the event (bookseller Levi McGinchley and events wunderkid Graham Barke were representatives for Waterstones, who hosted the event in association with Diamond).

Held at the Richard Rose Academy in the centre of border city Carlisle, it was our intention to unite the various tribes of popular culture fans for one event. This was without doubt the biggest thing I've ever put together, but after supportive friends had encouraged to 'just do it', I found the experience exhilarating. I will be writing more extensively about Megacon Carlisle with ComicBooked but this is my personal blog, so you'll be getting my personal response.

We made a few mistakes which I'm sure will be rectified for next year but I believe - on the whole - myself, Graham and Levi did a good thing, both for ourselves and the area. From the reports I'm gathering, a lot of people had a great day.

Highlights for me included moderating a panel starring artist Sean Phillips (Fatale, Incognito, Marvel Zombies), former 2000AD editor Andy Diggle (The Losers, Daredevil, Green Arrow: Year One), and Jim Alexander (Gabriel, Birds of Prey, Amongst The Stars). These were our headlining guests so it was incredibly nerve-wracking to step up to the plate and try and get them to open up and  divulge some industry secrets. It really was an honor. 


I also got to catch up with Stacy Whittle (SFX, Into the Woods anthology) to record an interview for her podcast which I greatly enjoy. Due to having so much to organize I didn't get to catch up with everyone I wanted to but those creators who I admire as professionals and friends proved a joy in the moments I got to chat with them - writer/illustrator Mal Earl; Sha and John from Black Hearted Press; Colin Bell, who's currently working on the brilliant Detective Space-Cat; my friend and colorist Matt Soffe and a hundred and one other amazing comics professionals who I'm sure will be furious I've forgotten as I type this.

As a side-note, you can always rely on cosplayers and for their dedication and energy at any convention.

My favourite part of the whole day was seeing my friends from Disconnected Press and Accent UK. Novellist and 'Thaddeus Mist' contributor Max Deacon and Disconnected's Conor Boyle (who is also my collaborator on Thaddeus) joined Colin Mathieson, Dave West and myself for the Accent UK panel.

Having previously felt the comic-book pulse of Carlisle I knew there were some wannabe creators out there (some of them still in school!) and so we tweaked our discussion to how to create for yourself and begin down this beautiful but treacherous road that is making comics. Having so many turn up to this panel, consisting of my favourite writers and artists, was humbling, and it remains the highlight of my comic career so far.

We also gave out some Megacon exclusive Thaddeus Mist prints designed by Mal Earl for those cheap bastards that just wanted free shit! I jest!

At which point Accent UK sped off to sell lots of books and Conor sketched until the sun was going down. After the convention a few of us his The Circle bar to talk comics and argue about whether Raiders is better than Temple (Max: Temple, everyone else: Raiders).

Lizzie and Conor Boyle are true heroes of mine, and they give me hope that this industry is not the poisonous snake-pit some have reported, but an arena for craftsmen and artists, who work hard and play hard (I'm billing them both for paracetamol in the wake of my hang-over). In short, good people who make comics all day.

Assorted press from:
Forbidden Planet International
Down The Tubes
Birmingham Mail
Cuttlefish Comics
SFX
The Cumberland News

I personally want to thank every single person who made Megacon Carlisle possible, from the biggest artist to the dude who drove the Yu-Gi-Oh bus; students like Conor's superhero gang who helped lug stock and attend Richard Rose, to Tommy at the Imagination Station comic store on Bank Street for publicizing the event months before without ever seeing reward. From me, thank you all.

I wasn't getting paid a penny for my work by Waterstone's, but financial reward (perhaps foolishly) wasn't my main motivator for staging Megacon Carlisle. Comics kept me alive when I was a teenager living in a village just outside Carlisle. Thanks to the support and allowance granted by my parents I would make weekend pilgrimages from my cottage in Kirkoswald to the not-so-bright lights of the city to pick up my weekly stash of comics from Imagination Station. These first formative experiences are chronicled in my article 'Welcome To Planet Nerd' which can be found at Tales From The Parent's Basement


 It was on these train rides to my comic book treasure that I would find chance encounters with other comics fans like Ian (who I was delighted to bump into at Megacon after literally ten years had passed!). We would debate about how Batman was going to order the chaos of No Man's Land; how Ultimate Spider-Man was, like, our generation's Spider-Man!; how much we just heart-breakingly, passionately loved comics. Cumbria, for those who don't know, is an incredibly rural area; villages miles apart, attractions scarce. It was 10-minute conversations with other kids about movies, music, comics, EVERYTHING that made school more bareable, self-harm more preposterous, life less painful, as if someone had taken to printing multicolored dots all over it and plastered it with ten foot high letters so that each bully-punch came with a KA-POW and each chance encounter with that girl you kinda-sorta fancied at school was laced with Poison Ivy pheromone.

That's why I organized Megacon. To make other young kids (and they made the convention for me) feel like they weren't alone and that they should have a comic collection if they need one.

 OJ
OX

Fall of the Wolfmen review

The trick to writing a sequel is not to write a sequel. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a high-octane adventure movie - faster and leaner than it's predecessor which in many ways owes more to slasher horror than the action genre. The very best sequels expand the world built in the first installment, introduce new characters without forsaking the principle players, and ADD to the mythos with something new and fresh to say about a property we are familiar with.
So it is with Fall of the Wolfmen. The second part of Dave West and Andy Bloor's Wolfmen trilogy, published by Accent UK and unveiled at Whatever Comics in Canterbury of October this year.
If it were at all possible, West and Bloor have created a more muscular comic than their first effort. This is about acts of revenge, a natural evolution from the 'heist movie gone wrong' in book one. Packing it with more action and emotion, they have widened the scope to insinuate that the Wolfmen are not only following you down the street but are instead in all places at all times. They are inescapable. It is a nice choice of Dave West's in a book that is about the consequences of revenge, and the risk of retaliation. That retaliation comes when Grey's wife, Jenny, is embroiled in the plot(as a side note: it is nice to see a female character take such a large role in the noir comic, always considered a man's world.)

There are places in which a let up in pace, a little breathing room, would have been welcome, but it is a minor quibble with a book that competes in quality with the american industry. One might argue that Andy Bloor's bulky gangsters unrealistically rendered, but I think this misses the point. This is a question of style. Andy's characters are a perfect fit for the story being told. The Wolfmen are too big and mean to fit inside his panels, too unrestrained.

Fall of the Wolfmen is an ambitious comic, one that the UK small press needs because it reaches for something higher and is not held back by it's humble surroundings. Get your paws on it now.

March: The month of biting off more than you can chew

,Just finished an exhausting but very enjoyable art installation in London (photos to follow in a later blog once I get them developed).
Met some old faces and some new ones, and it was great to see them all. Lara Stavrinou's new play Derelict was particularly good, and I look forward to seeing more of it.
I was happy to see lots of friends support me and the event in general, writers Max Deacon and Louise Richardson, historian and general gentleman of taste and distinction Jack Firth, biologist Efthymios Stamos. They're all my buddies, and it meant a lot that they were there at an event I was anxious about. Writing is something i'm comfortable with, locked away in my room away from the judgement of strangers. My artwork is a different matter entirely.

March is proving to be a penniless month. Which means eating beans and scratching away at various side-projects that are looming...

I am hard at work on the final stages of a comic book project for the guys at Accent UK, so more on that once it gets rolling. They are a great new comic book company and really gave me a chance starting out in comics when few others would. For more information about them and my previous work with them, visit www.accentukcomics.com

I have begun to teach myself animation for a documentary with young film-maker Somayeh Jafari...which is exciting because I've never done animation before. More on that in future.

Finally, and most hazy, is the germ of a collaboration with obsenely multi-talented poet and photographer Kate Vanhinsbergh. We've talked briefly about creating a photography and writing (and perhaps even illustration) project, but whether that shall be book, magazine or simply an experiment that will never see the light of day, i am not sure. Kate can be found here http://katevanhinsbergh.blogspot.com/

I also have a horribly precarious pile of books to get through. Gulp.