Except this time I have no pictures… and it was in Manchester!
First off if any of you guys are visiting because you picked up a book from me at the show on Saturday then welcome! Hope you like it here and you stick around, the site updates on Thursdays (as you may have realised from reading the header) so I won’t hold it against you if that’s the day you choose to visit!
I had a great time at this show. There weren’t many of my usual cohorts exhibiting, possibly as it’s the first year that this show’s been on so no one was sure how busy it’d be, Matt and I had even devised a sketch-battle to keep ourselves entertained during the quiet bits… which never came!
From when the doors opened at 10am almost until we started clearing out at 5pm the place was absolutely heaving with people; the vast majority of whom seemed interested in comics! Obviously that’s a big bonus for someone like me, I have no problem with people who’re cosplaying and obviously just there for the manga/anime or gaming stuff, but it was so nice to have people come up to the table who were genuinely interested in what I was selling or who just wanted to chat about comics in general. I don’t think I had to use my full sales pitch once all day! (Which is why if you were there I probably responded to “How much is this?” with “Pardon?”) That’s either because us Northern folk are just plain nicer than everyone else in the country or all the nice ones came to this show… I can’t decide!
Now for a bit of name-dropping! I was sitting next to the legendary Mr. John McCrea and his son Kirby (who I’m pretty sure managed to outsell me… doing your own comic when you’re 8 years old is a lot cuter than doing it when you’re 27!) It was amazing watching John bash out one amazing sketch after another all day and, like most comics professionals who I’m worried about meeting in person, he was a genuinely nice bloke! At the next table along from the McCrea’s was one Antony Johnston who I met before, briefly, at Thought Bubble last year. Another really nice guy! So nice in fact that I forgot to even try and get more details of his upcoming Daredevil: Season One project from him (Sorry Chris!) I also finally got to meet Daniel Clifford of Sugar Glider fame, which has been long overdue! You should all go and buy his books right now as they’re doing the superhero thing in a manner which is right up my street (and I assume it’s your street too if you’re reading my website!)
The only downside to the show for me was the fact that I couldn’t stick around afterwards… which is nobodies fault but my own! But yeah, I can’t wait to come back for an even bigger show next year! Thanks to everyone involved in organising it and thanks to all of you lot for coming out to support the comics/anime/gaming scene in the North West. The show couldn’t be a success without you guys!
I am so fired up for another convention it’s gonna really suck when I have to go back to the dayjob tomorrow… oh well!
See you on Thursday!
~G
P.S. An important question needs an answer over on Facebook… Cheers!
