ReadCon 2013

Now I've never really been into manga or Anime that much. I've had friends who have tried to get me into various series but nothing ever really took my fancy. But this year I've started to pick up some small press manga at different conventions. I started off with a few books from the Red Garden Artist Group (so if you wanna blame somebody.....) and some other bits and pieces here and there and enjoyed every single one. So when I found out that there was a manga and anime convention in my own town I thought "well why the hell not?" and mosied on over to check it out.
ReadCon is organised by the Reading University Anime Society (www.readingunianime.webs.com/) and is, without doubt, the tiniest  convention  I've ever been to. Yet the talent on show was huge. There were only about ten tables there and maybe only four of those were home to small pressers. But that was okay as they were really cool people, happy to chat not only about their manga but also about making comics. I picked up The Elemals by Josh Clarke (www.JoshClarkeDraws.deviantart.com). I love this guys stuff; it's like someone has taken the cells from an animated movie and made a comic book out of them. It's really a funny book too. I also picked up Crankrats by Katherine Ellis (www.sio64.deviantart.com). It's an amazing amalgam of manga, anime and steam punk and I can't believe she's only been at this comics creating game a couple of years. Manga retailer Frank was there, who, along with his Red Garden Artists Group, is becoming a familiar face on the convention circuit.
Even though it was a small convention it got real busy real quick; so I hope it was successful enough for the organisers to put it on again next year.

   

Those Pages

Don't know why but these were cut off of  one of my previous posts. These are the pages that I picked up at LFCC 2013.

A page of art from Marvel comics series "The Twelve", by Chris Weston.

A page from an issue of What If? by Bryan Hitch.

S'MORE FAN ART

It's been a while since I posted some fan art so here is some based on some recent small press purchases.

A quick sketch of Bubbles and Eliza.
(www.redgardenartistgroup.com)

Another quick sketch of two of the main
characters from Fey
(www.redgardenartistgroup.com)

LONDON FILM AND COMIC CON 2013

Well this was an improvement on last years con. So much more comics related stuff this time. Somebody finally got it - it's the London Film and Comic Con. The panels/talks areas still need improving and the organisers could still make more of an effort to make things a little less confusing in terms of layout and scheduling of events. LFCC is one of the bigger events of the year and yet there is still no convention programme to pick up on the door.

Anyway, I usually go to conventions to pick up small press comics and cool original art, and LFCC certainly delivered on those. I picked up Bearlands #2 from the gang at www.subversivecomics.com,
volume 2 of Rob Curetons hilarious Orful Comics (www.orfulcomics.co.uk), the rather demented Frogman #1 (www.deadcanarycoimcs.com), the stunningly beautiful Only Me Tiny by Jing X. Hu (www.pinkjellyo.deviantart.com) and another cool sketchbook by Huy Truong (www.huy-truong.deviantart.com).

I was also really pleased with the art purchases that I made. One page from The Twelve by Chris Weston and one page by Bryan Hitch featuring the X-Men. I love both of these pages so much. There's so much detail in the Weston page and it's also a really fun piece. One of the many reasons I like the Hitch page is that all the lettering is there on the page. Not only that but there's also bits of zip-a-tone pasted to the board, plus white out    

BRISTOL COMICS EXPO 2013

After checking out several  different cons for the first time these past 18 months I decided that it was about time I went back to my first love - BCE! This was my first regular convention back at the beginning of the Noughties and always jostled with BICS for the title of "My Favourite Convention" (BICS did tend to edge it because the panel shows there were so much fun). It's been a few years since I last went but once i was in the convention hall i soon remembered why I loved this con so much. This year there was a great mix of Small Press-ers and professional comics artists. There were so many artists with so much amazing art on display and for sale that I did spend a lot of the time cursing the paltry contents of my wallet. On reflection it probably was a good thing that I went with a modest budget as I could easily have spent a crazy amount of money without thinking about it. I would have had some lovely artwork to hang on the wall, though......

Speaking of art, I did manage to make my meagre budget stretch to three purchases. I picked up a cute Susan Storm piece by Huy Truong. I saw this piece in his portfolio at EMS last year but didn't have enough money to buy it then; so I was thrilled to see he still had it for sale at BCE.  I also picked up a rather sleek looking Power Girl piece from the very talented John Watson (www.johnwatsonart.com). Finally, I purchased a page of comics art by David A. Roach. It's from the Synnamon - Arc of Light series from 2000AD. I must confess that when I first saw those pages (he had three for sale) I thought they were of the Black Widow! But it didn't matter as the pages were gorgeous and so detailed. Alas I only had the funds for one page. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll still have the other two next time our paths cross at a convention.

I also picked up some very cool comics, such as Eponymous by Mike Garley, Martin Simmonds and Mike Stock (www.vs-comics.blogspot.co.uk), Razarhawk by Ian Matthews and Dani Abram (www.kittyhawkkicksass.blogspot.com) (it has a kickass heroine called Kitty and it's got monkey scientists! Whats' not to love?) and Bubbles & Eliza, Fey and St. Judes by Stephanie L O'Brien and  Kirstie Edwards from the Red Garden Artist Group (www.redgardenartistgroup.com) (who, as it turns out, live in the same town as me. Surely a collaboration must be on the cards?)

It was nice to meet PB Rainey again, just so I could tell him how much I'm enjoying Thunder Brother: Soap Division, and as always it was a pleasure to be able to stop and "talk shop" with Sgt Mike Battle creator Graham Pearce (who was full of ideas for a sequel to my Small Press United comic). 

 Such an enjoyable convention. Definitely going next year. Just need to remember to take more money!

Teddy Scare Bear Takes On LSCC!

Made my first trip to the London Super Comic-Con yesterday and had an amazingly good time. Picked up sooooo many small press books and sketch books (my wallet says "ouch!" btw.) and purchased a lovely piece of  V For Vendetta art by Dave Stokes. Seek him out whenever he is at a Con, you will definitely find something cool to buy. Managed to get a look at so much fantastic art: it was a real privilege to be able to hold pages by David mack, Mahmud Asrar, Simone Bianchi, John Byrne, Brian Hitch and Jack Kirby! Gosh, some of those Kirby pages were huge!  Oh I seriously need to win the lottery by next years show! I didn't see a David Mack page that went for less than a grand! And i didn't even bother to ask how much those Kirby pages were.

Also, I handed out some copies of "The Nightmare Bear", the collected edition of my Teddy Scare Bear mini-comics. They seemed to find their way into some interesting hands......   

Hey! Isn't this guy supposed to be dead? Well it hasn't stopped
Nightcrawler from checking out his new favourite comic! 

Your friendly neighborhood Spider Man taking a break from saving
the world so he can catch up on his Teddy Scare Bear reading!

The Dynamic Duo investigating a copy of The Nightmare Bear! 

Psylocke, Phoenix and the Scarlet Witch can't get
enough of the Nightmare Bear!

Those spangly shorts made my camera go all blurry!
Zatanna and The Black Canary clearly impressed
by my tales of teddy terror!

Cheetara! From Thundercats! Holy Shit!! And
she's a fan of The Nightmare Bear, too.

Holy smokes! How cool is this? V by Dave Stokes.

The rather talented Tsao Wei was giving out these lovely
skecth prints. 

Some of the swag I picked up at the LSCC

Yet more swag.

Still more swag.

    

Casting Call

We've all done it, haven't we? Sat in a pub/cafe/mates house and discussed who would be great in a film/T.V version of our favourite comic book. Well, I've recently started wondering who could portray my own characters on the small screen. Check out the Casting Call page to see what I've come up with so far (I'll be adding more casting choices as they come to me).
Anyone have any casting ideas for other characters? Justin Bieber for Sgt Mike Battle, anyone? 

Now who could possibly portray the Nightmare Bear? The foul-
mouthed Ted seems like an obvious choice. But what about hard
drinking legend Nookie Bear? or the enigmatic Alan Measles?