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!