Mary's MCM Experience

This is not the regular voice of Edward Ross, this is his partner in crime, Mary Campbell, who has just spent the weekend at the MCM Expo in London, selling Filmish and Eddie's other work.

This was only my second Expo, but my hopes were high going in, based on my last experience, which involved meeting lovely people, getting great new comics, and having fun spotting the costumes I could recognise among the cosplayers.

In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight...at MCM!

I knew this Expo would be different, as I was going it alone while Eddie partied hard in Wales (Only kidding! - see post below). It was an experiment really, to see if the creator was needed to sell their own work, or if the work could sell itself. Over the first two days it seemed as if the creator needed to be there, as sales were not going as well as last year. But after a Saturday spent freaking out about what a disaster the convention was going to be, I went home and had a good nights sleep, then came in on Sunday morning with an new table plan and a positive attitude. I stood up, I was smiling, chatting to people, singing Bon Jovi, generally being welcoming -  and sales went really well.
I learned a valuable lesson that day... don't expect a comic about film theory to sell itself!

My new plan - badges everywhere!

It was lovely to see people who were fans of Eddie's work already, and just wanted more, or to see people who latched onto the idea immediately - "A comic about film theory, that's just what i've always wanted!" These people brightened up my day, and were always fun to talk to.  Other fun people to chat to were the comics creators there to sell their work. For a comic geek like me it is great hearing about the process behind a comic, exciting new projects on the horizon, or recommendations for new comics to read.

The excellent Howard Hardiman, who taught me the sign language for "Living On A Prayer".

From these excellent people I got a wide variety of comics loot. Although I couldn't buy something from everyone I wanted to - I would have gone bankrupt - I did pick up some great comics and artwork, which kept me busy on my train ride home. All purchases were much enjoyed, but a special shout out has to go to the two titles that left me begging for more... the next Lengths and Blood Blokes cannot come quickly enough for me!

Top left to bottom right - Joe Decie, TpCat, Adam Cadwell, Jess Bradley, Timothy Winchester, Howard Hardiman, Philippa Rice, Sean Azzopardi, Louis Roskosch, Luke Pearson, Philippa Rice (again!), Warwick Johnson Cadwell,  T'Sao Wei and Philip Spence. What a haul! Not present is John Allison's Giant Days - a comic so great it is already a present for somebody, and an amazing print from Joe List that is being flattened under a heavy pile of books!

Also purchased was this fab drawing from the lovely John Allison - me and Eddie with superpowers! If only it were true...

And with that I will stop rambling excitedly and let normal service resume as soon as possible...

Filmish 3 at London SPExpo, March 12th.

I'll be at the London Small Press Expo this Saturday (12th March) sharing a table with Luke Pearson.  I'll be selling copies of Filmish 3 along with some ace new badges, 100 Tiny Moments, Filmish 2 and some of the last ever copies of Filmish 1.  Grab them while you can!  Luke's going to have some copies of his NoBrow spectacular Hildefolk so come buy a copy from the man himself.

In other news, with Filmish 1 running out, I've decided to release it as a pay-what-you-want digital download.  Please let people know about this.  My hope is that it'll give a lot more people a chance to read Filmish who wouldn't normally have access or take a chance on it.

Click here to download your copy!

Also Filmish 3 will be out soon!  I've put a pre-order button in the new shop section of the blog.  Go pre-order your copy now and you'll get a free badge along with your copy!

Leeds Thought Bubble and Laydeez Do Comics

I've been back from the Leeds Sequential Arts Festival for over a week now but only now have I had a chance to have a proper think about my experiences.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend.  I have to say it was a much more close knit experience than my MCM trip in October, largely due to the fact the majority of creators and industry professionals were staying in the same hotel, going to the same bars and restaurants, and hanging around in the same hotel lobby.  The fact that out of convention hours we were all killing time in the same location made a big difference to the atmosphere.

My top hotel memory was playing 1980s boardgame classic Heart-throb with Liz Lunney, Timothy Winchester, Philippa Rice and my table buddy Luke Pearson.  Fun times!

 

Luke Pearson sitting with his comics.

The one day convention was very enjoyable, but perhaps the single day is too short to entirely justify the costs of attendance.  The atmosphere on the MCM convention floor was ultimately much more electric with so much stuff going on and with all the artists coming in every morning to sell.  Three days in London offered a much better chance to get to know others than the single busy day of Thought Bubble.  I really missed out my chance to properly explore the Thought Bubble floor during that one day, a big disappointment.  Still sales were pretty strong, and I can't complain since I had loads of fun across those two and a half days.

Me buying a miniature copy of Filmish from 

Philippa Rice's convention diorama.

On the Sunday I gave a presentation of my work on '100 Tiny Moments' to a group of comics artists, academics and members of the public at the 'Laydeez Do Comics' event, run out of Leeds Art Gallery.

I discussed my experiences of going through that fairly intense 100 day creative process, and looked at some of the themes that emerged as the project progressed.  It was an interesting experience, seeing how a new audience reacted to the work, and giving my first public presentation of work.  The group seemed to respond really well to the project, though it turns out explaining the 'future' element of the autobiographical project was harder than I had foreseen.

"Wait, how many children do you have?" I was asked at one point.
"Two... Oh you mean now?  Uh, none." I responded, to some laughter.

The other artists and academics presenting work were really lovely and supportive, and it was interesting getting an insight from women working in the Danish comics scene.  I was really moved by the work of U.S. artist Maureen Burdock, who is using comics to deal with some deadly serious issues, filtering the horrors of sexual abuse and gendercide through a children's book aesthetic.  I strongly recommend you look into the important work she is currently doing.

Comics Stall at the Screen Bandita Birthday.

I'll be running a comics stall in Edinburgh this Sunday alongside Ross Christie at the Screen Bandita's 'birthday party' which is taking place at Rhubaba Gallery in Leith.  It should be a fantastic night, with found footage projections, artwork, live music and drink.  You're encouraged to bring along your own 8mm reels, gramophone records, instruments, and curios to help make the night a strange and unique one.

The artists on sale at the stall currently include Lizz Lunney, Philippa Rice, Timothy Winchester, Freak Leap, Luke Pearson, Ross Christie, Malcy Duff, Magda Boreysza (Toasty Cats), Kristyna Baczynski, Paper Science and myself.  There will also be crafty things from Eleni Kalorkoti.

Come along and pick up some hard to find small press comics from some of the U.K's top artists today.

Date: Sunday 28th November 2010
Time: 7.30 onwards, Free Entry
Venue: Rhubaba Sudios, 25 Arthur Street, Edinburgh