November 1st saw the UK Comic Book Festival’s first ‘WinterFest’. This was a deliberately smaller event than the main Festival held in Bristol each spring but it was still a great event.
The Festival took place in the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, London and basically consisted of a Friday night piss up, a Saturday Festival (with charity art auction in the evening) and a Saturday night piss up. The focus of the Festival was very much reduced from that seen in Bristol with only 2 retailers really apparent (only one with action figures) and a real focus on the Small Press and the creators themselves. This really changed the atmosphere of the event in a way that should be applauded. While the retail element should never be ignored (it is the backbone of the industry now a-days and, shit, retailers need all the help they can get… and conversely these events couldn’t normally run without them) it was great to have an event that celebrated the medium, the new creations on the market and the creators themselves. It made a huge change for the Small Press to be the dominant presence rather than tucked away or packed into shared tables. I believe this was one of the main reasons for the event, that the organiser wanted a purely comic book Festival without film, action figure or other similar related genres taking over.
As many of you know I was due to be the Stage Manager for this whole thing but that went out the window. I, kinda, sorta, you know, got a bit drunk on Friday night. I started by catching up with a few creators I’ve met in the past and then tried to keep up with Garth Ennis… big mistake the guy was still sober after I left at 7am… Jeez. That was some night. Big thanks to Frazer Irving and Mike Collins for introducing me to Garth, he is, as anyone will tell you, a bloody nice bloke and he’s even agreed to join ‘The Panel’ which is an even bigger coup when you consider the guy’s not even got a PC! I staggered back to my hotel room, making sure I threw up a street away so the night porter didn’t see me, collapsed into bed and promptly received a call from Dawn telling me it was time to get up!
I staggered down to the Festival around 11am and did what I could to help out. I was put to shame by Mike Collins and Mark Buckingham who seemed to spend the entire freakin’ day signing and sketching for people despite the fact they didn’t go to bed that much earlier than I. On the plus side several guys who were at the table that night didn’t show up the next day, but I’m outta the rumour business now so I’ll leave you guessing.
The Festival itself went really well with great pitching sessions, comic art classes and an extremely long and rude talk from Viz, the extremely crude and funny UK comic book (ending with a great cartoon entitled ‘Dr Poo’ which you can download from their site http://www.viz.co.uk/games/downloads.htm#poo). Basically this was an opportunity for fans to pick up Small Press books that their stores may not carry and to meet up with all manner of creators from those just starting out to some of the ‘elder statesmen’ of the industry.
During the day we got a visit from Jonathon Ross the self-styled figure head of the BBC (he hosts a chat show, the official film show, the most listened to Saturday morning radio show and appears on about a dozen quiz shows for them) who attended in his joint roles as a comic book fan and the patron of the UK comic book scene. Jonathon took the time to chat with fans as well as creators and left us all thinking ‘what a bloody nice bloke’. One thing is true though, the TV really does make people look smaller, the guy must be 7 foot tall! He’s a giant! Admittedly a very well dressed giant but a giant all the same.
The Charity Art Auction was a little disappointing. Despite excellent organisation and great comparing the attendance was very poor and some of the art just didn’t make the prices that they should have. A steal for those who attended but not so good for Childline. That isn’t to say there weren’t some real surprises. A few internet bids really bumped up the price of some of the items though this didn’t effect the price of Frazer Irving’s “Dark Judges pissed” or Alan Davis’ set of 4 DR and Quinch cards which went for great prices in the room anyway.
I bowed out of another nights drinking as I didn’t want to encourage Jock to do anything illegal again nor did I really feel awake enough to argue about which was Shakespeare’s best and worst play with Garth Ennis, Frazer Irving and John McShane again so I drove home stopping at every service station for coffee (fortunately the alcohol was out of my system by then (I’d been on the water all day, unlike some) so don’t string me up). A great weekend, a good chance to catch up with friends and just good fun.
Roll on Dreddcon:4 and the main UK comic book Festival!
Alan Donald
(Alan is claiming not to remember anything that was told to him when pissed so don’t even ask him for anything, Markisan, it was all said under strictest confidence anyway… He won’t even tell me! Bastard – Dawn).
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