EPIC Con in Glasgow

Steve and I are off up North on Friday for this weekend's ACME Con in Glasgow.

It's favourite of ours and one we look forward to.

Pop over and say 'Hi' if you're in the area.

WesterNoir TPB has a second printing.

 With a new cover...

and it looks great (thanks to Andy Bloor as always for pulling it together and making it look so professional).

For those of you who have been with us from the very beginning, yes, we've just to cover for from the very first black and white issue. I really love this cover and thought it deserved a chance to be seen again, and for a longer time.

To keep costs down we've not printed French Flaps on the Second Printing. This will make the first printings all the more special, and we will continue to have French Flaps on the covers of all first printed TPBs, the next one being the collected WesterNoir Tales, as we're now calling it.

This is also the first book to carry my new imprint West Words, although to be fair most of the words in the book are by Gary Crutchley.. hope he doesn't notice.

London Film and Comic Con

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since the Con now, and as tiring as it was I won't put the lateness of this post down to that entirely.

It was a two day event thais year, the Fridays of previous events just weren't worth the additional costs and thankfully to show organisers saw the logic in this.

Saturday was a bit quiet we found, and I think this was down to the hordes of people who had paid good money to meet Mel Gibson, for photos .. signings and who knows what else. These people buy the tickets had the knock on effect that not a lot of people interested on comics books were able, or willing, to face the queues.

We were in the smaller hall this years which pushed the comics up to the mezzanine level and whilst signage wasn't great, people did know that there was more to see upstairs. 

I focussed on WesterNoir (the poster with its back to the camera is the WesterNoir banner, letting people down below know that we were upstairs).

There was lots of interest in WesterNoir on the Sunday, comics, figures and the new badges, which was great and Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day.

LFCC is a very well organised and run show. 

The Mel Gibson factor was unexpected and there were many more signature hunters then I'd ever seen before but we still had an enjoyable weekend. 

Our table buddy this year was James Gray and we'll be inviting him back to join us next year, so he must have been ok 😀

Good fun at High Viz

Yesterday Steve, his daughter Sasha and I were at the High Viz event in Birmingham.

It's an event that I think has been going for quite a while, focussed on visual arts and mostly it seems art on buildings (is it still called Graffiti ?).

This year they were adding comics for the first time. 

To me it felt like a merging of the wonderful Portsmouth Con and the hard to get to Lakes event, in that it was very family oriented and spread across the town.

There were professional comic book people on display (Charlie Adlard, John Wagner and Hunt Emerson just to name a few) mixed in with independent comic creators (and a guys selling back issues who took cash off of me in exchange for some issues of EPIC).

I spent a lot of time chatting with Hunt Emerson, a legend of the UK Comic scene and also to a number of other creators whose work I respect. I was humbled to be asked to sign a lot of my old books and when chatting to another guy to be told how our work is respected.

A great day out. 

If you live in the Birmingham area then it's well worth a visit next year. I'll certainly go again if offered the chance.

Next weekend Steve and I will be at MaccPow (on the Saturday) and Bury Comic Con (on the Sunday). No peace for the wicked.

It was great to be back at Copenhagen Comic Con

It's been a few years since we've been to the Copenhagen Comic Con, 8 years in fact for me.

This year however my old partner in AccentUK, Colin, and I decided to go back. To catch up with our many friends over there, and see if they still remembered us :o)

This year we stayed as close to the central train station as we could, as the new venue for the event was out of town and would require us to use a train every day.

The Astoria hotel was originally built for train workers and whilst a little narrow it was exactly what we needed. Clean and safe. And the staff were very friendly and helpful.

The structure on the roof helped me locate it too.

It was a new venue, for the Con and for us, but we found it fairly easily (despite using the Metro which was undergoing engineering works that forced us to use a bus as well... reminded me of the UK). 

We found it well signposted though...

and the venue itself was well attended 

Admin was well managed and we were quickly in the hall with no hassle at all.

The Con was actually good fun, it was great to see that in Denmark the comic scene is very healthy with many comics (from the USA and Europe) having Danish translated versions. 

During and after the Con we met up with our good friend Arnie, who runs the great ArtBubble event later in the year, and he took us for a drink in the Comic Cafe (which has its own bar).

Colin and Arnie

After the event we also caught up with Soren, who used to own the Fantask comic shop. We had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening just chatting and actually found a pub that Soren had never been to before.

Colin and Soren

I really enjoyed the trip and am looking forward to returning next year.

Copenhagen Comic Con

This weekend my old AccentUK partner in crime, Colin Mathieson, and I will be at our first Copenhagen Con for quite a few years. 

Really looking forward to it.

Hope to catch up with a lot of Danish friends.

Do pop by and say 'Hello' if you're in the area.

WesterNoir Volume 1 is being reprinted.

It'll be its first printing under Time Bomb but will also have my WESTWORDS imprint (logo designed by my go-to designer Andy Bloor).

I was going to call it WESTWORLDS but I doubt anybody would every be able to find it when Goggling as WESTWORLD is too established.

And to make the second printing a little different it'll have a new cover (the cover we used for the first issue when we did these as comics).

I've decided to take this opportunity to put it on Kickstarter, and provide people with an opportunity to buy a Josiah Black versus The Gator Boys (as we call them) poster.

The posters will be A3 in height but half as wide as A3 width. Art by Gary Crutchley and coloured by regular WesterNoir colourist Matt Soffe.

Portsmouth Comic Con

What a great event. 

It has always been one of my favourites, well run, well attended and a great diversity of comic and toy related stuff on offer.

I arrived pretty early Saturday morning, you can never predict how motorway driving is going to go so I set off pretty early. I know the area around the Guildhall now though and knew the car park near the event that is easy to get stock between the two.

I was so early I interrupted a fox going about his morning business...

He gave me that kind of 'This is my bin, find your own' look.

The venue is well signposted...

and once you've managed to get your pass (a very easy experience (maybe because I was so early) and you're treated by all ECTO 1 and the DeLorean Time Machine (much bigger than my Lego version)... oh.. and Slimer...

and you're in.

I experimented a bit this year, as I was on my own I didn't have to try to persuade anyone, and only took my WesterNoir related books and merchandise, and Quantum comics.

Happy with the simpler look, sometimes I think less is actually more.

The event was great. Had lots of people spot the figures and come across for a chat (and some purchases) and then the usual mix of new customers and customers returning from previous years to pick up the latest issue(s).

I met up with a lot of people and made some new friends.

Some interesting potential future developments, but I won't jinx anything here and now, let's see how things go.

So, full credit to Kurt and the organisers, another very successfully run and fun family event. 

And the queues outside we long and well managed too...

I'll be back next year...

If they'll have me.

Portsmouth Comic Con.

I'm off to the Portsmouth Comic Con this weekend.

All on my own. 

So do take pity on me and pop over and say 'Hi' .. and also .. apologies in advance if I keep talking at you and you struggle to get away.

Cassidy figure has been painted

Following on from the last post on the Cassidy figure...

I decided to get a little adventurous with her scarf. Blue stars I thought would pick out the blue in her eyes.

and I like to make the shirts look a bit dirty, as if she'd been out in the wilds a bit, rather than sat in a nice hotel room somewhere.

Her hair isn't this long in the comics, not yet anyway, but I do like how the figure has it.

There's a lot of brown so it was nice to add a little purple to the back of her waistcoat.

Silver buttons on the front also help bring it alive a bit.

Added blue jeans trouser colour, gloves brown and gun belts a slightly different brown.

Red handle to the gun with the special bullets, to add a non-brown colour really, makes it jump out nicely.

Lighter brown boots also accentuate them against the legs and also base colour.

I like to keep the bases very understated so as not to complete with the figure.

Also added her three scars on her right cheek, the most nervous bit as it be a lot of effort to correct any mess. Interestingly I decided in the end to not make them all uniform in length and shape, not to over work it. Naturally they would all differ anyway, and I think it looks better for that.

and she's done.

Quite happy with how she came out.

DAW - No 4 - The 1972 Annual World's Best SF

 

This book encapsulates what I loved about DAW books when I was just starting to read SciFi. Different writers telling their own stories in their own style. In this case 14 different stories in the single collection by 14 different writers. Some of whom I've heard of and some I haven't. 

It may have been a book like this that first introduced me to one of my favourite authors, Larry Niven.

Some very interesting ideas amongst these stories but the idea that remained with me after finishing it was that of technology out of time. Now we're all used to having it be portrayed as magic to more primitive cultures but the idea that a primitive technology could actually be of benefit to someone living in more advanced times is a good one.

Imagine a cave man, protecting his village, throwing a spear at a more advanced invader who has a force field that deflects particle beam weapons. The far superior spaceman wouldn't actually have a chance as the spear passes through his shield, his space suit and his body.

Working on some new table display items for this year's Comic Conventions.

Those of you who popped over to our table at last year's events, and particularly Thought Bubble where we had some for sale, will have seen out 3D miniatures. Little figures of some of our WesterNoir characters.

I thought it would be cool to get a few printed much larger to help make our table look a little more interesting at Conventions.

I'm no expert on 3D printing but our printer (Gary's son Jason) told me it needed to be filament and not resin, due to the size...

and warned me that I'd need to do a bit of cleaning up, as little bits of filament stick out here and there. This is not a problem with the resin prints.

The first thing I do with all the figures I paint is to choose a good base colour, so if you miss a crack, or hard to reach area, then it will be this base colour (which should blend in better with the finished figure) that would be visible rather than black (the original 3D printed colour).

The first figure is of Cassidy McRae, and the base colour of choice is brown, which will work equally well with skin and leather cowboy garb.

I always start with the head. This needs to work well otherwise the figure won't be worth completing.

I paint the eyes in and then build up the skin colour to cover the white as much as needed. Much easier than paining all the face skin colour and then trying to add white eyes with a blue iris.

Once I've got the face looking good enough (and more highlights etc will be added later) I sort out the hair.

I'm happy with how Cassidy is looking and so will now continue with the clothing.

Forgot to mention that, in order to get a consistent colour, I do all the parts of skin showing at the same time as the face.

Going Back To The Future a final time with Lego

So, there ended up being a few pieces missing.

And the phone number on the box seemed to be just for show, as it was unobtainable.

I had to resort to Ebay for each missing piece but found that the task of searching was made much easier once I'd worked out the words to use 😐. 

Thankfully there seems to be quite a market for the odd Lego piece which leads me to believe that I'm not alone in this.

Happy with the end result though, it looks nice in my cabinet.

Fencing with the storms

 Well, the last two years of really bad storms have taken their toll on my fence.

It really was held up by two pieces of string I the end. One to my back door and the other to a tree.

The back fence gets such a hammering because it's a row of gardens with no buildings to really block the wind. I used to look out at it during the storms and watch it ripple in waves down its length, wondering if this would be the storm to bring it down (or blow it away more likely).

It really needed replacing.

And  needed something strong.

I needed concrete polls.

I also needed plenty of cash.

Two guys were in the team, quickly taking the fence down...

And then putting the new one up.

They did a pretty good job, and worked pretty much non-stop all day (until I popped out and brought them back a sausage bap from down the road).

Very pleased with the end result.

I told them not only did it look storm proof but should also keep any zombies out, you know, if a Zombie holocaust should happen.

Going Back To The Future once again with Lego

 Well, I was progressing pretty well...

It's starting to look like the DeLorean from the films.

And then what I had dreaded, happened.

A piece was missing.

Luckily it's a pretty common piece, but I've long since passed on all my old Lego.

Ebay will save me, I thought.

And it did.

I just need to wait now.

And 'Yes, I searched all of the other bags in case it had been put in the wrong one'.

With this in mind I ordered 4 just in case it's needed later as well.

Now I just need to wait for the mail.

Going Back To The Future again with Lego

I'm progressing nicely with the build.

I'm amazed by how intricate it all is and as I put little round pieces into square pieces and then into other sometime same sized square pieces I can't but keep thinking about how on Earth someone created this design. It's mind boggling. Yes, they'll have CAD software to help, I'm sure, but blimey.

Thankfully the build is broken into sections in the booklet and each of these sections has its own bag of Lego pieces. 

So, all the pieces needed for section 3 are in Bag 3.

I did notice that there are always a few 'extras left when each section has been finished.

Initially I feared that this meant I'd not put something in at the right time, and was reminded of working with my Dad back in the 20th Century as he fixed our car (back when cars were almost completely mechanical, with not a computer in sight). We'd always end up with a washer left on the curb when he'd thought he'd put everything back together again.

The other worry about the extra pieces is that if they can add some by mistake, could they also not leave some out.

I had a momentary scare when it came to Section 4. Some of the pieces weren't in the bag. Checking the box I was released to find that or some reason there were two bags for Section 4. Disaster averted. Phew.

Daw - No. 4 - The Book of Van Vogt

I've had a hectic few months with family, work and comic things all going on.

This has reduced the amount of time I've had to spend chilling out with an old Sci Fi book.

The latest Daw Book is a collection of tales from A E Van Vogt, one of my childhood favourites. I remember really enjoying Slan, Voyage of the Space Beagle and The World of Null-A to name but a few.

This volume has a real mix of subject matter, from time travel twister, through Intergalactic Empire conquest to a brain in a jar.

I enjoyed them and the message behind the ones that had a message to deliver (or the message I took from them as I'm not entirely sure it was the one intended).

It all felt a bit dated but was easy to read and enjoyably readable throughout.

Going Back To The Future with Lego

So, the Christmas before last Christmas I got a Lego present from a couple of people who know me too well.

It's the DeLorean from Back To The Future.

It's 1872 pieces.

It's going to test me, for sure.

I've waited until now as I've finally got the dining room ready with some nice cabinets and this will look great in one of them.

Great Scott.

Wish me luck.

Glasgow's First Power Con

Nothing says Power more than the Incredible Hulk, and nothing annoys an Incredible Hulk more than a bloke from Birmingham criticising his attire.

Whilst it was the first Power Con, it was very much the successor of the very enjoyable ACME Cons of the past few years and so we knew exactly where to do and what to do.

We stayed in our usual hotel, situated close enough to the venue and surrounded by nice eateries and pubs. I was even tempted by the Haggis offered for breakfast.

As they say is Scotland, 'When in Scotland do what the Scots do'.

Not sure I'll try it again though.

Two days of seeing people collect signatures from voice actors of programs I've never even heard of (although one was Victor from Arcane (a great show and great character) and chatting to anybody who stopped long enough at our table. We had a pretty successful con all in all. 

Yes, there were long quiet periods.

Yes Celtic had a home game on Sunday. 

The weather, oddly for Glasgow, Wes dry and sunny (not that we saw much of that being oil the hall most of the daylight hours).

Mr Fudge did well 

helped as he was by the shortest StormTrooper I have ever seen.

And we parked our car next to the Scottish GhostBuster, just to be on the safe side.

Who are no feart fan nae Ghost 😄

Had a great Con, looking forward to the one in winter.