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.

Copenhagen Comics event in 2025?

I had a great catch up with Colin over the Thought Bubble weekend and 

maybe a thing we go to.. like we did back in the AccentUK days.

Also great to catch up with Paul and Kim from Denmark, it's been a long time since we were over there last but I certainly miss it.

Comments on Strange Times Book 2.

I just received these words from Michael Lindal Andersen, who asked where book 2 of Strange Times was every time we visited the Copenhagen Comics event... This year his 6 year wait was over...

I just finished Strange Times a few days ago. Only took about six years. Anyhoo. I really like the kind of science fiction that it represents. The more cerebral kind, where science doesn’t equal magic. I think you pulled it all together quite nicely at the end – avoiding the big action-y showdown, where everybody fights and stuff explodes. Even though one of the characters tries to form a superhero team. That made me smile. It means you are better than Mark Millar, who ends all his stories (clever, not so clever and most often rather stupid stories) with everyone fighting… again. So there is that. Not sure what an action scene drawn by Dave West would look like, truth be told. Your style in art seems to pull the story in the right direction. So yes. I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t look or feel like any other comic, I have ever read, while at the same time it feels like all the (good) science fiction, I have ever read. Yey.

Copenhagen Comics 2017

Every two years there is a Comic event in Copenhagen that started way back in 2004. We've been to every one. Not because sales are always fantastic, we only sold about 10 books at the first one, but because we have made so many friends over their and enjoy seeing how they're all getting on.
This year the Con had moved from the usual nice warm June to a pretty cold and damp late February. The venue had increased its costs and so a move to a more 'off peak' time slot made it affordable for the organisers. The usual questions arise when anything changes about a Con anywhere, will the change put customers off coming ? Only time would tell.

When we planned our trip we were the usual 4 man team. Colin and Scott (above) with Gary Crutchley and myself. Tickets were purchased, accommodation sorted. Holidays booked with our day jobs sorted, well, almost. It turns out that Gary's company had instigated a new Holiday Booking process, which seemed to translate to 'All holidays cancelled'. Gary had to drop out. It's a real shame that company's treat people like that. Accent UK would never do such a thing :o)
We did actually consider a replacement...

...but Mr. Normal was busy that weekend.
Arriving just after lunchtime we took our comic laden suitcases to the venue and offloaded. Well, actually we transferred our clothing to a backpack and left the suitcases under the tables.
As usual we were set up in no time, so checked into the hotel before making the trip back to the venue for the launch meal.

Colin, Oyvind (Norwegian), John Anderson (Canadian based in the UK),
not sure who is at the end of the table, Kim (Dane) and Arnie (Icelander living in Copenhagen)

It's always amazing to meet so many people from across Europe, the Copenhagen Con is certainly a draw (excuse the pun) for people.
From the UK there was Garen Ewing and Tom Gauld in attendance. Garen seemed to be at his table and sketching all day. Tom was attending panels and sketching but I never saw where. Both were enjoying themselves and remarked on how friendly the Danes were and how relaxed, and yet well run, the Con was.
Saturday then was usual for the Copenhagen Comics Con, and supported something we learned at our first event. It starts slow. There's no queue to talk of waiting for the doors to open. That's not the way they roll. By 1pm though it was pretty busy and we were selling well.

Colin and Martin Flink were busy sketching for people, another difference in Denmark is that people tended to wander off and come back for the sketched edition of the comic rather than queue. All very relaxed.

There was more interest in Stephenson's Robot this visit, last time we had the single issue and the presence of issues 2 and 3 certainly got people looking, and buying.

Colin sketches for a customer who did like to watch the artist at work,
the vast majority of the attendees were drawn to a presentation / discussion about
comic themed movies but sadly, for me, it was in Danish.

Sunday was pretty similar to Saturday.
The attendance felt about the same, sales were about the same and we had a really enjoyable time.
Sunday night we were invited back to Arnie's for a meal with his family, it's amazing how the two girls had grown in the 18 months wince we were last there, they remembered us though, mainly I think due to my separating thumb trick :o!
Monday was our chance to unwind a little and catch up with our good friend Soren Pedersen.
We got the train out to his town, a bit like a suburb in the UK, and enjoyed a meal and chat with him and his wife Bibeke.

We had a lovely meal at Esthers Spisehus and enjoyed a funny moment when Colin thought the lady owner's name was Esther. Ah well, that what happens when you make assumptions. Esther was the name of the street or area. As always, it was great to catch up with Soren (who used to own one of the Comic shops in Copenhagen) and spend the afternoon talking about all sorts, this year we discovered his passion for deer paintings, ornaments and ... even a large head (which he said he is looking after for his son ... we'll see if it's still in his house in 2 years).
And then it was Tuesday, and time to leave the city we have come to know so well.
With its bikes...

... it's store statues...

Colin proving he's not keen on dogs, even if they're made of resin.

its wall artwork (I don't think the word graffiti does them justice)...

its strange Dr. Who-like sculptures...

And now copies of the WesterNoir trade in Fantask...

Looking forward to the next show.
We may be going back next year for Arnie's Art Bubble event... let's say that we're very tempted.

The best Copenhagen Comic Con ever.

We've been attending the Comic Conventions in Copenhagen since 2004 and, having missed none of them, this was to be our sixth.
We've been seeing sales climbing over the past couple of events and so with four of us traveling over this time around, Gary Crutchley, Scott, Colin and me, we decided to throw caution to the wind and cram as much stock into our luggage as we possibly could.
Going through baggage check in on Friday morning was a little stressful, as nearly all of us were slightly over the 23kg, but SAS flights didn't make an issue of it, the lady only asked us if we were moving house, and so a few hours later we found ourselves in Copenhagen, with all of our stock. My suitcase had suffered a little however and the handle had been snapped off during the process of moving it from one airport to another, but I wasn't going to let that spoil my weekend.

We also decided to have two tables this time. Partly due to the stock but mainly due to the fact that we were launching a new book by the very talented Martin Flink. We published his Man Of Glass a few years ago and had just published The Troll.

We are, of course, past masters at setting up the stall these days, and Colin made good use of the back boards with some posters and signs (in his version of Danish ;o).

And so with a nice space left for Martin to sign his books, the tables were ready, and we had time to wander around, meet old friends and see what the other creators had brought to tempt people (ourselves included) to part with their money.
It all looked very impressive.
Leaving a few suitcases behind, transferring the small amount of clothing we had to hand luggage (now empty of additional comics), we set off to find the hotel.

We stopped at The Normal shop that evening on the way to the Event Meal but it was closed.
We've been to a few of these event dinners, which the Danes like to use to launch the event, and they've proven to be pretty good, another chance to meet and chat with old friends, and the food is typically pretty good. Two years is a long time and there was a lot of news. Language has never been a problem in Denmark, the Danes speak perfect English. A nice end to a long day.

The Normal shop is normally closed we found.
Saturday morning, after an interesting breakfast, where we met up with our good friend Garen Ewing, we set off once again for the Con venue. No heavy bags to carry this time though, just a nice walk in what was shaping up to be a very sunny day.
No huge queue outside, but we were used to this and we expected the Danes to continue to stroll in throughout the day.

We had another look around the venue, chatting to other stall holders and meeting other friends and then the doors opened and we were joined by Martin Flink, keen to get to work signing his The Troll book.

It was great to see Cliodhna Lyons at her table directly opposite ours. I first met Cliodhna at the first Mocca event we went to in New York. Cliodhna had a whole range of books, cards and arty bits and bobs on her stall, including a few mermaid cards ... not the kind of mermaid that appears in WesterNoir though, hers were the cute variety.
It was a slow start, as these things invariably are, and I must confess that around lunchtime I began to wonder if we'd brought far too much stock. Maybe the experiences of recent Cons in the UK were not going to be repeated in Denmark.
And then things picked up.
Gary's wonderful sketch packs started to fly off of the table.
We had repeat customers coming over to pick up issues 3, 4 and 5 having bought issues 1 and 2 two years ago.

Gary realises that we're almost out of WesterNoir sketch packs ...
looks like a busy night of sketching is on the cards ...

WesterNoir was once again our top selling title, closely followed by Martin's new The Troll book however, and it was nice to see that Martin's friend and old tutor Fredrik Stromberg also pick up a copy, and pose for a photo...

And then the first day was over, we'd had a great day and despite being pretty tired, arranged to meet a few friends for a beer and burger (or similar) later.

Garen (with a huge drink of Orange Juice), Scott, Colin, Jan and Gary.

We had a very enjoyable evening talking comics and catching up over a few beers, but were all up bright and early for breakfast and the short work back to the venue for Day 2.

Sunday started slowly but again picked up around 11am and we started to get a steady flow of interested people wanting to find out about our books. A few returning customers and once again someone who picked up issue 1 of WesterNoir, only to return a couple of hours later for the rest of the set.
Gary had to get to work producing more WesterNoir sketches, so we could create some more sketch packs, and at one point I was sat next to him on colouring duties, courtesy of his water colours. Most of the day however Gary was joined by Martin...

One of Gary's hopes for the weekend was for him to meet Peter Snejberg. Peter has produced some great comic books over the years and Colin, being the friendly sort that he is, had met and chatted with Peter at the last Copenhagen Con. Colin somehow arranged for Peter to pop over to our table. So, there he was sitting for about 30 mins, chatting away with Gary over a beer. I think that that, as much as the response to WesterNoir, made Gary's convention.

By the end of another busy day we'd sold out of a number of titles, typically not be able to sell a few more sets of WesterNoir as we'd sold out of issue 1, 2 and 5. Other titles had also sold very well and we were very happy that the bags we were to carry home would be much lighter than those we'd brought over with us.

That evening we'd arranged to meet up with Soren Pedersen (and old friend and founder of the Fantask comic shop) and his wife Vibeke, and so after a nice relaxed walk from the hotel with Garen in tow, we arrived at The London Pub, where we were later joined by Cliodhna. It always makes me smile that we tend to end up in pubs with a British theme, and this one actually did have the right feel. The food was interesting, with us choosing a stew that contained all sorts of stuff. It was kind of a Full English Breakfast (without the egg... I think) in a stew. It was actually very very nice. And so there we were, talking comics, talking about Colin's future Gay Gordon's Ghost comics project (I'm still not sure if he was joking or not) and having a really enjoyable chill out after 2 fun, but busy, days.
Monday we said our farewells to Garen over breakfast and spent the rest of the day with Soren, seeing the sights. It was great to be able to spend time with Soren again and is something we look forward to each visit.

That evening we were invited to have dinner (which is our Tea) with Arni Gunnarsson and his family, and a lovely night it was too, although I probably shouldn't have tried to teach his youngest daughter the 'separating thumb trick', sorry Arni,
Which just left Tuesday morning to wander into Copenhagen City Centre, leave our very light (and my very broken) bags at the station, wander around the shops a little to pick up some gifts and then get ourselves to the airport, and home.
We had a really wonderful time at this year's Convention and are already looking forward to going back in two years.

Copenhagen Comic Con and then the opening of the new, larger, GeekBox Comics store in Newcastle Under Lyme.

This weekend we (that's me, Colin, his son Scott and Gary) fly out to Copenhagen for their Comic Convention. We've never missed one (in fact I think we were at their first event), and are looking forward to catching up with a lot of friends over there.
And following that, on Saturday the 13th we'll be present to help celebrate the opening of the new, larger, Geekbox Comics store in Newcastle Under Lyme. It's great to be invited to share in a great day for the store. The poster (above) is already on display in the store windows.

So, a busy few weeks ahead of us, almost as busy as the last few behind us with Colin and his other son Adam having such a great day at the Granite City Con in Aberdeen.

Getting ready for the Copenhagen Comics Convention.

It's been a few years, I think maybe 3 but would need to do some digging to be sure, since we attended the last Komiks.DK in Copenhagen and we've really missed both the trip and our friends over there. It'll be great to catch up and talk about what we've all done since.
We're going to be a little more limited in terms of what we can carry over with us this year as it's just me and Colin. Previously our friends Chris and/or Scott have come over with us but sadly this year they're not able to do so. We'll miss them both.
We're both really looking forward to it though, it's always been one of our favourite Cons and hopefully the name change will be just that, a change in its name.
I've been busy this month with the day job and the impact that a such a significant change in the Organistional Design of the company brings, but am still finding the odd moment to be creative.
Gary Crutchley has been great keeping WesterNoir 3 progressing, and has worked wonders with my script to produce a book that sets things up really well for the final book in the story arc, even changing bits of scripting here and there to improve it all. A great collaborative effort. A big thanks to Gary for his efforts, and talent.
As I've not had much time to do my own 'art thing' lately and work on Strange Times 2, I've been playing with collages in my spare moments, cutting and sticking images on a page, I wish I could be more loose and random but I think for me that's not going to happen...

 If nothing else I'll have a little sketchbook full of images to look at should I great a creative block...