Manchester MCM

Accent UK will be at this weekend's Manchester MCM, pop over and say 'Hi' if you're at the Con.

From Manchester to Worthing.

Well I've been to a few Cons since my last posting and have decided to try to catch up this weekend.
This post will call out the high points of the Manchester MCM and the Meanwhile event in Worthing. Very different shoes and they actually sum up, for me, the polarity of shows today.
On one side you have the small comic event that pulls in local people (both creators and customers) and at the other a monster event that pulls in people from across the UK, and beyond.
MCM Manchester then was its usual huge self. Loads of dealers selling, well... stuff you can buy in stores in the main, and smuggled in amongst it all the Comic Village.
As always the quality of independent comics was high but we had a great weekend and caught up with existing customers..

Josiah Black pops in the check on things...

and new...

visiting the stall and checking out our books.
As always it's great catching up with people and the MCMs are two full on days.
Worthing's Meanwhile Event, on the other hand, is a small event in a Town Hall type building. Much fewer stalls and comic creators but much ore relaxing with much more time to chat to people.

The Kingdom figure got his first outing and got plenty of attention.
Fewer comics were sold but I had a really enjoyable day and with driving there and back again on the day I kept costs very low. Simon (Blue Fox Comics) is certainly doing all the right things and I'll certainly be back next year.

All set up in plenty of time.

Manchester MCM ... our home turf.

We love the Manchester MCM.
It's a great event and also our closest, which means no lengthy trips down (or up) the motorway and no accommodation expenses.
This time around I'd hoped to have had our new WesterNoir Trade Paperback on sale, particularly as we were down to 10 copies of Issue 1, but sadly this turned out not to be the case.
An error at the 'finishing house' resulted in the books having the last 16 pages in the front of the book instead of at the back where they belonged.
Unfortunate but at least I spotted it when the books arrived rather than at the Event itself.

With two tables we have enough room for the comics and the adapted Lego figures, which are always popular. We also had a few display props and our new vertical display stands which certainly helped us get more notice too, with the lovely red Zombies cover at head height for all passers by to see.
And so the Event opened and we were really happy to see so many customers returning for the latest issues of WesterNoir and Stephenson's Robot.
Not as pleased however as when we saw our very first ever Cosplayer.
Yep.
Josiah Black himself.

The funny thing was that I'd been chatting to 'Josiah' and hadn't noticed that he was dressed as he was until he stepped back.
Gary and I had always said that we'd know we'd arrived when we had someone come along in Cosplay as an Accent UK character.
Well ... we've arrived.
We had two days of good sales, interesting customers and well, just enjoyed ourselves.

All books sold equally well really.
It was great to see interest in Strange Times 2, I'd worried that people would have forgotten Strange Times after all these years, seems not to be the case ... thankfully.
We did sell out of WesterNoir Issue 1 by around lunchtime on Saturday, which did hit sales as it made it difficult to sell the rest of the books, unless the customer already had number 1. Not much we could do about it on the day though, just one of those things.

All in all we had another great Con, sales were not as good as last year's but we did discuss a couple of new opportunities that if they come to fruition will be very interesting.
Looking forward to the next MCM event, which is in London and before that the Steampunk Asylum event in Lincoln.

It's all go.

The WesterNoir Trade Paperback Collected Edition

I suddenly realized that we were selling many more copies of issue 1 and Conventions than I'd expected and that if I didn't do something, and quickly, I'd have very few to sell at the Manchester MCM.
How did I manage to get myself in this situation ?
I took my eye off the ball.
I'd already reprinted a few of the titles a couple of times but it's really tricky keeping equal numbers of the issues in print.
And I'd taken my eye off the ball.
My nephew had been wanting to get involved in Accent UK for quite a while and a little while ago I suggested he have a play with designing the WesterNoir TPB, which we wanted to have french flaps on, you know, just to make it a little different.
I quickly got in touch with Michael to see how it was going.
It was going pretty well.
Maybe, I thought, I can pull this off.
Would Stuart (or printer) pull together the PDF if I sent him all the tif files ?
'Of course Dave, no problem'.
Had Gary finished the new 10 page story that we wanted to add to the book ?
'Yep, just lettering it now'.
Had we got all the pin ups in from those that were interested in contributing one ?
A few emails later and 'Yes', over the next two days I'd have them all.
Did Gary have the Introduction that Mark Buckingham offered to do ?
'Yes'
Blimey.
We'd pulled it off.
But it was only 2 weeks and a bit to the Manchester MCM itself.
Could Stuart get them printed in time ?
Well, and email today confirmed that a good number of boxers had been shipped to my home address.
So, I made it.

As long as the delivery men don't take the boxes to the wrong house...

Manchester MCM

We're really getting into the whole 'MCM' things these days.
The comic village is growing its own identity as a regular section of the event and attracting a good number of people, whether these are bemused Cosplayers, mainstream comic customers or fans of independent comics.
It has quiet periods but it also has completely hectic 'can't deal with all the customers wanting to buy stuff' periods.

The sea of people in strange costumes seems never ending and it's fun working out who they are dressed as... or trying to in some cases (due to my poor knowledge of Manga and Anime, my daughter Jemma always had to explain those to us).

Two days stood on your feet, when you're not sat at the table painting or sketching, can be pretty tiring but you only notice it at the end of the day and it's a good kind of tired.

On a personal note the highlights for me were :-

• Stuart Gould (our printer) driving all the way up to the event from Birmingham JUST to deliver copies of Stephenson's Robot #2. It was great to have them on the table and very good of Stuart to put himself out in this way.
• The customers who pounced on Issues 5 of WesterNoir and Issue 1 of Tales Of WesterNoir, as it wasn't on the table at last year's event.
• Watching Gary Crutchley pitch the WesterNoir concept to a number of people, he's a far better salesman than I'll ever be.
• Catching up with some great friends from my days working in Manchester :- Neal Morrow, Alan Rigg with his son and Claire Smith with her daughter Olivia.
• Seeing Olivia (dressed up in Frozen Princess costume) walk up the stall with her face painted like The Hulk. Not a princess then ? Not for Olivia :o)  Frozen-Hulk Smash !!
• Meeting and chatting to so many new Customers
• Sitting at the stall and painting some of Gary's great sketches for the WN Sketchpacks.
• Watching my daughter Jemma look so at ease explaining the comics to potential customers.
• Catching up with some of our comic creator friends.
• Selling a record number of books, yep, this Con took us over any previous record ... by about 20%.

My water colours on top of Gary Crutchley's great sketches.

The MCMs are quite an event. I only got to wander around a little on the Sunday and it is incredible how it has grown. On the logistics side, the queue system has been improved, the space between the stalls is about right, the food area is big and out of the way and the car parks are close. And more importantly everybody seemed to be having a great time.

Being our local MCM meant that we drove in each day, so there were no hotel bills and no hangovers. We did miss the socialising that comes with staying over but it is nice not to have all the hassle with sorting out hotels (and also the cost). As an Independent Comic creator, who needs to make enough money selling comics in order to be able to afford to print the next one, this is all important stuff. Which makes the fact that we sold more in Manchester than we did at the London MCMs all the more significant. 

This MCM event also say one of the great mysteries of Comic Cons solved at last.
When Colin goes to get the tea, why is it always cold ?

Colin chatting with Adam Cadwell for 10 minutes ...
holding my cup of Earl Grey Tea, so close and yet...

A great two days and a great Con.

Stephenson's Robot #2 and Manchester MCM.

I've received the proof copy of issue 2 of our alternate history steampunk comic, Stephenson's Robot. I must say it looks great sat next to issue 1...

Andy Bloor's choice of colour for the surround works perfectly with Jon Ayre's colouring of INDIO!'s great illustration.
I can't wait to see these two sat side by side on the Convention table and this weekend's Manchester MCM. If you're at the Con then do pop over, Colin has reported on his blog that we have 6 new titles since last year, which is hard to believe. One of these is The Troll by Martin Flink, you can find out more about that lovely little comic over on AccentUKComics.blogspot.co.uk.

Manchester MCM ... a WonderCon.

Well I thought I'd do this report a little differently.
Colin has written his usual very thorough report over on his blog, which talks about how well we did as well as all the people we met and chatted with, so I thought I'd make this a more personal report than my normal effort and talk about those things that I loved about this show.

1 -The Accent UK table.
Seeing the Accent UK table laid out all neat and tidy with our wide variety of books proudly displayed for all to see.

Colin and me ... ready for two days of comics.

Over the last 10 years or so, yes it's been that long, Colin and I have been involved in the creation of a good number of comic books and have worked with a number of very talented people. Some professional, some amateur, some confident, some doubting their abilities, some fresh from college and some looking for something outside of their careers.
They all have one thing in common, they have all been chosen to be in our books, be it as writer, artist, letterer or designer and they all have talent (whether they see it in themselves or not).
And the results of their, and our, efforts always make me smile with pride.
2 - Seeing all those creative costumes. 
I'm a fan of the home made outfits that some of the people wear to these events. Obviously created over many hours, you can just see and feel the passion for the costume in the way it is worn, each person also play acting the character they've chosen.

Is it hot out there ?

My favourite at this Con was this one. I presume it's Mr. Freeze, and it looked completely hand made, right down to the fans inside that stopped the wearer from expiring due to the heat trapped in the helmet. Wonderful.
Also of note was the person wandering around as Thanos, at least I hope it was someone dressed up...

Thanos ain't afraid of no Gator Boys ...

... well, he seemed happy enough to strike a pose, Infinity Gauntlet and all.
3. The Customers.
Nothing makes me happier than someone returning to our stall to pick up more of our books, having read one or some of them already at a previous Convention. We had a number of people who stopped to pick up later issues of WesterNoir and one lady, having bought Strange Times and Robot Shorts on the Saturday, returned on Sunday to pick up anything else I had similar work in. I pointed out the anthology titles and she picked them all up. You can't get better feedback than that, and it's that sort of feedback that makes it all worthwhile.

The row of tables next to ours.

4. Meeting co-creators and comic friends.
It's the only time you tend to see your comic creating friends. Steve Tanner was at his stall (Timebomb Comics) for the entire weekend, but we managed to have tea with him Saturday night, and catch up on future projects.
I'm fortunate in that I meet up with co-creator/co-writer and artist on WesterNoir Gary Crutchley fairly often as he doesn't live too far from me, but it's great to have him helping behind the stall. He's very passionate about our books and it's also great for him to see the way that people are responding to his work. His sketches certainly tempted a good number of people to buy all 4 issues of WesterNoir.

Gary and me enjoying interest in WesterNoir.

You can read Gary's report on his blog.
5. Steampunk.
I love those costumes.

so stylish...

...they spark off so many ideas for stories...

6. Seeing old work friends again.
A good friend, Claire, from my days at Co-op IT popped in on Sunday with her eldest daughter Izzy, her sister Tamsyn and her nephew Lukas. They wanted to see what this MCM thing was all about. It was great seeing the kids discovering MCM Madness for the first time. They seemed to have a great time and I know that Claire was amazed by it all.

Lukas, strange furry creature with antlers and wings and Izzy.

7. See the Accent UK table at the end of the show.
It's always great to see that some of the titles have sold out (we can only bring so many to a show) and even better when we realise that we are taking far fewer boxes of comics home than we arrived with.

All that was left after two great days of comics.

A great weekend.

WesterNoir Issue 3.

WesterNoir Issue 3 arrived Thursday morning. Once again the guys at UKCOMICS had come up trumps and delievered to a very high standard in a very short time. Stuart Gould, at UKCOMICS, gets comics and more importantly he gets Independent Comics. He knows what we're like. He knows we only manage to pull things together on the 11th hour and he takes this in his stride. I'm always really happy with the results.
So, here we are with Issue 3 in our grubby little hands.
And it's a beauty.
Andy Bloor's cover design layout still makes me smile and the three of the books sat together really do have the feel of a cohesive on going story. Inside the pages are sharp and clean and my worries about the double page spread lining up were needless, once again Andy made sure it all came together nicely.
Gary Crutchely is driving this book for us. He's the one who prompts the get togethers where we lay out the plot, the twists, the ebb and flow, and he's the one who then lays out the plot and thumbnails the pages before we agree the issue and he sets down to work his magic on the finished art.
We took Issue 3 to the Manchester MCM Expo yesterday and it was a real pleasure to see customers of previous issue just walk over to it and pick it up. No need to hit them with any details, they just bought their copy as they would any ongoing series. Yes, we now have an ongoing title on the table, and it feels great.
Gary and I had a busy time (and you can see a fuller report over at accentukcomics) but still managed to take time out to sit and discuss Issue 5 over a coffee. Issue 4 will be a defining issue for the series but Issue 5... well...
Gary and I will be sending out review copies over the coming weeks, so if you're a reviewer for a website or blog then get in touch (the email address can be found on the Accent UK website) and we'll send a copy your way.