Quantum Issue 10 is at the printers

 This issues cover is Peter Thomson by Gary Crutchley and coloured by Luca Mattioni.

Last Sunday I went to the Tetbury Comic Con.

I came across one of those Facebook advert posts, which are so targeted these days that they are pretty much always of interest.

This one was for a 1 day Comic Convention in Tetbury, with special guest Brian Bolland.

Now, I've seen Brian at a number of Cons over the years but there have always been long queues and with the need to man the Con table I've always missed out.

So here was an opportunity that I couldn't really miss, despite the 1.5 hour drive to get there.

A small Con with no TimeBomb table to worry about.

I was surprised by how easy it was to find, and how beautiful the village and its surrounds were.

It was a very small Con.

About 5 comic tables, about 3 times that of other stuff and yes, Brian Bolland.

It was nice to clap Brian's Life Time Achievement award, along with those for the guy who runs the Comic Museum in London and someone from Rebellion.

And it was nice chatting to the few guys in the queue.

Brian was nice to chat to, whilst signing my 7 2000AD collected books, the first Batman - Black and White book and a Judge Anderson poster I bought off him on the day.

I also picked up issues 1 and 2 of After The Robot Apocalypse, a fun little romp which is really nicely illustrated.

The journey home took an hour longer due to a road being closed and SatNav not understanding, or accepting, that this had happened, but it was a nice day out.

WesterNoir TPB 3 and Moon Cursed

These are now being printed and I'll hopefully have them in a week or so and be able to start mailing out to the Kickstarter backers.

It'll also mean that we have something new at Thought Bubble, which will be good as last year all we had that was new were the Quantum issues.

Can't wait to get these in my hands.

MCM - we won't be there this weekend.

We've decided not to attend the MCM event this weekend, it's just become too expensive. We struggle to make enough cash to pay for the booth and when you look back at the event and realise you've worked hard for 3 days and walk away with very little it just doesn't seem worth it..

We'll see if we can get into Artist Alley next year but if we can't then it's unlikely that we'll be going back, which his a real shame as we do enjoy the event.

LICAF - comics in the Lakes

Last weekend we attended the Lakes International Comics Art Festival, attracted to the event particularly by the pre-event day where we could meet foreign publishers, tell them about our books and see if there was any interest / appetite for them to consider any for printing by them in their language.

We did get some interest, and I've sent out pdfs to those who requested them. We'll see if anything happens, either way it was an interesting day and as they say 'Nothing ventured nothing gained.'

The event was held in a marquee, and it was pretty solid and sturdy. No wind or rain entered and whilst not too windy, there was plenty of rain over the weekend.

and we were only. stones throw from Windermere. 

The town and venue were perfect, and it must be said that the town really got behind the event.

Both Saturday and Sunday had decent sales, and allowed us to chat to customers and fellow comic creators alike. It was nice to meet Tony who wrote such a great review of Whatever happened To The Fastest Man? and picked up the WesterNoir trades.

I even found time to get some nice sketches, something I've not done for years, remembering how nice it was to chat with other people in the queues (get catching top with Karl from Diamond and 'that guy who collect Shadow sketches / artwork'). I even got time to buy an original page of art, Judges Dredd and Anderson) from John McRae (which is great).

I stayed over on the Sunday as it's a long drive home and the difference to how busy the town felt was noticeable. 

I really had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year. 

A really well thought out, organised and run event. 

Lakes International Comic Arts Festival

We will be attending this event from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th September.

Colin and I attended the first as Accent UK way back in 2018 I think it was. 

We are looking to take advantage of the opportunity to show our books to foreign publishers to see if there's any interest in producing foreign language versions. 

We've produced a special catalog for the event, designed as always by Andy Bloor.

Yes, we're trying to look all professional :o)

WesterNoir TPB3 and Moon Cursed will be off the printer this week.

After a successful, if a little stressful, Kickstarter campaign I can report that the books have now been completed, with all the little extra design-y bits and pieces by Andy Bloor, and will be off the printer this week.

I can't wait to get these books printed and on the table at conventions.