Last weekend saw me getting up very early in order to get to the first of hopefully many Comics Assemble comic events in Gloucester.
I always wonder about how conventions, in a Leisure Centre hall this time, will fair when the weather outside is so lovely.
It suffer a bit as I think people woke to such sunshine, but it was a great day.
Sales were good enough, other creators were greet to catch up with (I hadn't seen Dave Hitchcock for many years) and I also got to meet people who create 3D models of your characters (more on that in a later post).
It launched yesterday and is doing OK, please do pop over to :-
and check it out.
The pre-launch page is up now, should you wish to be notified on launch.
... and here's a great little video pulled together by Andy Bloor
Thanks Andy.
My Cursed Blessings Kickstarter is coming together very nicely, the book looks really solid (with big thanks as always to Andy Bloor for his design work).
I'm just trying to work out what tier rewards (tempting extra etc) to put up with it. It's a challenge when the stories are only loosely related (at this point) but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
Got an invite to this, it's a bit of a trek but as it's 2 days and I'll have Steve Tanner riding shotgun I thought it would be a good way to spend a weekend.
it's the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October.
As we're up in the North West, we head further north after MaccPow and stay in a hotel in Bury so we're refreshed for the Bury Con.
It's our second and I love that we've already scoped out our favourite Indian Restaurant and know the local pubs.
We had a great curry, I have the mildest and Steve has the hottest on offer, and I ask them to the sure not to confuse them. After that we found two nice armchairs on the first floor of a busy pub and sat, with few beers, to eat h the England game.
Hmmmm... the first half was pretty boring so we headed back the hotel at half time and watched a better half in the hotel bar.
It was a game of two halves.
The Con itself had moved venues and wasn't as busy as last year, but we did well enough.
Again it's great chatting to new readers and old alike, and to people who wondered just what on earth was going on 😆.
After the event we headed back south, I dropped Steve back at his and was home by about 8pm.
All in all a really enjoyable weekend, and hope to do the same next year.
We really enjoy the convention in the centre of Macclesfield.
I bought my first house in the outskirts of Macc many years ago and it's great to have an excuse to visit every year, I still love the town.
Setting off around 6am, I pick up Steve Tanner on the way, and we arrived in Macc at around 9am. It has changed a bit over the years and I did get lost a little, I knew roughly where I was but didn't recognise the road I was looking for. I found it in the end and we arrived at the Town Hall, with comics, at 9.30am.
Not idea as I do like to be early at events but it only takes me about 10 mins to set up the table.
As I seem to change my company name every other year I decided to have an advert for this year's Thought Bubble Convention.
To let people know that they an still get their latest WesterNoir at the event, and to look for us as 4D Comics.
Andy Bloor pulled it together and I think it does the job very nicely.
So, last weekend was Portsmouth's Annual Comic Con.
I've done this for a few years now, and as it's only 1.5 hours away I tend to drive back and forth each day to save money that would be spent on a hotel room. Had I been travelling on my own then the current cost of petrol may have challenged this approach but this year I was bringing Gary Crutchley and his wife Karen (who were staying over at my place for the weekend) with me so it was definitely cheaper.
But, would we all be able to get up, out of the house and on the road, in time?
It all went very smoothly. We arrived in plenty of time and after two short trips between the car and my table we had sent up with plenty of time for a nice breakfast.
Took a trip to Brighton this week, I've never really explored the city before and I must say, I'm a fan.
The Lanes were really fun to explore with their mix of art, antiques and cafes (amongst other stuff) and I found Dave's Comics.
Brighton itself reminded me Brooklyn in the USA, it felt very arty and fun. Lots of great murals too.
Another well run comic con from the Bolt Events people.
First outing for my new banner 😊
Both versions look fabulous and are ready for the next Convention.
I'll be taking mine to Banbury Comic Con next Saturday...
And also, for the first time in a while, I'll also have business cards.
Once again a big thank you to Andy Bloor for pulling this together.
After 10 or more years, and it has finally started to be a challenge to put up, I've decided to invest in a new WesterNoir Banner.
I wanted one with both Josiah Black and Cassidy McRae and Gary Crutchley did a fabulous job (as always) on the artwork.
Matt Soffe then added mood with his glorious colours
But the problem working with two other creators is that they have different preferences for the words.
Jemma wanted...
Maidenhead is about 30 minutes away for me and their comic con had been suggested by both Gary Grutchley (he heard about it somewhere or other) and my barber (who'd been to the last one to look at a version of the Batmobile).
Two people who had never met (as far as I'm aware) mentioning the same event. Seemed like fate.
OK.
I'm in.
I contacted Bolt Comic Cons through their website and booked a table, pretty easy to do.
I've been to small town comic cons before and whilst nice to be at the previous attempts had resulted in not too many people stopping to chat, let alone buy anything. But this was fated to happen, so it would be different wouldn't it?
It took me less that 30 mins to drive there, park up and find my table.
Last weekend 7 blokes who are older than they were last year gathered in the same converted barn for a long weekend playing Dungeons and Dragons.
I've been playing for about 50 years now and we still play 2nd Edition (with a few modifications we've made (intended or by mistake) over the years). As a group we've been playing some 20 years together now, and we still do the odd crazy thing.
A great time was had, and this time none of the characters died (although my half-orc Fighter Cleric Ubik came very close at one point).
It is really well organised and is a really family oriented event.
Can't wait.
My application to the 2026 Thought Bubble, under my new 4D Comics company, has been accepted which is great news.
Also, we've been accepted at the Bury event on the 28th June.
It's getting nice and busy.
Steve and I really enjoy our trips to Glasgow for the POWER and ACME events.
Well organised, easy to find and park at, a good number of people coming through the doors, friendly staff... what more could you ask for.
It's a long drive, which includes a slight diversion to pick up Steve Tanner in Brum and this year another detour to drop off Quantum 13 stock at the Diamond UK warehouse in Warrington.
But it's worth it.
Stopping off at Tebay services (up and down) is always an added bonus, and breaks the journey up nicely.
We had good sales, lots of chats and it was great to have a customer who bought our black and white version of the WesterNoir Book One TPB come to the table to pick up Book Two.
And I managed to find a restaurant that did Crumble.
Of course, there was the slight embarrassment when Steve had to check out the Things... errr.. thing.
My go-to designer, Andy Bloor, has sorted out the titles for the book now.
And I'm very happy with what he's done. It feels nice and sci-fi-ish.
Shane Chebsey is trying something new.
A new convention that is aimed at keeping costs down as much as possible, and also hopefully attract a good number of potential customers.
Free with each table booked you get 10 free tickets, which you can sell for the £10 or give away, and then another 10 if needed. This is aimed at getting the creators to help raise the profile of the event but advertising the tickets to all of their readers.
It's not a bad idea and worth a try... and worth supporting.
So, I have a table.
You can find out more over at Comics Assemble.
When my daughter Jemma was about 5 and I was reading her a bed time story, probably a Roald Dahl book, I thought to myself.
"Wouldn't it be cool if I wrote her a book myself."
And so, every year I picked up Emma Munday's first story and added a bit. And changed the bit that I'd already written.
The trouble is that most of my free time was spent writing comic book stories or colouring in pages of artwork for comic books I'd written.
The years passed.
This year I am determined to finish it and commissioned Ian Ashcroft to do me a wraparound cover image.
An interesting start to the year, not in a good way.
When I got back from my Mum's after XMas I was confronted with a damp patch on the ceiling in the dining room.
