Move Over Moriarty.

It seems to be traditional now that Accent UK take a trip to Waterside Arts Centre to catch up with the two ladies, Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding, that are Lip Service, for their latest two woman show.
This year the ladies turn their attention to bring a Sherlock Holmes tale to the stage.

As we have come to expect they each tackle many roles (so there are plenty of costume changes), they poke fun at the subject matter and they enjoy themselves.
What I love about these ladies is that they look to be enjoying themselves as much as the audience and there are moments when they 'seem' to improvise to great comedic effect. I say 'seem' as it is so funny that it feels like these moments should be part of the play (and maybe they are).
With all the rushing around and costume changes Watson came on stage without his moustache. I think everybody noticed it, Sherlock certainly did on the stage.
'Ah,' he said, 'you've shaved'.
'Err ..', Watson looks at the audience a moment,' Yes, but I have the kind of hair that grows back very quickly. in 12 hours you wouldn't know I had shaved at all.'
Watson then quickly disappears through the door and returns almost immediately with moustache.
'See', he says.
It's a very British act and I'm not sure that it would travel well abroad but young and old in the audience enjoyed every minute.
Can't wait to see what the ladies come back with next year. A Sci-Fi adaptation would be cool.

Bulletproof Nylon and Withering Looks.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day.

The postman handed me a large envelope which contained my copy of the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival Limited Edition of Bulletproof Nylon from the pen and mind of the very talented Marl Earl, and as if this wasn't enough, I opened the package to find that Mal had included a page of his original artwork for our upcoming Tales Of WesterNoir #2.

A great start to the day.

Colin and I had booked a table at the Comic Mart in Manchester's Thistle Hotel. We do this once a year and use it as an opportunity to get rid of a lot of the comics that we'd amassed since the last one. We sell it all pretty cheap and typically sell pretty much everything. 

What struck us this year was that there were far fewer dealers and those that were there we selling comics as cheaply as we were. There seems a much stronger market in Graphic Novels these days, with only true collectors willing to pay the higher prices demanded by Silver Age comics. Personally I think this is a healthy turn of events.

We did pretty well, I managed to shift more than 2/3rds of what I took with me, and managed to resist buying much to replace it all.

And then we all, with our families, went to see the latest play from Lip Service.

This year, we saw Inspector Norse last year, it was Withering Looks.

As with the previous play, the two ladies, using only two sets and a few changes of clothing, managed to portray what life must have been like for the three sisters... probably... maybe. 

Very enjoyable, British humour at its most British. 

Yep, can't wait for the next one, which is called Doreen Grey.