Meanwhile in Coventry...

Last weekend we attended our first truly comic convention in almost 2 years.

It was the first ever Meanwhile Comic Convention in Coventry.

It was small and perfectly formed.

It was great to catch up with our friends from Timebomb Comics and Mad Robot Comics as well as catch up with Tripwire's Joel Meadows.

A weekend chatting about comics with other creators, professional and independent, passers by and customers. It felt great to be back.

It was also a pleasure to catch up with John Higgins and thank him for writing the Introduction to the second collected volume of WesterNoir. I also commission John for a Josiah Black portrait and am really happy with the result.

I may well use it for the Kickstarter.

Attended a Drink and Draw for the first time and had a great laugh with David Morris.

We had a great time and have already expressed our interest in attending next year's event.

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.

Meanwhile at the Comic Con.

When Simon Birks (of Blue Fox Comics) mentioned his new Comic Convention in Chichester I must confess to thinking it'd be another small provincial Con with few customers and too many stalls. This was typically how they went so why would Meanwhile be any different ?
But Simon is a friend and so I offered my support and agreed to book a table.
As it typical for me it was a few months later that I actually got around to booking the table, but book one I did.
As the day drew nearer Simon offered me an extra table as someone had dropped out, so I was to have two tables to fill and man (as I was on my own).
It's been a busy few weeks and it was only the night before, having loaded my stock, that I looked to see where Chichester actually was and how long it would take to get there.
An early start for me then but the drive would only be two and a half hours, so not too bad.

I managed to arrive with only 15 minutes to spare, but even on my own had managed to set the table up with seconds to go.
The day started nicely, with a fair number of early ticket holders showing interest, and I realised that this was a comic con then more than a multimedia one. People were here looking for comics.
And when the general population entered that was confirmed with lots of discussions held with a good number of customers and many of these resulted in people buying a book or two.
As first Cons go, this was a great one.
The efforts of Simon and team paid off and I think the Con will only get better year by year as word spreads.
A great mix of professional and independent creators, craft stalls and events.
Well done to all.
Accent UK will be up for returning next year.

Meanwhile at the London MCM Con...

The post about our attendance at the next London MCM was a mistake on my part.
Accent UK will be at the London MCM event as always.
Next weekend though we will have tables at both Thought Bubble and Glasgow MCM events. The A-team will be at the Glasgow MCM and Colin, Gary and Martin Flink (on his first UK appearance) will be at Thought Bubble.
And then the week after I will be representing Accent UK a the Meanwhile event, you can find details about this new event here.