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Manny over at Whatever Comics sent me this the other day. It always gives me a lift when I get something like this. Thanks to Manny for continuing to promote our books in his store and also to Josh for taking the time to pop this on Facebook.

A relaxing 10 days on the Kent Coast.

Well, it's been too long since I've last seen my parents, who have moved out of London into a nice retirement bungalow on the Kent Coast, so this year we decided to combine a long visit with our Summer break.The Kent Coast used to be the favourite summer holiday destination for us growing up and many a holiday was spent in Broadstairs, where we dug holes in the sand outside our beach hut and swam in the cold sea, when the heat got too much.
We spent most of our holiday in and around Birchington, where my folks now live, where we walked along the coast line, cycled to Reculver Castle and also took the plunge in the Channel (and it is as cold as I remember it). We did however also spend a day in Broadstairs and had lunch in Bleak House (of Dickens' fame), or as Jemma and I called it Beak House, home of Darles Chickens.

I must confess to not recognizing much, but I guess that's because my sister and I were always either building sand castles or swimming, we weren't much for taking an interest in the local shops and buildings when we were kids.
Jane and I also visited Canterbury, Jemma deciding to stay behind with her grand parents, and had a great day discovering art galleries and an amazing little book shop. No visit to Canterbury would be complete, of course, without a visit to Whatever Comics, and a chat with store owner Manny.
It was great to see Manny as passionate about comics as ever, and my wife even popped in to suggest a school bag for Jemma (a Marvel one no less), Jane's first comic shop visit in many a year.
Leaving Manny with a Magnificent Seven WesterNoirs (the number seemed appropriate) it was soon time to leave, but I'll pop into that great little store whenever I'm in the area, which is all the more likely now.
The only other 'time out' from the holiday was taken to watch the new Batman movie. Jemma and I went to The Vue at Westwood ( a retail park). All I can really say is 'Wow', what a great end to the trilogy.
No rest for the wicked of course, as we're all off to Carlisle next weekend fopr the MegaCon, which I'm really looking forward to.. be good to see you there.

Whatever happens we'll enjoy ourselves...

... was the last thing I said to Andy as we stepped out of the car to meet Manny of Whatever Comics in Canterbury. Manny has been a great supporter of Accent UK for a few years now, selling more copies of our books than any other store, anywhere.

We had decided to launch Fall Of The Wolfmen at Manny's store mainly because it would give us the opportunity to meet him and thank him in person for being so helpful and encouraging ever since The Wolfmen first hit the shelves. To be honest I've been to enough store signings to know how they can go, and so my expectations were set very low.

I was completely blown away, however, by the response we got.

I knew Manny had pushed our books on a number of his customers, maybe even most of them, but to a man they all told me that he had been right to do so. They had enjoyed them so much.

We met a lot of really committed comic fans and had a good chat with a lot of very interesting and interested people.

It was a really really great day.

We were working the table from 1pm to 5pm. Not a moment passed when we weren't doing something, and the time just flew.

I can't imagine better hosts than Manny and Debe, as they took us under their wings and sorted everything out for us. Also the work done, as a favour for a friend, by Karol (and later Carl) in walking the streets in Wolfmen garb to raise the profile of the event worked incredibly well, so a big thank you to them as well.

I've written a fuller report over on the Accentukcomics website, with a lot more photos. Also pop over to the http://www.whatevercomics.com/ to find out more about the store, and take part in the very active forum, and visit Andy Bloor's blog (follow the link on the right).

I'm still buzzing from the launch even now ....