Monday 17 November 2014

Best thing from Thoughtbubble '14.



From Sally Jane Thompson. This may be my favourite purchase from the weekend.

Gorgeous line work!


Thought bubble 2014

Phew.

For me at least Thoughtbubble marked the end of a really busy convention season. With beardrock.com being down for ages I have started writing for John Freeman over at www.downthetubes.net

It's been great and I am loving the non stop writing. It's really been pushing me to write on the commute and not just when the mood takes me. John seems like a great guy and it's nice to have that editorial eye put over my work - I am really learning a lot from his input.

I have just come back from Thoughtbubble and sent John a 'freaking' big file of stuff for his website. I just thought I would pop on here and give credit to those not mentioned properly on that DTT piece.

It was a Comics Club outing again this year and the guys and girls were in fine form. My voice is a little horse from laughing (and shouting) for pretty much the whole weekend. 

I first met up with Alex Martin who insisted I keep up with him drink wise. This proved to be difficult as he is finely oiled machine in that arena. After sitting in a hotel bar for an hour devouring drinks it was pointed out by kind comics creator Roger Landridge that we were in fact in the 'wrong hotel'.

Making our way to the proper prearranged RV point we met with Dean and Victoria Beattie, Marc Laming, Dave 'Gangsta' Stokes, Natasha Healey and Matt Harrower. We headed off for a swift meal and then to a great rooftop bar.

The view from the misty bar.

We then headed downstairs to the party proper and chatted to Ben Read, Laura Trinder and Chris Wildgoose from Improper Books. Love these guys and without naming any specifically sexy acts we aimed our rockets at a certain Comics Club member and the hilarity continued.

In usual bar fashion it was a huge lark from beginning to end and I got annoyed/laughed with/shouted at/danced with all the right and wrong people. 



Allow me to point out at this juncture that being a baldy big head does not mean you rule the bar.

Also if you are a photo tracer do not interrupt my awesome comedy routines. 

Dance off with Harrower!


This night went on drinking and myself and Alex ended up back at the hotel bar putting the world to rights!

Like the good soldiers we are we ended back at breakfast ready for the convention bright and early.

The line was a strange affair this year and seemed only for the TB Teepee? (Evidence of Native American structure as below).


We then headed into the main hall without having to line up. It was a busy day and there were huge piles of comics creators to be seen both small press and big press. These interactions (where I tried not to make a complete fool of myself and totally failed) are listed over at the Con report on downthetubes.

However. Where the Fig were the back issues? There were very little on show. Chatting to a small press editor he told me that this was the first year that they picked and chose the table holders and it wasn't just first come first served. This is a real shame because I am always up for a big stack of back issues. Shouldn't at least part of every good comic convention have these?

Because of this (you will be mortified to hear) we didn't manage to play our usual game of 'Shit Comic For Under a £'. I know that Dean and Victoria were disappointed as they act as judges!

C'mon Thoughbubblers more old paper!?

(Neither of these three men is me! But that may be Columbo to the left of Doc Strange?)

The gang then met up with Lara Margarida, Bryony Evans and a lady who was funny but refused to tell me her details or her home phone number. We all went for a pizza and Alex ate a cake!

He shared this cake but I am not saying who with!

At this meal Matt shouted at me! I made a reference to runny eggs. Marc kept referring to a bus he was run over with. I was told my hair is like a beautiful Waterfall. Myself and Lara had the best hair there and may produce a TV series with us as detective hairdressers.

One lady told me she doesn't watch The Valleys. I didn't believe her. 

We then went to the bar again. 

I then drove home and snored a little at Leicester East Services - 'cos I am cool!

Out!


Sunday 2 November 2014

Made my day.

I've been doing some reviews and covering some events over at www.downthetubes.net

After a review I wrote for a free Halloween comic I got this tweet.


Really made my day.

Especially from such a talented guy.