Hello Comica......

If by any chance you're visiting this blog because of the kind mention on Paul Gravett's blog and the Comica site, I probably owe you an apology as you may be wondering where all the comic stuff is?

Well, when I started this back in 2006, I was doing a mix of personal stuff and comic stuff that I found interesting.

Then I started writing reviews over on the Forbidden Planet International blog and everything slowly changed. First I started writing the occasional piece on comics there, then I started cross posting things on comics I was writing for Fictions and eventually started writing there regularly on comics whenever I had something I wanted to say. This increased writing about comics meant this blog, which was always meant to be a general blog of me and my life, was getting choked with comic stuff and nothing else. Things came to a head recently when dear wife complained that she couldn't find any news about our daughter to show her workmates because of all the comic stuff cluttering up the place.

So much so that the amount of comic blogging going on here now amounts to no more than a notification of reviews done each week and a delayed cross post of the reviews in full, usually about 3-6 months after initial publication.

By all means have a look round, enjoy, read. But also stop off at the FPI blog for all the comic writing you could wish for.

Paul Gravett talks Comica with Matthew Badham......

more guest interviews of a comic festival kind. Matt Badham continues his round up of the comic convention scene in the UK with Paul Gravett and Comica. Again, I'm running short of time and deadline for getting this online is fast approaching so I'll be shamelessly "borrowing" the format and photos from the FPI blog - thanks to Joe Gordon for doing a sterling job on this......

Over the last few weeks and months, the Forbidden Planet International blog, Down the Tubes and Fictions have been cross-posting Q&As by Matt Badham with the organisers of various British comic conventions. Our aim is to give the conventions themselves some well-deserved publicity and also to, hopefully, spark a wider debate about what’s good and bad about the convention circuit in this country. (NB: Answers have been edited only in terms of spelling, punctuation and grammar, and not for style or content.) For this eighth instalment of the series, Matt chatted to Paul Gravett of the Comica festival.

Matt Badham: Please tell us about a little about the history of your event and how it’s evolved over the years.

Paul Gravett: Comica started in 2003 and grew out of a couple of events I’d done with the ICA (that’s the Institute of Contemporary Arts) before, including interviews with Grant Morrison and Tetsuya Chiba and a panel with Dave Gibbons, Dave McKean and Matt Smith. The ICA is a cool venue, on the Mall, just off Trafalgar Square and up the road from Buckingham Palace. It has galleries, two cinemas, a theatre, education space, cafe, bar and bookshop. A key person there getting Comica to happen was John Dunning, their film PR man at the time and a keen comics enthusiast – and now a published graphic novelist himself with the brilliant Salem Brownstone from Walker Books which launched on 24th October at a Comica Spooktacular evening at the ICA.

Together John and I cajoled and persuaded Philip Dodd, director of the ICA, finally to let us run a pilot 10-day festival during their summer refurbishment of the galleries. They gave us the Concourse Gallery to fill, a long corridor-type space that leads from the foyer to the bar, and the use of rooms and the cinema for talks. Luckily, I knew a curator at a Spanish festival who was inviting Charles Burns, Joe Sacco and Chris Ware over and she very kindly let me bring the three of them from Madrid to London, saving on their pricey transatlantic flights. So we had three top-class guests to kick the show off. One central idea of Comica is to mix comics with all the other media, and not keep it sealed off in some specialist cocoon, so we got novelist Alex Garland, who had drawn his hit book The Beach initially as a comic (he showed it to me years ago on the train to Caption in Oxford), to talk with Chris Ware. They were both pretty shy frankly but it was a great encounter. Jonathan Ross surprised many people by being respectful and knowledgeable interviewing Charles Burns.

The pilot was an astonishing success. Instead of the ICA being a deserted building site for 10 days, it was packed with the public, the talks sold out and the bookshop shifted loads and loads of graphic novels. We got some great press coverage and even had Joe Sacco on Channel 4 News. Philip Dodd rang me right after and said “Let’s do it again next year”, and Comica was underway.

Over the years, Comica has had some amazing guests – Craig Thompson, Alan Moore (no less than 3 times), Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, the Bitterkomix boys from South Africa, Alison Bechdel, Ben Katchor, Guy Delisle, Scott McCloud, David B. and many more. We’ve also branched out to work with other venues like The French Institute, National Maritime Museum, V&A, BookArt Bookshop and this year no less than The British Museum, but the ICA has remained the hub, the base, and the simple idea is to try to get each ICA department – film, performance, exhibition and of course talks – to programme something comics-related during the festival.

MB: How is your event funded, by ticket sales, the exhibitors, a grant, some other means or a combination of these?

PG: The ICA continue to support Comica amazingly, through their arts funding and providing the venues, technology and staff. Of course most ICA events are ticketed, so that’s the main revenue stream. From the start, Philip Dodd recognised that something was happening in comics, something they had to engage with and embrace, to be there first, ahead of their big artsy rivals like the Tate. We’ve also had huge help from publishers, other European festivals and various cultural institutes bringing artists over. We’ve never gone for the big comic-mart mixed with trade-fair approach, but we started a small press fair in 2007, Comica Comiket, and that’s growing well, with London Underground Comics teaming up last year, and this year on Sunday November 8th we expand to the ICA Theatre and have several groups supporting it, from Jimi Gherkin’s Alternative Press crew to Matthew Sheret from Words+Pictures and the Nobrow guys.

None of this Comica festival would happen without everyone involved at the ICA itself, from house management, tickets, reception, installation, bookshop and technical to director Ekow Eshun, Jennifer Thatcher in Talks, Tejinder Jouhal in Films, Emma-Jayne Taylor and Vicky Carmichael in Education, Jennifer Byrne in press, and everyone else who pulls together to make it go smoothly. And I must sing the praises of the team of volunteers who help make Comica possible, including Sarah Lightman, Vasileios Sakkos, Tom Smith, Ben Le Foe and others. In fact, if anyone reading this would like to volunteer for Comica this November, do please get in touch via the website www.comicafestival.com

MB: I understand that you run satellite events under the Comica banner throughout the year. Can you tell us a little about these and why you decided to augment the main Comica with other panels and exhibitions?

PG: Because too much is happening, comics are too vibrant to limit them to one festival a year, even one that’s grown from ten days to three weeks. With the year-round flexibility of Comica events, we can welcome major guests whenever they can make it to London, from Art Spiegelman and Marjane Satrapi to Alan Moore and Joe Sacco, only a few weeks ago, to a packed house, and Daniel Clowes lined up for next spring.

MB: What are Comica’s overall aims?

PG: To treat comics as a totally valid contemporary artform, to show where the medium is heading right now locally and internationally, and how comics can interconnect with every other artform. In many ways, the aims, the mission, of Comica are in sync with what Peter Stanbury and I envisaged when we used to co-publish Escape Magazine back in the 1980s – to escape, to break out from narrow definitions and formulas, to liberate comics to be anything they want and everything they can be. That’s why we’ve put Spiegelman together with Philip Pullman, Posy Simmonds with Ian McEwan, Moore and Gebbie with Stewart Lee – or this year Logicomix author Apostolos Doxiadis with Marcus de Sautoy and Ben Templesmith with Philip Ridley. And Comica hosts the best, from whatever field of comics, from Japanese comics, with Junko Mizuno, to American superheroes, like Alex Maleev last year and Cameron Stewart this year – quality is there in every sector of this medium.

(all the girls go crazy for a sharp dressed cartoonist man! Seth at Comica, pic courtesy of Paul Gravett)

MB: Who is Comica aimed at? What sort of punters do you hope to attract? Are you family-friendly?

PG: To reach out to as broad a public as possible, to the fans and enthusiasts of course but also to all sorts of other people who are culturally alert and curious and may just be discovering the wonders of manga or graphic novels. Among them are plenty of people who want to make comics themselves, easily half of them these days being women. Comica this year is adding a kids’ workshop, Little Pencil with Sarah McIntyre. Its identity is mostly focussed on the adult audience for comics, though plans are afoot to expand the family side next year.

MB: How effective have you been in getting those kind of people to attend?

PG: Definitely effective. One of my greatest pleasures is to chat with people queuing for an event or signing and find out how they’ve got interested in Comica. They come from all sort of backgrounds and interests and for a lot of them it’s opening up a whole world of comics culture that they are really getting into.

MB: Can you give a projected (or actual) attendance figure for Comica?

PG: We estimate over 5,000 people now attend Comica over the festival period and the numbers are still increasing as we link up with other major venues. The added plus is that the ICA no longer has to charge admission to the venue so a lot more people are visiting the free exhibitions and events.

MB: What lessons have you learned during your time running Comica, in terms of its marketing and advertising?

PG: Key to Comica’s success has been the ICA’s high profile and strong links with the cutting-edge media. People notice and pay attention to what the ICA does, so it’s been amazing working with them and getting coverage far and wide. Comica doesn’t advertise, because our newsworthy events and guests can get us valuable editorial coverage. We know word of mouth works wonders.

MB: Do you use emerging technologies to spread the word about Comica? Do you have a website or blog, or use email mailing lists?

PG: Yep, vital – first through my own website www.paulgravett.com and since this year through www.comicafestival.com , its own site, both doing extremely well with thousands of visitors. And we’re using Facebook now. I’ve got some great help with these from Tim Webber, who runs Read Yourself Raw, and Ben Le Foe. And the ICA’s own site always highlights our events.

MB: What about print? Do you use print advertising, have a newsletter, anything like that?

PG: Instead of a convention booklet only for paying attendees, we print a Comica programme that gets widely distributed across London so people can pick it up and get an overview of the whole season. On top of this, the ICA always highlight Comica in their monthly agenda which gets to lots of outlets. And yes, people can sign up to the email newsletter via the Comica site to get first alerts on upcoming events to be sure to book those tickets early.

MB: What’s the mix in terms of exhibitors at Comica? Do you even have exhibitors?

PG: As I said, that’s one aspect of traditional conventions that we’ve not gone for. Instead, the ICA’s own Bookshop stocks all the relevant books by the guest creators and since 2007 we invite small presses, self-publishers and independents to sell their wares at the Comica Comiket.

MB: What are your thoughts on the small press comics scene in this country? How do you use Comica to support it (do you try and support it)?

PG: Again, as above, the Comiket is an important part of the festival. We also spotlight small press creators on panels and in exhibitions such as the Potential Comic or PoCom wall that ran in 2003 and again last year. In 2007, Comica hooked up with The Observer and Jonathan Cape to launch the Graphic Short Story Prize, to give newcomers the chance to win £1,000, get published in a national Sunday paper and be talent-spotted by a mainstream graphic novel publisher. Last year’s winner, Julian Hanshaw, has his debut graphic novel, The Art of Pho, out from Cape next Spring. It’s a real opportunity for small pressers to get noticed. This year we’re getting four full pages in the glossy Observer magazine for the winner’s strip – that’s great exposure and will come out the Sunday before the Comica Festival begins, so great pre-publicity. And plenty of emerging UK talents have been nominated for the Arts Foundation’s first £10,000 fellowship for a graphic novelist – we’re announcing the finalists at Comica. The first of many, we hope.

MB: How much are the tickets for Comica? How did you arrive at that price? Please tell us about any concessions.

PG: The ICA sets the prices for all its Comica events, and there are always discounts for concessions, and even bigger discounts if you become an ICA member. We also offer reduced rates for an afternoon of three Comica Conversations in a row. I’m well aware that Comica can be pricey for many people so I’m pleased this year that thanks to sponsors Ctrl.Alt.Shift and The Arts Foundation we’ve got some totally free panels, you just need to book. And the exhibitions and Comiket comics fair are always free admission.

MB: How much are exhibitor tables for Comica (if you have any)? Again, how did you arrive at that figure?

PG: We try to keep Comiket prices deliberately low just to cover costs, as low as a tenner, to give people a chance to attend and reach out to the public.

MB: Do you run workshops/events/panels at Comica? Please tell us about those and how they are organised.

PG: Yep, the ICA now has a Reading Room and Student Forum where we’re holding an afternoon workshop with Bryan Talbot, Pat Mills and other major creators dropping in to give advice and guidance. There’s another workshop at the new Book Club in Shoreditch to design cartoon posters. Organising panels, or Comica Conversations, is one of the most complex parts of programming the festival, co-ordinating guests’ schedules to bring amazing people together, like last year’s underground comix reunion of Spiegelman, Shelton and Spain, their first three-way conversation in many, many years. Vital to making these work are my years of working in comics, getting to know creators, publishers and festival organisers worldwide. Getting Sacco over, for example, was possible only because he was in Europe between two weekend festivals in St. Petersburg and Italy.

MB: As you’ve been kind enough to answer these questions, please fell free to big Comica up a bit. Tell us what you do well, what Comica’s main attractions are and why our readers should attend the next one.

PG: I really think there should be something for everyone who loves comics at this year’s Comica. We’ve teamed up again with the brilliant, unmissable Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds to bring Ben Templesmith over. As Thought Bubble run their big Saturday during the Comica season again this year, I deliberately don’t programme major events to clash on that day. For one thing, I want to get to Thought Bubble myself. I can see the advantages of holding a one-day event like this, or the weekend approach of Bristol or Birmingham. But you never have time to see everything and everyone you want to, especially as there’s often parallel programming going on. Comica is different because it can stretch across two, even three weeks. It does kind of favour people already living in or near London who can get here easily, but out-of-towners can choose the weekends which are often the busiest parts of the festival.

I’m especially excited by Comica ‘09 because we’ve hooked up with a fantastic sponsor, the youth charity Ctrl.Alt.Shift, and I’ve helped them co-edit the first anthology comic published for Comica, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption. It really is a first-class international anthology of reportage/exposé comics with Bryan Talbot, Dave McKean, Woodrow Phoenix, Peter Kuper, Pat Mills, Dylan Horrocks, Dan Goldman and more. Through Ctrl.Alt.Shift we’re hosting NY musician Lightspeed Champion, who’s created one story and scripted a second in the book, for a live-gig to launch the comic. And it’s great to have a month-long exhibition to promote it through the ultra-cool Shop at Lazarides gallery in Greek Street, Soho. This show is going to stun people, situating comics alongside agit-prop graphics and the whole plethora of activist and political comics and cartoons from May ‘68 and Black Panthers to today and Sean Duffield’s forthcoming Paper Tiger War anthology and Alan Moore’s new venture Dodgem Logic.

The other startling thing is the number of related exhibitions linking up with Comica this time, from the British Museum’s manga show spotlighting the genius Hoshino Yukinobu and Swiss Cottage Library’s Black Powers display, to solo shows by Robert Crumb at Scream Gallery, Mayfair, Philip Marsden at Riverside, Richmond, and John Miers at The Flea Pit in the East End. Our catch-line this year is totally accurate – “London is bubbling over with comics!” On top of this are the exceptional theatrical/live performance events this year: David Lloyd himself kicking off the festival appropriately on November 5th with live drawing and music with a V for Vendetta theme – it’s a free party at the ICA bar – so remember, remember, the 5th of November! Then there’s the darkly funny, adults-only Uncle Hans-Peter Party by comic artist and animator Richard Squires where everyone in the audience has to wear an identical creepy mask, and the equally edgy play Busted Jesus Comix, based on the conviction of Florida teen Mike Diana, forbidden to draw his crazed Boiled Angel comix.

(Chris Ware bestows his comics benediction at Comica; pic courtesy of Paul Gravett)

In the end, what makes Comica worth doing is having remarkable guests, like Gerry Finley-Day who had never appeared at a comics event before, and this year reuniting Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons with retail pioneers Phil Clarke of Nostalgia & Comics and Derek “Bram” Stokes, founder of Dark They Were And Golden-Eyed, a thrill for me as DTWAGE was the first comic shop I ever visited for my 12th birthday, a life-changing experience! It’s also so special to have Eddie Campbell over, launching his massive omnibus Alec: The Years Have Pants, some of which we serialised in Escape and collected in three graphic novels. Eddie and I go back ages and I’ll never forget being at Ian Wieczorek’s home with Phil Elliott in Chelmsford, Essex when we were first discovering his autobio self-published stripzines.

Comica 09’s line-up also includes wunderkinds James Jean and Tara McPherson, thanks to the great support of Offset, the design conference in Dublin, and Reinhard Kleist talking with music critic Charles Shaar Murray about his Johnny Cash bio, and Willy Linthout with his stunning graphic novel about losing his son to suicide, talking with former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. These are the sort of unique encounters that make all the hours of organising and teamwork worthwhile.

You know, these are incredible times, comics are everywhere and Comica invites you to celebrate them together, with panache and passion.

FPI would like to thank Paul and Matt for sharing their time and thoughts with us. In addition to his not inconsiderably Comica duties Paul is highly respected as a promoter and writer on comics culture and you can follow him via his site. Comica ‘09 is just about to hit London with a slew of great events, guests and exhibition, as well as various other events sprinkled throughout the year, so check out the Comica site. The winner of this year’s Comica/Jonathan Cape/Observer short graphic fiction prize should be announced this Sunday (November 1st) in the Observer magazine.

You can read the previous Q&As with other British comics con organisers in this series here on the blog: Patrick Findlay of the UK Web’n'Mini Comix Thing, Jimi Gherkin of the Alternative Fair Press chats with Matt, Matt talks with Bristol’s Mike Allwood, Hi-Ex’s Vicky Stonebridge, BICS’ Shane Chebsey, Caption’s Jay Eales and LUC’s Oli Smith.

Baby Einstein users - Disney offers you money back for being guillible parents

Baby Einstein is that horrible series of toys, videos, audio and other shite that promised that hot housing your children with their products would result in your little darlings being smarter, better children.

Well, surprise, surprise. It doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. It would be incredibly stupid to think sticking your child in front of the TV to watch anything would increase brainpower at such a young age.
Yet the number of parents who fell into this horrible little marketing ploy was scary. Including, I'm sure, some of the parents amongst my friends.

Well now Disney (who bought the company a while back) are offering refunds for those parents who feel that they were let down by the promises of instant genius offered by something that, let's face it, was no more than a babysitting via TV service.

There's lots of these things out there, promising better babies, smarter children if only you would spend a small fortune on whatever piece of plastic tat they're flogging. I remember the first time I saw those horrible VTech things in the shops - play laptops for kids wouldn't be bad if they were just play (a modern equivalent of dress up, tool-kits and doctors sets) but I detest the way these things always had to have some spurious educational value attached - giving the idea that just playing wasn't good enough anymore.
And heaven forbid we actually sit our children down in an empty space or with an empty page and just let them use their bloody imagination.

And don't get me started on the Leapfrog book system - "The number 1 learn to read system".
Excuse me. Hold on a moment, but isn't the number one learn to read system having parents who are engaged enough to read books to you, smart enough to have books in the house and a public library system that you use regularly to instil a love of reading in your child?
Or is that just me?
We read to Molly every single night. Every night. The only nights we miss out on it are when she's not actually here (we figure that's a fair excuse). We can't understand parents that don't. And the Leapfrog system just seems like a horrible admission of "we can't be bothered reading to you/with you".

So, back to Baby Einstein. I know tht the easy excuse is to say that you never expected these things to turn little Tarquin into a genius, but that's not the point is it?

All of these brain boosting things, these learn to read systems, they all seem designed by horrible corporations to prey on the fear of modern parents about their children just not being good enough.
But it's not the corporations fault. It's the parents fault. The parents who never had any of these things that suddenly seem so essential, the parents who were allowed to play out, to get dirty, to be children.
Thankfully both Louise and I agreed early on that the way to make Molly smarter had nothing to do with buying the latest faddy parenting solution, had nothing to do with stealing her childhood away and tutoring her from 6 months old like some parents seem to want to do, but had everything to do with being parents, being there, reading, talking, listening.

Simple really.

Or maybe we're wrong. maybe buying your child everything you can to steal away their playtime, to steal their relaxing time, to steal their childhood is the answer.
In which case you don't need to get the refund from Disney for those Baby Einstein dvds you bought, because you and the corporations that prey on your fear and insecurities deserve each other.

UP

After so much build up, we popped along to see UP last weekend.

After hearing so much about it both Louise and I were convinced we'd all enjoy it. And we did. There were tears and there was laughter.
And there was Molly loudly asking "Are you crying?" to both of us at several times throughout the film. And we were.

Growing up is hard to do..... Molly makes the secondary school decision

Last week Molly, Louise and I headed over to another secondary school to have a look around. We did the local Pocklington one a while back and Molly really loved it. This time it was the York Catholic school.

I've talked about the secondary school thing before. Quick summary: Back in Birmingham we were terrified by the lack of choice we had. Either send her to the local comp (not going to happen - absolutely awful school, probably has the metal detectors in by now), try to get her into King Edwards Grammar (then 1 in 8000 applicants successful - now? maybe 1 in 12,000?) or go private. None of them were really an option. And we were worried. Really, really worried.

But when we looked at Pocklington we were told that she had automatic entry to either the local Pocklington comp or the York Catholic school. The relief was amazing. Both schools are academically about the same based on the % scores and we soon decided we could easily leave it up to Molly to decide.

So, back to now. We've seen the Pocklington comp and all three of us thought it was really good. The plus side is the local thing and the great feeling we had. The minus - big school. But we're all agreed it's lovely and Louise and I think (and everyone we speak to agrees) that Molly would do well there - although she's just the sort of kid who'd do well anywhere really.

So off we head to York for the catholic school open evening. And it was lovely, a mazey rat warren of a place, "charming" was how Louise put it, but both Louise and I knew that we still preferred the local Pocklington comp. Which meant we both started wondering how we could persuade Molly to favour our choice, despite promising that we'd let her decide. Luckily we didn't need to. After the tour we sat down to listen to the various speeches from deputy heads - and even before they started Molly leaned across to Louise and told her she wanted to go to the other one.

So it's decided. We sent the online application off last week. Molly's picked her secondary school. Another step towards not being my little baby anymore. I'm incredibly sad but also excited for her. She's growing up and there's nothing I can do about it.

SFX Reviews - Number 1: Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright

Just because I don't have enough to do already (yeah right), I've managed to agree to do some more reviewing. Kenny from FPI emailed me a couple of months ago with the news that FPI are sponsoring a Classic Graphic Novel review every month for 18 months in SFX magazine. Originally the reviews were going to be done in house at SFX, but Kenny pushed and pushed and eventually they agreed that we could do them all on our own.

The first was Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan by an SFX writer (which was a pity as I'd really have liked a shot at that and it may mean I can't do Ellis' Planetary later). The second was Charles Burns' Black Hole by Kenny. And this month (out today):



Oooh, look at me, in print and everything. Yes, it's silly and yes, I agree, it's not that big a deal. But still, it's nice to have my name in there.

Obviously there's a few more words to the review than that - but not that many more. When Kenny said it was 300 words per review I thought it would be a breeze. Except condensing exactly what makes something a classic graphic novel in just 300 words is a lot harder than I thought it would be. This Luther Arkwright review took a week to get right. Each time I sat and started to write 300 words I just felt so paralysed by the necessary brevity. So in the end, after a very fruitless day, I just wrote a normal review and trimmed the 700 words down to the required 300. It's a method that seems to works for me.

(And in case you were wondering what 300 words looks like - I've just written them for you - word number 300).

Molly's first (big) gig - The Girl Guide Big Gig 2009

Molly went off to London yesterday (Saturday) at 8am and got back home at 10:30pm. The reason? Her very first gig ever. It's the annual Girl Guides mega event gig - this year it was Wembley Arena. And she was very, very, very excited to be going.

The line up: JLS, Pixie Lott, Alphabeat, The Noisettes, Scouting For Girls, Tinchy Stryder, The Saturdays, Alexandra Burke, Chipmunk. Sadly (yeah, right) N-Dubz couldn't make it. A terrible shame. I can cope with many things for Molly, but having her come back a fan of that lot of mock-chav idiots is not one of them. The rules around Big Gig performers include requesting they don't drink before going on and refrain from inappropriate language/comments. But in the case of N-Dubz I find their very existence completely inappropriate.

Anyway, Molly had the greatest time. Loved JLS, The Saturdays and Alexandra Burke. Alphabeat were mad she says. Not so keen on Scouting For Girls or Chipmunk.

All of which means I'm now more determined than ever to find some good gigs to go to with her in the next few years.

You’ll Go Home Wanting To Make Comics: a Conversation with Patrick Findlay

The latest in Matthew Badham's conversations with the organisers of various British comic conventions. Our aim is to give the conventions themselves some well-deserved publicity and also to, hopefully, spark a wider debate about what’s good and bad about the convention circuit in this country.

This is another post that will be cross-posted at the Forbidden Planet International blog, Down the Tubes and right here at Fictions. Answers have been edited only in terms of spelling, punctuation and grammar, and not for style or content.

We're up to #7 now, with Matt chatting to Patrick Findlay of the UK Web ‘n’ Mini Comix Thing.

Matt Badham: Please tell us about a little about the history of the UK Web ‘n’ Mini Comix Thing and how it’s evolved over the years.

Patrick Findlay: The Thing was conceived as an event to showcase what was at the time a new industry, the web comic, with the traditional homemade comic attached. At the time there were virtually no exhibitions, not proper ones. Inspired by events such as Mocca and SPX in the USA, I saw a clear opportunity for a similarly styled UK event. It was conceived along the simple idea that the event featured a hall of tables with exhibitors showing their stuff. This simple premise, as opposed to the more grandiose attempt to offer a myriad of attractions such as lectures, juggling, bands, stars and such is the reason why the show has been able to sustain itself over the years. As such, the show has not really changed from day one, other than a venue change in year two and some additional tables for years three and four.

MB: What are the Thing’s overall aims?

PF: The aims of the Thing are to create an environment of creative comic-minded people, primarily for the entertainment of the visitor. It is always the perspective of the visitor that I have in mind, based on my own experiences from years ago when I went to similar events that were later cancelled. As such, the aim is to create a hall full of exciting things to look at, leaving the visitor inspired, invigorated and excited about having attended. Contrary to some beliefs, it’s not a show devised to allow creators to make a profit, although that is, of course, a significant side-effect of exhibiting and one of the main reasons exhibitors do attend.

MB: Who is the Thing aimed at? What sort of punters do you hope to attract? Are you family-friendly?

PF: The Thing is aimed at anyone that enjoys web and mini comics, that is, in this day and age, who surfs the web book marking their favourite sites. In the old days it would have been people that scoured the small ads of Comics International for mini comics and such for their small tableside collection. The show is not really family-focussed at all, unless it’s a family that like to surf the web looking for comics. I like to advise children to leave their parents safely tied up outside or if left in the car, with the window rolled down a bit.

MB: How effective have you been in getting those kind of people to attend?

PF: Pretty effective. The nerdometer has always gone off the Richter scale, so I’m pretty happy.

MB: Can you give a projected (or actual) attendance figure for the Thing?

PF: It’s hard to tell as there are usually about 150 exhibitors and they make the place look full by default and ticket sales get merged in with everything else. I used to print tickets for 1000 people, in year one. These days it’s three to four hundred people, but I think even that’s a bit optimistic.

MB: What lessons have you learned during your time running the Thing, in terms of its marketing and advertising?

PF: I have learnt that marketing and advertising is a total waste of time, at this stage. Last year the show was run on a completely minimal budget with no advertising at all and it was the best year ever. The fact is that the show is established and kind of stands on its own two feet these days.

(one of our regular cartoonists-in-virtual-residence, Richard Cowdry at the 2005 Thing; pic borrowed from Typocrat)

MB: Do you use emerging technologies to spread the word about the Thing? Do you have a website or blog, or use email mailing lists?

PF: No blog or e-mail lists at all. I don’t have twitter or anything.

MB: What about print? Do you use print advertising, have a newsletter, anything like that?

PF: No print advertising at all. Used to send out printed flyers to every comic shop in the country but always felt it was a waste of time. Didn’t do it last year and as I’ve said it was the best year ever. Also tried printed ads in Comics International, which was completely pointless.

MB: What’s the mix in terms of exhibitors at your con?

PF: The mix of exhibitors is fairly even really. I like to think there’s a bit of everything, but in general they are all young creative types, some good, some new to the scene. There’s a handful of pros. I prefer the more amateur end of the spectrum and generally frown on the ‘exceptional’ talent.

MB: What are your thoughts on the small press comics scene in this country? Does the Thing support the small press and what form does that support take?

PF: The small press is what it’s all about. However, from my perspective that’s the photo copier. There’s not a lot of distinction between web and small press really. Everyone at the show is small press. They are all printing stuff. I don’t really have direct thoughts on the small press. It’s a bit like having thoughts on cars. I use them, people use them, but I might be a bit vague on the exact details of my car: it’s blue and has wheels. People print stuff, they are small press. I’m more interested in the art and creativity. It would be better to ask if the Thing supports art and creativity!! The answer would be yes.

MB: Do you run workshops/events/panels at the Thing? Please tell us about those and how they are organised.

PF: We run a few things. It’s usually a bit piecemeal based on volunteer availability. The panel events are the main feature that requires volunteers from the exhibitors. We aim to offer wall-to-wall panel discussions so that there is always something to sit down and rest your feet at. The panels are generally stage-managed by me. However, the allocated host generally fails to show up. Last year we had four hosts drop out, one after the other, the last being on the day before the show. These are the biggest problems, but in short they run themselves. There is usually a film show, an art area, and other things. We used to have a portfolio workshop but it was a bit of a farce. Everyone these days is their own expert. Unlike other shows that seem to conjure guest speakers out of thin air, we have never had any luck in getting clever people to chitchat about their success.

(a selected haul of goodies from the 2009 Thing, pic borrowed from Sarah McIntyre’s write-up of this year’s con)

MB: As you’ve been kind enough to answer these questions, please fell free to big the Thing up a bit. Tell us what you do well, what the Thing’s main attractions are and why our readers should attend the next one.

PF: The best thing about the Thing is the huge amount of creative art and comics that you can see and buy. The show offers free plastic bags so it’s easy to get a whole load of comics and such, that you can then read on the train home and leave stacked up by your drawing board or computer or such for future reference, because one things for sure, if you go to the show, chances are your going to go home wanting to do comics yourself.

The UK Web ‘n’ Mini Comix Thing is held in Mile End in London. The next one is on 27th March, 2010. For details, visit the con’s website here.

Thanks to: Patrick and Matt for their time and thoughts; you can read the previous Q&As with other British comics con organisers in this series here on the blog: Jimi Gherkin of the Alternative Fair Press chats with Matt, Matt talks with Bristol’s Mike Allwood, Hi-Ex’s Vicky Stonebridge, BICS’ Shane Chebsey, Caption’s Jay Eales and LUC’s Oli Smith.

And thanks to Joe Gordon at the FPI blog - yet again I meant to get this sorted earlier and ran right against the deadline - thankfully Joe had sorted out foormatting and pic selection, which I then (ahem) borrowed.

I have renounced evil it seems.....

Last weekend I stood in front of a church full of people and lied many, many times. It was my big day of becoming a godfather and despite Louise's cries of double standards and hypocrite ringing in my ears I stood their and professed by belief in god, jesus and the holy spirit. Then I got to repent all my sins and renounce evil.

"Do you renounce evil?" was the question. What do they really take us for? Who's honestly going to say no? And as a character guide it's about as effective as stopping terrorists getting into the country by issuing ID cards. But nevertheless, despite thinking of myself as something akin to a fundamentalist atheist, I stood there and lied and lied and lied.

And before you start criticising... Molly goes to a catholic school, she might go to a catholic secondary school and she believes in god. But she also believes in Father Christmas, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny and god knows what else. A wonderfully fantastical figment of society's imagination with a good backstory is fine art this age. I still wonder what's going to go first - the big bloke with the white beard in the red costume or the big bloke with the white beard up there in heaven. Personally I hope it's the latter, but I have my doubts. I am quite certain that at some point all of these nice childhood imaginary myths will disappear.

However, it does mean that I'm the proud godfather to a lovely little baby boy. I have no idea why the parents chose me but I'm very honoured they did. What they don't realise now is that I'm busy planning exactly what comics young godson is going to get for birthdays and christmas.

Pointless parents evenings

Tonight is parents evening at Molly's school. At which we shall sit down, have a nice chat with her teacher and agree that our daughter is:
Lovely,
A credit to us,
Well rounded,
Well liked by all,
Pretty much guaranteed to do well whichever secondary school she picks
Great at Literacy,
Not quite so great at Maths.
Then we shall spend the last 5 minutes of the parents evening slot chatting about other stuff.

I'm certainly not saying that parents evening is a complete waste of time, and certainly there are some parents who really need to go to them and really need to be told the complete truth about their little darlings. But quite often, most of the parents who need to go to parents evening don't turn up because they can't be bothered, because they are crap parents and that's why their offspring is a troublesome oik in the first place.

Still, always nice to have a chat with Molly's teacher.

The secondary school thing.....

When Molly was born she was already booked in at a local nursery. When Molly was 1 she'd got herself a place at the primary school we wanted her to go to. Sure, that had meant me lying to a nun about my religious beliefs - but then again Church Of England isn't that far away from complete agnostic is it? Louise wanted the catholic thing, not me. Although when we looked around at the primary school choices it was obvious to me that Catholic was the unfortunate route we had o go down - hence the lying to a nun.

And before we moved up to Pocklington we were beginning to get a touch worried about where on earth she was going to go to secondary school even though she was only in Year 1 at the time. Our basic choice of secondary school in Birmingham ran: Local comp, King Edward's Grammar, Private. The local comp was the sort where they probably have metal detectors by now. King Edward's Grammar has something like one place for every thousand applicants and private was a little out of our price range.

Moving up here, one of the first questions we asked at the primary school we wanted for her was what secondary schools were available. After Birmingham it was amazing to hear that it was automatic entry to one of two schools; the local Pocklington comp or the York Catholic school.
The relief was amazing. No more worrying. We could just leave it until she got to Year 6 and then let her decide.

And back then Year 6 seemed so far away. But not anymore. Last week we went for the first of two open evenings for Molly. This was the local Pocklington comp. As you would expect, they laid on everything they could to impress, and for Molly it worked. She's talked of nothing else since. Me, not so impressed - remember, I used to work in secondary schools and know exactly how much veneer and polish is applied for these open evenings. But nonetheless, it's a good place for her to go. The advantage is that it's a good school, results are good (although to be honest I have very little worries there - Molly's honestly the sort of kid who'd do well almostanywhere) and it's local - a 10 minute walk. But that's the disadvantage as well - living in such a small town means that going to the local comp rather limits her. Plus it's big - 1200 odd.

In a few weeks we're off to the York Catholic school. Advantage - split sites, with Year 7,8 & 9 on one smaller site - making it feel like a much smaller place than the Pock comp. Disadvantage - it's an extra hour morning and night on the bus into York for her.

But, no matter what, we're determined that it is still her decision. At the moment, having only seen the local comp, she's sold on that one. But once she sees the other she may change her mind. I'll be sure to let you know.

Of course, the most horrible thing in all of this is that my baby is growing up. It's just not fair, not fair at all.

Comics Weekend...

Spent last weekend in Birmingham at the British International Comic Show - which, every single time I've typed it this year, I call the Birmingham International Comic Show and have to change it. It seems it will forever be in my mind as a local show, no matter how big it gets.

I've done full write ups over at the FPI blog, but wanted to mention it here as well. This year we'd heard that it was getting too expensive to exhibit, that folks were staying away, that it wasn't going to any good.

But it was. In fact it was genuinely the best yet. Not that you could tell that from Friday night's launch party. It was absolutely terrible, completely the wrong venue and no-one stayed for that long - everyone just found their way to various pubs around Birmingham. But once everyone surfaced, red-eyed and tired, on Saturday it became clear that the show itself was going to be good. Most importantly there were less stalls this year - meaning wider, more spacious aisles and a much cooler environment (and we know how important it is in a comics event to have a cool room - nothing beats that great smell of hot, sweaty comic fans).

Saw lots of folks on Saturday which was my work type day, chatting to people, taking photos. Sunday was more of the same with a few great panels thrown in. All in all, the whole thing, bar that god awful launch party, was a great success. Looking forward to next year.

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Morris The Mankiest Monster

Morris The Mankiest Monster

by Giles Andreae and Sarah McIntyre

David Fickling Books

It’s years since he last changed his t-shirt.
It’s crusty and crawling with ants.
His shoes are all slurpy and squelchy inside.
And potatoes grow out of his pants.

Just look at the cover – sweet, cute and fantastically gross. But what you can’t see is the brilliantly embossed green bogey on the cover. So it’s a book that plasters a huge smile across your face even before you’ve opened it up. Thankfully, no-one at DFB thought to make this a scratch and sniff cover – that would have been too much!

(One of the lovely double page spreads that feature throughout Morris The Mankiest Monster.Published by David Fickling Books, text © Giles Andreae, illustrations © Sarah McIntyre.)

Inside you’ve a beautifully drawn and written picture book that should delight younger readers; boys and girls alike will be enthralled by Morris’ mucky and smelly world and will want you to read the rhyming text over and over and over again. Every page is full of little details, most of them as revolting as possible.

Both writer and artist have got form in the brilliant books stakes – Giles Andreae is the creator of Purple Ronnie and was behind those Edward Monkton cards and merchandise that sprung up a few years ago. And you may well be familiar with Sarah McIntyre if you’re a long time reader of the FPI blog. We (that’s me and my daughter, 10 year old Molly) first noticed her a few years ago with Vern & Lettuce, her delightful strip in the much missed DFC comic. (For our views on Vern & Lettuce, see here and here).

(Molly’s favourite page in the book – how many smelly, revolting things can you spot? Published by David Fickling Books, text © Giles Andreae, illustrations © Sarah McIntyre.)

Molly thought the book was riotously funny, loved the gross bits and kept pointing out all of the muck and filth to her Mum, encouraged by every single Yuck and Euurgh she received. Here’s what Molly had to say:

I liked the way that Morris is small and cute but gross as well. Every page has something to make you laugh and it’s wonderfully colourful. My favourite page is the one with Morris’ kitchen and the shelves full of horrible things like Toe Jam, Armpit Custard and Sun-dried Nose Hair. I hope Sarah likes my Maggie!

(Molly’s version of Morris – Maggie the 2nd mankiest monster)

Morris The Mankiest Monster – a worthy successor to Raymond Briggs’ Fungus The Bogeyman, packed with fun, a great rhyming reader to be enjoyed again and again, beautifully drawn and guaranteed to have your young ones asking for more. Hopefully they wont get any ideas and start making their own collection of pickled toenail clippings or belly button cordial.

Oh God, it's come to this.......

Oh dear, it's one of those blog posts about not posting on the blog that often.
Ooops.

In my defense I've been very busy and rather ill, never something that's meant to go together.
I'm still ill. I'm still busy and have a very busy weekend before me.

After that I shall blog once more. Or sleep. One or the other.