Expo-sition...
In my convention year, there are several conventions I could easily miss, some I enjoy when I get there and the occasional few that are 'must haves' as far as I am concerned, the ones that I'll move Heaven and Hell to attend - and always have a good time. And this weekend passed was one of these, the London MCM Expo.
Dan Boultwood and I have been attending the MCM Expo since 2005 now, and in that time I think we've only missed one of the two shows a year. We were there when the 'comics' part of the convention was no more than a twenty foot length of table with half a dozen creators on it, we were there the year that I had to run the Comics Village - and this was effectively two twenty foot lengths of table - and we've been there as the convention and the Comics Village has grown from strength to strength. Now, the Comics Village boasts pretty much an entire wall of the convention, an 'Artists Alley' of over a hundred and thirty creators and small publishers as well as larger ones like Panini and Titan dotted around. Creator wise, it's bigger than the Birmingham Con, Thought Bubble and is pretty much neck-and-neck with Bristol, yet it still gets a bad 'comic show' reputation because of the other parts of the convention - the anime, videogames, the media guests and of course the Cosplayers.
I have nothing against the cosplay scene of the MCM Expo - after all, they were here before I was, and technically can call 'Elder' status in any argument. And every year more and more arrive, and more and more buy things from our table, talk to us and start reading comics. And every year they come back again, looking for the next book to read. Half the creators there this year were even getting in on the Cosplay act - or they could just have been Halloween costumes...
So this year was a different one - Dan and I arrived at noon on the Friday to set up as for the first time there was a 'Friday afternoon preview' opening before the Eagle Awards that evening. Every year our table gets a little more filled, and next convention we're considering joining up with fellow Manor Club Productions member Ciaran Lucas and taking a larger space. But for this year we kept to a single table, with a variety of acroutments that had been picked up the previous day from a variety of art stores and hardware dealers. (picture by Daniel Fish)
At 2pm the doors opened and we began to see our adoring fans. Or at least a couple of guys dressed like pirates.
The show ran until 7pm on the first day, but Dan and I left early as we were dressing for the Eagle Awards, held at the MCM Expo for the first time. And glad we were too that we had changed, as for the first time, many of the nominees had also decided to dress up, and two and three piece suits seemed to be the flavour of the day. The awards were to be live streamed on the Internet and everything was sorted. Which of course it wasn't. The tables at the front weren't ready, the complimentary bottles of beer were rapidly opened after I pointed out that they hadn't left bottle openers and the 'nibbles' that many guests had taken to mean canapés were actually plates of tortillas and boxes of Pocky.
The awards themselves were a little haphazard, but with a new venue and a new behind the scenes team, it did rather well. Apart from the fact that they forgot to actually let me win any of the eight or so awards that I was nominated for. In fact only one person there won an award this night - Kieron Gillen for Phonogram 2 - and later the same weekend his award was accidentally broken. So obviously we weren't supposed to have any picked up.
That said, I picked up awards on behalf of 2000ad and Ben Templesmith, and was asked to come up at the end and present Cassandra Conroy with a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the MCM Expo and the Eagles Awards, so I had the stage time that a creator of my awesomeness deserved. Actually, it sounds a cliché, but I was happy to be nominated in the first place. The Eagles are a fan-decided awards, and for Doctor Who to have so many nominations? I was just happy to be there. And Dan was happy that Dave Gibbons (also on our table with Sean Phillips and Tim Pilcher) remembered his name. (Picture of our table courtesy of BleedingCool.com)
From the Eagles it was a footrace to the bar, and from the bar we progressed to the Novotel where we ended up with Chris Claremont, Paul Cornell and Barry and Dave of Geek Syndicate. Cassandra, her other half Joe and Ian Sharman joined us until tiredness took over around 2am and we staggered to bed. Weak, you say? The Novotel closes it's bar at 1am. Nobody had a drink anymore... That's not weakness...
Saturday was a good start with a full English fry up and we were there as the crowds came by to visit. Saturday was our busiest day by far, and we caught up with many old friends, several from the Victorian Steampunk Society, including Alan, Michelle and Kit who all convinced us that we had to finish Jack The Ripper and his Flying Horse. So it will be done, and has already been slated. Adrian Cole, our editor at Franklin Watts / EDGE came by with his son and saw first hand the Horowitz Graphic Horror interest that we were getting.
During the afternoon we had a visit from a Channel 4 film crew who were at the convention filming a wannabe comic artist as he gained advice from professionals. Dan and I spent about half an hour being filmed talking to him and hopefully about thirty seconds will be used when it's finally released...
John Charles came over and showed me some pencils of the pages he's doing for Marvel Heroes, based on my script. There was confusion on who was inking it - I'd been told Gary Erskine, but he was doing a different one - at the end I discovered it was Lee Townsend. The story comes out in issue #30, in January, and more on that when I get it.
Saturday was also the day where I sat on stage for a panel involving the Comic Book Alliance, something I feel quite strongly about - I was even there at the start, travelling down to Brighton a couple of years ago to join in their debate. I was again honoured to be there and hope that of the people watching, we managed to raise interest in the Alliance as well as involvement.
Also on Saturday I met Tony Todd, the 'Candyman', and officially the nicest guy I've met at one of these things. He'd got in at 3am that day, was hideously jetlagged and was still going to spend all night at a horror event because he'd been asked to. I also met John De Lancie who is way taller than I could ever have expected.
The evening was (as ever) spent in the Fox with Tracy (who'd come down for the evening), Ant Jones (who I'm doing Saladin 2100 and Element Zero with next year) and two other friends from America, Caitlin and Salina. There was drama bouncing around, but for once it didn't involve Dan or myself and this made us very happy. I met Robert Rankin again - he's still incredibly unassuming - and I found out from Stuart Galbraith of SFX that Dan and I are definitely guests of the February SFX Weekender. Which is amazingly cool.
Tracy, Salina and Caitlin had to go to catch the last train, and we made our way back to the Novotel where we stayed for the remainder of the night, catching up with a variety of the comics crowd and discussing projects and swapping tips late into the night. In fact we caused a minor cosplayer riot when we discovered that the Novotel had a pizza delivery that went until 3am - and we managed to get an order in under the wire.
And, sitting in the bar with our pizzas, Dan, Ciaran, Ant and I infuriated a small group who decided to follow us, only to discover they'd missed the cut off...
Sunday was a slow day. My stock was running low and Dan's white pencil was almost nothing, but we still managed a strong last lap, once more seeing many of our usual and old friends; Marion, Phil, Sam, Alan and Michelle and several other though out the day. It was a quieter day than the previous ones and this suited us greatly, and by four pm I was shopping, picking up a couple of Vintage Star Wars figures.
And then it was over. We closed down, packed the car and drove it to the Fox where we had a final drink, and then left to find that we'd been clamped. A crap end to a great weekend, but not enough to ruin it.
As ever, I forget a ton of people - the organisers of the show including resigning member Emma Vieceli, various chums I hung out with over the weekend and a ton of others - but this always happens. I just accept it now!
Bring on May, and the next one...