Brighton Comic Expo Report

I have been somewhat tired and distracted, but I thought it was about time I posted the full Brighton Comic Expo details on here!

On the whole, it was a fabulous weekend. Last Friday (18th) was a late afternoon set-off for me, leaving for Brum at 5pm. This was a bit later than planned, so a taxi was needed to speed things along. Travel the whole weekend was expensive, coming to a total of just under £95 in the end! Anyhow, in spite of the lateness I got into London, Euston at 7.30pm and met up with Paul. From there, it took us another hour-and-a-half to finally get to Brighton and check into the Hilton Metropole (where the Expo itself was being held).

Here’s a Saturday sea front view…

After freshening up we went for an Indian meal at the restaurant a few doors away. Apart from the fact that there was a few noisy piss-heads at the next table flashing a camera all over the place, it was a nice, relaxing time. Back at the Hilton sometime after 10, we headed for the bar and immediately saw Dez, who was in high spirits and seemed happy with how things were going. We also spotted my recent creative collaborator, Ed B, and so I finally got to meet him and he’s a very nice chap!

The bar activities went on till around 3.30am, which for Paul, at least, was a seriously late night. (I’m well used to it.) I guess the highlight was not only selling a copy of my comic to that rather famous artist, Mr. Simon Bisley, but also that he subsequently went round and badgered about four or five other people into buying it! People don’t say no to Bisley! 😉 I wonder if he’d do it regularly for a small commission?!

The bar activities ended with me, Paul and Ed having a long talk about philosophy, religion, Orson Welles and David Bowie. Hm. I guess I was steering the content of the conversation a bit…

Saturday morning, fully awake and showered, I caught a bit of Paul’s manga panel in between wandering around the venue generally. In the dealer’s hall I found the Lost Property table, met Dave (another great guy!), got my comp copy of LP and chatted for a while. I was happy with how it turned out, though in my usual, self-deprecating manner I have to say my contributions were outshone by some of the other talent on display.

In the course of a few conversations with Ed and Dave, it was more or less agreed that I’d contribute a two-page strip to the sixth, horror-themed issue of FutureQuake. Already I have a semi-definite idea of sorts for it, and it could be quite interesting and fun! I hope I’ll be doing some stuff for Lost Property #3 as well. All this, after finishing my own Fragments #4, which I didn’t get out in time for Expo after all (though I did make a little promo flyer for it to hand out to people).

After a great fish & chips lunch down the road (fresh local fish!), Paul and I went for a stroll on the beach. The Expo was cool but this was something else. Brighton Beach is just beautiful, and I realised I hadn’t been this close to the sea since I was about 12 years old (scary thought), in spite of a few trips to Blackpool since then. It was a breathtaking respite from all the noise and artifice, and I can imagine that living so near to it would be the greatest feeling.

Here’s shots of me and Paul on the seafront…

I was a little windswept on my photo! But it still captures the atmosphere nicely…

After that excitement, we went to watch Dave Gibbons being interviewed by Dez. This was highly entertaining and, at times, hilarious. Dave is a great sport and Dez’s sense of mischief is boundless. 🙂 When it ended, I got Dave to sign my copies of The Originals and Watchmen—he included a quick sketch in the latter!

We then stopped by Sydney Jordan’s table and had a chat with him. Syd was the artist and creator of the long-running Jeff Hawke newspaper strip that ran in the Daily Express from 1952 to 1975. I had to write/design his profile for the Expo booklet and, I have to admit, I’d never really seen his work before and what I found in my research, I thought was fantastic. Paul showed him the page I’d done about him, which he’d not had chance to look at, and he seemed genuinely pleased with it, as well as pleased to have earned a new admirer!

In the middle of the chat, the short but distinctive figure of Mr. Harry (Stainless Steel Rat) Harrison approached! He had scripted some of Syd’s Jeff Hawke strips in the ’50s and they were due to appear on a panel together later that day… but this was the exact moment when they came face-to-face with each other for the first time in 48 years! In deference to this historic moment, Paul urged me to take a snapshot of the two legends. It was a real honour to do so! And the picture came out great.

By Saturday night I was fairly well pooped and sort of shut down for a while in the hotel room. I got a bit depressed, too, because I started to think I was looking really fat (I still need to get my diet properly underway! GRRRR!), so I guess I had to be away from the noise for a while. Later on, Paul and I grabbed another meal and then undertook the obligatory ritual of heading for the bar.

We caught up with many of the same people as the previous night, though there were a few memorable incidents. Scottish cartoonist Jim Stewart at one point asked me if I was Dez’s wife, as I was sat next to him, which prompted Dez to point out, at great length, that sitting next to a woman does not necessarily equate with marriage! 😉 If anything, Dez’s mood was even more ‘up’ than it had been the night before and the atmosphere was really positive all round.

Paul left the bar at around 1am this time—’I’m too old for two late nights,’ he insisted. I stuck around and somehow managed to get pleasantly tipsy (though not rat-arsed) for the second night in a row without paying for a single drink. I am not a sponge, but in light of all the travel expense (not to mention the high prices for meals in Brighton, generally huge helpings or not), this was definitely a Good Thing.

Here’s a snap of Dez with Jim Stewart…

And a snap Jim took of me and Dez…

The night for me went on till sometime around or a little after 4.30am. What happened after that, I couldn’t possibly say… all I’ll say is that I didn’t return to my own hotel room… you don’t think I’m gonna get more personal than that on here, do you? 😉

Consequently, I finally got up in not-my-own hotel room at around midday. Paul was wondering where I was when I caught up with him. I gave him a more detailed explanation than I’m giving on here. We grabbed some quick lunch (which I didn’t eat much of; the only Brighton food I wasn’t too impressed with), and while Paul went off to do a graphic novels panel I went wandering around again. A few more hellos to the likes of Ed and Dave, then I found my way again to Syd Jordan’s table.

I’d just like to say that it was marvellous to meet Syd, who must be the nicest man in the field. I’m not the most confident person in the world, so it’s hard to put me at ease if I don’t know you well, but Syd certainly managed that. We chatted for about 15 minutes, and what impressed me most of all was how he took an interest in me, where a lot of pros just want to talk about themselves. The older guys always seem to be the most humble, even though they’re living legends, on top of being frankly more talented than your average ‘hot’ artist of today.

After that, nearing 3pm, there were goodbyes, the phoning of a taxi and the looooooong journey home, made longer by there being no trains running between Brighton and London, forcing us to get an incredibly slow replacement bus service. It gave me and Paul plenty of time to talk, anyway, and reflect upon what was a really good time and a very worthwhile event. I do hope it was successful from Dez’s point of view as organiser—I enjoyed it and hope it happens again.

A final note about my own work in the Expo programme booklet. In the end I designed (and wrote much of) around eight pages, those being all of the guest pages bar one. Working remotely from here was, I guess, much harder than being in-house, especially with my still-slow Internet connection, but it was nice to see that Dez had made only minimal changes to my work and had given me a thanks for ‘invaluable input’ on the editorial page. Even better than that, I had used two Bowie references as page headers, and not only did they survive into the printed booklet but Dez added an extra one of his own to the editorial! ‘Especially for you,’ he told me. My sinister influence is pervading. 🙂

The only disappointment was that after doing what I think was a very nice two-page feature on the wonderful Mike Ploog, he had to pull out of the event at the very last minute. I like Mike and was very much looking forward to seeing him.

The end of the day and weekend came when I finally got back home at around 9.30pm after a seemingly endless journey… the dog went wild with excitement at seeing me, I ate a nice turkey supper and I was totally exhausted but happy.

BTW, this is my longest blog entry EVER! But I wanted to record the event in detail. That’s me done for another six months! 😉