A review of
the inaugural Cumbrian event
Hi Folks,
Well, last
week was the culmination of a busy period as far as my time spent on working on
the painted cover and pencils for the strip pages to Worlds End – Volume 2 – A
Hard Reign’s Gonna Fall and getting the second ashcan finished and ready for
print along with new banners, business stationery, and a whole plethora of
other printed and manufactured goods, in time for the impending convention
season.
So it was
just like normal then, I hear you cry and you would not be far wrong. Last week
saw me creating and arranging for the production of a new range of mugs, which
I sorted with a new supplier that had made contact with the company last year
and gave them an insane turnaround time to produce them. They came up trumps,
so by the time my other print jobs were ready I only had to finish off the
artwork for the cover and some more strip pages to take along to the show with
me.
I was originally asked to go along as a guest way back in the latter part of 2012 when I was approached via email by Julie Tait, the main organiser and curator of the festival. Bryan Talbot had suggested she get in touch with me pretty from much the outset. It sounded like it could be something special - I hope this Blog goes someway to trying to say just how special it was.
Wednesday
evening, after teaching my Fantasy Art Unlimited class, I ate a late dinner and
then set about completing the remaining artwork. This went straight through the
night, aside from about a ten minute nap and continued throughout Thursday in
much the same vein whereby I suddenly found myself facing Friday morning and
having to pack everything I needed to take along, crossing them off in order
from my list as I loaded them into the car.
Showered,
fuelled up, tyres, oil, and windscreen washer levels checked I set off
northwards to the Lakes. The journey is not a long one by any stretch and takes
around an hour or so to reach Kendal. Although cloudy for the most part the
weather remained clear.
Having
checked out the venue and the guesthouse in which I was staying a week earlier
when fellow comic creator, Dave Windett one of my FAU students, Roland and I had
a trip to Kendal to see it for ourselves meant this second trip was an easy one
to navigate and in no time at all I found myself parked up in the loading bay
and ready to start the process of unloading the banners, other POS and all the
different merchandise I had brought along.
As I had
driven along the main street into Kendal I saw all the many festival banners
that adorned and lined the streets in proclamation of the impending comics
invasion. The organisers really had gone to town with their take over of the
town centre. The week before it had poured down and so I hadn’t noticed quite
as many of the banners. That said we had noticed that alongside Bryan Talbot’s
marvellous “Brainstorm” exhibition, at the Wildman Studios on Wildman Street, all manner of exhibits both from
professionals and children adorned the shops. Even establishments like estate
agents were getting into the act. A pub changed its name for the weekend to the
Fnaar bar – straight out of the adult humour comic, Viz. A ladies clothes shop
had a batman costume in the middle of its front window display.
It was an
absolutely amazing sight and testament to the hard work of the organisers and
their many volunteers with this massive undertaking.
Inside the WestmorlandShopping Centre, in which our section of the festival was being held it was a
similar scene with other folks also setting up their displays. I had checked
with security, as I had the week previous that I was fine to unload in the bays
below us and once given the all clear began to unload the goods.
Dave was already there and had begun to unpack his gear. I made my first drop
and never for one second thought anything about it. Upon my return to the shop,
in which we were situated next to Mhairi Stewart’s Perfect Spiral, I found that
the curse had returned…
Yes, you
know the one, The Windett Curse!!!
Dave was all of a panic, as I entered the area, he was busy tearing the brown
packaging from the graphic novels I had dropped off in my first trip from the
car. The table had collapsed and Dave had seen one of them had been damaged and
so was checking out the rest. I reassured him not to worry and we both
mentioned and laughed about the curse.
Another
four or maybe five trips using the sack truck (kindly donated for the event by
one of the security men – cheers, buddy) and I was ready to actually set up.
By six
o’clock or so the signage, banners and merchandise was all in place across from
Dave’s stall. We looked the business and we were now ready for something to
eat.
So we made
our way the short distance across town to the Brewery Arts Centre where we were
to pick up our guest badges/ and various tickets and vouchers, which enabled us
to get inside the events, bars and restaurant.
Inside we
were directed to the restaurant, where we met up with John Freeman, who was
already dining. We exchanged greetings and then arranging once more to go along
to the event he was due to host in a short while we sat down. So, it was that
with a table unoccupied we ordered from the special menu from the event and
what beautiful food it turned out to be – well it did when it arrived. You have
to remember that I was sharing the table with the aforementioned Mr Windett,
yes, the cursed one. Not only did the meal take a while to arrive, but upon
arrival, Dave pronounced that his order was wrong – he had ordered the
vegetarian platter, which then entailed a further delay before the food
arrived. When it did, however, despite the curse it was beautiful. There were
two platters; a meat one and a vegetarian option and this was followed by a
desert platter - Glorious.
There are
few things better than good food and conversation.
By the time
we had eaten we attempted to make our way to the Friday evening event, being
hosted by John Freeman, but it was too late – it had almost finished – and
feeling absolutely shattered after my two previous all-nighters we decided to
make our way back to the car, still parked in the loading bay of the shopping
centre, which the security had allowed me to do and then drive to the guest
house. By 9:00pm I could be seen, sitting on the edge of the bed, sending a
text message to Margaret in my PJs with a cup of tea on the bedside drawer in
the B&B and moments later I was asleep. Oh, the Rock N Roll lifestyle of
the graphic novelist!!!
I was awake
the next day, long before my mobile phone’s alarm went off, around five in the
morning. So fully refreshed from my slumber I had a shower, got myself ready
for the day ahead and then sat looking through the festival guide with another
cup of tea. The Sundial guesthouse was lovely and very indicative of a
countryside home. It was warm and inviting and the bed was so comfy I could
quite easily have stayed in its thrall.
I checked
out a copy of the newly printed, second volume, Ashcan and watched a little
early morning TV and then eventually found myself looking at my watch, which at
last said 8:00am. It was time to join Dave in the dining room for breakfast,
which like all the other aspects of the festival the organisers had ensured we
were well looked after. The hosts were lovely as was the breakfast they
provided and it set us in good stead for the coming day and the first official
day of the festival.
The weather
although grey and overcast, was dry, but I still rang for a taxi. We soon found
ourselves being chauferred along the high street to the shopping centre passing
a myriad festival banners, which must have taken someone an age to erect. We
stopped off in a little pound shop and I bought some supplies for the coming
day. Well, after all, one can’t get very far without copious amounts of Pepsi
and Liquorice All Sorts now, can one?
Back at the
shop Dave opened up and with a little last minute setting up we awaited the
coming crowds. We sketched outside the shop to entice folks towards us, but the
crowds were intermittent and for some reason we saw the public were very rarely
venturing in our direction. The weather was awful, though, and may have been a
contributor to that. By all accounts, however the Comics Clock Tower, in
reality the Town Hall, had been seeing a steady influx of people. So it could
very well be that the weather was preventing them from venturing far. That said
when the public did find us we managed to engage them and during the day we did
sell too, albeit slowly. Early on in the morning I had decided that sketching
for the children had to replace the expected queues of children that we had
hoped to be directed to us and that gave us a chance to engage them and was a
lot of fun – it always is.
One of the
main organisers, Justin arrived and asked if we could give him the lunch
vouchers and he would go and get them, enabling us to stay where we were. This
was a great help and stopped us having to lock up and disappear for a short
while, perhaps making it even harder for the public to find us. It was a good
move.
By just
after lunchtime it had picked up a little but then so had the inclement
weather. An hour or two later, as the torrential rain began to subside, we
began to see more of the public, although still in no great numbers, at least
not until later in the afternoon when the footfall really seemed to pick up.
Maybe it was also something to do with most families actually using the
Saturday inside the shopping centre to actually shop.
I did an
impromptu sketching session for Mhairi next door for one of her little groups
and was asked to draw a super-villain with the powers of super smell, super
speed, the ability to turn into water, turn water into ice and the ability to
fly. This was fun, and everyone enjoyed seeing me cope with the brief they had
given to me, as I sketched away on the flip chart, speaking to the group all
the while, as I always do, to add some entertainment value.
The day
passed very quickly and Dave and I soon found ourselves heading once more to
the Brewery Arts Centre’s restaurant for our evening meal.
Once more
delicious platters were the order of the day and they were absolutely
delicious. John Freeman joined us and the evening pursued a series of
conversations about the state of the UK comics industry, if we can still call
it that. We seemed to spend an age talking and then decided to leave to go to
the bar next door.
It was packed, but we soon found ourselves with a table, as a group of us press
ganged one when we were joined by Al Davison who, as he had previously
mentioned on FaceBook, had planned to have as many of the guests as possible
provide a sketch of one of the universal monsters on a piece of art board. This
was to be auctioned off in aid of US writer, Steve Niles, whose house had been
flooded with a total loss of possessions some days before. So with three
sketches already done Kev Sutherland, Dave and I added ours.
We could
hear folks around the bar describing all the many events they had each attended
– far too many to attend them all, which is testament to the organisation of it
all. It felt like an event that had been running for a while, rather than the
inaugural one.
The time spent here enabled me to look at Al’s newest work, which was beautiful.
Now regular readers of my Blog may remember that Al was the first person I met
way back in 1979 at the very first comic convention I attended, when we were
both “wannabe” comic creators. This latest work is fully painted and looks
amazing and in my honest opinion probably the best stuff I have ever seen from
Al – you should check it out, it really is gorgeous stuff.
It also
gave me a chance to show Al the first Worlds End graphic novel as well as the
latest Worlds End pages from Volume 2 and the new Ashcan. I received one of the
nicest compliments about a piece from book two, as yet unseen by the public. He
said it reminded him so much of Moebius’ work. Now to find oneself being
compared to probably the best known and perhaps the greatest French comic
artist ever was indeed a great compliment. I have maybe three pictures of his
work out of all my many books in my collection of comics and books and have
seen only a few other pieces of his work in reality, but maybe the impact of
this great artist has indeed had some effect my own work – Al certainly seemed
to think so. I need to get hold of more of Moebius’ work.
Al left to
get more sketches from folks to add to the auction piece, but we were soon
joined by firstly John Freeman and a comic fan, Jim that had visited our little
shopping space earlier and then Emma Vieceli. Dave and Emma, having the same
agents representing them and working for the same publisher began to discuss
their mutual thoughts on the work they were currently producing. MaltaComicCon
was mentioned and folks were keen to show their wanting to attend, which is now
the case for the convention. Over subscription has become the name of the game.
The conversations then lent themselves to a comics based nature and by this
time the air was full of laughter and on the spot joke making.
Next to
join us was Scottish comic creator, Jim Stewart, whose first act was to give me
a wee Glaswegian bear hug. Towards the end of our evening in the bar Brian
Gorman joined us, fresh from his part in the enactment of the stage play
version of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta. We all had a great
time. But all good things must eventually come to an end and this being no
exception meant it was time to walk back to the guesthouse and some more much
needed sleep.
The next
day began exactly as it had the day before, with a cup of tea, an early shower,
etc followed by another great breakfast. As this was the final day I drove Dave
and I back to the centre in my car and, parking up in the loading bay as I had
on the Friday, checked with the security guys that it was still okay, like they
had said earlier to park there. Then leaving Dave I went off to the only event
I had booked myself to go to – the one on Arts Funding – I wanted to see if
there was anything I could learn to get funding for my students on the FAU
course.
Whilst
there listening to the talk it seemed to be an easier thing for someone to get
funding for his or her graphic novel or comic project, however, than to do so
for a course, so I stayed behind after the talk for a short time with the
speaker to ask for a little more information.
I was soon
back in our space; sketching for the children
- it was a little brisker than the day previous, but still quieter than
I would have liked, but it was still early Sunday morning.
Dave told
me that whilst I had been away at the talk he had allowed himself to be “forced
onto his knees” for a photo opportunity with one of the Judge Dredd
cos-players. These guys were superb and I found later that they had been
staying at the same guesthouse. Outside one of them, Judge Bane and I chatted,
as one does, about the amount of footfall and I suggested he should, along with
the other Judge, Lemmy “bully,” as only a Judge can, the children to send them
up to us.
Well Judge
Bane disappeared and shortly afterwards we found a sudden influx of families
appearing out of nowhere – in stark contrast to the previous day. Whether it
was the work of the Judges or not, I’m not too sure, but I’d like to think it
was role-playing that did the trick here.
I did
another impromptu sketching session for Mhairi next door and this time I was
asked to draw an alien villain who had super strength, vines, lasers and thus
the ability to blow things up, along with x-ray vision. Again it was a fun
session to do and once more they wondered if I could draw something with all
five elements included in the drawing. Inside one of the guys dressed up in
Judge Dredd gear, Judge Lemmy was sat in the session watching, when a group of
children came to the door and shouted – “You’re not even the real man!” To
which he arose, took out his baton and his “Lawgiver” – gun – and promptly
pursued the “lawbreakers.” Not only did these guys look the part they played
the part too – superb and kudos to both these guys!!!
We soon
found more and more families coming along for which I would engage with them,
asking who they would like to learn how to draw. I would do a step-by-step
sketching mini session and of course this lead to selling books and other stuff
too. It was a complete contrast to the day before.
Justin was
again a star obtaining our picnic lunches for us, enabling us to carry on with
the now much better subscribed, larger audiences.
Our
particular area was definitely a lot better attended by families on the Sunday
and Dave and I did lots of sketching sessions and I certainly sold a lot more
Worlds End Graphic Novels, Ashcans and lots of other stuff too. Dave also did
much better selling his Kaci Bell books too – more on this book in my next Blog
– Teaser Alert!
However,
time flies when you are having fun, as they say, and Sunday went even quicker
than the day before and we soon found ourselves in the unenviable position of
having forty minutes to dismantle it all and loading up the car. Dave not having as much to sort out as I
did, was ready much sooner and left to catch his train. Thankfully the security
guys were really accommodating and with Justin’s help I managed to get all the
stuff down to the car, albeit overshooting the forty minutes deadline a little.
Thanks again to the security guys for their patience here.
Outside, an
obviously exhausted Justin and I chatted for a short while, whilst I signed
complimentary copies of the book for Him and Julie and her son, Finn. By the
time it was all in and I was belted up, Sat Nav at the ready, text message
having already been sent off to Margaret to say I would be setting off in a few
moments, I sat for a second and thought about the past three days and it all
seemed such a blur.
The trip
back home, mostly on the motorway – the beauty of living close by two motorway
slip roads – was thankfully uneventful with no hold ups and the weather was
kind too. In just over an hour I was unpacking everything from the car and
sitting with a brew in hand regaling my wife all about my exploits that
weekend.
All that
remained to do that evening was to send a text message to Julie and Justin, the
two main organisers I dealt with and Bryan Talbot, the guy responsible for
getting me involved in the first place, to tell them all just how much I
appreciated being asked to the festival in the first instance, for looking
after me so well, whilst there and for all the incredibly well worked out
events to make their comic art take over of Kendal an unbelievable success.
I received
much-appreciative replies from both of the organisers, who were so obviously
totally exhausted, both physically and mentally after their momentous efforts.
All that
remains is to say that the guys are running the event again next year – make
sure you plan for this in your next year’s schedule and take your families
along to what you will find is an absolutely awesome festival, celebrating the
many diverse universes that are the worlds of comics and graphic novels – not
just super-heroes – unlike most other UK comics events.
I would
certainly like to offer my services again and I know you will have a great time
there.
Kudos to
Julie, Justin and all the other organisers, volunteers, Westmorland Shopping
Centre staff and security, all the restaurateurs, the Sundial guesthouse
owners, all the many café and shop owners, estate agents, hoteliers, town hall
staff, gallery owners, all the other comic and graphic novel creators and
everyone else that played their part in making this festival such a resounding
success.
It has
taken me a week to catch up and then finally get round to writing this Blog,
but I really wanted to spend time telling you folks just how great this event
was. The only criticism is; I wished it could have lasted longer.
I leave the final words in the form of a few photos - not many I was so wrapped up in the event I kept forgettig to take them. Check out the bottom of the menu with Desperate Dan added - everyone got into the act like this - truly marvellous. Also look at the gorgeous food, the shop set up we had, some comics fans - now Worlds End fans strut there stuff after one of my workshops. And lastly, but not least a picture drawn by a very young, Loris. If Loris' parents just happen to see this, drop me a line with a low-res photo of you guys, so I can see you are the real McCoy and I'll send you something in the post by return.
ThoughtBubble is my next UK comics venue on November 23rd and 24th so everything is
set up for that. My expectations from this event have now been raised by the
Lakes festival. I’ll Blog about this one in Leeds too, upon my return to the
studio, following my trip to MaltaComicCon the weekend after on November 30th and December 1st – as I doubt there
will be enough time to do so before I go out there.
The one
thing that is now in my mind about the trip out to Malta is quite simply that
Dave, yes, he of the Curse, is also flying out to MaltaComicCon, but he is on
the same flight as me, oh and we are sharing a taxi to the airport too – so
please wish me luck…
I may need
it… LOL.
Check out
my Blog on Friday 1st of November for details on fellow comic artist, Dave Windett and writer, John
Gatehouse’s newly published book – The Kaci Bell Mysteries.
Next: Well it is Halloween isn't it - I'll post a creepy, spooky sketch at just after midnight on the day of the evening in question!!! See you on the 30th October for some fright-filled fun!!!
Until next
time, have fun!
Tim
Perkins…
October
29th 2013
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