Disconnected Thought

Alexi Conman was at Thought Bubble 2012. As usual it was far too big and amzing for his tiny brain to comprehend.

He thought the 2000AD panel was good, you can listen to it here.

He thought the British Comic Awards were good. Read more here. Alexi hopes they will grow and prosper in the years to come.

Also, Alexi was very pleased to see his latest work in print in a quality new anthology. Disconnected Vol. 2 from Disconnected Press sees Alexi teamed up with the brilliant Nadine Ashworth for 'Plans', a quiet story of aspirations and regrets and the contrasts between the dreams of youth and the realities of ageing.


Alexi is pleased to report that the book looks great and the tales featured have a real sense of being subtly off-kilter. Themed around unusual events in small towns, the book has a good range,generally veering towards darker stories, but Alexi thinks 'Plans' sits in there quite neatly.

Alexi suggests you click here to find out more aboutDisconnected Vol. 2 and here for opportunities to purchase this fine publication.

Con Report: Bristol Comic Expo 2012

Alexi was at the Bristol Comic Expo at the weekend and thought it would be worth doing a little report about it, since he enjoyed it more than any convention he's been to for ages.

There were several notable factors coming into the Expo this year: there had been a bit of shuffling around of the folk running the event, the main exhibitor room was back in the big hall beside the train station after three years away, and Bayou Arcana (a book that Alexi had scripted a story for) was launching.

In many ways, it wasn't massively different from previous years, but a lot of little things, mainly by luck, cumulatively made it very enjoyable for Alexi.

The new layout of the Expo was certainly pleasing. Having the majority of the exhibitors in the 'Brunel's Old Station' hall (as they had been on Alexi's first vist to the Expo, in 2008) was much better than cramming them into various rooms across two hotels. The hall (or shed as it's generally referred to) is a large, light, airy room, which meant more space to wander around and a more satisfying browsing experience for Alexi as a punter. Combined with the fact that there seemed to be many exciting new books on sale and a high level of quality across all the publications on show, the result was that Alexi came away with a massive stash of new comics.

The talks and panels in the Ramada hotel round the corner also benefitted from the extra space afforded by being separated from most of the exhibitors. It made the environment more pleasant (quieter, cooler, less stinky (except when Alexi was around)) - and there was a pretty solid programme to get stuck into to - more of which shortly.

Of course, also high among the positive factors was the usual social element, and despite his neanderthal grunting and terrifying visage, even Alexi had a great yak on with many excellent folks in the Ramada hotel bar about recent and upcoming projects and comics nonsense in general. There were also various other minutae that somehow contributed to how enjoyable it all was - a particularly comfortable stay at the hotel, the weather being lovely and sunny without being stultifyingly hot, even the catering in the shed was surprisingly good.

Alexi will admit that this general good feeling was enhanced by the fact that although there was still constant bustle, it wasn't quite as busy as in previous years - yes, the layout change helped, but it was also noticeable that there weren't quite as many creators and fans attending. Aside from the economic climate, this can almost certainly be attributed to the proximity (temporal and geographic) of other comic conventions. Kapow is next weekend and MCM Expo is the weekend after - and although Bristol was once 'The' British comic convention, it's now no longer top of the pecking order. Comic creators (of all levels) and fans understandably have limited amounts of time and money and are forced to make choices.

The apparent result, unfortunately, was that some exhibitors found the going a little slow, commercially, in comparison to their costs. This happens after every convention - creators who, for whatever reason, don't do so well - but there does seem to have been a bit of a muttering above the norm. It's perhaps understandable when fans have stated that the reason why they weren't there was that they'd chosen to go the London cons where there may be a greater concentration of 'big names' (particularly those from the U.S.), so the creators themselves end up going where they think there'll be the most fans, and a little bit of a vicious circle ensues.

Much as he sympathises, Alexi didn't have a table and wasn't really aiming to sell anything other than a few copies of Into The Woods, so slightly lower punter numbers didn't trouble him directly (quite the reverse!). In terms of creators, there were still loads, from established pros to small press, and the fact that there weren't, for example, any Marvel or DC editors there wasn't a concern at all.

In fact, a lack of presence from big publishers may have had a positive effect on the panel content. For example, the Expo regular DC/Vertigo panel, which in the past had sometimes perhaps been a little too focused on advertising upcoming releases to fanboys, got a fresh twist as creators Paul Cornell, Ian Churchill and Mark Buckingham were by joined by noted comics bloggers Cheryl Morgan and Stacey Whittle to discuss a broader range of topics than usual, particularly fan reaction to 'The New 52', and it turned out to be free-flowing, relaxed and insightful, with lots of interaction with the audience.

Similarly, the packed 2000AD panel (which can now be heard in its entirety here) seemed to go down well, a really good-humoured and positive celebration of 'the Galaxy's Greatest Comic' that again balanced daft banter and thoughtful wisdom from creator droids.

For the first time in a while, Alexi also stumbled upon an 'unexpected gem' panel. 'Strip for Action' was Mike Conroy hosting John Burns and Syd Jordan talking about their experience working on long-running action comic newspaper strips. It wasn't a genre that Alexi knew much about, but he found hearing these immensely experienced creators talking (about how they got into these comics, their working techniques, the nature of the business, how it changed, and so on) fascinating and very engaging.

There were also plenty of panels with younger creators launching their books and Alexi caught a few of these. Kronos City and Clockwork Watch both came across as interesting projects worth checking out, but of course, the most significant one for Alexi was the Bayou Arcana panel.

Alexi wasn't heavily involved in the development of the book (a lot of which was done on Facebook, which Alexi is not on) so he was happier cheering from the audience. However, a gajillion members of the creative crew did a grand job in both filling the stage and presenting and discussing the book. There was a buzz about the book throughout the weekend and Alexi was certainly impressed with the quality of the finished product, so he's hopeful that there will be plenty of copies being read in the near future. (Alexi even signed a few. But not many. If you got his signature, your copy is SUPER VALUABLE.)

On the topic of producing work for anthologies, Alexi saw a great panel on Sunday morning: 'Anthologies - Telling Tales', which featured Rob Davis, Dave Evans, Richmond Clements, Nic Wilkinson, Stacey Whittle, Barry Nugent and Jimmy Pearson, in a discussion of the appeal and challenges of anthology comics. This included their personal experience as editors, thoughts about the format and tips for anyone hoping to do work in anthologies. Having worked with most of them, Alexi was pleased that they didn't urge people never to work with him.

Despite Alexi's enjoyment of it, the Expo wasn't pefect, there were some things that could have been improved, mostly the usual topics - advertising and signage, admin and ticket sales; plus there was a band on on Saturday night who were pretty decent but way too loud to stay and listen to (Alexi is not an old fogey, the band really were just too damn loud) and again, there was a lack of info about who they were, when they were on, etc.

All in all though, a decent convention which Alexi really enjoyed.

In terms of questions raised about attendance and the tension with Kapow and MCM, Alexi just thinks this: some people may prefer a convention with a guest list that is topped with actors from Doctor Who and stand-up comdedians, at which one has to barge past thousands of morons while looking round tables, but Alexi does not. He doesn't care about people off the telly. He likes a bit of space. It's not to say that he has no interest in Kapow or MCM, he'll probably go to one or both at some point, but considering that Thought Bubble is almost certainly the best organised and most indie-comic-centric of the new breed of rapidly expanding comic cons and Alexi has even found that that has gradually become a bit too sprawling and hectic for his tastes, then Bristol will continue to hold more appeal than Kapow or MCM.

Some commentators have questioned whether there are too many comic conventions around the UK. Alexi refutes this. Horses for courses is what he thinks it's all about. There's scope for a massive range of events of different types and sizes, and it just takes a bit of common sense in scheduling to ensure they're well spaced out.

The trick of course is making sure that they're financially viable for all concerned. If Bristol isn't going to have quite as many visitors as it once did, meaning that creators don't sell as many comics, then reducing table costs (and ticket costs to encourage visitors) would hopefully make it more viable. If the costs of the hotel and shed could not be met with lower table and ticket costs, then there may be a decision to be made - change venue, or try and lure the punters back and get big again without increasing costs.

Perhaps it's about finding an identity. Perhaps Bristol has to choose between trying to fight with the massive multimedia behemoth events or aiming to be the largest of the more UK-comics-oriented middle-size cons (like Cardiff and Hi-Ex). Alexi hopes they choose the latter. If they can replicate the visitor experience that Alexi had, while making it a better experience for the stallholders, then Bristol will continue to have a strong and lasting appeal that other conventions will struggle to match.


** UPDATE: apparently ticket sales (i.e. punter attendance) was substantially up on the last few years. Alexi suggests you take all pontificating about "low turnout", both here and elsewhere, with a pinch of salt! **

It Was Canny. Special Con Report: Canny Comic Con

So, anyway, Alexi Conman organised a comic festival. Well, it was a little one. And 'curate' is perhaps a better word. And he had a lot of help. But still.

It was a one-day free event held at Newcastle City Library, it had a bit of everything - big names, small press, talks, panels, workshops, activities for all ages. You can check out more info over at the Canny Comic Con blog.

Alexi has mentioned this in various places already but to reiterate: it was a great day, lovely welcoming vibe, everyone seemed to have fun and it was thanks to the cumulative efforts of everyone who was part of it. It was all organised with zero money and Alexi is very grateful to all the people who gave up their time to get involved.

One final thing he'd like to point out is that you can do this. Newcastle had been a keen candidate for some kind of comics festival for some time (the last big comic event there was NICAF back in 1996) and it was just happenstance that the person who seemed to know the right people (or rather knew the right people that knew the right people) was antisocial idiot Alexi Conman. But it seemed like it needed doing so he asked people, and everyone was super-nice and supportive and keen, and after much planning and working out of things, it happened.

It is possible. Even if right now you've got no connection to anyone else in comics, just take things one step at a time. Try and get in touch with other enthusiasts in your area and form groups for reading or making comics (like Readers of the Lost Art and the Paper Jam Comics Collective). Start going to other big conventions around the country (there are more and more every year - check out the Comic Conventions listing), meeting people. Get in touch with awesome helpful people like your local library. Send six hundred emails. Then bang, you've got an event. And it doesn't even need to be that complex. Just start finding ways to celebrate anything about comics - because they're great and if you don't celebrate them, who will?

Bubble Quake Canny Future Thought

This weekend will be Leeds' Thought Bubble Festival comic con, now even bigger and spread over two days. Alexi Conman will be there. If Alexi sees you, he will likely urge you to buy some or all of the new publications that he has contributed to, including Zarjaz #12, Accent UK's Predators anthology and the hot-off-the-press FutureQuake #19 (cover by Michael Byrne).

You can get a full overview of the issue here. It includes two stories by Alexi (TWO! It's like an Alexi Conman special! Well, not really!). These are: 'Little Things' with art by Mike Bunt, and 'Scientific Progress Goes Bosh', art by Andrew Chiu. Alexi was really pleased with how both stories turned out (one's quite creepy and one's quite daft, he leaves you to guess which is which), the art in both is excellent, and Alexi hopes the FQ readers dig them.

In other news, against all rationality, Alexi himself seems to be organising a little comic festival. If you're going to be anywhere near Newcastle on 10th December and have any interest in comics, you should definitely learn more about the Canny Comic Con.

Con Report: Bristol Comic Expo 2011

Alexi was at the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo 2011 and he thought it was good. He didn't have any new material on sale and there wasn't any particular BIG NEWS, but enjoyed some good panels, including:

The final outing of Dave Gibbons' and Budgie Barnett's Hypotheticals, a Bristol Expo favourite where comic pros are coaxed into giving honest answers on tricky comic industry situations in a strangely familiar alternate universe. Alexi enjoyed the balance of ethical insight and daft comedy fun, as he had done in previous years, from the brief but thoroughly considered responses of Richard Starkings to Tony Lee's excellent and curiously bath-centric alternative world opinions.

For pure humour, Alexi thought Hypotheticals was just pipped by the Just A Comic-Pickin' Minute panel. Following an almost identical format to a certain long-running Radio 4 programme, Tim Pilcher did an admirable job of adjudicating a closely fought contest between Paul Cornell, Si Spencer, Gary Erskine, and James Hodgkins, full of skill, verbosity and unnecessary personal revelations. Great fun.


Self Made Hero's H.P. Lovecraft anthology launch panel was a somewhat spookier affair. Alexi found it interesting to hear the insights of editor Dan Lockwood and contributors Ian Edginton, Rob Davis, INJ Culbard and David Hine, into why and how they tackled such iconic yet potentially difficult source material. There is no doubt the anthology looks lovely (in an indescribably horrific way) but Alexi has been slightly unsure about reading it, given the potential difficulties of adapting Lovecraft's prose style to comics. The panel discussed it openly and honestly. The big advantage of course is that Lovecraft's style can be hard going, dense and sometimes even a little rough or repetitive and adapation allowed the creators to distill the essence of the stories into much more readable forms. The disadvantage is the way that Lovecraft builds up a sense of foreboding and uses concepts and descriptions that are borderline unrepresentable (e.g. indescribable horror or a colour that has never been seen before etc.) and the fact that horror (in terms of being genuinely frightening as opposed to just making horror-themed images) is very hard to do in the sequential art medium.

Alexi was impressed with the panel's deep appreciation of Lovecraft's work (if not necessarily the man himself, who seems an odd and unhappy fellow) and their analysis of how best to represent it, so he is now keen to give the book a read and has high hopes it will terrify him.


Another sort-of launch that dealt with the challenges of using the comics medium was Screen and Page where some of the creators behind the recently-launched Tales of the Spiffing anthology talked a bit about it. Specifically, they talked a bit about the fact they were all working in animation (for Aardman) and how they had to adapt what they knew about storyboarding and animation and apply it to their new endeavours in comics. Alexi found it interesting to hear people who obviously knew a lot in their main field but were relative newcomers to comics talking about their learning experience. For example, they felt that you had more flexibility with the 180 degree rule in comics compared to film thanks to the discrete nature of panels (as opposed to continuous nature of film) but that also made it more important to be able to pick the important images to show - and then there's the difficulty of what size and formation to use to create the page layouts. Alexi found it really interesting stuff.


Another launch panel saw Strip Magazine saying hello to the comics world - an anthology adventure comic for kids too old for the Beano and Ben Ten and too young for 2000AD. Alexi enjoyed the panel, and whilst it was a shame that preview copies had got held up in France due to industrial action (boo), the comic looks like a cracking read for kids of all ages looking for some gung-ho action. The idea of doing something quite retro but at the same time quite forward-looking in filling this niche for older kids comics, using newsstand distribution, is incredibly ambitious but highly admirable.

The DFC, another recent attempt at launching a new British children's comic didn't quite make it initially (but is returning as Phoenix) but Strip is choosing to do a couple of things differently - first, in specifically being a predominantly action comic, and second in trying to reach the newsstands (The DFC was subscription only). It is however, following The DFC in aiming to produce collected albums of the the stories it runs. It is ambitious but it might just work. Alexi hopes that Strip (and Phoenix) will gain a foothold and show a new generation that comics can be something for them to enjoy.


Speaking of the influence of childhood comic-reading, one of the top panels of the weekend posed the question What's the point in small press superheroes? or rather Small Press Big Mouth's Stacey Whittle did as moderator, and Paul Grist, Matthew Craig, Daniel Clifford and Graham Pearce discussed it. Alexi really enjoys the work of all of these creators but at the same time is slightly disappointed that there are so many superheroic small press comics, so was intrigued to hear what the point was.

Despite a variation in experience and styles, the panelists were largely in agreement. They wanted to make superhero comics because they read superhero comics growing up and wanted to reflect that. Self-publishing (or, in Paul Grist's case, having Jack Staff published by Image comics) gave them the freedom to do stories where they could set the agenda, where they could show their love for the medium without being beholden to editorial control, but at the same time because they're not published by Marvel/DC, they have the difficult task of attracting that audience away from the mainstream titles or attracting the indie crowd toward a superhero book.

It's a strange conundrum. More superhero comics means more people read superhero comics so want to make more superhero comics so it continues, a vicious circle whereby one genre overshadows a whole medium. On the other hand, these guys are passionate about what they do and make great comics (often more enjoyable than both mainstream superhero material and non-superhero indie stuff). Perhaps what this points to is the simple answer that good comics are good comics and whether that's Marvel or DC or Image or other indie publishers or self-published, and whether that's superheroes or not, it doesn't matter. The important point is that people are making comics that inspire them and hopefully their audience.


A lot of that was also reflected in Com.X's It's a "yes" from him but it's a "no" from me panel, which talked about their submission review process and provided tips on pitching. What is a publisher looking for in a project? Something original that means something to the creators. What do they want to see in prospective creators? The ability to take criticism on board and develop. Alexi thought it was all sound advice and encouraging for any aspiring creator to hear.


Alexi is pretty sure there is some clever way to link all these panels together into some ultimate Bristol Expo wisdom-dump... but he can't quite manage it. Maybe he will one day.

Usual other comic con loveliness also occurred - big pile of acquisitions, late night blathering and so on. Alexi sends out mad props to all the good folk who he saw over the weekend.

Con Report: Cardiff International Comic Expo 2011

A brand new convention! The first Cardiff International Comic Expo was occurring at the weekend. Alexi was there and thought it went tremendously well. He was therefore also very pleased to hear rumours that it would be returning next year.

Brought to the world with help from the folks behind the Bristol International Comics and Small Press Expo, it was an opportunity to put Wales on the comic convention map - and Alexi is glad that it seems to have done just that. The more comic events around the UK, the better it will surely be for everyone involved in comics here.

It was a one day event, but it packed plenty in and did a great many things right. It was conveniently located all in one place (the swish Cardiff Mercure Holland House hotel), it had a fairly large dealer room (well-lit and airy), a good sized panel room (with raised stage and event staff on the door to provide info and ensure latecomers could come in quietly), good signage and organisation (announcements reminding people about panels about to start), worthwhile evening entertainment (decent local band 'Jam with RoBina') and basically had a really good vibe all the way through.

If Alexi had to criticise anything about CICE, it was only that it almost tried too hard to do a bit of everything and ran the risk of spreading itself too thinly - for example the panel schedule included panels about animation, film storyboarding, wargaming, and TV special effects. However, Alexi thought this was (a) completely understandable given that it's a new event that wanted to maximise its potential audience, (b) actually quite nice as it contributed to both the sense of scale and the sense of inclusivity, and (c) there was still plenty of stuff focused on the kind of thing Alexi was most interested in (i.e. comics).

Local podcasting heroes (and thoroughly nice chaps) the Sidekickcast led the way in the panels, starting with their own speciality 'Secrets and Lies' panel (a bit like 'Call My Bluff', based around assessing whether various possibly-spurious comic-related 'facts' are true or false), wacky fun which pitted teams of writers versus artists versus the audience - and you can listen to the whole thing right now HERE!

They later followed this up with an in-depth discussion panel where Barry Nugent and Steve Penfold talked about adapting Barry's novel Fallen Heroes from prose to comic form and the many and varied hurdles they jumped to get to releasing the first issue (which had already had a fantastic morning of sales, to the point that it had sold out before the panel had started!). Seeing how the project evolved, dealing with: going self-published after the orginal publisher collapsed, the comic-to-prose adaptation process and the geographical diversity of the creative team, it was interesting and heartening to see such commitment and Alexi wishes them well with the comic (and looks forward to seeing more of it).

Alexi must admit that he is not really into Doctor Who, but was pleasantly surprised by the Doctor Who panel. Focusing on comic and audiobook adaptations, the writers and artists discussed their takes on this enduring brand and how they had to work to adapt the characters that had already been seen on television into their own original stories whilst ensuring it all stayed within continuity.

In terms of the comics for sale in the dealer hall Alexi was pleased to see a fair bit of Welsh gear (including 10thology, Swansea Comics Collective, and European translation reprint specialists Dalen Books) and bought a decent stack of stuff.

The general boozing and yakking had a really nice inclusive feeling throughout the day into the evening which Alexi enjoyed very much (the usual greetings and mad props to all the good people who put up with his inane blabbering).

So, in conclusion, CICE 2011: great, roll on CICE 2012!

Con Report: BICS 2010

This weekend was the British International Comics Show 2010 and Alexi Conman was there.

The launch party wasn't particularly spectacular (all launch parties will pale in comparison to BICS 2008 which had free food and comics industry musical entertainment!), but it had a good vibe and everyone seemed to have a good yak on.

The thing that has made BICS stand out in the past was the quality of the panels, and although nothing quite stood out for Alexi this year as being unexpectedly amazing, there was still plenty of quality.

Perennial favourite panels 'Comic Artists Flip Out' and 'Have I Got Comic Book News For You' both returned this year. Flip Out offered an opportunity to watch Alan Davis, Staz Johnson and Nicola Scott doing massive high-speed sketches on flip-pads (with a chance of winning them as they're were completed) and although Alexi didn't win anything (booo), he enjoyed it. Equally entertaining, in a more absurd way, was HIGCBNFY, which offered a fairly unique opportunity to see respected comic industry pros engage in a quiz that involved, among other wackiness, identifying different Superman crotches. Alexi doesn't feel that any description can really expand on that.

Alexi also caught several panels with some big names talking about their work. The first of those was Bryan Hitch being interviewed by the Geek Syndicate (well, Barry and supercool stand-in Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth). Alexi found the interview really insightful and interesting, covering many areas of Hitch's comics career including early influences, working methods, amusing anecdotes and planned projects.

Hitch was promoting his new 'how to' book (which looks excellent) and Alexi found it really refreshing to hear a man of such obviously accomplished technical artistic skill reinforce the message that the main thing comic art needs to do is tell the story.

The whole interview is available to listen to on the Geek Syndicate site here. Check it out!

On Sunday, Alexi attendend two quite different panels centred on creators, though both were great in their own way.

The first was Charles Vess talking about his work. Alexi could have happily sat for hours watching this. It was simply Vess discussing his techniques and the inspiration behind each piece while images of the work (including comics, illustration, and sculpture) were displayed on a big screen - the guy is cool and his art is almost magically beautiful.

Later, in a somewhat more complicated format, Jonathan Ross talked to Tommy Lee Edwards on the big screen via satellite link, mainly about their book Turf. It wasn't totally smooth, but given the technical complexity, Alexi though it went well.

It was interesting to see Ross in this environment - he was hardly a shrinking violet but was careful to never portray himself as some bigtime star, acknowledging that he was still a newcomer to professional comics and ensuring that where possible the emphasis was on Edwards. Perhaps the nicest thing to emerge during the panel was some of Ross' own earlier artwork.

It's a fairly well-known fact that he's been a lifelong comics fan, but Alexi and most of the audience seemed pleasantly surprised to see that Ross' art (much as he was quite self-depreciating about it) was actually pretty good, and it was clear he'd always had serious aspirations to make comics. Celebrities writing comics (or often, perhaps, celebrities "writing" comics) are nothing new, but Ross really came across as someone who just happens to be a celebrity who is now writing comics. With the mention of some new projects appearing down the line, it will be really interesting to see how his career progresses.

The various stalls and small press outlets were busy as always and Alexi picked up a nice selection of new gear. Some highlights of new cool stuff at BICS included: the final (thirteenth) issue of Paul Rainey's epic No Time Like The Present and the big collected book of Sgt Mike Battle.

However, Alexi was most pleased at seeing some of his own work fresh in print.

The Sleepless Phoenix Survival Stories anthology (mentioned here previously) was hot off the presses for BICS. It's a big comics anthology of stories with the theme of 'survival' interpreted in all manner of ways. Alexi hasn't had a proper chance to read it yet, but it looks great.

Alexi's story is called 'The Future Is Not Set In Stone', and was drawn (awesomely of course) by Monty Borror. It's kind of about social responsibility, the weight of history, the changing nature of society and suchlike. Anyway, Alexi assures you that it's great.

If you are thinking "my, this sounds an excellent book, I would like to purchase it" (as Alexi is sure that you are), keep an eye out for it - it will be available at various comic cons and fairs and things in the near future.

Anyway, back to BICS. As always, Alexi hung out with many lovely lovely people to whom he sends his warmest regards, his congratulations on their comic-related endeavours, and his apologies for whatever inane gibberish he spouted at them.

Con Report: Bristol Comic Expo 2010

Alexi Conman recently attended the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo 2010 and thought he would write a bit about it.

Last year, the Bristol comic expo downsized substantially but retained a bit of scope thanks to the last-minute addition of a linked one-day small press event (read Alexi’s report here). Whilst this worked well enough for a short-term fix, the question was whether this twin event structure was sustainable and could be developed in subsequent years. Having had a year to prepare, hopes were high that progress would be made with this year's event, and Alexi is happy to report that it seemed to be a strong step forward.

As with last year, the Ramada hotel was the first venue, hosting the more mainstream events, and the Mercure hotel (a couple of minutes walk around the corner) hosted the Small Press Expo. However, this year the SPX was a much bigger beast, running both days with a full series of panels. Furthermore, the organisation was better – the Ramada had all the commercial retailers (t-shirts, back issues, toys, merchandise etc) and the Mercure had all of the indie/small press folks. There was generally a greater sense of integration between the two venues and although there could still have been more signage about it, it did feel like one large even rather than two smaller ones.

Whilst the Ramada bar was still the main location for socialising in the evening, Alexi was mostly at the Mercure during the daytime. Aside from the fact it had better air conditioning (which made a big difference on such a sunny weekend) and that it contained a hearty parade of small press gear (from which Alexi bought a satisfying bundle), it had the most interesting panels on and Alexi saw several of them.


First, the Sidekick podcasters interviewed Chris Lynch about symbolism, language and fiction, with particular reference to his graphic novel The Dark. Admittedly, Alexi didn’t have much knowledge of the book or the hosts going in, but despite that, he enjoyed the panel. The Dark and Lynch’s other projects sounded full of intriguing ideas and worth investigating. Similarly, it was all conducted with entertaining enthusiasm (especially a little audience-participation sort-of quiz thing they conducted) and Alexi will definitely be checking out some Sidekickcasts sometime soon.


Next, Glenn Dakin and Garen Ewing talked about their routes into getting their books published with Egmont. Both of these veteran UK comics creators now have books published through Egmont (Candle Man by Dakin and The Rainbow Orchid by Ewing) and the books seem to be doing well; however what was interesting was seeing just how long it had taken the projects to reach this point of fruition.

Dakin discussed how his story has ended up as a ‘young adults’ prose book, after it had previously been pitched as a comic to publishers as varied as Vertigo and The DFC before finding its natural home. Alexi hasn’t read it, but its graveyardy stylings sound like suitably spooky gothic horror fun (plus Alexi certainly recommends Dakin’s earlier autobiographical Abe comics). Ewing explained how his project had also gone through extensive gestation. He first started serialising The Rainbow Orchid in small press anthologies in 1997, before moving on to publish it online until it gained sufficient interest to get a mainstream publisher. Alexi has read the first volume of it (and is looking forward to reading the second which was released just in time for the con) and found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable adventure yarn with a lovely ‘ligne claire’ European style, well worth reading. Both creators were easy to listen to, clearly experienced and dedicated to their projects, and it was good to hear how they succeeded in getting their books picked up by a major publisher and out to a wide audience.


Barry Renshaw chaired a panel on digital comics that quietly proved to be a high point of the con. 'Digital comics' is one of those topics that keeps coming up and keeps proving interesting as the future keeps creeping into slightly clearer focus. The future is digital of course but exactly how comics will adapt to this still remains to be seen. There was a nice mix of panellists and the range of perspectives helped provide insight around the topic. Whilst far too much was discussed to go into full detail here, hopefully this overview should cover some of the most interesting points (via the medium of Alexi's own inane opinions):

A big recent development in the potential of digital comics has been the iPad, but for all the hoo-ha around it, the iPad market and the comics market are probably still fairly distinct. There is functionality to try and encourage people who’ve downloaded an issue to buy the book, but it can be difficult to assess whether that’s working. Digital has economic strengths and weaknesses: it does require an initial outlay to get a digital distribution system arranged, but once it is set up, it avoids all of the overheads of creating and distributing physical objects. So although a single issue download might only sell for 99 cents (59p), that might still provide greater revenue to the creators than a physical $3 comic would, perhaps opening up the market for smaller publishers. Indeed, one of the most likely outcomes of digital comics is that they will replace ‘floppies’ (single 24(ish)-page comics). The model that seems most likely in the short term is: free digital first issues, cheap digital subsequent issues, and premium physical graphic novels collecting the material in print.

Will digital distribution mean that comics reach a wider market? Almost certainly yes, but it’s hard to predict to what extent. Format will have an impact. First of all there are the practicalities of using different platforms (the Com.X guys explained how they use Comixology as they found it to be the most responsive to developing delivery to match the material). With a range of non-interchangeable platforms (i.e. if you download something on one, it won’t work on another) there are barriers to effective mass market usage, but if a single platform gained dominance, then a monopoly situation could occur where that distributor could ‘name their price’, squeezing a greater cut out of publishers reliant on them for distribution. There’s also the question of how digital formats affect the way comics work visually. The panel was fairly unanimous that any animation meant something was no longer really comics, but even using only static images, there is a multitude of ways that traditional visual syntax might be modified, plus there is the potential for all kinds of additional supporting material (sketches, seeing the page through different stages in the production process).

Supporting material was also mentioned as one way of encouraging legal downloads as opposed to piracy. Illegal digital comics distribution is likely to grow regardless of what comics publishers might implement in terms of legal downloads, so tackling piracy is an unavoidable problem. Convenience seems to be the way to win: if downloading legally is substantially easier than downloading illegally, and relatively cheap, the public will probably mostly go with that. The music industry is an obvious analogy, and it does show likely routes that comics might take, but perhaps it also shows potential pitfalls.

One of the minor reasons why Alexi is generally quite technologically backward is that having everything so easily available seems to lessen it somehow; what was once ‘art’ is now just ‘content’. The concept of music albums is fading (and who remembers b-sides?) as people buy tracks individually and listen to their whole music library at random. Certainly there is a new massive potential to try new things, but there also seems to be a diminishment of the ‘value’ attributed to items (no longer beloved albums, listened to from start to end whilst looking through the accompanying artwork, fixed in time and place in memories, instead just more background noise for modern life?), and it would be a shame if this shift in perception were to also affect comics too much when the digital age sweeps through. Yes, maybe comics are a mainly disposable art-form, but it can still surely aspire to profundity? Digital comics have great potential, but there will always be something inherently pleasing about even the scrappiest photocopied physical comic that will never be downloadable to an iPad.

After a meander around Bristol in the evening sun, Saturday was rounded off in the Ramada bar with a performance by the finest band mainly composed of comic industry professionals, ‘Mine Power Cosmic’. Formed from the ashes of ‘Giant Sized Band Thing’ (who rocked BICS 2008), they played heavy rhythm and blues rock with a prog/psych slant. The crowd were thoroughly entertained and the only slight disappointment was that the whole room didn’t quite burst into dance at the brilliantly heavy cover of Abba’s ‘Voulez-Vous’. Hopefully the whole gig will turn up on Youtube soon.

On Sunday (after another trawl around the wondrous and varied small press stalls), the final panel that Alexi attended was a discussion of comics-related podcasts and their role in the industry. Though slightly lighter in tone that the digital comics panel, it was still insightful and enjoyable - as would be expected from a panel consisting of people used to yakking at the whole of the comic-reading interwebs. Emma Vieceli chaired, and Dan Marshall (Sidekickcast), Jimmy Aquino (Comic News Insider), Stacey Whittle (Small Press Big Mouth), Dave Williams (Waiting For The Trade) and Stephen Aryan (Comic Book Outsiders) represented the world of comics podcasters.

Probably the main issue discussed was: is podcasting journalism? The answer that the group seemed to agree on, perhaps slightly surprisingly, was ‘no’. Certainly, there has to be some level of integrity, ensuring that facts are right, confidentiality is maintained when required, and reviewing is honest and fairly impartial. However, the panel all classed themselves as fans more than journalists. They do it because they love comics, not for money or prestige or to slag stuff off or to talk about anything they’re not interested in, but to tell the world about what they like, namely: comics. They might all have slightly different takes on it the world of comics and slightly different demographics, but fundamentally it was nice to see such a unity of purpose, of just talking about comics that interest them, and trying to make it fun for themselves and their listeners. If you like comics, you should check them out (particularly Small Press Big Mouth, go on, try it now)!

It was a nice note to end on, and kind of encapsulated the whole con vibe. As always, Alexi hung out with many lovely people (to whom he extends his usual apologies for them having to endure his tedious company) and came away with a spring in his step and a renewed enthusiasm for comics, huzzah etc!

Con Report: Hi-Ex 2010

Alexi Conman recently attended Hi-Ex 2010, the third Highlands International Comic Expo, and had a fantastic time.

Whilst hardly a convention veteran, he has been to quite a few now (reviews of several are noted elsewhere on this blog) and whilst they all have their own strengths, this really was one of the most enjoyable weekends in Alexi's con-going experience.

Why was this so? Although not huge, the exhibitor room had plenty of great stuff for sale and Alexi picked up a nice little stack of new small press gear. All the events that Alexi went to were great - the auction and raffle were fun (though just as last year, Alexi got nowt - "epic fail" as youngsters apparently say), the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre performance was as mental as it sounds, and the 'serious' panels/workshops were really insightful and interesting.

The 'writing comics' workshop predictably turned up a range of useful tips across all aspects of writing for comics from script style to the nature of the industry. The 'online comics' panel investigated several models of online comics publishing and the ways it can be used in tandem with print publishing to make it a viable option for creators. The 2000AD panel, rather than being a publicity event (which publisher-themed panels sometimes are), turned into a really interesting discussion of the history of this British institution and the ways the comic market has changed over the years. All the guests were lovely people and great to listen to.

However, what made it such an enjoyable event extended beyond the quality of the 'event' itself, it was in all the additional details: the highland setting (the fresh air, the hills, the river...), the ethos of the organisers to have a major charitable focus, the British flavour to it all (there was much more interest in 2000AD than Marvel or DC), and, most of all, the way it was so inclusive and social throughout. Chatting late into the night in hotel bars is a fairly integral part of most comic conventions but Alexi has never found one to be so friendly and open to all. Perhaps partly by being slightly smaller than some other cons, but mainly through the attitude of the organisers and everyone attending, it was a really lovely atmosphere, and spending an evening in the hotel bar doodling draw-a-panel-pass-it-on jam comics (of a puerile and preposterous nature) with good, slightly drunk, people (including renowned comics professionals) was an absolute delight.

Alexi is too lazy to mention and thank all the nice folks that he blathered at, but he feels that mention must be made of a group of 2000AD fans who made an epic 1300-mile minibus round-trip, dubbed the 'Hi-Ex Hell Trek', an endeavour of admirable grit that is a perfect example what made Hi-Ex 2010 such a brilliant convention.

Con Report: Thought Bubble 2009

Alexi Conman went to Leeds' Thought Bubble convention and bought a substantial quantity of quality small press gear - but other than catching a smidge of Roger Sabin's talk on the roots of academic analysis of sequential art (plus a pictionary type thing in a bar later on that he couldn't see properly), he didn't make it to any talks/panels at all. LOSER!

That said, he thoroughly enjoyed himself. The lovely people of Newcastle's Paper Jam collective were across in force, as were many other folk unfortunate enough to have made the acquaintance of Alexi, and rather a lot of gabbing occurred.

The gargantuan main hall seemed even more packed than last year and the vibe was again incredibly positive, with few commercial dealers (i.e. those selling backissues, toys etc) and a plethora of small press stuff that hadn't been at other cons - hence the extensive pile of wonder that Alexi bought.

Why should this be, compared to other cons? Possibly:

(a) Location - Leeds is the only big con between Birmingham and Inverness

(b) It's one-day - although there are events on other days around it, the main con is a single day, so it packs everything in efficiently, meaning that the costs don't have to cover the use of the venue for so long, and the punters will all be there on one day, getting all their purchasing done in one go. This leads to...

(c) Affordable table rates - most folks seemed to have at least broken even.

(d) A more arty small press ethos? - this year, the more highbrow panels had been moulded into a linked but slightly separate conference on comics academia (which Alexi was most disappointed not to see more of) and the workshops that surrounded the main con seemed to encourage that sense of creativity over pure fandom.

(e) Christmas - perhaps people are just in the mood for buying a bunch of comics?

Anyway, Thought Bubble really showed how much could be packed into one day... even if Alexi didn't really make best use of it himself.

Con Report: BICS 2009

Alexi Conman went to the BICS 2009 convention. As of this year, 'BICS' now stands for 'British International Comics Show' instead of 'Birmingham International Comics Show', yet it was still held in Birmingham. Geographical inaccuracy is technically avoided by the fact that Birmingham is in Britain, yes, but surely the information being provided is less specific than it had been previously?

The change in nomenclature is apparently for two reasons (both of which do, in fact, seem fairly reasonable):

a) in case it wants to move or run events elsewhere at some point down the line.

b) with Bristol's con downsizing somewhat earlier this year (and for the forseable future), BICS is now the biggest of the UK comics conventions and wants to tell everyone that.

This was Alexi's third year attending, and, predictably, he enjoyed it again.

The Friday launch party was good fun, and whilst it didn't quite live up to last year's shinding due to not having comics pros playing live music (such as the tremendously-named 'Giant-Sized Band-Thing', who thoroughly rocked at BICS 2008), there was beer and a free buffet, so it would be churlish to complain.

With several long-term comics projects, non-comics projects and general procrastination in the works at the moment, there wasn't anything of a specific business-like nature for Alexi at the con, so he generously agreed to assist the champions of small press podcasting Small Press Big Mouth (if you haven't already, listen to their fine podcasts immediately! IMMEDIATELY!) with promotion. This mainly involved looking dopey, spilling coffee on them and carrying flyers around.

In between this exertion, Alexi saw some good panels. First up was the immediate success of perennial favourite 'Comic Artists Flip Out' - watching Alan Davis, Staz Johnson and Mark Buckingham sketch on flipchart pads is of course excellent entertainment in its own right, but Alexi was also fortunate enough to win a brilliant sketch of Nightcrawler, huzzah (if by some insane fluke of chance Alan Davis ever reads this - thanks Alan).

Also on the theme of live art, just before having to run off to catch a train at the end of the con, Alexi caught half of Garry Leach's live painting demo. His talk about painting techniques had been an unexpected highlight of BICS 2008, and were it not for the necessity of catching the train, Alexi is sure he'd have been even more impressed with seeing the whole process live this year.

On the WTF? front, Steve Marchant introduced what would be an interesting talk about his work in education (and a new web resource called Cartoon Classroom to increase connections between schools and comic artists) with a baffling/hilarious sort of quiz thing which involved:

a) him wearing a dress and a shower cap and pretending to be The Watcher.

b) him using "advanced Skrull technology" (cardboard masks) to transform members of the audience into The Thing, Batman, Judge Dreddd and Moonknight, before doing a sort of parallel universes quiz with each of them.

c) the contestants who did the best in the quiz (Dredd and Moonknight) having a playoff competition to see who could send an inflatable Spider-Man furthest with a single punch (Dredd).

Entirely commendable.

Slightly less exciting, but very interesting were the Geek Syndicate's '70 Years of Marvel Comics' and the Comics Insider panels, both of which talked about the future of the medium, between them covering the standpoints of creators, big publishers, small publishers, distributors and comercial outlets.

There was a lot of talk about digital distribution, particularly with regards to monthly comics (as opposed to graphic novels/trade paperbacks), and it does seem to make sense. Monthly comic sales are falling, but web distribution may be the way to get new readers in, with comics shops taking more of a role as simply specialist bookshops, dealing mainly in book-length collected material.

When Alexi can more effectively organise his thoughts, he may stick a blog post here about how comics designed specifically for devices like the iphone present their own opportunities and challenges in terms of how the medium works (e.g. how the gutter is no longer part of the visual syntax if each 'page' is basically just a panel). However Alexi finds talks like those just mentioned even more fascinating as they investigate not just one issue, but the many interlinked issues that affect 'comics' as a whole: the content and how it uses the artistic medium and how that is affected by the methods of delivery to the readers and how this is all organised functionally and financially by the industry. Difficult to fully analyse it all objectively but very interesting stuff.

Alexi generally dislikes technology, so was pleased to pick up a substantial bunch of quality UK indie and small press comics made of actual paper when meandering around the many stalls at the con. He looks forward to reading all of them. He also got drunk with some very nice folks (shoutouts to anyone actually reading this) and possibly came third in a Chinese buffet eating competition.

For anyone looking for a more inventive con report, you will almost certainly not do better than checking out the one by Cy Dethan (scribe of 'Cancertown'), done as a Fighting Fantasy / Choose Your Own Adventure thing. Brilliant.

Con Report: Bristol Comic Expo 2009

Alexi attended the Bristol Comic Expo at the weekend. As has been widely reported elsewhere, it was somewhat smaller this year, the economic climate being what it is. This meant the big hall near the station was out and more stuff was crammed into the main Ramada hotel area instead.

It was, predictably, a bit cramped but fortunately the Small Press Expo (that had stepped into the breach when the main Expo announced it was to downsize) really helped make up for it. Running on the Saturday at the Mercure hotel just round the corner, it provided the much-needed space for the exhibitors who couldn't get into the Ramada.

Panel-wise, due to trains and suchlike, Alexi had to miss some of the panels he'd have liked to have seen, but did catch Dan DiDio and Bob Wayne representin' for DC. They were quick-witted and likeable and it's always interesting to see some of the people who genuinely have a hand in guiding where the comics industry is heading.

Of course, one of the best things about the weekend for Alexi was getting to see the stories he'd scripted appear in the minty fresh Layer Zero: Choices and Western anthologies (from the good folks at Insomnia and Accent UK respectively). He also spent far too much money at the bar and talked a lot to some very nice people, but was disappointed to only get limited opportunity to do robot-dancing.

There were things that could have been done better - the Small Press Expo could also have been on on the Sunday and there could have been better information about where it was and what was going on there. However, this seems to have already been addressed in the planning for next year - both hotels will run both days and hopefully it should be a bit more cohesive. This does suggest that the big hall is now officially out of the picture, and if that's what it takes to make the con break even, more power to the organisers for adapting. Birmingham's BICS looks to be going slightly in the opposite direction, upping it's prices slightly to support a bigger and more adventurous con, and again, more power to them too. Every con he attends reminds Alexi what a relatively small industry this is and how essential conventions are to maintain an even vaguely unified feel to the whole business.

Con Report: Hi-Ex 2009

Alexi Conman has taken to going to UK comic conventions. He felt his name kind of forced him into it, but fortunately all the cons he's been to so far have all been great.

He thought maybe he should write some brief reviews. They'll mostly just be him saying "went here, it was awesome" but hey, it's worth saying.

Latest was Hi-Ex - the Highland Expo up in Inverness. It was lovely. Slightly smaller than some of the other UK cons, and perhaps partly because of that (although moreso because of the excellent people organising it), it had a really welcoming and inclusive vibe.

Some great panel discussions (Politics and Religion was predictably fiery), workshops (Alexi picked up a few tips from the wise duo of Al Ewing and Ferg Handley) and a charity auction (which Alexi chickened out of bidding in) made for a thoroughly enjoyable programme. Alexi would go again.