Canny Cow Science

Alexi has been up to several things of late that are probably blog-worthy.

ONE! Alexi organised the Canny Comic Con again. Many many emails, but again it went really well and Alexi was moved almost to tears by the spirit of the comics community creating something good by force of will. He is very grateful to all comics folks involved (particular those who helped Alexi behind the scenes), and to the amazing Newcastle City Library for hosting. More blah will go up on the Canny Comic Con blog soon.

TWO! Top Cow ran an open submission Talent Hunt in the latter part of 2012 which will result in a paid gig for two writers and two artists. Alexi understands that it's good PR and that they probably got a sales spike from prospective creators buying comics to research the characters, but even so, he was impressed that Top Cow (or, specifically, editor Matt Hawkins) would take the time to run this kind of thing. It is admirable to see established comics publishers trying to engage with aspiring creators (apparently there were around 1100 entries!).

Anyway, mainly as an exercise in writing to a brief, Alexi decided to enter. He enjoyed the challenge, and produced a script (a slightly offbeat little story about pigeons and second chances) that he was pretty happy with. Along the way, he caught up with reading a variety of recent Top Cow comics. In honesty, Top Cow was not a publisher he had been paying much attention to in recent years, but he enjoyed catching up with their output. One title in particular stood out as excellent - David Hine and Jeremy Haun's new take on The Darkness, which is very human and engaging yet delightfully creepy and unsettling. If you're interested (and you should be), Alexi would point out that you can read the complete first trade for FREE here (legitimately)! Very much worth a go.

THREE! Alexi is currently getting involved in the Newcastle Science Comic, a fascinating project that will use COMICS to communicate SCIENCE to KIDS. Huzzah etc. Alexi is not exactly sure what form his direct creative input will be (if it will be involved at all), but he was recently at a launch event thing and heard a great many extremely interesting ideas whizzing around and is certain that the project is going to be aces.

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.

A beginning...

The prodigiously talented (and depressingly youthful) Jack Fallows is set to release the first issue of his possibly three-part saga, The Big Bang, at Leeds' Thoughtbubble comic convention.

Alexi Conman provided some minimal editorial assistance to Mr. Fallows in this project (basically just offering him ill-considered suggestions and ungrounded analysis throughout the creative process) but entirely without bias recommends that anyone in the market for a blackly comic look at human foibles, arty and offbeat but unpretentious, with a vaguely Dan Clowes kind of vibe, will thoroughly enjoy this excellent comic.

It can be purchased at Thoughtbubble or probably later from Jack's Etsy shop.

Alexi Conman... Draws?

Although Alexi Conman intends that this blog be focused on his comics scriptwriting endeavours, he feels compelled to mention some other related activity which occurred recently.

For Alexi, being in the process of developing unstoppable scriptwriting mad skillz of thunderous prowess is not enough! He is also occasionally developing shambolic drawing crap skillz of inept mediocrity - and some of the products of which feature in the otherwise excellent small press anthologies of the Paper Jam Comics Collective.

They recently released their fifth anthology (Robots... And That) and celebrated with an awesome launch party, with bands, films and cake. There's some real talent in the group (see the very cool flyer design above, by Bainbridge and Waugh), and giant leaps forward are being made with each release. Marvel and DC will be in their sights soon!

In other slightly off-topic news, some of Alexi's short films are looking like getting screened at various places, including at the Glastonbury Festival. Woop!