Tuesday 15 May 2012

Bristol Expo!

So, it's been a while since our last post but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. In addition to working on issue two, we attended the Bristol Comic Expo at the Brunel Old Station in Bristol (well obviously). Looking around the interweb a lot of other exhibitors didn't find it too hot, not as busy or lucrative as previous years, but since this was only the Water Closet's second convention (the first being ThoughtBubble way back in November) we had fun and thought we got a good response. Whilst nowhere near as busy as TB we got way more interest, whether that's down to the fact that we are more comfortable with the material and pitching it to strangers or the simple fact that there was a larger focus on small/British comics is beyond my deductive ability. Needless to say we enjoyed it for the most part.
ladies gentlemen bristol expo
I put it down to JC's anger towards all punters.
Anywho, we sold a bunch of issue and met and bunch of great people, we finally had a chat with Dan Clifford of Sugar Glider fame (mostly about the number of mistakes in our comics respectively *). We had an interview with Jimmy Aquino for the Comic News Insider podcast and loads of other people that I'll mention in the next post, when I get the plethora of business cards we collected off of JC. No doubt when the CNI podcast goes up we'll be plastering that all over the internet!

Other highlights include the appearance of one of the Water Closet's favourite creators, Paul Grist. If you haven't already checked out Jack Staff, it's excellent. Also JC got his issues of MUDMAN signed by Grist, so that good news.

As boredom started to set in a little on the Sunday afternoon we did a bit of creator to creator trade, a nice way of seeing what else is going on in the scene, and by chance it result in the Cinebook guys commisioning Jordan to do a sketch of one of their characters. It took us a while to find out the character's name but here it is in all its glory.

blake mortimer bristol expo sketch
Turns out Papa Shababa-bubu isn't the character's name. It's Blake from "Blake & Mortimer"

So that's a little catch up on what went down. As I say when I get the appropriate materials from JC I'll link all the other excellent people we met that weekend.

Til then, as ever, see you in the funny pages.

Rik

* This was edited in order to point out that Dan Clifford is not a shit bag who bullies other creators, he likewise pointed mistakes in Sugar Glider... what he considers mistakes anyway. Creative type's you know? A piece is never finished.