Water Closet @ Bristol Comic Expo 2013

Water Closet Press is pleased to report that we had a delightful time at the Bristol Comic Expo this past weekend. This was our second time at Bristol and, while we did enjoy last year (despite some mixed reviews from fellow exhibitors and attendees), this year was better by far. We more than doubled our sales (more of a testament to the fact that we came out with a second issue since then than our skills as snake oil salesmen), and it was really encouraging to have people who picked up Ladies & Gentlemen #1 last year mention that they had been looking forward to getting the sequel. One kind gentlemen even bought some pages of original art!
 

The historic Brunel Old Station was a fitting setting to sell the Victorian-themed L&G.  The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, and we got the distinct feeling that the comics present were the comics that everybody in the room were reading anyway; that we were all in it together, were all part of something.

Our evening activities on Saturday consisted mainly of being serenaded by a mono-toothed Sinatra-singing geezer who staggered over to the table we were sitting at in an Irish pub. It was quite endearing at first, but soon turned in to more of a hostage situation by the fourth or fifth time he sang the apt lyrics “Please release me, let me go.”  Then, perhaps inevitably, he turned out to be a wee bit racist, so that was the end o’ that.

Sunday proved to be the nicest day of the two, providing us with a chance to go and meet a whole bunch of other creators and confirm our theory that Stuart Gould of UK Comics, who prints our books, is in fact single-handedly running the entire British comics scene. We chatted with (and swapped books with) a whole bunch of folks who are increasingly becoming the pillars of the Small Press, including but not limited to:

The conglomerate of lovely chaps generating the eternal feedback-loop that is LOU SCANNON / THE PRIDE / STIFFS;  the wonderfully embeardened and bubbly RAZARHAWKS duo (I was drawn!) ; the master anthologists of the DISCONNECTED PRESS; Mark Pearce, responsible for the maniacally hilarious RONIN DOGS (and the TMNT poster to my left); Owen Watts and his many comic-fingers in many comic-pies; Andrew Scaife and his debut comic NEW YORK PARK; and Jon Lock of the glorious AFTERLIFE INC.  Not to mention all the other folks who were kind enough to stop by our cramped little table and chew the fat about comics.  Thanks to you all for your interest and support.

Whewph! All in one fantastic weekend.

NOTE: Despite us not appearing on the list of exhibitors on their website (silly us), don't forget that we will indeed have a table at the upcoming MCM LONDON COMIC CON on the Saturday and Sunday, May 25-26th. Hope to see lots of new faces, and some of those faces we met in Bristol!

BEAR PIT #5 - "EXPEDITION"

Here is my contribution to Bear Pit Zine's 5th installment, "Expedition."  I was thrilled to be able to participate in such a great local (Bristol) project.  Each thematic anthology is printed in limited runs so be sure to get 'em while they're hot! Check out Bear Pit's tumblr here, and also on the Facebook.

This 5-page short represents my first foray into writing, as I've only ever worked in collaboration with the eminent Richard Worth.  I suppose it's appropriate, then, that I opted to go exclusively with pictures and no words.  I say appropriate, but it was really because I lacked the confidence.  Maybe it was a mistake.  I'll try next time and see. 

The Michael Jackson of exploration

Something I always had in the back of my mind while reflecting on the zine's theme was this particularly expedition-appropriate passage from The Worst Journey Ever. Antarctic explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard nails it:

"The desire for knowledge for its own sake is the one which really counts... Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion. And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.  Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, 'What is the use ?' ... For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg." 

In a longer draft of the story I was going to cut back to the fat man falling asleep in his armchair, beard growing and stomach diminishing each time we return to him, until he is little more than slumbering bones.  Apsley might have called him a shopkeeper.  In this version, I closed with the words:  “A full man will sit at home and rub his belly, thinking himself content. But a hungry man, though his belly pangs, will rove -- and see the world.”  That ending had less context in the final draft, and I felt it was quite heavy-handed exposition besides.

The text that does appear in the last panel is taken from the ending of The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. It reads (translated, with the quoted text underlined): 
 

The James Dean of existentialism

 "I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

I did The Hungry Fellow as a way of allagorizing my own experience of religious disillusionment, but it's also a more general parable about any process of discovery - of finding fulfillment in it, even when it wounds us.  Don't take my word for it though; could be about something else entirely.  Or nothing, for that matter.  Maybe you find it's a jumbled mess that makes no narrative sense, let alone a story with discernible meaning… but I hope you can enjoy something about it in spite of that, even if it's just the drawings.  And, heck, I think that's exactly what Camus was talking about anyway...

There's another 40+ pages of Bear Pit Zine #5 from some fantastic small press folks (12 of 'em)! 
You can ORDER ONE right here, right now from our Water Closet Emporium, or directly from the BPZ webpage.  You'll be glad you did.

-Jordan