HIT THE NORTH (OR THE MIDLANDS AT LEAST)

Last weekend I went to the Birmingham International Comic Show, held at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, just outside of the city centre. I went up with Andy Colman on the Saturday morning from Euston. Organised by inker and Brum resident James Hodgkins and Smallzone small press guy Shane Chebsey, it was a decent weekend. But it was hamstrung by the fact that there isn't the money here that there is in the States for comics and the industry is so much smaller. However it was entertaining to catch up with Duncan Fegredo and Sean Phillips, with whom I did a panel on their forthcoming sketchbook, Intersections, which is coming out next July from Image. I also caught up with David Baillie, Dave Morris, Andy Winter, Baz from Redeye, Dan Fish, Douglas Noble and Dave Morris's friend Pat from Northern Ireland. But the venue was a little depressing and the weather was horrendous.If they can bring the date forward next year and have it in another part of the city with more/ some amenities, then it could turn into a decent show. My hat's off to James and Shane though for giving it a stab…
One of the things that was the most interesting for me about the show was that several people mentioned that they had been reading this blog, which was very encouraging. It got me thinking as to whether there may be a gap in the current market for a TRIPWIRE Annual, around 160 pages with all new feature and a little bit of strip content, which we could bring out next summer. I'm still musing over that so I'll let you know what my conclusions are…
My Mervyn Peake piece ran in TIME last week too which was very exciting. For those people who didn't see it, here's a scan for you…
Also here's a couple more photos of people's studios from Creating Heroes: Duncan Fegredo and Howard Chaykin…