Comics 2003

[tinyjo]

Up early on Saturday morning and on the train to Bristol for the annual comics convention. This year it was back in the Empire and Commonwealth building again - not my favourite venue by any means, but considerably improved this year by the lower temperature, a slightly better cafe and the fact that the pub down the road was actually open. On arrival, I bumped into Mark who told us that Eleanor was ill and so Penny wouldn't be making down for the National Theatre of Earth Prime. A stand in was needed, and I volunteered. What was I thinking! The performance wasn't to be until Sunday, giving me plenty of time to look over the script and fret. We wandered round the main hall and did a bit of buying and some Caption advertising before heading off to check into our hotel (on a convenient bus route from the convention). By the time we got back it was time for jintys panel on women in comics which was quite an interesting discussion. Few of the panels at C2003 caught my attention really as most of them didn't seem to have a theme for discussion, rather "Here's a collection of famous people, ask them stuff". This one and the independents panel on Sunday were the only ones that really had a focus, or so it appeared from the program and they were the only ones I made it to.

After watching Hulk Smash! with Steve Marchant (who can hit inflatable Spidey furthest?) we headed out for food and were guided by cleanskies to a place which did Dutch pancakes, a foodstuff of which I was previously unaware. Basically, instead of wrapping things (like chicken and courgette in my case) up in the pancake they cook them in with the batter, cover the result with a sprinkling of cheese and serve it flat on an enormous plate. The results tasted absolutely fantastic. After thoroughly gorging myself, I decided that I needed to give the films a miss to go back to Marks hotel for a read-through and wig trying on session. Alex very kindly agreed to come with me and we headed off.

Sunday arrived and after dallying around for about 3/4 of an hour waiting to get a table for breakfast at the hotel we filled up and headed back to the convention, Alex to browse, me to sit and feel nervous about the NToEP in the little talks room with Jason and Mark. The play was The Unfunny X-men which is written as sonnets (We bring to you a punch line horrible / Ev'ry hundred and fortieth syllable), so there's not really room to improv over mistakes. Fortunately, I was allowed to keep my script. I was playing all the women plus baby Magneto so I whiled away the time practising my wig changes. In the event, the whole thing went off OK. I fluffed up a bit at the beginning which was annoying as that was the bit I thought I knew, but I wasn't the only one to make mistakes and everyone laughed so I think in the end it went pretty well. Alex took photos of me in my various wigs which I may or may not post up here for your delectation.

After that I needed a swift drink at the pub before returning to the hall for a final pass through the stalls before the small press panel, which, like last year, we leafleted heavily. It sounds like quite a few people will be coming along to Caption for the first time this year so we may even beat last years attendance, which would be cool. I can't believe I won't be able to go. I am a silly fool!!! We ducked out slightly before the end to get the 4:10 train, which, judging by cleanskies and jintys experiences was definitely a good move. We still had the bus bit, but not too much waiting around on platforms.

So that's that for another year. To be honest, I'm not sure I would go to Bristol if it wasn't for the fact that we need to advertise Caption there. There's generally only a very few interesting events/panels. Mostly it's just a big mart, which I can take or leave. I'm not really a collector of stuff so I don't need to buy back issues and I can buy tonnes and tonnes of nice small-press stuff at Caption in the summer. It's quite nice to see people, but there's not that much opportunity to sit around and chat, although if I'd made it along to the evening stuff I might have done more of that. Plus of course, now that we have to get somewhere to stay, it's a lot more pricey. Maybe next year I'll just leave it to the others.

Comments

[barberio.livejournal.com]

I totaly forgot about Bristol this year... But probably wouldnt have gone even if I had remembered.

The highlight of last year was talking to Rich from Oni... And that was about it.
(That and missing seeing Jo because she went on the day I got a migrane)

May try to make Caption, which should be easier now I live in banbury.

Incentive to actualy finish re-writing Rodentia.