 Brumcon Roundup
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7th Oct, 2008 @ 10:56 
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So...
That was pretty awesome.
We travelled up on the Friday night, and were at the con for opening on the Saturday. Weirdly, while we were waiting in the queue for pre-reg attendees, directly adjacent to us in the queue for buying tickets on the day was a gentleman I thought I recognised- and later on I found out that yes, I was right, it really WAS
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bevismusson . I still wish I'd said hello.
Once we were in, we had a quick look around the two halls of tables, and I had a chance to gush at Paul Grist (as well as getting him to sign my Jack Staff books that I'd dragged all the way up norf for exactly that reason). The man's a genius, and I felt it was important to tell him so... he looked a little uncomfortable. I have that effect on my heroes. I'M NOT A STALKER, HONEST.
As we were milling about, I spotted Dave Monteith from the awesome Geek Syndicate podcast, and said hello, and told him that I was looking forward to their panel later. So that was ace.
We then ran back to the hotel to drop off the books (heavy!), and grab a quick cup of coffee before heading back in time to catch Paul Gravett's talk on incredibly strange comics, which was incredibly strange, as billed... and in the process, meet up with happymrlocust . After the talk, we adjourned to the pub, and while Amanda pooped out to have a little look around Brum, we chatted and plotted domination of the comics industry. Or something. I have to say it was absolutely fantastic to finally get to talk to him face to face, and I look forward to doing so again, hopefully soon.
Then it was back to the con for Geek Syndicate's thing, which was a lot of fun, and then The Kryptonite Factor (which was chaotic but very funny). And then it was to the pub and out for dinner withthe afore-mentioned mister Locust, and the spectacularly cool Tom Reynolds (buy his book!)and his brother Brett. Again, much fun. Tom managed to raise himself even further in my estimation by eating a dessert intended for two all by himself.
Lem had to run straight after dinner unfortunately, so he missed the end of the evening, and the inevitable descent into the discussion of FOIR (Foreign Object In Rectum) cases that we have encountered in the course of our working lives.
Sunday was also, cool- we turned up early-ish, in time for me to discover that in order to show my portforlio to Harry Markos (the head man at Markosia comics) I should have registered in advance... despite the fact that there was no mention on the Brumcon site that he was going to be portfolio reviews, and thus no way of knowing about it untill the day of the con. So that was a bit poo. But we turned it around later- but that was later...
We had pre-registered to attend Dave Gibbons's talk on his "Watching The Watchmen" book, which began at twelve thirty, so that was our next stop. Let's just say, I think I'm going to have to buy that book.
The next event was suppoesed to be a talk by Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo on the subject of Tank Girl's twentieth anniversary... unfortunately, Alan Martin couldn't make it, so it was just Rufus- which logically shouldn't have worked since he had nothing to do with the creation of the character and has only been involved in making Tank Girl comics for a year. But I have to say, he really pulled the whole thing off very well. It ended up being a really enjoyable and informative talk.
After that, I went and had something to eat before heading back for one last round of the two halls. I took this opportunity to grab a quick chat with the afore mentioned Harry Markos at the Markosia table. he took a look at my pages, and was very complimentary, but sadly didn't feel there was palce for me at Markosia. He advised me to go and chat with some other peeps though, but I don't think I'll talk about that in public just yet. I may pop up a little friends-locked post later...
Anyway, after that we were done. We spent the rest of Sunday and most of Monday doing lovey dovey coupl-y things that I won't be blogging about here, since that's not con-related, is it?
The highlight of the con, for me (apart from, of course, meeting up with amazingly cool people), was probably getting to see some original Lazarrus Churchyard pages at D'Israeli's table, and chatting a bit about Timulo.
We both bought Genki Gear t-shirts, and I got myself a nice fat haul of books.
The only negative thing I can say about the weekend- a couple of indie comics people out there really need to learn how off-putting the hard sell is. Seriously, if you've called me over to your table to look at your comics, rather than waiting for me to show an interest, then you need to be prepared for the possibilty that I'm not going to buy one. And you especially should not get arsey when I say that no, i don't want to sign up to your mailing list. Talking of which, if you want people to sign up to a mailing list, shoving a clipboard under someone's nose and telling them to write their email address on it without telling them what it is is really not the way to go about it. Let's just say that there's an indie manga publisher who publish books that I probably would have been interested in, but will now be avoiding like the plague...
But all in all it was a great con.
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![[User Picture Icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/74252951/14337707) |
| From: | cmcmck |
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| Date: |
7th October 2008 11:26 (UTC) |
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Glad you had a good time! I must admit that I like Brum as a place.
"FOIR (Foreign Object In Rectum) cases that we have encountered in the course of our working lives."
Knowing what it is you do for a living. I'm just not going to go there, although I have to admit that I did post a while ago about the chap with a park bench stuck on his, ahem, willy. He'd tried to make love to it. Verily the mind boggles! :op
![[User Picture Icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/86238679/11365716) |
| From: | moovok |
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| Date: |
7th October 2008 14:06 (UTC) |
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shocked you never came to say "hi" to me :P
well, I would have done if I'd known you were there! Did you have a table?
Seriously, you need to start posting in your lj when you're going to be at these things. I honestly had no idea you were going.
I was pretty shocked when I randomly ran into him as well :P
Yus :| Sometimes ppl need to realize how annoying "hard sell" can be, esp when it doesn't get them the results they want and they get upset about it :\ It seems like some ppl are under the impression you get famous by forcing yourself on others and they will recognize your brilliance, and if not then they are wrong and you should yell at them, and it doesn't rly work like that :\
*hugs* I am rly glad you had a great time, it sounds like so much fun! :D
Oh what? I missed the FOIR conversation? There is no god!
I had no idea D'isreali was around, which is a shame because it would have been nice to see the man at work. Even though the concept of even hovering near a table of a Big Name scares me.
Good to hear about the portfolio stuff! You had strong work to show, that's for certain.
Conventioneering is a skill I think. You can't sit there completely passive, but you can't be ramming things down people's throats either.
My convention selling techniques work quite well. :D
the concept of even hovering near a table of a Big Name scares me
Oh, me too. I'm working on it, though.
Conventioneering is a skill
It's really just when people kind of randomly shout at you as you're walking past their table that it annoys me. If I've actually stopped at a table and am looking at the wares, then I expect a bit of banter, or at least a "hello". Most comics people seem quite good at this level of sales-personship. But I TWICE had people literally call me over to look at their stuff, and then seem shocked that I wasn't going to automatically give them my money.
It was really awesome to finally meet up, by the way. And Amanda says hello!
I had that at the UK Comics Thing... and it put me right off. I usually just say I have no money and inquire if they have a website or a card I can take. It's rude while not appearing overtly rude I guess.
Hello to Amanda! It was a lot of fun and was wonderful to finally meet her. :)
And now... back to work.
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