Leamington Comic Convention on the 17th October was an absolute blast. Rumours were that there had been a massive amount of tickets sold and unlike rumours about my hair being made in China, these rumours turned out to be 100 per cent true!
Held in the town’s Assembly Rooms, just a matter of hours after Midge Ure had played a gig, the venue was full of small press, comics professionals, back issues, toy stalls, cozplay and much, much more! The isles were rammed with punters all day and I for one had a great time.
I got to chat to a few downthetubes favourites, including Dean Beattie, who is beginning the countdown to the release of Random Trials Issue 3 at Thought Bubble next month. He tells me that it is ready to go to the printer and that it’s his favourite issue yet (I got to see the unlettered pages and I agree – can’t wait to see this one!)
• You can find Dean at www.deanbeattie.com or on Twitter @deanbeattie
I finally got to chat to Will Overton and his comics fan son, Cam. We chatted about our love of the UK magazine format anthologies like Mighty World of Marvel and 2000AD and he showed me the first run of his new comic Smart Bomb: A Hyper Video Game Comic. This looks incredible: a really slick looking comic that features three main stories but is chocked full of other fun content too! Watch this space for news on its release
• You can find Will at https://wiloverton.carbonmade.com/ or on Twitter @Kosmikat
I was really pleased to see Neil Sambrook of Fly Comics. I’ve been following his publishing empire for a number of years and was blown away by Warr and Peace (a violent buddy cop movie in a comic) and World 3 (a pensive and sadly beautiful war comic). Neil tells me that Issue 2 of World 3 is on its way and I can’t wait to see it!
• You can catch up with Neil and all that Fly Comics has to offer at www.flycomics.co.uk or on Twitter @fly_comics
It wasn’t just small press at Leamington this year. I also got to chat to comics and animation writer Simon Furman, perhaps bet known for his work on the hugely popular Transformers TV series. He was also the writer on some of my favourite comics (Dragon Claws, I am looking at you – where did you go? You never call?). Interestingly, Simon was also selling copies of scripts to some of his Transformers comics along with the issues themselves. A fun and informative creator to chat to and well worth a stop if you see you see him at a convention soon.
• You can find Simon at www.simonfurman.wordpress.com
Two thirds of The Awesome Comics Podcast were at the Con in that me and my old mucker Vince Hunt were busy doing some roving reporting. Vince had a table for his books Stalkerville and The Red Mask From Mars. He was also running a fun little competition for people to draw a monster from their imagination that he would turn into a full commission. I saw some of the results and they were pretty bleedin’ impressive.
• Pop over to www.theredmaskfrommars.com or find his larking about on Twitter @jesterdiablo
This was an incredible event and I had a great chat with one of the organisers Dan. He tells e that things will only get bigger and better next year and has some plans for new guests.
• You can find more details about this event at www.facebook.com/leamcomiccon or on Twitter @LeamComicCon
Many thanks for reading.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Features, Reviews, Star Wars