There are a lot of things swirling around in my brain this week, mostly to do with the world of comics and mostly brought about by the last 7 days.

On Thursday last week my good friend John Allison posted a startlingly abrupt manifesto for self published UK comic creators, or small press artists if you prefer, on what you should or shouldn’t be doing, or thinking, if you aspire to make it profitable for yourself. This caused a wave of nods, replies and backlash across Twitter and prominent blogs, but mostly nods. John certainly has a few of us thinking, or rethinking, and that was precisely his intention.

The day after I traveled with my girlfriend Kayla to Leeds for the Thought Bubble Festival. Upon arriving in the hotel lobby, the first image I saw on the slide show of festival related events was myself next to details of my workshop on the Sunday. An arresting moment but a glad one. For agreeing to do the workshop the organisers had offered me a free night in the hotel, which was the first time such a thing has happened to me at a comic show. After meeting up with friends and new faces, enjoying a lovely Mexican meal in the city center (Chimichangas!) and retreating to the hotel bar where I met a tipsy Becky Cloonan, it was off to bed to rest for the big day ahead.

(Kayla Hillier and The Devil. Photo credit Richard Bruton)

The day flew by and to be honest I wasn’t too pleased with how quickly it went. The were so many attendees at the show that I felt that every minute counted, to sell comics, to chat to readers and to see friends at their tables. I did pretty well money-wise, but I had done better the year before. My sales were lowered by the hour panel I was on, my own choice of course, but the half hour wait outside the room was not. The hour that the John Romita Jr queue was blocking our entire aisle certainly didn’t help either. Not one person I didn’t know approached the table during that time. And also I felt the 10-5 opening hours were much too short for a one day show. With a crowd that large and enthusiastic I would have happily worked my table from 9 to 6. Did I mention I didn’t even stop for lunch? I also took on too many free sketches for fans, distracting my attention from others and again losing sales. Kayla, sharing my table next to me, was constantly selling, talking to people, talking about her travels in her comic Galavant. It was her first major UK comic show and she did better than I did.

Maybe I’m focusing on the negatives of my day here and not the many positives of the show. Every tweet and report that I’ve read since has been full of joy and gratitude. I really did have an excellent time and made money doing so but I just felt the show went by too swiftly, a blink of the eye compared to the rest of the weekend. This is probably due to the heaving crowds and this is something that the organisers, Lisa, Clark and the rest should be applauded for. It really is a brilliantly run show, the best we have here in the UK that I’ve experienced and I don’t wish to damn it it any way, just to honestly relay my perspective.

During the day it was a pleasure to meet my collaborators on the Welsh zombie comic, Stiffs, that I’ve coloured the preview for. Writers Joe Glass and Patrick Montgomery and talented artist Gavin Mitchell came all the way for the show, got some sketches from me, bought all my books and seemed to have a great time. Here’s Joe’s excitable report. I also met Molly Bruton the famous FPI comics journalist! She was there with her dad Richard. I drew a Little Portrait for here. Read her dad’s report on the show here.

The self publishing panel that I was on went very well I thought. The room was crammed with people eager to learn from the panelists, a great sign of the health of our little scene. In fact my friend Andrew Tunney got turned away because it was too full. I joined Lizz Lunney, Tom Humberstone, Philippa Rice and Kristyna Baczynski on the panel and Matt Sheret led the talk doing a fine job. There seemed to be a lot of writers in the audience interested in finding artists to work with and everyone was interested in how to find other people in their area. I talked about the MCC Drink ‘n’ Draw I’ve been doing for 3 years now and hopefully inspired some people to set up their own and kick start a few collaborations, friendships or maybe even a local scene. Journalist Matt Badham piped up to add that I was a welcoming presence at the DnD and that was essential to it’s approachability and success. I didn’t even have to bribe him, thanks Matt.

The After Party in the Alea Casino next door seemed to be just as big as a draw for many exhibitors as the show itself, and rightly so. I said a few times during the night that the Thought Bubble After Party, with it’s comic creator DJ sets and packed dance floor of artists and fans alike throwing shapes like shurikens, is the End of Year Disco for the UK comics scene. Like the show itself it has such a friendly and inclusive atmosphere, the like you encounter at house parties with close friends. I had a great night and Kayla claimed the title Queen of the Dance Floor after starting the dancing with Ellen Lindner at about 9pm and she was still busting moves and hopping about at 2am.

(Photo credit Kieran aka @KingImpulse)

On Sunday, after a lovely breakfast with friends and a bit of a venue mix up we arrived at the Leeds Art Gallery for the Drop In + Draw that I was arranging with Matt Sheret of We Are Words + Pictures. I was glad to see that it was all set up by the time we arrived, perhaps due to the mix up that I didn’t realise had occurred til later. In the beautiful Tiled Hall of the Gallery people of all ages were busily getting their heads down drawing and doodling away without any encouragement or prompting at all.

(Photo credit Sean Azzopardi)

I sat behind the small press tables tempting a few bonus sales of my comics and playing drawing games with the other artists including drawing Heart-throbs for Philippa Rice’s 1980′s board game.

My ‘Diary Comic’ workshop that day never actually happened. A confusion about the age ranges allowed to be in the workshop space meant it was advertised for 14-19 year olds. I don’t know if older people were interested but weren’t allowed to sign up, but I certainly know no teenagers were interested as no-one came. With Tony Harris leading a workshop elsewhere and John Romita Jr chatting in practically the next room, I’m not surprised. Slightly disappointed and slightly relieved I took solice in the fact I still got a night in the hotel for free.

Later coats were donned, bags were packed and wheeled across town, drinks were had while waiting for trains and goodbyes and “I Love You, Man”s were heartfelt. Kayla and I took the train back to Manchester and ended the weekend with hot drinks and Christmas animations in bed.

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One of things that has really hit me after this show, and something I had an inkling about at the MCM Expo a few weeks before, was that I’m no longer an up and coming artist. One report labeled me and Marc Ellerby as “stalwarts of the small press scene”. We’ve both been attending shows in the UK and oversees together for the last 3 years (I’ve done 6 shows a year for the last 2 years) and we are both at a stage where maybe our ambitions are outgrowing it. Marc’s Chloe Noonan #3 was prevented it’s debut at the show due to a horrible and amateur printer’s error which they didn’t claim responsibility for. Legal action was threatened if he didn’t pay but with advice from other comic making friends he stood his ground and won the ridiculous debate. I’ll leave it up to Marc to rightly name and shame them. This is a hassle Marc should be way past dealing with at this stage of his career. I also think it’s a relevant example of the scene, there’s a close community of creators in this country, a great support system which I’m very grateful for but there are also hurdles, limits and frustrations within self publishing. John’s manifesto couldn’t have come at a better time.

That’s not to say that I am planning on leaving it behind, no, no, no. With Blood Blokes on the horizon I’m relying on the recognition I’ve achieved thus far to help me get it off the ground, and I’d certainly miss being a part of it and events like Thought Bubble (and the after party). I’m coming to realise that there’s not much further to go within the culture of UK Small Press as it currently stands. I’ve never liked the term “small press”, preferring self published, but I don’t see myself attending the same shows and selling to the same people in 5 years time, or even 2. I’m eager to work with publishers, free up the time to start work on my many other story ideas and create work for children.

The spirit of the scene is encouraging, it tells you there is nothing to stop you creating what you like, just a pen, paper and photocopier is all you need, “you can do anything with words and pictures” and all that is true. However while the scene is growing it’s still an inclusive world and I’d like to create work that more people have access to. I’d like Blood Blokes to be in American comic shops, I’d like to create something all ages and get it to the children who don’t have comic fan parents. Achieving this within the model of the UK scene is a difficult, near unattainable one. Though I think there’s a change going on at the moment, people like John speaking out about it and Tom Humberstone having the ambition to create Solipsistic Pop (Buy Vol. 3, I’m in it!) and rival US alternative comic publishers is inspiring to me, but we’re still some way away from these changes having an effect on the size and the reach of our audience.

Here’s the key thing, there are Comics for Comic Fans and there’s Comics about Other Things. The Everyday, as much as I tried to make it accessible to all kinds of readers, is a hard sell to non comics fans. “Do you like the small, overlooked moments of life? Well, here’s a comic about them!” Whereas Kayla was successful this weekend because she could, and did, say “Do you like Travel? Well here’s a comic about it!” If you put your Karate Action Squad comic for sale in a Record Shop, only the comic fans who go in there will buy it. If you put your Bo Diddley Vs The Bee Gees comic in there, you’re going to sell much more. Heck, if you do write Karate Action Squad take it to some Karate Championship, you’ll probably sell much more than at a comic show. You get me? You dig?

Having said all that though, I can’t wait for next year’s Thought Bubble. It’ll be a two day event and with any luck I’ll have a couple of issues of Blood Blokes, a book of The Everyday and maybe something else too. See you on the dance floor!

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P.S. There’s a set of photos from the show on my Flickr. Here’s a slide show of them all.