life is just so fine on the solid side of the line

For those of you (if there are any of you) waiting for the next instalment of my Painshill Park posts, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer. What with spending last weekend at Caption, where I took a lot of photos that needed going through, having other things I needed to get done by the end of this week, and having internetfail this week, I'm not sure exactly when I'm going to have enough time and patience to sit down and write up anything about the rest of Painshill. I could knock up a half-arsed post; however, having been reading about its history, I'm finding it too interesting not to finish writing about it properly, so I'm afraid it'll have to wait a bit. In the meantime, here's a post about this year's Caption, which has now been running for 18 glorious years, making it the longest-running comics convention in the UK. Not bad for a bunch of small press self-publishers that no one's ever heard of, eh?

There was a birthday cake to celebrate, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First there was Friday night's gathering in The Angel & Greyhound, where Alex oxfordslacker and I bonded over a mutual love of — of all things — The Andrews Sisters¹. Alex also came up with a description of prog-rock which worked as a perfect analogy of why I hate HDR photography, but unfortunately I can't remember what it was now. Something about technically-adept musicians playing everything perfectly, all at the same time, just because they can, but it having absolutely no soul or character — which is what I feel about most prog-rock and indeed about most HDR photos I've seen. (YMMV.)

I spent most of Saturday in a state of hangover daze, which was really unfair because I'd only had two pints on Friday night — and I stopped drinking before 9:00pm. After popping into the town centre to get a new memory card and a bacon sammich from Browns in the covered market (right opposite the cake shop where the Caption birthday cake and Jeremy's Tatlin Tower wedding cake came from), I made it back to Caption in time for Kaz's talk about her current residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Having already been to visit her in her studio, some of it was stuff I already knew (in fact, photos with me in even appeared in some of her slides), but it was interesting to hear about the process of applying for the post, and how it's working out so far. Choice quote: "I had to be polite and pretend that I was a legitimate person."

I also enjoyed Garen Ewing's talk about his journey from 1980s zines to being published by Egmont this year. I've been a fan of his book The Rainbow Orchid since I first picked up his original self-published black-and-white version some years ago, and it was particularly fascinating to see how the work has evolved into the new book which has just come out. For me, the best part was seeing his preliminary sketches and pencils (in fact, I almost prefer the pre-inked pencils to the final result), but it was interesting to compare the original character sketches with the way those characters ended up. It was also interesting to see how some of the panels in the original version have been redrawn for the new book — to much improvement, both compositionally and historically (since it's set in the 1920s, it's important to get the period detail right). And the cover for book two is absolutely gorgeous — you're really in a for a treat.

elephant sketches by Garen Ewing

Another thing to look forward to is not one, but two new comics from Terry Wiley, both of which he let me have a sneak preview of, and I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on my own copies. There's a final part of Petra Etcetera, and a whole new story focusing on Verity Bourneville's acting career (or lack of), which is great 'cos I always loved Very as a comic character. (You can even read that one online) Terry also mentioned that he wants to get on with writing part two of Surreal School Stories at some point, so that's even more to look forward to!

Saturday evening was lots of fun, as Captionites descended en masse to new Chinese restaurant, Lan Kwai Fong. (Apparently it's named after a neighbourhood of Hong Kong, so it's a bit like calling your restaurant Cowley Road, which is where it is.) They have an extensive menu of stupidly-named cocktails, most of which I avoided, instead opting for a rather more sophisticated Singapore Sling. Unfortunately, I felt a lot less sophisticated drinking it when my charming dining companion, Paul Fryer had a taste and compared it to "drinking a Wham bar" because it was actually an accurate description. Oh well, posh alcopops will do the trick too! They also have a decent menu of dim sum options, which Paul got all excited about because it meant he got to eat tentacles for the first time¹. I love calamari, so it was fine with me, but he baulked at trying the tempura frogs' legs, which I've never eaten either. The folk at the next table were only too willing to get stuck in, though!

We made it back to the bar (which, due to unfortunate timing on the licence, was a dry one, which seems very wrong for a comics event, but people managed), in time for Tony Hitchman's annual comics quiz, which is always good fun — this year's was about Rampaging Robots. There are prizes for correct answers, but I always think it's much more fun when people try and come up with the silliest and most unlikely answers, instead. Mostly, it's just a great excuse to look at his slides of awesome vintage comic art from the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, and to hear the snarky asides from other people in the bar.

"Is his crotch a giant speaker?" asked Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

Sunday was pretty relaxed; the only thing I had planned was Sarah McIntyre's talk about the many similarities between comics and picture books, and her experience in both fields. It was really interesting, showcasing some amazing and wonderful children's books, many of which I'd never seen or even heard of before. Hopefully Sarah will put the slides online (Slideshare?) — or at least list the books on her blog — as almost all of them had some visual design appeal beyond just being "books for kids" (although I think regular readers are aware by now that I love kids books anyway). She also had a lot of useful suggestions about getting your work published, which is an area I think lots of small-press publishers could actually be pretty successful in, if the book examples she showed are anything to go by. She also talked about how many books are almost half the size of the children reading them, so when they open them, "it's like they're wrapping a whole world around themselves." She talked of wanting to do this for adults, which reminded me of the Alan Aldridge retrospective at the Design Museum, which had enormous versions of some of his illustrations for you to walk amongst. (I totally blanked on the name of the artist during Sarah's talk; only remembering it on the coach home, listening to Scott Walker!)

Although there seemed to be a few less people this year, it was still a great excuse to catch up with old faces like Gav Burrows and Ali Pulling, as well as meet lovely new people like Neill Cameron and Jason Elvis Barker. Least expected was seeing Jason Little, who was a long way from his native Brooklyn, but had arrived with erstwhile New Yorker Ellen Lindner. His Shutterbug Follies was one of the first webcomics I remember reading, way back in the day, but I felt like too much of a dork to go and say hello, because it's been years since I did actually read it. Of course, it's been collected in a book now, but unfortunately he didn't have any on sale — although I can understand why he wouldn't want to lug anything around.

I didn't pick up many comics this year. Partly it's because I'm watching my budget, and partly because I've been reading a few series and I couldn't remember which of the previous issues I already have. There didn't seem to be a lot worth picking up on spec (making me regret even more not making it to APF a couple of weeks ago, as those events usually have some amazing stuff on sale) or, at least, none of the cheaper stuff really caught my eye.

I did get a signed copy of the new edition of The Rainbow Orchid, which looks great in colour and has a gorgeously-printed cover; and I finally got around to buying Urban Beasts. I usually avoid anthropomorphic/"funny animal" comics but Urban Beasts plays around with anthropomorphism in an interesting way — and I'm not just saying that because it's by my friends! Now, where's issue #2?

I was also pleased to find a Jenny Everywhere comic, not just because it only cost 50p, but because I was there at her inception way back in the day², and I think she's a seriously underused character, so well done Nigel Palmer, whoever he is (there's no contact information). The final thing I bought was an untitled minicomic about a man in a hot air balloon, which was absolutely delightful. There are shades of Mr Benn, but it's no less charming for all that. It's by someone called Jack Brougham. And I would have picked up Paul Fryer's Ghostly Goings-On even if we hadn't been going off to dinner together, because the simple cover design appealed to me. I really enjoyed it, too; the first story, A Ghost For Tom Bailey, is really sweet and funny, and the second one, The Spirit of Winter, has a lovely denouement.

I do have to gripe about the Caption souvenir programme, though, as it was very disappointing. It was full of pin-ups and not many actual strips, and none of the artists' names were actually listed on the same page as their own work. Some people did sign their work, but many didn't, and as there was no contact/website information in the zine (huge oversight, people!), it makes it pretty hard to track them down to see more of their work. There was a list of names that referred to page numbers, but that was incredibly aggravating, as none of the pages actually had any numbers printed on them! So here's a tip: if you're contributing to any kind of anthology, make sure people know who the work is by. That means signing it and providing contact details on the work itself. That way it's much easier for people to find you! Simple.

Other highlights from the weekend before I sign off:

Ice-cream at George & Delila. For me, this has become a Caption tradition (they're just down the road; it would be rude not to!) This year I tried the green-tea ice-cream and the passion-fruit sorbet. Both were nice, although the portions were ginormous, and the green-tea made me feel a bit sick after a while. I highly recommend the passion-fruit sorbet, though; it's very refreshing.

The panel between Mark Stafford and Jamie McKelvie. They talked about different processes they use when collaborating with other people (mostly Bryan Talbot and Kieron Gillen, respectively — or disrespectively in Gillen's case, snark snark), which was quite interesting, and about the new Longbox initiative which is probably going to change the comics market for good (and I mean that in both the sense of positive and the definitive).

Drinking cocktails in a cabana. A damn fine way to end any weekend.

¹In honour both of my bonding with Alex over the Andrews Sisters, and of the first time Paul ate squid, I give you this mp3 of the Andrews Sisters singing Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama). Don't get icky with the one, two, three!

²Of course, seeing a Jenny Everywhere comic always raises the question again — whatever did happen to Steven Wintle (the guy who originally invented her)? Well, wonder no more, because I've found him! He's blogging with his brother Gary (who I seem to remember that I once agreed to marry once he got older) over at I Was Ben. Yay!

MORE REVIEWS OF CAPTION 2009 HERE:
Rich Johnston: "It’s a unique convention in that the comic book creators who attend far outnumber the non-comic book creators. And to be fair, even they have a dabble. That’s part of what Caption is about, a democratisation of the form, the realisation that everyone can create comic books and find their own inspiration."
Gavin Burrows: "One panel was titled ‘You Should Totally Run Your Own Con, Dude’. But that’s pretty much what happens here anyway. Like the kids from Fame, the attendees put on a show right here. Caption is a magnet and a playpen for people as mad as you. Then times by nineteen."
Neill Cameron (with ace sketches of attendees as pirates with dinosaurs.)
Garen Ewing: "so many creators compare themselves unfavourably with their colleagues, forgetting that no one will ever do what they do in the unique way they do it"
Sarah McIntyre: "I ate something called Wild Ants Climbing Trees Glass Noodles, which disappointingly turned out to be something better named Slimy Noodles with Little Quorn-like Bits Stuck to Them."
Jenni Scott has posted her review in pieces, you can see them all here:"the first part of the day, as usual with CAPTION, was pretty well stuffed with creativity structured and unstructured."