Exciting news! The first issue of ink+PAPER is out this week. This is a brand new comics magazine put together by the fabulous David O'Connell, and it includes a photo essay by yours truly. I haven't seen a hard copy yet, but David assures me it looks fantastic. That's his cover illustration up there. London Underground nerds can have fun trying to work out which tube line he's illustrated, but it's a bit of a trick question because he's incorporated several elements from different tube lines (the seating is the Design Research Unit's 1970s District Line moquette design, though).

If you're in London, come to the launch party at Orbital Comics this Friday from 7:00pm.

ink+PAPER will also be on sale at Saturday's Comiket fair on Saturday as part of this year's Comica Festival (another brilliant line-up of events this year). This year Comiket is being held at the newly refurbished Bishopsgate Institute. I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

If you can't make either of those events, it will be on sale in Orbital Comics and Gosh Comics, or you can buy it online from here.

The other big comics news this week is of course the release of Nelson, the ambitious comics anthology/exquisite corpse story told by over 50 of the UK's best comics creators, with all profits going to homeless charity Shelter. (You may remember I made some fan art of the cover.) I've been looking forward to this one for months, not just because loads of my friends are involved or because it's for a good cause, but because everything I've seen of it speaks to the dedication and creative brilliance of the people involved. I'm very excited be getting my hands on a copy tomorrow, courtesy of Alison at Space In Text. (I will be buying a copy as well. I just haven't decided whether to pick up a hardcover from the Blank Slate table at Comiket on Saturday, or one of the Frank Quitely bookplate softcovers from the Nelson launch/signing at Gosh Comics.)

November 19-25 is Nelson Week, so look for more about the book then. I strongly suspect that you're going to be hearing a lot about it in the run up to Christmas!

pic by Joe Gordon, with thanks

AJ: There's a very obvious ligne-claire influence on your work, which you've made no secret of, but I'm curious about any other influences on your drawing. From what I've seen of your adaptation of The Tempest (here and here) — which I've not read in full — the line was much more detailed, and reminded me far more of artists like Arthur Rackham and William Heath Robinson. Are there any other artistic influences besides the obvious ligne-claire stylings of Edgar P Jacobs and Hergé who you would like to namecheck?

GE: Arthur Rackham and Heath Robinson are two of my favourite artists, and were my gateway into discovering Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen, Harry Clarke and others of that era. That may seem a long way from Hergé or Yves Chaland, but there's a sensibility that connects them all in Japanese print work, which I used to sit and copy for hours in my mid-teens. Those prints, by artists such as Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige are very ligne claire, and they also influenced the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Another big influence on my comic work is Richard Corben, I'm aware of him within my work but I doubt it shows through the Hergé that I suspect blinds the casual observer. I used to want to be like Brian Bolland, but I'm all right now (I still love his work). The artist I got compared to most in the early 90s was probably Bryan Talbot, which is fine by me!

AJ: Was it a conscious decision to move towards the ligne-claire style because of the style of the story you were telling, or was it more of an organic change?

GE: It was a conscious decision. I kind of decided to give up wanting to become a "proper comic artist" – I realised I didn't want to be a pen for hire, I wanted to indulge myself, so it was a matter of deciding the kind of comics I loved most, and wanting to do my own. There are a lot of good reasons, I think, for doing this kind of adventure comic in ligne claire. Having said that, after the complexity of my style in The Tempest, I did clean up my art a bit – I did a little strip for Rol Hirst's The Jock that is a sort of missing link between The Tempest and The Rainbow Orchid.

AJ: Speaking of influences, you mentioned on Twitter a while back that your narrative was quite influenced by playing the Broken Sword computer game. Are there any other writerly influences people might not guess at?

GE: I've mentioned the authors H Rider Haggard, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle before – they really are the biggest story influences on The Rainbow Orchid. I like film directors who also wrote their own scripts, especially Akira Kurosawa and Charlie Chaplin. They solved story problems visually and through character. That is always a background to my writing, but I don't think I've had the time to really indulge in that area of things yet — I haven't given myself enough space. But I think there are probably one or two moments where I'm channeling that spirit, if you like.

I want readers to get lost in the book, and that's what happened to me when I read King Solomon's Mines, or Asterix and Tintin, and when I played Broken Sword for the first time. From Hell is another example — I forgot I was reading a comic, which is a lovely feeling.

AJ: It's interesting that almost all of the storytelling influences you mention are prose or cinema writers rather than comics writers, and From Hell is not exactly a typical comic — or at least, it wasn't when it came out; being as literary as it was. Are there any comics writers you particularly admire?

GE: I don't think there are any comic writers, separate from artists, that have left any kind of an indelible mark on me, apart from Alan Moore to some degree. Most of the comics that have had any kind of impact are the product of a singular vision – Hergé, Jacobs, Lewis Trondheim, Hiyao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka and all that. One of my very favourite comics was, and is, Charley's War, but I'm not certain that I feel particularly influenced by Pat Mills — but I'm sure it must be there in the mix to some degree. What child that grew up in the 1970s and went on to make their own comics doesn't have Pat Mills in there somewhere?!

AJ: That's true! You do a lot of research to get tiny details right. You must come across a lot of temptingly interesting tangents. What's been the most intriguing, which might make you want to abandon what you're doing and chase fragments of a new story?

GE: Looking into the Kalasha people of Chitral was fascinating, and I did a disproportionate amount of research seeing as they only appear in a few panels, but I would be tempted to follow them up, and the myth that they might be the descendants of some of the soldiers of Alexander the Great, which I'm not sure I believe is actually true. I think it would be too close to Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King though!

AJ: That's not necessarily a reason not to write about it, though — if it was then pretty much most comics or movies would never get made!

GE: That's true, but I think Kipling (or John Huston for the excellent film version) said it all so well already, I don't think I'd bring anything new to it.

Another thing might be the Breguet aircraft – I had a friend of mine make a balsa wood model of it, though the plane crashes in a ball of flame in volume two – so I'd like to get more use out of that and give the Tayaut family some little adventures of their own.

AJ: It would be great to see more of the Tayaut family. I love the twins; they seem like great role models for little girls: I think they probably would have been my favourite characters when I was a kid. They remind me of the character Fio in Miyazaki's Porco Rosso, being girls doing things with airplanes that weren't — and still aren't — traditionally female. In some ways that film also has a similar aesthetic (albeit from a slightly later era), which brings me to another question — animation is another medium which combines words and images, almost a bridge between live action cinema and comics. So what sort of animation do you like?

GE: Miyazaki hits the spot for me. I just watched Whisper of the Heart (for which he wrote the script) – it was a four-blub film, so beautiful. Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbour Totoro are masterpieces, and I remember thinking Porco Rosso probably was about the same time setting as Rainbow Orchid… late twenties? I used to really love Disney, but since discovering Miyazaki I can only watch a few of them now. Pinnochio is the best, Snow White, and I quite like Mulan and Atlantis from the later period. When I was about 11 my mum wrote off to the Disney Studios on my behalf to enquire about working there, and I got a reply letting me know how much hard work it would be!

AJ: Yeah, I'm under no illusions that doing animation is an easy job, even with computers. Speaking of work, you're working on volume 3 of The Rainbow Orchid, before it all comes out in one collection next year. What do you want to work on after that?

GE: Already plotted out is another Julius Chancer adventure. This one takes place mainly in Britain and leans more towards being a detective story, a murder mystery. It also focuses more on Julius Chancer as the central character, because The Rainbow Orchid is rather an ensemble piece, I think. I want to dive straight into that as soon as Rainbow Orchid is done.

AJ: Oooh, exciting! The 1920s and 1930s is such a classic era for detective fiction. I'm tempted to quiz you further on that, but I think I'd rather be surprised.

GE: I just hope The Rainbow Orchid does well enough to see a second story published. RO was conceived and plotted, including the ending, back in 1997. I'm dying to originate something new, with all I've learnt about comic storytelling in the past ten years.

AJ: The second Rainbow Orchid book has a couple of "origin" stories — how Lily became a Hollywood actress, how Julius ended up working for Sir Alfred — will the next book have some more of those?

GE: The only other story that gets told in The Rainbow Orchid will be Meru's story in volume 3. William Pickle's was told in The Girdle of Polly Hipple, which appeared in Accent UK's Twelve anthology, and Lily's was a longer story that appeared in The Girly Comic back in 2004. Julius's was plotted out for an anthology as well, but in the end was just summarised in RO volume 2. Sir Alfred would be the other big story to tell, but I think that will just be revealed in little snippets as we go along.

AJ: Is there any plan to collect them, or at least make them available to more people? And I'd love to know more about young George Scrubbs, Pickle's photographer. He seems like he might have some stories to tell.

GE: I haven't thought very seriously about collecting them – the Lily story just appeared in the Dutch comics magazine, Stripschrift. It was a twelve-page story that I crammed into six pages, and the Pickle story was an eight-pager that went down to four, so it would be nice to give them more space one day, though I doubt that will actually happen. George Scrubbs I haven't thought about, to be honest, but you're right, there's a story there somewhere…

AJ: This probably ties into the question above, but how did Evelyn Crow get to be so nasty?

GE: She would be the other main origin story readers would want, certainly! But actually she's probably best kept as an enigma, which she is, even to me at the moment! Maybe she'll reveal herself one day…

AJ: It seems fitting that of all the characters, she's the one who remains most shrouded in mystery. I think in some ways that's a large part of her appeal, and learning the truth about her might seem… disappointing or anticlimactic.

GE: I think you're right. Evelyn is my most common sketch request at comic shows and signings, though she does have to survive volume three yet – Nathaniel did put a bullet in her at the end of volume two!

Thanks again to Garen for the interesting conversation. Books one and two of the Rainbow Orchid are out now, with volume three to come next year. Go and buy everyone a copy for Christmas!

And of course one of the main reasons, for going to a convention — even more than buying all those lovely goodies — is to drink and talk to comics creators. Mostly to drink, to be honest, otherwise it feels like you're letting the side down. If there isn't at least one member of bar staff on the verge of a breakdown after a con, then it's because it's that very very rare occasion: enough staff and enough supplies at the bar. That doesn't happen very often.

Actually I didn't have that much to drink (just a couple of glasses of red and a Dalwhinnie single malt), but I hadn't even finished my first glass of wine before I'd introduced myself to 30 Days Of Night artist Ben Templesmith by sticking my head in his lap and giving him "a cheap thrill" (his words). It was an accident, as I'd had to crawl under a table to get to the available empty seat, but it was a perfect ice-breaker and we ended up having a very nice conversation, even if his side seemed to be peppered with non-sequiturs sometimes.

Here's Ben at dinner, in conversation with Si Spurrier.

Dinner was lacklustre as far as food was concerned (there are very few restaurant choices near the Excel Centre), but lovely as far as the company was concerned, which was the main thing. And then it was off to the bar, where I ran into Elephantmen artist Boo Cook and his missus, Gemma, who I've known for about ten years, but hadn't seen since the last time I went to a con in Bristol. We had a nice chat with Elephantmen writer, typographer and all-round-nice-guy Richard Starkings about weird 1960s teatime telly show The Owl Service (it's brilliant but very weird). Turns out Richard's 10-year-old daughter is a huge fan. I need to watch it again, actually.

After that it was the usual round of talking to old friends and new over an ever-increasing number of bevvies.

Here are Marc Ellerby and Kieron Gillen posing like the posey poseurs they are.

Not pictured is Marc's girlfriend Swedish Anna With The Assymetrical Fringe He Can Never Draw Right, who is one of the people who organises the Comics Village at Expo.

Here's Dan Boultwood, "making an effort to be good" (his words)

I wish I'd thought to get a photo of Dan and Ben together, as they almost matched, in their black suits and red ties, but I didn't — even though I think that's Ben's elbow next to Dan's. (Behind Dan is Paul Fryer talking to a bald guy I don't know). Dan was drinking absinthe, but had to take his glass back to the bar for them to add the sugar, because he wasn't allowed to do it himself for "health and safety reasons". Someone must have tipped them off about him.

Here's Ben Templesmith again, this time with Cassandra Conroy and the man they call Von Pud.

Cassie is the organiser of this year's Eagle Awards. This year they're introducing the Eagles Initiative, a special award to help fund a comics unknown, which is pretty cool. If you know anyone who should be considered, head over to the site and let them know. Pud is the lovely husband of lovely Emma Vieceli, one of the other organiser of Comics Village. The poor lass had completely lost her voice by the time we all were in the bar, so unfortunately I didn't get to talk to her.

And here's Templesmith again, this time with David Monteith from the Geek Syndicate podcast. David is one of the biggest tarts loveliest men in comics, who always gives the best hugs (he also gives good back rubs).

That Ben is such a camera hog, though! I did take other photos that didn't include him, but I believe he must have hexed the camera when it wasn't focussed on him, or at least made some concerted efforts at deliberate sabotage, because most of them didn't come out. I had a lovely one of John Allison that was ruined and blurry as Ben walked in front of the lens, and none of the pics of David came out until Ben was included in this one.

My phone started dying after that, and I had to stop taking photos, which is a shame, because I would have liked to have been able to show you pictures of Warren Ellis doing impersonations of Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart. Not to mention the sight of Kieron Gillen, Si Spurrier and Jamie McKelvie dancing in the middle of the street to make the night bus come. They were using "rain dance" logic, which made perfect sense standing in a desolate road in Canning Town at two in the morning. Kieron and Jamie favour the Ska Attack Squad approach as made famous in an issue of Phonogram; while Si favours a cross between Cossack leaping and Riverdance.

On the night bus we came up with a crossover story featuring Miss Marvel and Miss Marple, due to Jamie mishearing me. Who wouldn't want to read that?

Lovely as the day was, I was glad to get home to my lovely bed.

First up, these are the cordons that ensured people stood in proper lines inside an otherwise giant, empty hangar. When I arrived it was back to being a giant empty hangar, but earlier in the day it was heaving with people having to queue up for at least an hour. Crazy people.

Here's Mondo Towers Tech Hero Billy (he's the one who fixes things when the site's broken) with his freshly shorn head. Those of you who know him can all join me in a chorus of "I told you so" because he looks better now.

(Nestling under Billy's chin is comics colourist Rosemary something-or-other, who I met at dinner, and comics artist Kevin Maguire who I met later in the bar.)

Here's sci-fi space princess Sarah MacIntyre at the Fleece Station table.

She's dressed like that to promote the picture book she illustrated, You Can't Eat A Princess, and apparently that dress really is made of science-fiction because it never ever needs cleaning. (Sarah's reviews of the Expo are here.)

Here's Gary Northfield, looking a bit pensive (actually he was answering someone's question, but I don't remember who or what it was).

And here are the four members of the Fleece Station studio, as drawn by Gary (clockwise from left, Sarah, Gary, Lauren and Ellen):

Here's Daniel Merlin Goodbrey looking tired and overwhelmed, because MCM Expo is a tiring and overwhelming experience. Daniel is one of the organisers of Unicomics which took place a couple of months ago, and is about to be part of a group exhibition of comics artists going up in the Pump House Gallery, so you should check that out (it opens in August, keep an eye on Paul Gravett's event listings).

Here are the lovely stars of My Cardboard Life.

Some giant banners promoting the Scott Pilgrim movie. Awesome. Watch the new trailer here! (the second one is better than the first)

This is a banner that I think is advertising a game, except that the graphics look like the record sleeve designs of a popular Britpop beat combo, and it uses a very similar same typeface as their 1990s logo. I got confused. Is it deliberate? Can someone explain it to me?

Here are some random cosplayers dressed up as people I am not remotely familiar with.

stroppy foppy

GIGANTNORMUNGOUS SCYTHE

very weird wings

<3 supervillains playing DanceDance Revolution <3

girls with beards

And here's some of my haul from shopping around the Comics Village, including the last Scary-Go-Round book; some prints from David O'Connell; the latest issue of There's No Time Like The Present, a mini-comic from Cliodhna, the first book of Far Out Mantic, and some stuff from Jarina Liew, a brand-new discovery for me, who was so engaging and friendly without being pushy, I immediately wanted to buy everything on her table (the fact it's all so very pretty also helps).

I'm annoyed that I somehow totally missed the DFC table though, because I wanted to pick up a copy of Mezolith for my mum (not that I can't buy it elsewhere, of course).

More coming in part 2!

I also had a nice chat with Rian Hughes about his new book, featuring loads of vintage lettering and typefaces from the IPC magazine archives, which should be coming out in a couple of months (and which I've been looking forward to seeing since he told us about it at Caption two years ago). Here's a picture of Rian in his groovy shirt made from vintage curtains, that he bought in San Diego. The other chap in the photo is small-press stalwart Mark Stafford, who doesn't have a new book out as far as I know, but you can all go and buy Cherubs!, the comic he did with Bryan Talbot.

Comica Social Club is a low-key, friendly little gathering that happens once a month at the Royal Festival Hall. It's a nice chance to talk to some great creative people and have a relaxed drink whilst discussing such things as maps, type design, knitting (the Stitch London crew were in another corner of the Royal Festival Hall), recent art exhibitions, the new East London Line, and how Desperate Dan would smoke drugs (Man-At-The-Crossroads Paul Gravett assures us it would be through through a lamppost). You should come to the next one.

This morning, for some reason, I put pen to paper and knocked up a quick sketch of her within a couple of minutes. You probably don't realise what a major thing that is for me to have done, but it is. I just don't draw. I have such complete block about my ability to even do so that this is actually the first time in months that I've even tried. It might even have been the first time this year. So, it's a big thing to me that I suddenly felt the urge to do so, because it's something that never, ever happens, but today it did, and I didn't even think about it. I just grabbed the first pen and a pad of paper, and drew.

Of course, a couple of minutes in I lost my confidence again, as I made her nose bigger and pointier than I wanted to, and I bodged up her mouth, which made her look a bit cranky (hence the comment about needing coffee, because that seemed a good reason to be cranky!)

Anyway, my point of this post is really this: Jenny Everywhere is a character with so much potential, because she's a copyright-free open source superhero with the power to travel between dimensions! She can fit into almost anything, and she's got a great attitude, and, frankly, I don't think nearly enough people know about her. So I thought it would be fun to come up with a "draw Jenny" challenge — a bit like the "draw Batgirl" challenge that did the rounds of the blogosphere a couple of years ago (not that I'm expecting it to go quite so viral).

Here's the pertinent information about Jenny Everywhere, aka The Shifter:
"Jenny Everywhere has been described both as existing in every reality and being able to shift between realities. This gives the character the ability to be inserted into the continuity of any existing or new work, such as various comics or webcomics. The concept may also be extended to other mediums [sic]

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish."

More information on Jenny Everywhere here: theshifterarchive.com/faqs.htm

I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone takes up the challenge! If you do, tag your blog posts/Flickr pictures etc "drawjenny" and hopefully they'll be easy to find. If you want to leave comments here on my blog, or on my livejournal, I'll try to post as many as I can next week.

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."

"I think there’s at least a decent chance that tomorrow actually could be better than today, and science and technology could still help it along. That idea’s not really a book. 'WHTTWOT' became a book when I realized that society’s shift from optimism to cynicism was a lot like a character arc in a story. In particular, it sounded to me like the arc of a parent-child relationship. Young children idolize their parents as the infallible centers of their universe. Later, as teens, they realize their parents are ordinary flawed people and the relationship can turn dark and angry.”

[via cityofsound]