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Jamie's London Super Comic Convention Thread!

Started by Flaming_Telepath,

557 posts in this topic

Whizzer

Whizzer

Posted
Posted
Crappy pic of Red Sonja at the greeks booth

 

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and i met Deadpool!

 

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Hey Niro, thanks for coming over to the booth and introducing yourself :applause: it was good to meet you. It was tricky getting away from the tables this year, so it was nice to get some boardie visits.

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Balham's Finest

Balham's Finest

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Rorschach by Chris Weston, 11"x17"

 

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Great piece - I ran out of time and had to choose between Weston and Lee Garbett. Went with the latter to add another to my collection of Batman artists that worked on Morrison's run. Here's a too small pic of the Bruce/Archivist hybrid from Return of Bruce Wayne #6. Lee is a great guy.

 

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Comicopolis

Comicopolis

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Finally arrived home. zzz

 

Nearly 7 hours on the coach - it was like having to read every comic published by DC in the last 5 years, in-between trying to have a in the smallest toilet in the world as it sways form side to side while also standing in other peoples , while fending off stupid questions from other passengers - "no mate, there isn't a phone charger down near my feet."

 

Took the wife out for a glorious curry when we got to the Boro.

 

Managed to see the end of Spurs beating West Ham. :banana:

 

Photos, videos, scandalous stories, pub mayhem and stupendous stories of daring-do will follow in the next few days.

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Niro

Niro

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Posted

 

Hey Niro, thanks for coming over to the booth and introducing yourself :applause: it was good to meet you. It was tricky getting away from the tables this year, so it was nice to get some boardie visits.

 

No problem, it was good to meet you too. I was just glad I picked you out, I didnt want to ask the wrong guy if he was whizzer, to have him mishear for something else lol

 

I can imagine, whenever I passed your booth area, it was nearly always busy

 

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THE LAUGHING M4N

THE LAUGHING M4N

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Posted

I had a great time at the convention, too new to these boards to know anyone else there besides recognise the faces of the regulars from the london LCS's past and present. Here are some random thoughts, beware its a long post so feel free to skip :)

 

1) You had to get sketch requests in early otherwise the artists would be booked all weekend much to my disappointment :( It wasn't on my radar until too late! Haven't been to a convention for around 15 years!

 

2) Dan Slott is a machine and had easily the longest queues throughout the weekend. I do hope that anyone submitting for the CGG services prepared their books well and didn't hand over raws. I saw him munching on sandwiches at the booth lol Good thing mine were prepped with backing boards and flaps!

 

3) Regarding Dan Slott at the Ltd edition comix booth, great Superior cover but they could've organised better. Not the queues, the Excel staff handled them well, I meant if you wanted to purchase and have Marco Turini sign his/Top Cow's(?) sketchbook who was at the stall, you still had to join the Dan Slott queue. Suffice to say, I didn't bother and spent my time elsewhere. I really don't know who people wanted to see, but there were an awful lot of Slott's books in people's arms and not much else whenever I walked past...

 

4) Was good to see Gold, Silver and Bronze Age sellers there with a variety of stock. I think the modern sellers missed a beat though as there were too many Marvel Now and DC New 52 stalls. Hardly any love for other publishers as it was mainly DC, Marvel and then TPB sections. However, it was great to see a lot of stalls with bargain bins! Think I picked up around 60-80 FF issues ranging from 20p-£1.

 

Time for a rantrant

 

Tip: Please organise your stock by publisher at least and it would really help if in alphanumerical order and title. Looking for a comic is fun but not when random comics are dumped anywhere and everywhere :facepalm: A few were guilty of this in the bargain bins and almost everyone with their TPB sections. If you can't be bothered to display your stock orderly, those who are short on time won't spend time browsing and you lose out on potential sales.

 

On the flip side, high praise for the Chapter 12 and Close Encounters teams who not only had their single issue stock alphabetised, but also boarded everything and still sold cheap.

 

Extra tip: I only saw Nick (?) (I think perhaps Flaming Telepath) of Mighty Word of Comicana actually have a wall of comics grouped and advertised by the creators who were in attendance. I saw a Danger Girl #2 on the wall unpriced, and then later it was gone. A good example of how to market to the crowds. J. Scott Campbell's line was always popular throughout the weekend and in this atmosphere, you can get drawn into sig hunting and even SS slabbing.

 

This was a missed opportunity by so many, as customers who may not know of some of the creators there, could've purchased and had a signed copy or sketch. I've only got back into comics after a long absence so a lot of the creators present I was unaware of and those that I did, I knew of them but not their body of work.

 

You don't have to advertise as such, but if you're a seller, registered on these boards, were attending and knew there were CGC SS facilities on-site with lots of creators there, and you had the opportunity to sell raw stock to potential SS seekers, or just customers who'd want a signature on a book to commemorate their trip, wouldn't you do what you could do to sell? I know I would, and I'd bring a lot of potential high grading candidates and make it known.

 

Maybe it's my former experience as an assistant managers in retail? Hopefully anyone setting up at the conventions in the USA already do this and if not will do :whistle:

 

5) Peter Panzerfaust #1 was generally £100, Nowhere Men #1 was £20. Midtown Comics were selling their Saga #1 for £52. Shop around but be quick and know your pricing as a buyer. I picked up Saga #1 for £20 within 5 minutes of walking in.

 

6) Midtown were good at advertising their online services to UK customers with a discount card. Though I did overhear one customer mention he received damaged stock :whistle: Having said that, they knew their grades and had a variety of prices for the hot comics. I picked up some PP issues for £4 each. Best bargain was a load of random issues for £1 which were in NM condition. Batman #2 got picked up near the end on Sunday :banana:

 

7) Was interesting to hear Matt Hawkins at the Top Cow panel discuss kickstarter. It's been covered in the bleeding cool column except for the figures for Cyberforce. They received $127,000 in donations but after the kickstarter and credit card fees, they came away with $98,000, still more than the $75,000 they were aiming for (might have been $128,000 vs 97,000). I laughed when an audience member asked when we would finally get #3 and Matt nonchalantly replied with it had been released already in stores and digitally lol

 

8) Matt Hakwins thinks SuperMan is a silly character and not interesting.

 

9) Sellers and creators: If a customer looks like they need help and want to ask a question, or God forbid, pay for mess you're selling do not ignore them and chat away with your other seller/creator buddies discussing how mess faced you got or perving on the cosplayers that you were so angelic too before they turned their backs... :facepalm:

 

9a) Don't slag off other sellers within earshot, again, totally unprofessional.

 

10) The CGC services provided by Scott's Collectables and the crew were pretty accommodating and good to chat with. I didn't envy them with the amount of signature collections they had to organise (my stuff included). Kristina the CGC witness was a pleasure to talk to, had loads of signatures on her t-shirt and when I told her that Ian Churchill drew Supergirl when we went over, he drew the "S" insignia on her chest whilst his wife watched and took a photo :roflmao:

 

11) Sacha and Ian Churchill were fantastic to talk to! No doubt I hovered around their stall far too much and chatted away but they were genuinely a pleasure to meet and even though Ian was too back-logged to take more sketch commissions :( he still drew a quick Marineman sketch inside the trade for me and seemed genuinely pleased that my first piece of OA was one of his pages and he personalised it (never going to be resold). They were giving away free issues of Marineman to children and adults too, they really had a good attitude with children especially.

 

12) Simon Furman next to the Churchill's, never had a line whenever I walked past. I was quite surprised. J.Scott Campbell and Mark Buckingham were friendly too and all the creators seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

13) Lorna of the Close Encounters stall, educated me on how to identify DC variants and printings via their barcodes (5 digits, first 3 are the issue, next is the cover, last is the printing). I think Marvel use this method but it certainly helped me identify some of the New 52 printings which only have a background colour change. It's probably an old tip but its useful nonetheless :)

 

14) It was a pleasant surprise to discover Ryan Jenkyns of Orbital Comics, is an artist and had his first stall in the artists alley. I commissioned a Fantastic Four Thing sketch on Saturday to collect at the end of the show on Sunday. I'd actually forgotten to pick it up and ran back from the DLR as everyone had pretty much packed up. I think he did a great job!

 

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I plan to commission the rest of the FF. check out his site here

 

15) Bring cash and plenty of it! I need to budget and plan better! I went to the con with a spending figure in mind and easily tripled my expenditure! Some stalls took card payments and the Churchills accepted paypal otherwise it was cash only. I generally use my card and forget my daily cash withdrawal limits and that came back to bite me!

 

[16) I think I've got the OA bug now!

 

Uncanny X-Men Annual #18, page 27 by Ian Churchill featuring Sabretooth, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey and Prof. X

 

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I SS'd the comic too though noticed a stain on the back cover after, so what could've been a 9.4-9.6 will drop massively but I don't mind as it was to commemorate my purchase and meeting one of my favourite artists. Maybe get another higher grade SS next time.

 

The Coven vol. 1 #3, page 4 by Ian Churchill

 

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The Coven vol. 1 #4, page 19 by Ian Churchill

 

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I made the mistake of transferring funds from my accounts to my credit card to immediately pay off my CGC bill and it took my balance under what was required to buy the last page of The Coven #2 or the unused cover to a Supergirl issue ( but featured in the trade) of her punching Superman with Batman and Wonder Woman in the background doh! What I had remaining in cash wasn't enough either and withdrawal limits had already been reached! I had the funds in another account but couldn't get to them over the weekend. Reflecting back, there are other Churchill pieces that have a higher priority in my wants list so I'll target them.

 

What I did have left got me this:

 

Harbinger #7 Flamingo retailer incentive cover by Emanuela Lupacchino

 

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I always did enjoy the cover to this, the face, eyes and the colouring and had picked up some of the issues recently. For some reason imageshack won't let me post the picture of Miss Lupacchino and myself that she requested, with the art and signed comic that I submitted to be SS'd (probably a 9.0-9.2). She drew a sketch but it was inside on the last page before the cover due to the covers paper stock of which I forgot to take a picture which will now be entombed inside a CGC case! doh! She asked that I post our picture on her FB page so it'll go there. I'd enquired about a sketch on the Saturday and Sunday but again she was too back-logged and it was actually Kristina the CGC witness who gently encouraged her to draw a quick pencil sketch for me. Between that, purchasing the cover and the photo request, I'm still seeing the funny side of how I won't see the sketch again unless I break my slab when it comes back! lol

 

She too takes paypal for commissions and OA pages so I'll request some more in due course.

 

When I was leaving, another con attendee commented on how nice the eyes were with the raw pencil shading around the eyes present, which I'd originally thought was coloured in on the final cover only.

 

The purchasing of OA was totally unexpected and threw me off of my planned itenniary for the weekend! I never did check out the events bar the Top Cow panel and missed most of the small press :( as I my mind was in a haze! It was nice to actually give something back to the creators by buying directly from them. Next time the rest of the small press will get my attention!

 

All in all, I had a great time. Don't read some of my posts too much of a person_without_enough_empathy and moan lol

I do wish I'd have been better prepared with sketch requests, blank covers and cash but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. It would be nice to meet some boardies next time, maybe reign me back in my spending or bask in the madness of my sprees.

 

I knew some boardies are sellers, just didn't know which stalls so couldn't introduce myself. Next time I'll drop some of the ££££'s on your stalls if I didn't already :whee:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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