Nicecon UK report with a few (edit 2: more pics on p3 from THE LAUGHING M4N)

[Garf]

It's been a long day at Day 1 of N.I.C.E.

 

A small convention that isn't burdened with the hustle and bustle like some of the others that are considered to be the premiere UK cons. I think that in part stems from it being very focused on comic artists and writers only with the exception of a small handful of retailers. No TV / Movie / Sci-Fi stuff to get bogged down in and swell the numbers to what can result in a packed sweatbox. I have to commend the organisers on a job well done, truly something that was a good experience for everyone attending... the only nuisance was attendees getting more than one entire run signed which did get a heckle or two unless they queued for each run. The little things were key to the experience like getting your wristbands whilst you queued before the doors opened if you pre-booked, being offered bottled water, queues that didn't run into each other, people wanting a few sigs only and no sketch being ushered forward, staff in the right places, under 12 kids get free entry and generally family friendly. Worked for me, and something that I would recommend to others.

 

One other thing they do is "sketch roulette" where they pull artists from the floor and fill 4 - 5 tables on the balcony and people who get a ticket can have a random sketch opportunity. As in they don't know who they will be getting but they can pick the sketch subject. This was free to the first 100 (I think) people who pre-booked. I got a couple of free tickets so didn't ask how much they are to purchase but they won't have been more than $10 - $15, based on last year.

 

I didn't have time to snap the retail stands or getting pics in the second hall / room. The retailers did have a few gems but nothing compared to the wall pics you guys post from across the pond, several of the artists were taking their time with things and there were a lot of full runs being signed so if it wasn't in front of me I didn't get it today. The family was with me so my time was split from the start. I wish I had had time to get some shots of what Barry Kitson and Esad Ribic were turning out because it was impressive.

 

http://nicecon.co.uk/guests/

 

Here are the pics...

 

This was the layout, it doesn't include the balcony area for sketch roulette and where Ennis, Dillon and Adlard had tables.

 

 

 

 

Some floor shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from the balcony...

 

 

 

 

Some pencils from last year that got inked this time around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adventure time character Fionna for one of my daughters.

 

 

Some of the stuff my brother got... the John McCrea Hitman sketch is so good. My quick mobile phone shots don't do it justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some quick Sketch Roulette sketches, I gave the tickets to my daughters.

 

 

We got Goran Parlov and Pepe Larraz... one of my friends got Emanuela Lupacchino... can't remember who else got what.

 

 

 

 

Dillon and Adlard

 

Dillon was great to chat to and overran his breaks to accomodate as many people as he could.

 

 

 

 

 

I may get this one added to tomorrow...

 

 

Something Dillon did for a sketch jam...

 

 

 

Not mine... but an example of what Adlard was doing.

 

 

 

I actually hadn't had time to get anything for myself from Adlard even though we had exchanged messages about this before the con. His queue was filled pretty quick and I was already in Dillon's line. It didn't really bother me because I have seen him at other cons quite a lot and had already bumped into him earlier in the day before he started. Had another chat right at the end (I did get the initial "are you really going to ask for a sketch this late in the day?" look as he was only signing at that point). Just talked about the con and that I would catch him tomorrow perhaps if I did the Sunday.

 

Bringing the family along makes for a relaxed con but you don't get much done and the kids needed breaks. At that point they just so happened to return from a bit of time out to see what I was up to, so seeing as they were only doing the one day asked Charlie if he would be up for doing one sketch for both of them. It's not his fault they had a MLP blank with them...

 

Bless him he unbagged his pens and returned to the table and after some reference showed that friendship is dead. I laughed through most of this, the girls really enjoyed it (explained to the younger one that it was a Halloween Pony). There were still quite a few people on the balcony and some staff and about ten or so attendees requested a picture of either Charlie with it or the sketch. I don't know if he was amazed or offended that this was by no small margin the most popular thing he had done (nah... everyone got the childish joke)...

 

... it also pretty much sums up the attitude of the artists and writers there, who were having fun and interacting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not much else to say. Errr...

 

Alan Davis attended last minute.

 

Jamie Delano was interesting to talk to. Had a chat about Hellblazer and how the title came about (it was originally going to be Hellraiser but they were beaten to that one by only a few months, what they ended up with was an editorial decision).

 

Errr...

 

Nope that's it.

[MisterX]

Cool report, cool sketches, and thanks for sharing!

 

Did you get to chat with Carlos Ezquerra? I'd love to have one of his 2000AD pages or covers some day. Strontium Dog, Stainless Steel Rat, Dread...

[the authority]

WOW ! WOW ! WOW ! You're surrounded by greatness ! Of course, so are these artists with you and your family being there

 

It has to be awesome getting that stuff for you and your girls. Keep the reports flying and have a great weekend (thumbs u

[James J]

[the authority]

I was further admiring the pics and just now noticed a color guide. You are a fantastic planner and all around awesome dude !

[Pedro1974]

 

Thanks for the nice report from what seems to be a great small con.

 

Will you be getting some sketchs from Esad Ribic? Would love to see some of his "sketch works"...

 

have fun

 

regards

[Cyclops]

Great Hitman sketch (thumbs u

[Ken Aldred]

Looks like a great show. I lived down in Bedford for about a year, 89 to 90.

 

Congrats on some excellent sketches.

[gaz973]

Excellent report, Jeremy. Sounds like you had a great time. Hope today goes well too.

[N/A]

I has planned to attend this event until Fabry cancelled and decided to attend Montreal. He's working on my commission today. Any chance of asking Dillon when his next con visit to the US/Canada is?

 

Great report!

[Garf]

Will do. I am stood next to him typing this

 

(he's chatting to someone right now though)

[Garf]

He said that he doesn't think he will make NYCC or others this year really isn't sure. Nothing planned in for the future right now.

[Badger]

 

 

.

That may be the coolest My Little Pony sketch on the planet.

Thanks for posting! (thumbs u

[Garf]

Cool report, cool sketches, and thanks for sharing!

 

Did you get to chat with Carlos Ezquerra? I'd love to have one of his 2000AD pages or covers some day. Strontium Dog, Stainless Steel Rat, Dread...

 

Only briefly. Just passed on a few compliments regarding his work.

 

Thanks for the nice report from what seems to be a great small con.

 

Will you be getting some sketchs from Esad Ribic? Would love to see some of his "sketch works"...

 

have fun

 

regards

 

Sadly no. It wasn't on my want list this year, also a bit pricey for my budget. I did see a little kid wandering around with an A3 Vision headshot which was really cool.

 

 

 

So... Day 2. None of the stuff posted is mine (except one thing).

 

I didn't really have much of an agenda today just wanted to see if I could get something from Adlard and Dillon again, like with most second days that's it the money is mostly gone (also gone because of stuff picked up at the con that has already been done).

 

Adlard wasn't arriving until 12pm and he had a panel at 2pm. I couldn't get there until about 30 - 45mins after the doors had opened at 11am and his line was already kinda full. Fine, next month it is then. It was probably doable but I didn't want to spend the majority of the day trying. Behind where he was due to arrive round 2 of Sketch Roulette was taking place. Blurry pic... can just about make out that is Paco Diaz closest to us I think.

 

 

Another happy Adlard customer, I gave this guy a free blank to get it done on when he mentioned he hadn't got one (thanks to a very generous boardie I had a bagful like some kind of comicon Santa).

 

 

F**k these guys! No, only kidding... they had some great T's and I am only saying that because they didn't have any Medium sizes left of the ones I wanted. I had asked on the Saturday right at the start and they had already sold.

 

 

 

 

 

Esad an Adi

 

 

 

 

This one was actually commissioned by one of the guys on the T-shirt stand. Made me wonder if all retailers at cons go through some kind of nightmare where they are in the middle of a place where they have a fistful of bucks but also are surrounded by thougsands of ways to spend it

 

 

 

Barry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this being marched away from Guillem March's table. The person who got it was really happy.

 

 

Guillem also did this year's exclusive print (Joker / Harley)

 

 

 

 

Pepe Larraz commission someone was walking away with.

 

 

 

 

Some other prints (can't remember who these were by)

 

 

 

John watson's table. He brings quite a few pre-done sketches to sell and accepts requests via email in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Churchill

 

 

 

 

The only thing I got done today. Headshot conversion. Nicer addition to the Preacher porn at home. Steve was cool to chat to again. He doesn't think there will be any more outings from Preacher in comics... although there still is one untold story as such. Garth did want to do a Sex Detectives special but DC finally drew the line at this point I seem to recall that they will probably not feature in any TV scripts.

 

Still may get some more done to what I have (already have) with white out and inks by either Dillon or Fabry if I bump into them again. Really happy with them but I can see where it would be easy to make some small changes to make them better still... it's stuff like this that makes it worth going back sometimes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Comicopolis]

Excellent report

[N/A]

He said that he doesn't think he will make NYCC or others this year really isn't sure. Nothing planned in for the future right now.

 

So you're saying there's a chance.

 

Wish I would have PM'd you earlier. I would have tried to pay some NYCC costs.

[Garf]

He said that he doesn't think he will make NYCC or others this year really isn't sure. Nothing planned in for the future right now.

 

So you're saying there's a chance.

 

Wish I would have PM'd you earlier. I would have tried to pay some NYCC costs.

 

Hah. Well his response was pretty casual. He did get approached by a comic store owner whilst I was there about a different UK event and seemed receptive, so I wouldn't rule out the right person / event organiser getting him over to the USA.

 

I did cringe a little inside when the guy got out a card to give to him and wanted to write further contact info on the back so just picked up one of Steve's brush pens from his table and got told not to do that ... well, it's not like I haven't lost my mind for a few seconds in similar small ways before when at a convention, but it usually manifests itself in the form of forgetting all my questions I thought of, leaving my phone on the table or forgetting to take a picture of a sketch being done.

[the authority]

He said that he doesn't think he will make NYCC or others this year really isn't sure. Nothing planned in for the future right now.

 

So you're saying there's a chance.

 

Wish I would have PM'd you earlier. I would have tried to pay some NYCC costs.

 

Hah. Well his response was pretty casual. He did get approached by a comic store owner whilst I was there about a different UK event and seemed receptive, so I wouldn't rule out the right person / event organiser getting him over to the USA.

 

I did cringe a little inside when the guy got out a card to give to him and wanted to write further contact info on the back so just picked up one of Steve's brush pens from his table and got told not to do that ... well, it's not like I haven't lost my mind for a few seconds in similar small ways before when at a convention, but it usually manifests itself in the form of forgetting all my questions I thought of, leaving my phone on the table or forgetting to take a picture of a sketch being done.

 

Haha

[the authority]

These artists are so very talented. It's exceptional that they are are in that one place. Looks like a great show

[Ad Astra Collectibles]

Aaaww man that art was the sheeeet!