London, Day 5
It’s Wednesday very early morning as I write this wrap-up of Day 5 events. I arrived home on Monday evening very lagged and very sick. I spent most of Tuesday recovering and my sleep is way off. Plus I’ve got a blooming sinus infection. Oh well. Here’s what took place on Saturday.
Saturday was probably the least exciting day of the trip. The day started with breakfast, followed by a trip to the train station (a five minute walk) to figure out what our plan would have to be for Sunday to get back to London. We got the travel times and made our way over to the Bristol Comics Festival, which is right next door.
This comic show is very unique. It’s the largest of its kind currently in the United Kingdom, but even then it’s pretty small. Maybe 2000 attendees throughout the weekend compared to the 50,000 + crowds that attend Comic-Con International in San Diego. In the States we have numerous conventions the size of the Bristol convention, but none of them attract the caliber of talent that the Bristol convention does. A very impressive number of major talent and company brass were in attendance at this show.
I walked around the show a bit with Arune, talking with different creators. As many creators in comics as I am familiar with, I know very little about the British comics scene so there were a number of creators whose work I’d never heard of before. Comics like “2000 A.D.,” a weekly comic in the U.K. with a monthly distribution of over 100,000 copies, gets very little to no play in the states, but it’s big time in the United Kingdom. Many creators who contribute to that were in attendance. Adrian recommended I meet the “Louis” creators who go by the combined name of Metaphrog. Spoke with them for a while and bought two of their books. Very nice stuff. Also ran into Adrian and he gave me a copy of the British comics magazine “Viz.” Essentially it’s “Mad Magazine” on speed, with a coke chaser. Insanely funny, outrageously rude and completely over the top. I loved every minute of it. Big thanks to Adrian for picking it up for me.
At 11:30 it was time for Rich Johnston to do the live version of his column at CBR as a panel called “Live-ing In The Gutters.” The panel was extremely well attended and Rich did an excellent job entertaining the masses with rumors and news, some of which not entirely fit to print! Well done.
After Rich was done I headed over to the train station to enjoy a lunch of lager and chips (fries for those of us in the states). After two pints and a half a stray of chips, I was quite satisfied! It was weird enjoying beer for lunch, something I never do, but man, that was a good lunch!!! After lunch I headed back to the show to walk around a bit more, then at 2:30 I bugged out, having done everything I needed to do.
Once back at the hotel I decided I needed to spend some time at the local Internet Café. I loaded up my gear and made the 10 minute walk. When I arrived I tried to make arrangements to use my lap top at their location. The supervisor on duty said, “Well, it’ll be a couple of hours before you can use your lap top because you have to use a specific station and that one is being used right now.” Made absolutely no sense, I could have used a connection anywhere inside the café, but it was clear the guy had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t want to wait any longer, nor did I want to argue with the shlub, so I just used one of their stations and did my best to get my work done. I spent about 3 hours there checking e-mail and making sure things were running smoothly. The place was packed the entire time with students. Around 5:00 Arune made his way over, spent some time on-line, then we both decided it was time to leave. Before we made our way back to the hotel I decided to take us on a detour and found a pretty cool little flea market. Lots of cool stuff, both new and old. Lots of counter-culture items, clothing, etc. I picked up a shirt and a new shoulder bag made entirely of hemp! This thing kicks ass. Nice bag, very strong. Great thing about hemp product is that it’s stronger than cotton, more durable, and is far less destructive to the environment during the manufacturing process. Once we were done there we made our way back to the hotel.
I decided to rest at the hotel while Arune went back to the show to pick up some stuff. While he was out I went on a short walk to take some pictures of a gorgeous, albeit bombed-out, church down the street. You can see pictures of the church, as well as images from the convention, in the day four section of my England pictures in the Gallery.
That night Arune and I had Indian food with writer Andy Diggle and artists Jock and Frazier Irving, who brought along his girlfriend Maya. I was surprised to learn that Frazier had moved to Croatia a few months ago and he told me a lot about where he lived. Sounded fascinating and I’d now love to visit some day. The way he described it made it sound so beautiful and untouched by tourism. The rest of the meal was incredibly fun, getting a perspective of England from Jock and Andy, talking politics, television, etc. … “Six Feet Under” is huge in England right now. They’re only in the second season, but they’re loving it. Andy was also a big fan of “24” and we bonded a bit about that show.
Once dinner arrived Arune had little to say due to the fact that he ordered his food extra hot. They weren’t fucking around at this establishment. I tasted a bit of his food and for the next twenty minutes my sinuses were raging and I had a thin layer of sweat all over my body. Throughout dinner Arune was glistening with sweat, determined to eat the whole damn thing. Watching him take a bit and try to recover amused us all to no end.
That night went back to the hotel and hung out in the bar at the Holiday Inn for a while, where I spent some time talking with Rich, Mike Carey and Avatar Press publisher William Christensen. Then around Midnight I headed up to bed.
See, I told you not a very exciting day? Overall a good day, but nothing very exciting.
Sunday saw our train ride back to London, a visit to the Camden Marketplace and a play at the New Globe Theatre. More soon.
I have a sinus headache.
