Bristol Comic Expo

I'd sorted out my twitpic account juggled my phone e-mail settings, loaded my netbook with the info I needed, checked flight modes, yes, this time at Bristol Comic Expo I would be all singing all dancing photo uploading tweeting social media interactive life as it happens reporting.. and then we arrived at the hotel/venue.

It was just all too good, too busy, too frantic plus it occurred to me that updates and tweets would just be a long list of namedropping, which is rather unpleasant really.
 I was there with a few different hats on;

1.  Selling & promoting the 'Slaughtermans Creed' Book, published by Markosia. This included participating in an illustrated ( and recorded ) talk with the rest of the team and having a table to sign, sketch and sell the book from.
2.  Promoting Hi-Ex 2012, which involves getting a bit embarrassed when amazing guest type people start singing its praises & saving me the bother.
3.  Catching up with friends.
4.  Meeting the large team of writers & artists who are involved with a rather exciting anthology called 'Bayou Arcana'. I will be illustrating a great story in this.
5.  Promoting my own work, selling my wares & being bamboozled by offers of new work.
6.  Talking about 'Women, Politics and Cartooning' on a discussion panel hosted by Jaspre Bark.

All of this is good & well but requires a dedicated and practiced technique of chat, listen, pounce, introduce self, dine, pounce on someone else, flit, float, schmooze, drink, garble, not sleep and forget who i'd promised to mail within seconds of speaking to them ( remind me! ).

GREAT bits included ( warning- may contain namedropping ) ;

• Talking Dreamtime & Scythian stuff at dinner with Rick & Cindie Veitch.
• Seeing the latest books by lovely Micheal Carroll.
• Seeing lovely books & comics in general, mmm Cinebook.
• Meeting political cartoonists and doing a panel with Blue Lou & Kate Evans.
• Seeing 'Slaughterman's Creed' finally in print. Selling loads of it!
• Getting really big headed from loads of feedback, sales and loveliness.
• Drawing a Fairy for Jaspre Bark's delightful daughter.
• Seeing the mock up of the 'Spirit of Hope' book coming out this summer with CBA. Wow!
• Hotel breakfast buffets.
• Meeting a load of really groovy new people ( you know who you all are! )

less great bits included;

• The early morning Fire Alarm on Saturday morning- although it was very entertaining seeing everyone in various states of attire & hungoverness.
• The £2.70 cup of tea and £9.30 gin ( although it was a double, hey I'd earned it! ).

It was a fantastic show, the two teams of organisers in both the main and 'small press' venues had done an outstanding job as usual, the Ramada staff were all very friendly & tolerant of the invasion of creative geeky types.

So now I have a billion e-mails to write, Hi-Ex to start pulling together, some much needed sleep to catch up with, a tonne more art work to do, a tonne new projects to start on, trying to remember who I promised what, unpacking... though I might not bother as we're galavanting away again in 3 days. I will definitely tweet that adventure instead of selfishly enjoying myself. maybe.

The Slaughterman's Creed team; Cy Dethan ( writer ), Nic Wilkinson ( letters, design & general organisational awesomeness ), Stephen Downey ( Pencils, some colours & inks ), Me ( some colours )

'Women, Politics and Cartooning' , me, Kate Evans, Blue Lou, and moderator Jaspre Bark

Me and Scott Grandison from Comic Book Outsiders, who bravely let us paint him up as Mr Green.

The Slaughterman's Creed team explain the ideas & techniques behind the book

Stephen explains how he aged the characters & used layouts and body language to drive the narrative tension.

Nic sheds light on how balloon placement adds another layer to the characters and action. Clever stuff that I imagine most readers and some letterers aren't aware of!

John Higgins ( Razorjack, Dredd, Watchmen ) at work.

MR Green

Mr Green is a character from 'Slaughtermans Creed' the book coming out shortly with Markosia publications. The artwork for the book was done by Stephen Downey ( with Inks by Andy Brown ) & I was on tattoo & colouring duties.  We will be at the Bristol Comic Expo to launch it. You will find us ( plus writer Cy & letterer/designer Nic ) signing & sketching at the  Markosia table in the Ramada, or at our own table 46 at the Mercure small press event.

I will be selling my wares of course, and sketches like the above. We will also be doing sketches live with Stephen drawing and me painting the colours in, AND you can get a Mr Green style facepaint job!

There is a limited edition convention copy of the book which will be signed by us all, it is available by pre-order so let me know if you are interested, i believe they are getting snapped up fast. pre-purchasers will also be entered into a prize draw for some original artwork. Don't say we haven't thought of everything !

Mr Green was great fun to work on, but if any of you think he looks kind of an attractive dude... read the book first & see if you still like him. Unless you are under 16 in which case please DO NOT read the book, your parents would chase us with pitchforks, or indeed a meat cleavers. 

Hi-Ex and Children 1st

Let’s talk about the Elephant in the room, no not the drink and drugs culture of the north, no not... Okay let’s talk about one of the many elephants or things that we prefer to ignore and forget about in the UK. Let’s talk about Child abuse,  Child sexual abuse. 

If you have been affected by or are concerned about anyone affected by this contact here.

Yesterday Richmond and I went to the Children 1st Open day at their Killen Centre on the scenic Black Isle. ‘Children 1^st’ is the chosen charity of Hi-Ex. Every year at our Comic convention in Inverness we have run a raffle and Auction in Aid of Children 1^st. The items for these events are very generously donated by comic creators, companies, groups and individuals- they have included some stunning pages of comic artwork. Thanks to the generous bids these events have raised thousands of pounds for Children 1^st.  Also some of the artists and writers attending Hi-Ex have collected donations for sketches and signings which have all gone into the pot. 

So it was on behalf of all these good people that we went to see more of what Children 1^st do for children and their families in this area.

Children 1^st is a Scottish wide charity, they have been around for 125 years, and were known as Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC) in the past. There are offices all over Scotland and fun fundraising events near you, details on their website. They also run Parentline.

The Centre at Killen is a beautiful tranquil converted school and school house. The warm, welcoming and calming atmosphere immediately settles around you. The building houses many therapy rooms, meeting rooms, resource rooms, art room, play room, a sensory chill out room and a lovely comfortable house for residential use.

 They offer;

An Abuse recovery service

Working with children ages 5 – 21 and their families to recover from the trauma of abuse and neglect

Family Group Conferencing

A fast and efficient method of helping a family identify and work towards their own solutions to problems with an individual or various members

Family mediation

Kinship care support service

Research has shown that a child recovers better in the care of their own family or people known to them, when their natural parents can no longer look after them. It can raise many problems within that families dynamic, guilt, anger and blame. 

A residential facility for families and workers to work intensively in a safe comfortable environment.

Children 1^st works with the whole family in the child’s interests.

Unfortunately due to a lack of funding they can only work with a small number of families. Estimates are that in the Highlands around 4500 children have been victims of sexual abuse, Killen Centre is able to work with around 70 families year.

I am experienced with abuse in the family and working with victims of abuse, so I am well aware of the complexity of the issue. According to the tabloids everything is simple, black and white, being angry and wishing violence upon the perpetrators is the simple, normal and kneejerk reaction. The Killen support workers told the fundraisers recent case studies which clearly illustrate that dealing with sexual abuse is not that simple. People in the audience blanching at the horrific reality of it. What about when a small child still wants to see daddy even after attempted rape? When mum rejects the child and dismisses what happened as they want their husband back? What about when their simply isn’t enough evidence? Or even when there is the perpetrators are still not put behind bars. When the perpetrator is an under aged vulnerable child themselves? Sometimes small children may appear to recover but later in their teens when they remember and realise what happened to them the trauma can re-emerge. The victims of abuse can be trapped in fight or flight mode, they can suffer Post Traumatic Stress, develop mental health problems, personality disorders, become self harmers, suicidal, incapable of forming relationships, become promiscuous, become abusers themselves etc etc.

Children 1^st adopt a holistic approach, whilst setting baselines rules, and working with other agencies like social work to ensure that the child’s safety and needs are met at all times, they then work with all the people involved and the child to build upon the child’s support network and ensure recovery. They also work with the non-abusing parents to support them. Often after disclosure of abuse it can be the worst time in a parents life, they are at their lowest ebb, when the child needs them to be the strongest. It can put incredible strain on relationships as different people deal with it in different ways over a different timescale, the example they gave us was when Dad wants to rage and kill the perpetrator, Mum blames herself and wracked with guilt becomes numb and withdrawn, all at a time when the child needs love, reassurance, stability and routine. Abuse is like an explosion which rips right through a family, the effect can last forever.

I was very impressed with the skills and resources that they have, they clearly are all experts in this horrible field, every different case presenting new challenges. I feel so sad thinking of all the children and now adults I know who really need and needed this sort of support. It’s criminal that money stops everyone having access to these therapies and support.

But at least we all managed to help, the Hi-Ex money all went directly to this centre and helping these children get their lives back. I cannot thank enough all the donators and participants of our fundraising events. Rest assured we will do some more fundraising in 2011 even if the main comic convention won’t be back until 2012. I hope you will all continue to support this important cause. Ignoring the elephant in the room will NOT make it go away, we are all responsible for all the children, all the time.