Sunday, 17 October 2010

The British International Comic Show 2010

I didnt mention this in my last Blog but I was going to go to The British International Comic show (or BICS) today and well I just got back. Drove all the way from here in Norwich as trains on sundays are awful! I had so much trouble I gave up and just decided to drive it with 3 other friends who payed for the petrol which was nice!

So Sunday the 17th seemed the best choice and the guests that were there were; Dave Gibbons, Simon Toefield, Charlie Adlard and Jonathan Ross! There were loads but they were THE guys I wanted to see...

Dave Gibbons was the first and I was extrememly nervous. Mainly because he is a very important man in comics, you know being the co-creator of Watchmen and all. But he seemed a very nice man and even though he wasnt doing sketches he drew one in my copy of Watchmen along with his signature. He also signed my copy of his book; The Originals. I shook his hand and then made way to Simon Toefield, creator of Simon's cat y'know...



...that cat!

Anyway I actually thought he was not gonna be there on the Sunday as I heard he was only gonna be there for that Saturday, so shocked was I to see the web animator sitting right there amongst copies of his new book. I purchased one and obviously got him to sign it. He also had t-shirts and other merchandise which I was going to grab later (I didnt!)

Later we then had a Q and A with Jonathan Ross (Who I bumped into twice around the convention, nearly wetting myself each time!) about his Comicbook; Turf along with the artist; Tommy Lee Edwards over Skype on a big screen. It was really interesting to get an insight in the process of the two's 'babie' and Jonathan even shared with us his attempt at comic art a long time ago and of course threw in some tales about some celebs (related to comics of course... and not...). But the highlight for me has gotta be when Mr Ross had a signing session! I waited in a cue for only about 30 ish minutes and once I got to about 3 or 4 people in front of me he started talking to us about videos he had seen on youtube and we joined in with a chuckle. Anyway as soon as it got to me he shook my hand and I mumered "your actually real" in which he replied "in the flesh and twice as ugly" I disagreed! He signed my copies of issue 1 and 2 of Turf while he talked to me about Terry Wogan, because I asked him to do that impression he did ages ago on his radio show which he couldnt remember but gladly shared with me a story about Mr. Wogan having the flu one time and singing because of it (don't ask me why). After this I finally got my picture taken with him... I-touched-Jonathan-Ross'-shoulder!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! A man I had always been so fond of who I finally met and had some sort of slight (ok very slight) bond with... it was amazing...


Also if that wasnt enough we still had Charlie Adlard to meet, artist of my favourite Graphic Novel seires; The Walking Dead. Now I didnt actually know this until my friend Huw pointed out, but that Charlie was in the corner of the room ALL day! I hadnt seen him and I really wanted to get a sketch from him as myself as a Zombie but by the time I found him he was about to head of to a Q and A about the The Walking Dead TV Seires. But he quickly signed my copy of Volume 1 and we all dashed to the show room for the Q and A! It was packed full of people and we got to see exclusive footage of the show and of course ask Charlie and the woman working for FX (I'm afraid I didnt catch her name) questions about it. Some lucky people also got T-shirsts... we didnt though. They threw them into the crowd and not one came my way! I never stood a chance. But after the Q and A we did get free mugs so I wont complain. By the way if you dont know what I'm talking about here's the trailer...



As I was saying the mugs wasnt the only free things we got! There was also placemats, comics and art and a book worth £18! Of course I did spend money, besides Simon's cat's book there also happened to be 2 expensive Spiderman comics that I purchased (yes, one of them being the one in the picture on the left!!!)... they were worth it! Anyway it was a fantastic day and I really enjoyed myself and would like to come back again next year!

OH and I almost forgot we also got interviewed for some film they were making at the show.... it was very weird we got asked about comics in general but we also had to throw in some fictional creator for a comic and another rival company I dont know what was going on but I'll post it up if anything comes up about that!

Saturday, 9 October 2010

I Know, I know... and NES!!!!

YES ITS BEEN A WHILE!!!

Well alot has happened as you can guess since what?... JULY! But I wont go into great detail and just talk about the past month...

I'm back at Uni now for my third and final year in Animation and starting to work on my third year project, which is a three minute animation based on my own idea (see 'The Metahumans Blog on the side of this blog!). Its finally starting to kick in... I feel the work aproaching!

Anyway in terms of social life I have now been living at Pottergate in Norwich for about 3 months and I am loving this house. For a student house it's amazing, I'll post some photos up some time. Also I am living with a very easy to live with bunch of chaps. However living with another Ben can be quite confusing heh heh. I am also the one who brought shit loads of stuff! I mean I have brought with me 10 consoles! (Megadrive+MegaCd, Dreamcast, Wii, PS3, Gameboy, GB Advance, GB Mini, DSi and PSP!) 11 if you include the purchase I made last month!

I finally bought a NES! Nintendo's console that dominated the 80's! I got it off eBay for an amazing price as I got with the NES console; 2 Controllers, Zapper Gun, Arcade Stick, 2 Boxed games (Gyromite, Duck Hunt) and 14 games not boxed! But the best thing of them all (to any Nintendo fan anyways) is R.O.B the Robot Operating Buddy! This toy robot that worked with the NES console is quite rare to get hold of sometimes sold over £100 alone! I payed for all this for £159!!!! And now after geting hold of this and playing on it with my Nintendo fan boy friends, I have really got into the console and getting hold of my fave NES games...

The other Ben and I tested the 16 games that came with it when I got it to our house from my parents and there certainly was some gems; Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Metroid, Rad Racer, Duck Hunt, Gyromite and Teenage Mutant hero turtles. But there certainly was some stinkers. The most memorable would be the games Sword and Serpants which was JUST AWFUL and so hard to actually see what the hell was bloody going! Basically Ben and I played as a party of heros you named and played in a dungeon fighting of pixelated piles of vomit called monsters in a shoddy first person view. We honestly couldnt get the controls! Another is Karate champ... not much to say except stay away! Unless you up for a good laugh at how shit some games can be... thats all I can say really. The others were so awful I've basically forgotten them lol



But that didnt put me off the NES as I sold the 9 games for enough money to buy a boxed Metal Gear on the NES I have also now got hold of Punch-Out!, Super Mario Bros 2, Golf, Operation Wolf, Tetris and a golden Zelda 2! And there is still more to get! But I'm pacing myself lol. To be honest I wouldnt be suprised if my girlfriend dumped me... although she now LOVES Duck Hunt... so SAAAFE! Oh and just let me say if it wasnt for R.O.B being rare-ish there would be no point to buying it. It's basically useless. But I love it lol.
Anyway before I go let me just mention Comic and film related stuff. I may have mentioned the Manga; Pluto by Naoki Urasawa.
Very very good I am now finally on the final volume and it has been quite a ride! The books are based on Osama Tezuka's Astroboy story about his fight with the evil robot; Pluto except its more of a realistic and mature aproach. I have to say the best Manga I have ever read in terms of story and art! I highly recomend it! I have also seen what I believe to be one of the greatest films ever; SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD!!! Its the TITS!! It's like my perfect film, so much videogame refrencing! Its exciting, funny, interesting and just over all awesome! Go see it!!! I am now on volume 4 of the books and although they're good they are not as good as the film but to be honest the whole Scott Pilgrim thing is awesome and I am now a HUGE fan.... so should YOU!

Anyway til next time, AND CHECK OUT MY PROJECT BLOG!