I wanted to sum up the event, but so much had happened that I feel a little overwhelmed every time I try to put it all into words. Let me just run through the highlights.

London Expo, quite honestly, Rocked! I always look forward to this event, but this year more so, as it marked the release of my new book, Talking To Strangers, which is now available to buy online.

The Artists Vs. Writers showdown was fantastic fun, with us Writers coming out on top, surprisingly by beating the Artist’s at Pictionary, no less! We received equal points for the word game Taboo, mind you. I hope they do it again next year. Not sure they’d invite the same teams again, but I’ll definitely be around to watch it! Quick Edit: Nana took some photos of the Showdown here.

Didn’t really buy much this year. Picked up a copy of Morris The Mankiest Monster by Sarah McIntyre, because we like her a lot and her artwork is always worth owning! Got a copy of Derek the Sheep signed by Gary Northfield, a very nice guy with a wonderful sense of humour. It shows in his work. From the Sweatdrop table, I grabbed Selina’s latest titles, ‘Sunny’s Field’ and ‘Bellringers 2′ (not yet available online, but hey, did you know she launched a new webcomic? Go check it out!)

Finally got round to picking up a copy of Nana’s new book, Twelfth Night (did I ever get round to mentioning that Faye’s book, The Merchant of Venice, was out too? … I didn’t?!? *shock-horror* I should be shot!!).

Caught up with Paul and wrangled a signature out of him on a couple of artbooks. Lovely work, as always! How I wish he’d release a new comic both written and illustrated by him. It’s been too long dude!! … Quizzed Kate with regards to when her collected book, The Spider Moon, will be officially released. It’s fairly soon, so keep an eye out. It will be in HARDCOVER!! I’m quite excited about that.

What else? … Oh, never had this happen to me before – Had a gentleman recognise my name off my badge, turned out to be a Clarence Principle fan and seemed genuinely excited to learn that I had a new book out. Nice guy, called Ennis I believe? Gosh, hope I got your name right dude! I suck at remembering names.

I’ve had people walk up to the Sweatdrop table many times to tell me how much they enjoyed Clarence before, but those were people who actually came looking for me. This time round, it’s been a varied mix of people returning the next day after reading the new book to tell me how much they loved it! Wasn’t expecting feedback that soon. Great feeling, that.

Due to carrying a lot of books to the event, I wasn’t able to bring my camera along. So instead, here are some photos from Joanna’s camera that both her and I took. Also, have a link to Flickr with a collection of everyone else’s photos!

The latest Sweatdrop Podcast is out. Always worth a listen for fun and giggles. A little drinking game for you: Take a shot every time someone says “Yes” XD see how long you last.

Emma Vieceli has launched Dragon Heir: Reborn – totally redrawn and available as a webcomic online.

Also, I’ve been invited to take part in a fun event at the upcoming London Expo on Sunday 25th, 14:00-14:40. Details follow –

Expo showdown – Writers Vs Artists

The concept: Two teams of 5. One team of Writers and one team of Artists. Two rounds. One Pictionary and one Taboo. You see where we’re going with this! We’ll finally find out who is in fact better. Writers or artists!

The Writers: Tony Lee, Antony Johnston, Kieron Gillen, Andy Diggle and Fehed Said

The Artists: Dan Boultwood, Ben Templesmith, Jamie McKelvie, Jock and Faye Yong

Should be a laugh, especially Pictionary. My Art Skillz!! Come, let me show you them XD

London Expo was a blast. I got a few random photos, mainly taken while sitting behind the Sweatdrop table though. Still tidying them up, will upload to flickr soon.

I don’t really do convention reports. The moment kind of passes once it’s over and I tend to move onto the next thing, so the best you can get out of me is a few photos and a single sentence review. Highlight of the event was spending time with Faye as it was her first time being behind the table as an official member of Sweatdrop Studios since she joined last summer. Her book Murphy’s Law came out, but it’s not available to pick up online just yet.

I just finished watching “I’m Not There“, an intriguing film, which in a way doesn’t really make much sense, yet something about it was quite inspiring. I think the words hit deep every now and then. Some profound things were said by characters, characters you never completely understand nor grasp, but always make you stop and think.

I got two new books in me, which I need to write and produce before 2010. Whether they’re good or mediocre is not the point, but rather that I have them in me and I want them out. I got the time, I just need to make the effort. I often ponder why I do this to myself. I spend so much time, effort and money doing this, and the return is so much less than what I put in. Simple answer, that I have to keep reminding myself with, is that I just can’t not do it.

A thought for the evening. The dangers of creating things is increased by the existance of the internet. Everyone has a voice in this outlet, everyone. Own a blog and write on it enough and sooner or later someone will read it. We are all parading as Rockstars, without the need for the music and lyrics.

Are we all a sham? Maybe just bored enough to not care any more. Hey, it’s all escapism right? Your bedroom is not your bedroom, it’s a place to dream. Whether you’re awake or asleep is optional.

Seven simple rules of going into hiding: one, never trust a cop in a raincoat. Two, beware of enthusiasm and of love, both are temporary and quick to sway. Three, if asked if you care about the world’s problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again. Four, never give your real name. Five, if ever asked to look at yourself, dont. Six, never do anything the person standing in front of you cannot understand. And finlly seven, never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life.

# Arthur – I’m Not There

I feel like singing.

This week sees Sweatdrop Studios reach its sixth year as a manga collective! To celebrate this special occasion, they are giving a whopping 50% discount on their comics until 1st February 2008. Sweatdrop also offer free international shipping for orders over £15 (about US$30), so if you ever wanted to check out some UK-made manga, there couldn’t be a better time.

Click here to visit the Online Shop

Furthermore, there is a free prize draw on the forum, with prizes including Sweatdrop anthologies, books and an original watercolour image by Selina Dean. Just reply to the competition thread on the forum to take part.

Click Here for the Prize Draw Forum thread

Sweatrop Studios is a group of 19 UK-based manga artists which has been operating since January 2002. They have published a number of anthologies such as “Cold Sweat and Tears”, “Blue is for Boys” and “Pink is for Girls”, as well as original titles such as “Looking for the Sun” by Morag Lewis and “Fantastic Cat” by Selina Dean.

Sweatdrop members Emma Vieceli and Sonia Leong recently released “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” respectively with SelfMadeHero; and Fehed Said released “The Clarence Principle” with Slave Labor Graphics. Several members are also featured in Tokyopop’s UK & Ireland Rising Stars of Manga anthologies.

Feels like all I have are leaflets and postcards lately to take photos of for these posts :) On Wednesday night, right after work, I’d made my way to the Japanese Embassy for an end of event gathering I’d been invited to. The event in question was called Lingua Comica -

Comica director Paul Gravett introduces the Lingua Comica comics lab, gathering 14 young creators from Asia and Europe and renowned Japanese expert Kosei Ono who reveals the rich exchanges between manga and comics in the rest of Asia, Europe and beyond

Generally, the artwork displayed was quite indie in my opinion, but we won’t get into the whole manga/comic debate over this ^^;

The event itself wasn’t really focussed enough on the artists/writers and their work, but all in all, it was a pleasant evening. Once again, I found myself amongst a lot of the crowd from the London Expo. Had lots of lovely chats with other random people in general too, such as a gentleman named Sing, who was studying law. It was a mixed crowd.

I also managed to catch up with Gillian and her brother (who’s name I either forgot or may have never actually been told), who I’d met very briefly at Expo. Lovely girl with a unique art style. She’d recently been one of the winners of the NEO Mag. Manga competition, along with Wing Yun Man.

One of the guys on the Expo panel (which I had the pleasure to be a part of), was Mr. Lee Townsend, who I’d stolen from Nana during a conversation she was having with him (sorry XD). I was having a wonderful discussion about how he got into mainstream comic writing (he currently writes SPAWN).

It seems he too had released an independent book a while back, which unfortunately, didn’t do as well as he’d hoped. It was his make-or-break title for him, as he’d said that if this doesn’t go anywhere, he’d probably just quit the business. A while later, his book had made its way into the hands of an Editor at Image Comics who in turn got in touch with Lee and asked him if he’d consider writing for SPAWN. Funny thing is, me and him both had the same reaction to such a proposition, which is that both of us could not see ourselves writing super/anti hero comics. He was hesitant at first, he told me, but obviously he’d finally agreed.

I guess that’s just the way it is in this business. You never know what’s around the corner and sometimes, even if you’re reluctant, you should never pass up a solid gig.

Octobers London Expo was definitely the best one yet! It’s gotten so big lately, that back in May it really felt overcrowded. But the organisers had booked even more halls for October so there was room to move and stand. Made it so much easier to meet and greet people.

I don’t normally buy much at these events, as I generally shop for things I want on a regular basis, but this time, there was stuff that I wanted to nab! Got hold of a few Mangas I’ve been meaning to get and I spotted an awesome set of character models of the Serenity crew based on the movie rather than the TV show. Right under the box of characters, strategically placed no doubt, was a model of Firefly ship, Serenity herself. Sold and Sold!!

Let’s see, what else did I get up to?

Got to meet a few of the other artists from BNM (namely Paul and Nana) as well as Ilya. Hung out with a bunch of the Sweatdrop forum members, who made me hold a sign to notify any other members that the meeting was ‘here’, because I was the tallest in the group. Abused!! Haha – Was fun getting to hang out with those guys for a bit. They’re all so energetic! I got to meet people like Kriffix, Mute, Dwinky, Destraudo, Fae, etc. who are now no longer just names on a forum post. Pictures in this post are courtesy of Fae who had originally posted them on the Sweatdrop forums. The second picture has some of the Sweatdrop Studios members and a bunch of our forum members.

The most surreal experience I had I think, was when I wasn’t on shift at the Sweatdrop table, and so I was walking around talking to people or checking the near by tables and then I’d get a tap on the shoulder from one of the guys who were on shift asking me to come back to the table because someone wants a signature! Talk about inflating my ego!!

On that note, the coolest signing moment I had, was when this gentleman came by with his two daughters and said “You probably don’t remember me, I was the guy working at Pims who printed out the preview books for you?” – Holy Freakin’ Crap Batman! That was 2 years ago!! And I did remember him, David George. He was the guy who printed the Preview books I had made to send out to publishers. He mentioned that he’d made an extra copy of the book to give to his daughters as he’d thought they’d like it. Of course, back then, only about a third of the book was completed. Seems he’d heard that I’d be at Expo and that the final book is in print and he’d come down to meet me and pick up a copy for his daughter.

2 Years! I can’t believe they still remember me after 2 years. I was so flattered and a little taken aback by it, I think I went and talked too much! Still, I hope they enjoy the book and their wait wasn’t in vain.

We normally go for a meal after the first day of Expo is over, and the group of people is always so large that it makes it difficult to find a place to eat. We didn’t want to do the usual Chinese place again, so we journeyed around but all the places we tried or could think of had a hard time serving such a large group of people, so guess what we wound up doing? We ate Chinese haha and it was good!

After the meal that evening, Dock, Selina, Keds and I, hung out with John Aggs. Sadly Paul Duffield had to go home after the meal. Was really looking forward to having a proper face-to-face chat with him, as he lives outside of London, so we rarely meet.

We had a few drinks and somewhere along the lines, Dock misheard something Keds said and the phrase ‘a penis to cry on’ was created, which Dock promptly wrote into his sketch book. I think he’s planning a Yaoi project with that one haha – Shortly after, we were joined by Nana Li, Kat and Dave, who were thrown right into the deep end of our strange world and conversations. No easing into it! But it was fine, ‘cos those guys can swim as good as the rest of us. It was a pretty ace evening.

On Sunday, I had that talk on stage with some of the super-stars of the western comic industry and it was fun, though I felt a little useless (and I did say on the mic. that I was a baby compared to these guys) as there were two writers on that stage who have been in the business far longer and had basically answered all the questions before me and their replies were pretty much what I was going to say. So I just spent my time saying stuff like “Yeah, what he said! … ”

I’d decided the best thing to do was to take the opportunity to ask my own questions of Tony Lee and Lee Townsend (Mr. Townsend writes for Spawn right now, how cool is that?!?), which I did and we got a nice little rapport going. It was interesting to hear how the two writers had different approaches to writing for artists. One would write everything panel by panel, which was a standard technique a lot of writers at Marvel and DC use. The other left his writing quite open and only intervened when he thought the piece would benefit from some editorial control. I myself also work similarly to the latter method.

There were lots of cosplayers at the event, lots of Host Club cosplay oddly enough but the most original cosplay most of us thought were the two giant Death Note notebooks walking around. They’d designed them so that people could open the cover and actually sign their names inside! That was awesome haha

Funniest moment for me? When I teased Dwinky on the last day of Expo. Bare in mind, Dwinky is this tiny hyper girl.

Dwinky: I just don’t want it to be over!! *jump jump*
Laura: Aww haha
*Fehed walking past*
Dwinky: I don’t wanna go home T^T
Fehed: *turns to Dwinky* GO HOME DWINKY!!
Dwinky: Nyuuu T0T;
Laura: AWWWW!!
Fehed: XD *pats Dwinky*

It was a great weekend.