Daredevil Message Board

[The Privateer]

Well I thought that I had better post some sort of write up of the Birmingham comic conference, so stick with me if I start to ramble, I will get there in the end. My day started off meeting at my LCS, Comics & Nostalgia, I had a great start to the day as my friend who works there, was chatting to the manager and I managed to nip behind the counter and lift the bar code scanner in an Thor and Mjolnir style to claim the crown!

The two guys who were running the event, came into the shop just to finalise some things, the main guy was about 5ft tall, about 45 and had really bad hair, he could have been in porn, an old pop star clinging to fame or just someone who really fancies themselves. The best person to describe him like would be UK night club owner, Peter stringfellow, (please try Google images), he is one of the people who kind of devalue the reputation that your country has in international eyes when they are greeting international visitors. It is perhaps similar to the feeling you have when Paris Hilton leaves the US, as she maybe the first impression that people get of Americans.

Anyway, got to the event, and mr bad hair cut was showing us round, if you have seen the UK comedy Phoenix nights, then my feeling was sort of similar to that, (for those who haven’t it is an appauling ran and amateurish night club). The children’s play area was basically some tables, some paper, some paints and then two inflatables, a Dalek and spidey. I didn’t think it was possible for hopes to sink any further than when they first published the events for the con on the net, but this kiddies area was shocking.

We were then walked round this damp feeling, decrepid, windy series of individual rooms, with undressed tables just lined up with a piece of paper on it saying who it was for. It seemed totally unplanned, the phrase “Couldn’t plan a p1ss up in a brewery” sprung to mind, nothing was set up on the night before, nothing was ready, there was sooooo many people running round like headless chickens it was unbelievable. Me and the other 5 stewards (they wanted 20, so as there were 6 of us, the tasks described to us seemed to be unsurmountable), were put to work doing lots of “why the hell wasn’t this done before?” type jobs. I was putting comics into bags along with flyers and programmes when Michael Lark walks through the door. I didn’t recognise him at first until he spoke, he has a slightly squeaky voice that I recognised off a podcast. He asked the stressed hair-cut bloke where he could get a StarBucks coffee from, and was promptly told that the nearest one is all the way back in town, so he’d have to lump it on standard sh1te coffee.

Now on the basis that all I was interested in was Michael Lark, upon hearing this I thought, he’s my cue! I went up to him and said that if he did me some sketches and some autographs then I would fetch him a Starbucks coffee. He replied, “Sure, I’ll always do anything for coffee”, I got his order, a carmel macchiato with extra caramel, and shot off. Now on the basis that I was a volunteer, I had no problem walking out, my mate covered for me anyway. After about 10 mins, I got to the Starbucks, on the way I was sure that I walked past a prostitute, it was really cold, and all she had on was some sort of furry leggings, and a bikini, she must have been freezing or high. I got Larky his coffee, and returned to the con.

Upon returning there, I gave him his coffee, he had a list of requests which he was drawing, he said to add my name to it and tick it as paid. He was charging! I didn’t realise. So I put myself down on his list of predictable Batman sketches for a £25 8”x 12” sketch, all for the princely sum of £3.15 (cost of the coffee) and twenty minutes of my time. On the basis that Larky had been paid to appear, charging as well was probably a little bit harsh, but it is not a rich profession, and we all have bills to pay, so I can’t blame him too much.

He draws in a really funny way, my knowledge of comic artists goes as far as Michael Lark and Sean Phillips, so I can only compare the two. Sean used a light blue pen to draw like a really rough outline, a circle for a head and a band where the eyes would be, and then he went over the top in a black marker to “ink” in the detail after he has a rough marker for sizes and locations.

Now Michael Lark said that he can’t draw from memory, he has to have some sort of pointers or guide, for my sketch I asked for Daredevil, (Renee Montoya would have been a second choice, but I didn’t want to be greedy!). He had a folder full of drawings hidden on the floor, the big mirrored wall that he was in front of gave him away! He sketched it out in pencil, which looked amazing, he did it so naturally, I struggle to draw a paycheck! He then got an eraser and rubbed it all out, I thought he’d cocked up, hell I’d have his scraps. Then, using a fine ink pen, looked similar to a fountain pen nib, drew fine lines round all the feint detail and went over the lines to get his out line back. Once complete he then got like another fountain pen sort of thing and swashed in all the black colours, it looked totally amazing, if I can get this html code to work I’ll add the picture in below.I got some signatures off Larky and Matt Hollingsworth was there as well, so he signed a DD too.




On a lighter note, there was some amazing costumes, there was a storm-trooper, his outfit was really good, probably all bought. I was shocked when I saw that we had a Mr & Mrs Boba fett, in 40% home-made costumes. I thought it was more like Boba & Booby Fett though. Mrs Fett was highly amusing, she really fancied herself and when out of costume, never took off her sunglasses, kinda thought of herself as a bit of a gangster.



There was the usual array of costumes, it started off with a Joker and Robin walking round, Joker was full prosthetics and purple suit, Robin was amazing. He had a 3 day old beard, a beer belly and was wearing a pair of spectacles underneath the mask, he looked like he needed saving not the other way round. Later on a Batman in a muscle suit appeared, this guy loved himself and the role, he clearly must look in the mirror at himself wearing all his garb, he had on the Tim Burton / Keaton Batman outfit, not Adam West.

But my personal favourite of the day had to have been some college kids who came dressed as the X-men, the one was Gambit and the other was Rogue. Now it was freezing on the day, the wind was really biting, so the fact that these guys came dressed up was amazing, but they were wearing lycra. They said that they had spent £50 on lycra to do the costumes, so kudos indeed. Gambit had the full costume, my favourite was his little card pouch that he had in his left hand glove. But Rogue was truly wonderful, apart from looking the part with a good costume, apart from wearing lycra on a cold day, she was proudly displaying her Camel toe all for the benefit of all. Bravo Rogue, we salute you.



Well how did I rate the con, well it was poorly planned, and Larky was head and shoulders (for me at least) the best one there, some may argue about Dave Gibbons, but hey different generation for me. As a “first” con for a while in Brum, it seemed to lack any real headliners to attract all from far and wide, it had the usual British comic people who tend to whore themselves at all the British events, so much so that they are no longer draws to get anyone there. Some of the theatre “panels” were laughably dull, the only one that I wanted to see was the ML one, even then he didn’t say anything that hasn’t been said in other interviews, e.g. felt cut short on Gotham Central, wants to be beat Bendis! And Maleev’s run on DD.

But even taking all this into account, the naffness of it, I actually felt like apologising to ML for a shockingly bad organised event, but the thing that won this through was the sheer informality of it all. I mean there was no “back stage pass”, there was no green room, there was no artists only area. I p1ssed where Michael Lark p1ssed, as I found out when I saw him coming out of the toilet, we all ate at the same greasy spoon type café. We all just milled around the same place, if Frank Miller or Jim Lee had headlined the event then they would have not had any special treatment, it was like there was no celebrity or “famous” people there at all, it was like milling round a car boot sale or market, with people plying there trade. Because of that closeness, that sheer lack of gloss, the “take me as I am” style that the talent was paraded to as, I feel that it was a winner. I feel compelled to write to the organisers and tell them what was bad, what was good and what lessons learned can be taken from the event. I really want this to have been a success, I would like there to be a yearly event that is in England and in the midlands, rather than in the smoke of London.
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Always Out-Manned, Never Out-Gunned

[train]

thanks for the report privateer. very nice DD sketch...worth the drive for the coffee, i'm sure

[Francesco]

[Blind Alley]

Thanks for the report and for sharing the sketch !
It's a very nice one ! (complete figure with action pose, not a simple portrait or a standing pose...)

In this sketch, Lark'DD reminds me a bit of JRJR's (something to do with the face, the chin)...
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Visit the Red Shaker

[Clayton Blind Love]

Thanks for taking the time to post this great review Privateer.

C.
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Love is blindness, I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night around me

[The Privateer]

Thanks guys, sorry it took so long to post, but I was doing a couple of paragraphs a day, and thought I've got to get it done. I'm hopefully going to get a fame for my ML sketch tomorrow.

Did Dave Wallace go in the end? Did any other UK posters get to go, I only made it to the Saturday, it was my works Xmas party on the Sunday. Unfortunatley free food and drink out ranks a second day of comic geekery, bad costumes and being someone's coffee lackey!

On a more serious note, my LCS, which handsomely rewarded me for giving up my time to represent them, has told me that the comic con was a rip roaring success and that they were profitable for most of the second day, so there should be a second con next year. My advice (well I agree with Rich from my LCS actually), which if your reading this bad-hair cut man, would be to go for broke and get a big name next time. If you can pull a profitable crowd from B-list comic celebrities (Sorry everyone, but I'm being honest) like Michael Lark and Dave Gibbons, then it should be even better with more advertising and someone like Jim Lee, Alan Moore or Mike Mignola etc. But from what appeared to be an utter farce, well done to all involved. I was just dissappointed that Andy Diggle cancelled and Skottie Young couldn't come because he didn't realise that he needed a passport to travel to England. Perhaps he was travelling with Paris Hilton.....?
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Always Out-Manned, Never Out-Gunned

[Dave Wallace]

Great review, interesting to hear how it all happened. I think it's common practice to charge for sketches at conventions, but it's cool that Lark did you one for the price of a coffee! Nice.