Tops and Bottoms of the week.

It’s been a busy comics week. I’m just back from the US (see those earlier posts).

I got an overnight flight and bumped into comics artist and all round top bloke Mark Buckingham at airport security. We actually ended up putting our shoes back on at the same bench. Those that have been paying attention know my love for the series Fables. In fact it was that book that prompted me to say hello to Mark and ask if we will be getting any more at the end of this storyline. Turns out that things are looking promising but not straightaway. Pleased as punch to have had a chance to chat to Mark I swanned off to the lounge only to be joined by him again and two hours of comics chat commenced. I even got to see some in progress art for Miracleman! That dude can draw!

Mark was kind enough to gift me a couple of prints. I had to take a photo as nobody would have believed me!

The trip really was an inspiration. I’ve finished something for Tribute with Cliff drawing and we got to chat through some plot points and art beats. I got part one of a collection off to Johnny Cannon and have started on another story for Falpy. Goes to show what you can do when you don’t have a fourteen hour work day every single day I guess.

Back to the task at hand.

Top.

This was an easy one. I got to have a couple of chats to Derf Backderf at SPX and along with some Original Art (see the last post) I also grabbed volumes 1-4 of ‘True Stories’. A series that takes a short encounter or observation per page. Each is funny/sad/poignant/weird and done with Derf’s unusual candid style. More ideas in a single issue than you get in a whole run of comics elsewhere. Highly recommended.

Bottom.

I didn’t read anything that had me wanting my money back this week. A couple of baby-talk webcomics almost made the list but I didn’t have to pay for them so I’m letting them slide.

What did make my list is a company with a hard sell. I’m not the sort to ‘Sub-Tweet’ like those twats on Twitter so I’ll name them.

Whilst browsing at Baltimore Comic Con I almost managed to walk past Source Point Comics but was instead collared by one of their writers. ‘Go on then’ I said being open-minded and patient for a change. He handed me the comic he had written. I’m no shrinking violet so I commented on how he had done that hard-sell thing that you see from used car salesmen and that I found it quite annoying, I chuckled but handed the book back and told him to carry on with his pitch. After giving it a fair listen and realising it wasn’t for me I asked after a previous book they had published that I couldn’t see on the shelves. Nobody there seemed to know what I was talking about. One dude even looked up from his phone. I thanked them and walked off.

It made the ‘Bottom’ just because it was annoying. I spent Saturday and Sunday selling books and would never dream of doing that – and we sold out!

Calm down comics people. Take a fucking breath. Be enthusiastic and conversational instead. Desperation and the hard-sell ain’t a good look.

Rant over.

Many thanks for reading.