Furlough written by Paul Ferry and illustrated by Peet Clack originally appeared in The Girly Comic #1.
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Archive for ‘August, 2010’
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Verity Fair, Sleaze Castle and Petra Etcetera creator Terry Wiley came to visit for a few days after Caption, so we decided it would be a good excuse to visit Nottingham.
The morning of the visit it occurred to us that D’israeli (Matt Brooker) and his partner Lynn would have arrived back from their year living in Greece. They had been travelling back the weekend of Caption, so were unable to come along, but Matt provided us with some art, as usual. A phone call later and we were off to their house.
Being gracious hosts, they’d nipped off to the nearby shops (which included a Chinese grocers) to buy some biscuits. Which is how we came to be trying out Wife Cakes and other strange foodstuffs.
Matt Models Wife Cakes!
Terry is not impressed with liquorice melon seeds
Wife apparently mainly tastes of sesame seeds, if the biscuits are anything to go by. We were regaled with Matt and Lynn’s adventures in Greece, including an Athens comic convention, armed police and flat dogs. Plus what an unopened, year’s supply of 2000ADs look like (with added spider).
Flat Dogs in Greece (Photo by Matt Brooker)
We also got a peek at Matt’s studio, and so can you in his latest video:
After a lovely cuppa and chat we headed into Nottingham, and of course, Page 45. Terry was hoping to see proprietor Stephen Holland, as it was ten years since his last visit to the shop, but alas he wasn’t in. Instead we caught up with Jonathan, got excited about the forthcoming Scott Pilgrim signing and bought yet more swag. I succumbed to The Moomins Cookbook, and will report results when I get a chance to try some recipes. Moomins seem to be very keen on cream and fish.
Jay & Terry outside Page 45
We did joke that, as an end to our Caption run, we should continue to take Caption on the road and visit all the other regulars who hadn’t managed to make it this year…. that should keep us busy until next year….
Stickers Collected 1
Sunday is always a bit more laid back for the committee, as the set-up is already done. I did my final taxi runs to pick up guests and/or luggage from Milkas and then went back on duty at the reg desk. As it was pretty quiet in terms of new attendees I also joined in the sticker game with attempts at drawing pandas and spaceships. In return I collected some fab stickers… though I did have to hum loudly when conversation turned to Scott Pilgrim #6, which I was hoping to read after Caption. (Edit: Now read it & it was good.)
Stickers Collected 2
All of our guests were great this year, as usual, making themselves available to chat and joining in. Several participated in the sticker game, or sat in on other talks, or sat sketching, and Melinda even brought in a big bag of mini-muffins for everyone on Sunday morning!
Al Davison & Melinda Gebbie
I also got some free time later to sit in the bar chatting with Matt Badham, Paul Rainey and Peet Clack. I valiantly tried to recruit some new committee members to replace Jay and I, as we’d decided to step down after five years, but we’ll have to see if that bears any fruit!
Darryl Cunningham being interviewed by Sarah McIntyre
I attended my only programme item of the weekend, which was Sarah McIntyre interviewing Darryl Cunningham about his work. I’ve read bits of Darryl’s work via his livejournal, but hadn’t read anything of length until picking up Psychiatric Tales a few weeks ago. It’s a very powerful book that informs about mental health issues while also using humour to entertain. Having suffered from depression myself, I found Darryl’s autobiographical section at the end of the book to be very moving. The interview was interesting, with the option to pipe up throughout with queries, making it nicely interactive.
I did have to rush off just as it was ending to get back to the Caption table and help Siobhan tot up people’s takings, as there’s always a rush near the end of the con.
Jay and I picked up a big haul of comics, which I’ll be reading over the next few months. Hopefully I’ll also get time to review a few as well. Particularly looking forward to reading There’s No Time Like The Present # 13 by Paul Rainey and then re-reading the whole collection as one huge story dollop. (Edit: Read TNTLTP #13, which was fab, now to re-read the whole set…)
Swag!
A bit of rushing around and packing up and then it was time to go. We arranged to drive home via Northampton to drop Melinda Gebbie off at home, and were also kidnapping Terry Wiley for a few days. The drive back threatened to be busy with warnings of events at Silverstone, but I think all the bikers had already left. On arriving in Northampton Melinda and her husband Alan Moore invited us in for a cuppa and chocolates, so who were we to resist!
We had a lovely chat about the Caption ethos, and were very pleased to hear that Melinda had enjoyed herself greatly. Alan gave us a sneak peak at some some League of Extraordinary Gentleman in the Sixties pages, and then we went in search of food before Jay and Terry fainted with awe.
Overall, another successful and friendly Caption. Thanks again to all our lovely guests and attendees. I look forward to attending next year….
Caption Banner: Photo by Jinty
For committee members Caption really starts many months before the event, but that’s a whole other blog post, so I’ll stick what happened over the weekend.
Friday started at 6.30am for us as Jay still had to go to work in the morning, while I did the 1.5 hour round trip to drop our dog Loki off at my parents (he got to spend the weekend on a canal boat). Back in Leicester I picked up Jay and then the Caption Souvenir Programmes, which came out at a whopping 68 pages. Lots of great contributions, including from people who couldn’t attend the event, all wrapped up in a colour cover by Caroline Parkinson.
Caption Programme Cover by Caroline Parkinson
After last minute packing, gathering up of comics and auction artwork we headed off to Oxford, with a brief pause on the M40 in a traffic jam. We rolled up to The Athena guesthouse around 6.30pm gasping for a cuppa. One curry later (which was accompanied by a really bizarre dead dog story from a nearby table… which will no doubt appear as a comic strip in due course) we made it to the Angel & Greyhound pub for the pre-Caption meet. Programmes were ooohd and ahhd over, and a copy of Gav Burrows latest zine thrust into our hands. Badge assembly had just finished when we arrived so all the committee in attendance needed to do was agree a time to meet the next morning.
Badge Construction, Design & Photo by Damian Cugley
Drinks were drunk and good conversation was had with Gav, Damien, Alex, Jo, Amy, Sophie, PJ, The Mighty Tharg & Matt Badham. Then it was time to collapse, after driving PJ back to Milkas guesthouse (this turned out to be the first of many trips I would make to Milkas over the weekend).
Too much curry and too much noise from the local Scream pub meant little sleep, but we managed to drag ourselves down for a cooked breakfast on saturday morning. Well fortified I dropped Jay and many boxes off at the venue and then I headed off to Milkas to pick up PJ and Al Davison.
Caption attendees once again proved they are the best con goers in the Universe, as when we arrived at the venue several of them had already set-up tables and chairs and generally got things started. Thanks to all those that helped with the set-up and throughout the rest of the weekend.
Main Hall & Caption Table.
After five years of forgetting to do anything about signage until the day we finally got proper banners made this year, though there was much clambering and possibly some swearing getting them put up.
Things then started to whiz by as I sat on the registration desk welcoming people in. Many Caption regulars but also some new faces. Numbers were a little down this year, we assume due to the economic climate and us having to move the event forward a few weeks.
I did the reg desk most of the day, so I didn’t make it to any of the panels on the Saturday, but all the feedback was good. I know several people said the webcomics panel could have been twice as long.
Will Morgan
Al Davison
Siobhan Hillman
Sitting in the main hall gave me a chance to chat to other people. I found out that Siobhan Hillman, as well as doing a superb job of running the Caption table for us, is also a jewellery maker and I hope to see some of her creations at forthcoming events. Siobhan, Will Morgan, Al Davison and I all reminisced about our introductions to comics (mine being by far the most recent).
The Dino-Saw-Us sticker gang had people around their table busy drawing and swapping stickers all weekend. A great success I think, though I am wondering if Arthur Goodman did anything other than draw tiger stickers judging by the amount he produced. I had seen Lizz, Tim and Phillipa at other events but never had a chance to meet them and have become an immediate fan of their respective webcomics. I don’t know how Phillipa has the patience to create Cardboard Like, though her scissor skills were in evidence over the weekend.
Jeremy’s workshops seemed to go well, as she bellowed various requests for artists to draw provocative meterologists and a rainof slugs. The results can be seen in various photos.
The auction went as well as can be expected, bearing in mind how broke people felt, and I bagged another Lee Kennedy sketchbook to add to my collection.
Dino-Saw-Us sticker crew
I then did several more taxi runs to Milkas, and had several confusing conversations with the owner’s Mother until we agreed on payment methods for the guests (and then she was lovely).
Quite a big crowd had departed to find food, and I went in search of them on my return. I found Jay & Melinda Gebbie, and a bit of a stroll and a text message later we joined the gang for curry (again). The food was nice when it arrived but it didn’t half take it’s time. We chatted to Melinda about the different vibes of various towns and communities.
We all made it back slightly late for Tony Hitchman’s very amusing Mad Science quiz… what do you need to be a mad scientist? a white lab coat, mad hair or no hair, and a propensity to do/invent really strange things, like luring creatures into pits by dipping yourself in sugar!
Jeremy Day Workshop
Verityfair 1.4 by Terry Wiley is a Girly webcomic original.
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Conversations about zines at Caption last weekend, and online, reminded me that I hadn’t made the second issue of my personal zine available online.
So here it is… This issue includes an interview with me about being nominated for a British Fantasy Award for The Girly Comic: the small press comic I edit and co-publish, an edited and expanded article about my experiences of coming off anti-depressants, a comic strip reflecting on my relationship with science, and pieces about John Hughes films, things I’ve been digging and a mini gig review.
Download pdf: http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk/BrainScrapings2_small.pdf
I’m hoping to have a third issue ready for the Birmingham Zine Festival in September.
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Verityfair 1.4 by Terry Wiley is a Girly webcomic original.
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Verityfair 1.4 by Terry Wiley is a Girly webcomic original.
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Verityfair 1.4 by Terry Wiley is a Girly webcomic original.
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