Comiket wrap-up

Matt’s written a little about how he felt the day went on his blog, so I, Mark, have been asked to step in and report for WAW+P. I’ve been to the ICA several times already for gigs, but not for a convention. Luckily the space lended itself well to rows of small press comics and extremely excitable creators. Imagine a village fete, but with more beards.

We Are Words + Pictures were there to continue selling some of the loveliest comics around, and we were accompanied on our table by the very lovely Lizz Lunney. I took the opportunity to buy The Man With Tetris On His Chin/Bears In Your Face mini-comic and – rather predictably – ended up putting it on my face. I do these things so you don’t have to, you know.

It was a remarkably busy day, with a steady flow of comic-hungry folks coming in from a rainy Sunday in London. We had a lot of lovely chats with people, as well as being able to pop around the place and see some of the wares on offer. I was particularly taken with the Dancing Eye stall, and the wall outside the theatre where creators were given random lines to illustrate.

The launch of Solipsistic Pop also got underway, with several of its contributors there in person to sign copies and chat about the anthology. Matthew and Julia have great items featured, and it’s a real pleasure to say it’s a beautiful book that editor and creator Tom Humberstone should be extremely proud of. If you haven’t bought a copy, pop over to the website and grab one while you can – they were flying off the stall and won’t be around long.

Inevitably the night ended with drinking at the Solipsistic Pop launch party, where Julia DJ’d some great tunes and I kept shouting “MAKE IT LOUDER”. Pretty much how any night goes with us lot, really. There was also live drawing projected on the wall, which was like a classier version of Art Attack. Top stuff.

Comiket was a lovely convention all round then. We’ll hopefully see you all in Leeds in a few weeks for Thought Bubble. Hooray!