Tales of the Hollow Earth: Canny Comic Con : The Aftermath

Well, it happened: Newcastles many and various comics groups and fans finally got a canny comic con for this millennium.

Thanks to Alexi Conman, Newcastle city library and everyone who helped out, was a guest, did a talk, manned a stall, ran a workshop, helped people find what they were looking for and the five hundred or so people who attended, it was, to my mind, a very very fine day and most excellent success.

The Canny Comic Con is GO!

Highlights for me were many and various, but it's always a pleasure to have an opportunity to catch up with Ben Clark (Magic Beans Comics), Paul Scott (Omnivistascope), Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle), Stacey Whittle (Small Press Big Mouth), Leonie O'Moore and Al Ewing (Zombo, Judge Dredd) and meet a great many people for whom up north is down south - in particular:

Gordon Robertson and Luke Halsall of the Glasgow League of Writers who I'm now hoping to be working with at some point in the future.
Ed Murphy of Rough Cut Comics, who I first ran into at Thought Bubble and whose enthusiasm for the con and comics knows no bounds that I could see.
Gary Erskine, whose Roller Grrrls project lured me in with sexy and powerful artwork to reveal an extremely well thought out project with a very human core to it. Looking forward to this one.


Graham Pearce and Al Ewing	Gary Erskine

...and of course the Paper Jam Comics Collective, whose own Andy Waugh chaired or took part in several of the talks; Jack Fallows, who opened proceedings with the first talk; Mike Thompson manning the Travelling Man table; Britt, who I shared a table with; and Ian Mayor who acted as people wrangler in chief. Others running workshops I'll mention below. And this lot who heroically manned the Canny Communal table:

The Canny Table: Terry, Matt, Lydia and En

I didn't make many of the talks as I was mostly occupying my stand during the day. The two that I did make were excellent:

Bryan Talbot's Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition is a talk i've seen a few times and which I don't tire of: it's constantly evolving and always fascinating. See it if you can, and this time round he had preview cover artwork for Grandville: Bête Noire, which we're told will be a take on James Bond. It looked smart. Bryan is a class act and was the first guest to confirm for the con. You should all buy Grandville and see his talk if ever you get the opportunity.
Dr Mel Gibson's talk Studying Comics: Where to start? demonstrated that there's a world of literature beyond Scott McCloud. My Recommendation is to check out her website: www.dr-mel-comics.co.uk

Ingi, from Tees Toons. With Isaac, Mark and Jacob

The atmosphere... for the whole day reminded me of HiEx, in being bouncy, easy going and family friendly, which is a sure sign of something going right.

The all ages workshops and competitions from the fantastic Cuttlefish Comics, Tees Toons, Art Heroes and the lovely Brittany Coxon.
Judge Dredd and the Readers of the Lost Art giving away free comics.
Newcastle City Library whose staff were entirely brilliant, but also, just the fact of hosting in a community centre rather than a professional convention centre made for an excellent mix of kids and kurious.

Other notes:

The list of people I didn't speak to nearly enough and/or haven't mentioned here is enormous

Paul Regan has the power to make cigarettes
hover in front of his face awaiting their turn.


Spleenal by Nigel Auchterlounie, looks filthy.	One of Doug's first stories for an american publisher was one of my favourite Grant Morrison Doom Patrol stories.