Tuesday, November 15, 2005


It’s come up the odd time already so no surprises that I’ll be attending the Brighton Expo (Sat 19th and Sun 20th) this weekend. Arriving Friday leaving Sunday. No fixed plans, just fulfilling my usual capacity as amiable drunk. Must say the guest list is looking rather amazing. Check it oot on:

www.comicexpo.biz

Yep, I’m planning on having a rare good time. The Brighton Expo replaces the London Comics Festival of last year. These days despite myself I tend to hit the Convention early doors. Gone are the days I stumble in around 3.30 pm to find everyone has left without me. London last year was pretty terrific and for the most part I didn’t have to move my arse. I was up early on the Saturday only to realise after seeing a full-sized version of Desperate Dan that maybe I should sit down and eat a (massively overpriced) sandwich and get some caffeine in me. About ten minutes later Joe Pruett and April Doster from Desperado appeared. I know Joe from my time at Caliber, so they joined me for a chat. Shortly after one Mike Ploog, working with Joe on a project, sat at the table. A few beers later and Ed Hammond, my editor at Panini, who I’d never met up to that point, introduced himself on recognising my voice. And he brought over the whole Panini posse. Highlight was being (relatively) sensible for the first couple of hours only to eventually crumble and metamorphosis into a quivering fanboy telling Mike Ploog how much I loved The Thing. (Mike did the designs on the John Carpenter classic, hell the best monster movie ever.) And that guy, I went on to tell him, who’d had one Flaming Sambuca too many, the Ghost Rider, he wasn’t too bad either. That was the day the Convention finally came to me. The day of JimCon, which you have to admit has a slightly better vibe that JimExpo, which sounds faintly indecent. See ya there.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello - Glad to see you didn't get killed by the beer! Also dead jealous of you meeting Mike Ploog.

Jim Alexander said...

Ah Cath, my first post-Brighton Brighton comment. God bless you, luv. And good ol' Mike an American living in England who couldn't make the Convention held in England this weekend 'cause he was called away to America. One of the coolest and hairiest people in the planet. Tolerant of barely coherent fanboys. Anyway, g'night world. And keep Rolf Harris safe from harm for at least another day.