back from BICS!

A huge thanks to Shane Chebsey and everyone who organised the British International Comics Show in Birmingham this weekend! I had a great time launching Morris the Mankiest Monster (which you can buy here if you missed me)!

I think my interview of Michiru Morikawa went well. Something very cool happened in the middle of her talk; she was saying she was sad she hadn’t been able to meet any of her co-creators, other than via e-mail, and suddenly one of them, Jeymes Samuel, said something like, ‘Hey, I’m here!’, and there was a big happy first meeting! Jeymes was able to talk about the film being made, and made Michiru glow with his effusive praise of her work. That was fun!

Running my monster-making station at my table meant I didn’t have time to run around the show very much, but I got to meet loads of fab people, including MP for West Bromwich East Tom Watson and his son, who coloured with me while we argued about energy policy, agreed that my MP Joan Ruddock is very cool, and speculated about possible uses of the glass entry tubes in the Ministry of Magic. He bought a Morris book and went home that night and wrote up a lovely review on his blog. Thanks, Tom!

We had a real mix of people come make monsters: one kid would sit down, then the table would be full of kids; a teenage girl would sit down and the table would be full of teenage girls; a middle-aged bloke would sit down and we’d have a bunch of guys cutting and pasting… it was great.

You can see a whole bunch more photos on the slideshow here. Thanks to cdave for crocheting me a brilliant set of Morris horns, to Molly Bruton for her lovely Morris picture (see the slideshow) and to everyone who stopped by!