[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-amazing-unicomics":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"\u003Cb>Wow, Britain has a new annual comics convention, and boy, are those \u003Ca href=\"http://www.unicomics.co.uk/UniComics/UniComics_Home.html\">Unicomics\u003C/a> organiser team people NICE!\u003C/b> I've never been so well treated at a comics convention, with an big, organised, friendly team in matching shirts, a green room with free refreshments for exhibitors, not to mention the fun, eager kids stopping by to say hi. \\r\nHere's an 8-year-old comics artist named Simon who'd made some remarkable war comics (look out for that dude in five years or so, publishers! Click on the pic or \u003Ca href=\"http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/jabberworks/uploads2010/simon_comic.jpg\">here to see a larger version of his page\u003C/a>): \\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/jabberworks/uploads2010/simon_comic.jpg\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_simon2-2692e9ed5d.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nAnd I got to meet two of the best friends of our DFC comic, \u003Cb>Patrick\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Ben Bastow\u003C/b>, who'd come all the way to Hatfield from Peterborough. It's the best feeling ever to meet people who really love our work, their visit totally made my day. (Those are \u003Ca href=\"http://www.garynorthfield.co.uk\">Gary Northfield\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.daveshelton.com\">Dave Shelton\u003C/a> in the background.) Another one with his original DFC poster (even signed by David Fickling!) and Dave Shelton with the first book in the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.davidficklingbooks.co.uk/davidficklingbooks_dfclibrary.asp\">DFC Library\u003C/a> (\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/DFCLibrary\">DFCLibrary\u003C/a> on Twitter\u003C/i>), \u003Cb>\u003Ci>Good Dog, Bad Dog\u003C/i>\u003C/b>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_patben-adc22521d5.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_bendave-b831ea121b.jpg\"width=\"240\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the yellow and super-fabulous Team Unicomics. Thanks, \u003Cb>University of Hertfordshire, St Albans Children's Book Group, Laydeez Do Comics\u003C/b> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.unicomics.co.uk/UniComics/Unicomics_Team_Profile.html\">everyone on the crew\u003C/a>! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_team-7e71299606.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Lots more photos under the cut!-->\\r\nI didn't get any photos of the big monsters & aliens workshop I did (the room was packed!) but here's a look at our panel discussion, \u003Ci>Creating Comics for Kids\u003C/i>, chaired by \u003Cb>Douglas Noble\u003C/b>. (Thanks, Douglas!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_panel1-566bc379df.jpg\"> \\r\nHere's Douglas, and Gary Northfield summoning the ghost of his Viking mouse:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_douglas-42e9e2e832.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_gary-2cac7113f1.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd one of Dave Shelton's marvellous sketchbook drawings. He keeps a great blog of his amazing doodles on his blog, \u003Ca href=\"http://daveshelton.blogspot.com/\">Have you been out today?\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_shelton-ea0bf52d5a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSome of my fave comics peeps, \u003Cb>Joe Decie\u003C/b> (\u003Ca href=\"http://joedecie.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">joedecie\u003C/a>) and \u003Ci>Curtis and Terrorist\u003C/i> goodies (or baddies?) by \u003Cb>Oliver Lamden\u003C/b>. Also great to see \u003Ca href=\"http://www.fabtoons.com/\">Francesca Cassavetti\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.amdrawing.co.uk/\">Al Maceachern\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://dogtopus.blogspot.com\">Paul Fryer\u003C/a> and other fab indie comics guys.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_decie-1c1f30bced.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_curtis-03e511d1a9.jpg\" width=\"335\">\\r\n\\r\nLovely bag by \u003Cb>Marc Ellerby\u003C/b> of \u003Ci>Ellerbisms\u003C/i>, and \u003Cb>Cliodhna Lyons\u003C/b> (\u003Ca href=\"http://ztoical.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">ztoical\u003C/a>) and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.neptunefactory.com/pages/vampirefreestyle.html\">Vampire Freestyle\u003C/a>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_ellerby-524f6f01be.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_cliodhna-44b4a554f6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nJudge Dredd and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.tpcat.net/index.html\">Melody Lee\u003C/a> (who studied illustration at Kingston):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_dredd-01a3c17b44.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_melody-83a04035cb.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nJan Wheatley (one of the speakers at the \u003Ca href=\"http://laydeezdocomics.blogspot.com/\">Laydeez Do Comics events\u003C/a>), and a Unicon organiser who had me draw her killer mushrooms, then had \u003Cb>Gary Erskine\u003C/b> draw them with Dan Dare (who would've thought?):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_janwheatley-0cb25b2174.jpg\" width=\"250\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_shrooms-7e2a676f95.jpg\" width=\"370\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cb>Daniel Merlin Goodbrey\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Dave Shelton\u003C/b> doing some last-minute Powerpoint fiddling for our panel talk, and \u003Cb>Claude T.C.\u003C/b> \u003Ca href=\"http://ryclaude.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">ryclaude\u003C/a>'s customary tortured photo face:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_dandave-f6c02d4d60.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_claude-38adb734c8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnother glimpse of our table, with Dave, Gary and our \u003Ca href=\"http://stitchldn.com/\">Stitch and Bitch London\u003C/a> studio mate \u003Cb>Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/b>. Thanks for all your help, Lauren and Stuart! We had some \u003Cb>limited-edition back issues of the original DFC for sale\u003C/b> that I think we'll bring to London's \u003Ca href=\"http://www.londonexpo.com/show_features/comic_village__expo.html\">MCM Expo\u003C/a> on 29 & 30 May. (We were selling them for £2 that day, but you can buy a \u003Cb>complete set\u003C/b> of 43 for £40 plus £11.50 post&packing if you let us know, or contact thedfccomic at googlemail dot com. Great for collectors and possibly libraries, if they want to start up a cosy comics reading corner.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_stall1-b0f9e0f531.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>West\u003C/i> comics on sale; I'd recently seen \u003Ca href=\"http://warwickjohnsoncadwell.blogspot.com/2010/04/west.html\">fan art\u003C/a> by \u003Cb>Warwick Johnson Cadwell\u003C/b> so I was glad to spot the books by \u003Cb>Andrew Cheverton\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Tim Keable\u003C/b>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_west-5181bbc520.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd one more of Simon, because his drawings really were rather wonderful:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/unicon_simon1-8efdb09c76.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\\r\nAlso,\u003Cb> a big thanks to Melanie McGilloway for the \u003Ca href=\"http://librarymice.blogspot.com/2010/04/you-cant-eat-princess.html\">great review\u003C/a> on Library Mice of \u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i>.\u003C/b> \u003Ci>Morris the Mankiest Monster\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i> were good sellers, thanks to everyone who picked one up from me or the bookseller at Unicomics!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Further updates, add \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/UniComicsFest\">@UniComicsFest\u003C/a> and watch \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23unicomics\">#unicomics\u003C/a> on Twitter.\u003C/i>","2010-04-25T09:14:00.000Z","amazing-unicomics",[],"amazing unicomics!",1776628718007]