Birmingham Triumph and IPhone Comic Genius

Just got back from the Birmingham International Comics Show, and just wanted to say what a fabulous event it was. The overcrowding problems of last year were noted and thoroughly dealt with, with a lecture theatre having been found to host the panels, just one floor below the old venue. As a convention veteran, I must emphasise what a pleasure it is to see presentations in a room meant for them, with great acoustics. It added greatly to such delights as Gary Leach's slide show on the creation of a Dan Dare painting, the now gladiatorial delights of 'pitch us a 2000AD short story in ten seconds, winner gets printed' (they may have had a snappier title for that), and actual science being done in 'The Science of Superheroes'. I tested the venue myself in the company of Dave Gibbons, Mark Buckingham and Doug Braithwaite, in what turned out to be a bouncy but quite reflective podcast recording for those nice chaps at Geek Syndicate. I'll let you know when it's out.

I also very much enjoyed the Friday night party, where Liam Sharp's Giant Sized Band Thing rocked the house, with covers including Tony Christie's 'Avenues and Alleyways'. It's always the social life with one's peers that makes these dos, and it was a pleasure as always to hang out with Leah Moore, John Reppion, Rob Williams, P.J. Holden, Emma Vicelli, Nick Setchfield and the gang. I have but two quick things to plug, in the wake of all that, considering especially that I've just got back, am posting enthusiastically and will shortly retire to the embrace of my sofa...

First up, I must mention Mike Collins' (of Paul and Mike fame, you may remember, last Christmas) excellent comic adaptation, for Classical Comics, of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It's fine work, drawn in many different styles suiting the changes in the material, and in its most serious form (Classical Comics have different versions for different reading ages) is a complete rendition of every single bit of dialogue from the original. Plus you get designs and hidden extras taken from lots of the different movie versions. It's clearly a labour of love, and is, like all these guys' books, extraordinarily inexpensive. Do have a look:

http://www.classicalcomics.com/books/christmascarol.html

But most importantly, and I really think this is some sort of breakthrough, and something that kept making people go ooh and ahh all through the convention, if you have an IPhone or an IPod Touch, I'd like to direct your attention to this on ITunes:

http://tinyurl.com/4qjr4p

This being P.J.Holden's weekly comic for children, on the IPhone, for 99c a go, or the British equivalent. The oohs and ahhs (and P.J. got serious people from various serious organisations I shall not name coming over to have a look at his phone as word of mouth spread) were because this is the first comic project that I've seen that really takes advantage of the mobile form. You can bring up a colouring pallette, and colour in, with your finger, black and white versions of every panel. You can pare them down to their original pencil versions and further to see how they were made. Most importantly, each comic comes with an IPhone novelty: a horse with googly eyes that neighs when you shake the phone; the ability to shave a character's hair off with your finger, and feel the vibration as you do so. Children are absolutely going to love this, and from the effect it had in the bars and convention halls, not just them. And I think P.J.'s innovations and programs are going to be huge. Go on, have a go!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm back to work, on loads of things about which I can't yet tell you, but feeling refreshed from the convention experience. And next weekend is Newcon in Northamption, and Iain Banks radio play snippets, so the fun keeps on coming. Until next we speak, Cheerio.