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Forbidden Planet People
I had a lovely time at the Forbidden Planet signing last night, and then afterwards with Tony Lee, Kieron Gillen, Tom Lloyd, Rich Johnston, and a whole bunch of other SF and comics folk. Indeed, it was a night when the British SF and comics communities drank together, which is always welcome. I have no photos from the rather more raucous portion of the evening, but I did take pictures of those who came along to get things signed by me. Here's just a few of them...
Graham Sleight and Jody Portugal.
Bruce Marsh and Rob Lee.
Nonchaloir and Discoagogo (if those are your real names) and Richard 'Iron Man' Orr.
Simon Guerrier and Duncan Popham.
Ming and Gary Quinton.
Simon Kavanagh and Simon Gilmartin. (Cheer up, emo kid.)
Graham Sleight and Jody Portugal.
Bruce Marsh and Rob Lee.
Nonchaloir and Discoagogo (if those are your real names) and Richard 'Iron Man' Orr.
Simon Guerrier and Duncan Popham.
Ming and Gary Quinton.
Simon Kavanagh and Simon Gilmartin. (Cheer up, emo kid.)
Thank you all for coming along and making it such an enjoyable night. Until tomorrow, when it's Ten Things time again (how quickly that week went by!), Cheerio!
Labels:
Captain Britain,
Forbidden Planet,
Graham Sleight,
Kieron Gillen,
Rich Johnston,
Simon Guerrier,
Simon Kavanagh,
Tom Lloyd,
Tony Lee
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Nice to see so many smiley faces! Glad it all went well Paul.
Yay! Looks and sounds like it was a lot of fun! And that store looks HUGE. And so well lit! NYC's Forbidden Planet is more like an overcrowded cave...
Next time there's pictures, though, you should include Twitter names or emails or something, thereby making your blog that much more versatile as a place for you to post your news/community/Geeky singles posting area! Come on, Cornell! Aren't you supposed to be helping us all get married?! ;)
However, the gentleman who stood out to me most seems to already have a ring on. (of course he does) The other gentleman I thought was cute doesn't have his hands showing. Next time, make people hold their books up with both hands. I'm just saying...
(and I hope you also know that I'm totally kidding!)
(Well, mostly.)
(Well, partly.)
is there two covers for the tbh of Vampire State?
:)
Teresa,
My experience of the NYC Forbidden Planet, mind it was in 1999 when I visited. I walked through the WTC as a short cut. Which is quite an eery thought thinking back.
But to the point. My experience of the NYC FB was it was massive. So it must be a big frelling cave.
That said. The really cool nice old book store called the Strand was much bigger. I could have camped out in that store for days. Toilets were totally dren though. Eeew.
The FP here in Manchester is like two stories. I think if memory serves the first story is kind of cramped but the upper floor is kind of a bit more spread out. It's been awhile since have made the trek to Manchester. I get all my comics and stuff from a specialist comics store. Seems easier. Plus it always nice to have a chat over the phone with the guy your getting your comics from, and ask for guidance on the new stuff. Bit more personal lol.
Paul: Glad you had a great time. Looks like all had a little party:)
Ian,
Yeah, FB in NYC is big, but it's just so jam-packed with stuff that it feels small. Now, I didn't start reading comics until about 2004, so I'd have no idea what it was like in 1999. :) Maybe they've crammed it with more toys and stuff since then. I just know that whenever I go in there it seems dark, and I'm always having to wedge myself around things. Whereas in these pictures, the store seems light and airy and "Welcome to our store! How about some comics?" FBNYC is more like "Get your comics and GET OUT!" Which, I suppose is more New York. :) I do my main comics shopping, though, at Cosmic Comics on E23rd street. That's my home away from home on Wednesdays. :)
And I LOVE The Strand! And they've recently done renovations and added MORE books, so it's much, much nicer. And they do events there now, too, which they didn't used to do.
Now, you've just got me thinking that I've been to England twice, but only to London. Next UK trip, I really should branch out!
FP *is* Huge! I love that about smiley faces, with Simon looking like that! And we got a couple of net handles there. (I just *so* prefer real names.) But yes, I do remember my mission to marry you all off. It's like a modern Jane Austen novel, except with no monsters. Hmm, so the guy without his hands showing... that's Ming, Gary, or the two Simons. I don't know about the first two... Max: yes, one for the US (Marvel) version, one for the UK (Panini) one.
Paul: Lol I use my real name on here. Though some of my chat handles over the years have been fun.
The first nickname I donned was Amerfly, which was sort of short for American Flyer, because it was about the time I was going to and from America a fair bit to visit my cousin who lives here in the UK again now.
But my favourite nick name that I used and even created back in 97 or 98 was DOAWalking, which was a name I used when I didn't know any better and was still using AOL.
Teresa: I must apologies for an infectious typo on my part. I put FB and meant FP lol. And you kind of fell into the trap of putting FB too.
Yes, The Strand was a lot of fun. And the NYFP. Perhaps my fond rememberings are just that. I remember going to Macys when in NY and was really, really dissapointed by it. I was kind of expecting a department store like in the original Miracle on 34th Street. It looked more like a cheap indoor market, and worse it didn't have a toy department. I love toys:) Also my plans to shoot santa with a nerf gun were foiled.
Paul - when Caroline is a full-fledged vicar, would she be able to marry us all? My housemate just suggested that I marry a British sci-fi fan and have a Doctor Who wedding, where we make the entrance of whatever the venue is look like a blue police box, and then when you walk in to the ceremony, it'll be bigger on the inside! :) We're watching a bit of the Third Doctor right now - "The Time Warrior" - and I can see why Sarah Jane is so badass. LOVE her. Anyway, so now we're all sitting around my house in our pajamas watching Doctor Who, planning DW weddings, and speaking in really bad English accents. It's fun! :)
And yes Ian, your typo was contagious. OR I could just be thinking about Facebook way too much. Also, it's true that Macy's is disappointing. Shopping there is HORRIBLE. However, there IS a certain magic to it at Christmas. When I was in college, I had a part-time job as an elf in Santa's workshop there! :) We had to stand in line and entertain the kids while they waited to speak with The Man In Red. I actually convinced a skeptical 7-year-old that I WAS an elf. He didn't believe me at first. Then I pointed myself out in a painting on the wall of elves in the workshop - "That's me there! With the rocking horse! I was much shorter then, but it's a myth that all of Santa's elves are short." Then I told him a story I made up on the spot of how I made that rocking horse and what happened to it, and by the end of the story, the kid was looking at me all wide-eyed and happy, and thought I was the coolest thing since peanut butter and jelly. He almost didn't want to go on and talk to Santa, because he didn't want to stop talking to me! :) I'll always have fond memories of Macy's for that.
When she can marry everyone, I'm sure she will. Randomly in the street, if nothing else.
Teresa: That's a really nice story. Thanks:)
I have one or two fun stories. Not Christmas related though.
Here's one for you all though. I'll try to keep it as concise as I can though. It's like one of those 70s sit com moments.
Back in 1091 oops sorry. I mean 1991:) I went to Poland on an AIT Cycle Rally with a group of young disabled people. Anyhow the guy who organized this was called Bob and it was a series of disasters right from the start.
Not all that funny at the time, but very funny now.
We start off with a 12 seater mini bus. Which is supposed to hold 12 people, enough tents for 12 people and 12 bikes.
So we have this bus. No trailer for the bikes and tents and no roof rack.
About half way on the way from Manchester to Luton to pick one of our group. Bob after much prompting from a few of us comes to the conclusion that we need to make more space in the bus. So we invest in a roof rack and get as many of the bikes on there as we can.
Still the bus is over crowded with bodies, bikes and tents.I had a bike right across me and another precariously perched behind my head.
Anyway, much to our surprise we arrive at the base camp, which was so many miles outside of the beautifully gothic city of Krakau after about 3 and a half days travel. It should only have taken 2 and half.
The fun begins on our return journey however. Because Bob being a little like Mr Britta. We get lost somewhere in East Berlin.
So in middle of East Berlin we have no money, no food, tents and bikes are piled up in the mini bus on top of us and our driver who is a born again Christian is beginning to get concerned and asks Bob for help with directions. He had the patience of a saint.
Bob says: Follow the north star. It always points north.
I'm thinking privately, "Has this guy ever heard of a compass."
Our back up driver Wayne who is a former British Army communications officer snaps and yells, "What the bloody hell are you talking about follow the north star. Are you clinically insane?"
Of course the language was more colourful than that.
Lucky for us Wayne knew of a nearby British Army base in Berlin. Which is where we went. Got fuel vouchers to see us as far as England and a bit of money for food because none of the group had eaten in close to 48 hours.
I'll never look at the north star the same way again. That's for sure.
Fun thing is though. By time I got home from that trip. The Russians had taken their president out of office and there was that big power struggle that was heavy in the news for a few weeks. Talk about a narrow escape.
Oh, I'm glad I'm too busy stabbing people on Thursdays, if this is what happens...
Macy's is one of only two places I've been lost in New York: we went in, down to the bottom floor, got turned around, and came out not knowing which way was up. We quickly re-established our sense of compass points, though, at least more quickly than the time we got lost down below the ex-World-Trade Centre (that time I was with someone who had a GPS 'phone, which would have told us exactly where we were but for all those pesky buildings. Technology, always useless in the end). I guess there's something to be said for all those terminally boring grids.