Cardiff International Comic & Animation Expo...

During last October I went to the one day equivalent of this event, it was pretty damn fun. After the two day version had passed me by for the previous few years it had taken place, it was time to take the opportunity to revel in two full days of hardcore geekery in my home city.

I woke up on the Saturday raring to go. Sadly my friend Dan, who incidentally is the man I call 'The Dealer' (he sells me comics), couldn't attend. That didn't slow me down any, the comic book community are friendly and amiable folk, so I knew I'd find some poor sod whose ear I could bend incessantly about Batman until they cried. An old friend of mine is always part of the brilliant team who staff these events, so there was always him to annoy (whilst you were stood toilet-tending, eh Mike?!) and plug for info about who was where.

As soon I got through the door, collected my wristband and numerous freebies (a copy of Avengers Arena #1 and a novel called 'The Alchemist' among them) and headed to the area we all know and love as Artist Alley. I'd realised a few days before that I have a copy of the blank cover variant of Batman issue #0 and after getting an awesome Spider-Man print at the October event, I knew who I was headed to!
I made straight for the table where a British artist called Lee Bradley (check out his work at http://www.leebradley.com/ ) was sat, he knew to expect me after a twitter chat. As soon as I pulled out my copy of Batman his face lit up, "ah! hello mate, I've been really looking foward to you showing up". We spoke for a few minutes about how Bats is his favourite character to draw, but due to him being known mainly for his work on Transformers comics, he rarely gets asked. He seemed pretty bloody stoked to be doing this sketch.
He asked me what I wanted, "Batman, looking fucking cool and feel free to use your imagination. Just have fun with it, dude". Lee told me to give him a few hours and off I went.

Next stop, another pre-planned one, was the table where a group of local comic writers were selling the 5th issue of their brilliant black and white comic Lou Scannon (http://louscannon.co.uk/blog/). I highly recommend checking this book out, it's great fun, superbly drawn and has a pretty interesting story that keeps you interested for future issues. I picked up the issue after a good chin-wag with the three guys who make the comic, bloody funny guys they are too!
They even remembered me from October, which is either ominous or a compliment, they asked what I thought of the other issues and thanked me for supporting their book. After getting my copies signed, it was time to see what other delights I could find.

On my way to the Lou Scannon table, I spotted these pretty damn freaky things:

These are the bears the maker of a comic called Bearlands had on his table. Issue #1 is called 'Zombie Bears', it tells the story of a loner, roaming a post Zombie apocalyptic world, who happens across a fortified town. He buys his way into the town using the one commodity all bears cannot resist.......HONEY! Once inside, things get interesting.
It's a really cool idea, the adult tone and visceral violence offset by the characters all being teddy bears makes it a gloriously crazy read.  You can buy copies and get more information at  http://www.subversivecomics.com/

Here's the cover of issue #1, which I bought and had signed by the writer, Jeremy Biggs:

Then it was time to head to the next table, one I was massively excited about. Promoting an online only, weekly comic anthology called Aces Weekly (you can find it at http://www.acesweekly.co.uk/home) . Backed by and including art from none other than David Lloyd, the genius behind the artwork in the classic V for Vendetta.
Thankfully, as I arrived, there were no people around the table. Available and happy to chat, David was a welcoming and friendly dude, more than happy to talk at length about his work. Thankfully both old as well as new. He told me what we already knew, but was no less cool to hear from the man himself, that V was inspired by Guy Fawkes and he also mentioned that when used in peaceful protest, he feels quite proud that the image he created is used as a collective face for the people.
For £7 I bought a card with a code for the first volume of Aces Weekly (not read all of it, yet. But so far it's really cool) and one side was blank. So, as I imagine most people who bought one that weekend did, I asked David to do a small sketch of V for me on the back, here it is:

Watching him knock up a sketch like that in what was probably only two minutes was amazing, I wish I could draw like that! Here's a pic of the moment I papped David Lloyd..... (sadly it's a bit blurry)

I also had a quick chat with the dude who was sat with him (whose name I sadly didn't catch) who said from the second volume of Aces Weekly, there will be a story called 'Santa vs The Nazis'. Which was inspired by the true events of the Nazis invading Lapland, the general premise being that the Nazis figure if Santa can deliver presents to the whole world in one night, he can deliver bombs, too.

After some much needed grub, it was time to head back and see what Lee Bradley had in store for me. I'd walked past a few times in the two hours since I handed him my comic and he was busy sketching away on it every time, he put a lot of work into it!
When he passed the finished article to me, I was amazed, my exact words were "fuck me, that's awesome!!" it's even cooler than I'd hoped, this guy is seriously good at what he does.

See for yourselves:

This now has pride of place in a wall mounted comic book frame. It's now one of the prized pieces in my comic collection.

A surprise addition to the day came in meeting the son of an old family friend, Nick Robatto, owner of a company called Rubbertoe (www.rubbertoeprops.com). He's the man responsible for many of the props used in the last few series of Doctor Who, including the Sonic Screwdrivers, parts of the Daleks and most impressively, the current TARDIS console. He had a few replica props with him for sale, I took a pick of the Dalek prop

After some time walking around the tables that people were selling from, where I picked up some back issues of Batman, some Amazing Spider-Man and volume one of Saga for a bargain £5, it was time for a few panels.
I met up with my friend, Mike and we headed to the first panel, which was a comic book based quiz in the style of a radio. Featuring writers for 2000AD and a girl from the north-east asking the questions, it was a really good laugh and a welcome change of pace from the madness of the Expo floor!

To finish off the day in style, we were treated to a screening of a 20 minute Judge Dredd fan film, called Judge Minty. In the Q&A afterwards, they told us that Minty was in an issue of 2000AD in the eighties for only 5 pages, he made such an impact with the writer of the film he felt compelled to write this film around him.
Unfortunately, Mike and I missed the first few minutes of the film, which we were later told was some rather stunning CGI footage of Mega City one, but what we did see was absolutely brilliant. For a film made on a budget of £10,000, the production values were amazing. I'd even go as far as to stay they were indistinguishable from many big budget Hollywood movies.
The tone and mood of the short were akin to that of Dredd, depicting Judge Minty taking the famed 'long walk' that some Judges choose to make when they retire from duty. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thankfully, in the post-movie Q&A, we were told that the whole thing, plus an additional "mood scene" of CCTV footage around the city, will be made available free online late April/early May.
I won't go into any more detail about the movie, it would be a shame to spoil it for people. I highly recommend you keep your eyes peeled for when it is available to watch, it's a fantastic example of how good a fan film can be.

That rounded off day one of the Expo, in pretty fine style. Knackered, but thoroughly full of groovy geek vibes, it was time to head home.

DAY TWO:

The Sunday of the Expo involved me giving my good friend Dave his very first exposure of a comic convention. I was pretty excited to show him how fun these things are and give him a taste of what's to be expected at these events.
A markedly quieter day than Saturday (at times it was difficult to even move on Saturday!), the mood was very chilled out and wonderfully friendly. This day would prove to be a much more laid back and easy going affair.

Dave and I immediately set out to raid the sellers for any and all back issues of comics we collect. I managed to dig out the entire first volume of Batman Inc. for him at £1 an issue, possibly the best bargain of the weekend. I picked up 11 more Amazing Spider-Man issues and off we went.

On the first day, I spotted a guy who had some really amazing digitally drawn prints he was selling, including Optimus Prime holding a Welsh flag (till all are one, mun) which was selling like crazy. The print that caught my eye, however, was one of TMNT in the style of the new TV series.
At £5 per print, it would have been rude to not invest in one. So I picked one up, asked the artist to sign it and so started a pretty interesting conversation.
Turns out the artist, John-Paul Bove (www.wordmongerer.deviantart.com), does a lot of work for IDW. He recently did colours for the TMNT mini-series Fugitoid issue, as well as work on Transformers and Doctor Who comics.
The really interesting part came when he said that the TMNT print he was selling is his test art for a comic he is writing and drawing, based on the new TV show, for release in the UK through Panini. I was pretty surprised when he said there were no plans for a US version or a release of his book over there. But he did mention he was trying to figure something out with IDW.
John-Paul also teased big things coming in the main IDW TMNT book, all he said was one word and that was "rift".
I'm a pretty big fan of that book, so i can't wait to find out where it's headed after that tease. Anyway, here's a pic of the print I bought:



After some food, we headed back to the Expo and proceeded to make one final round of the stalls and tables. I spotted a new Batman hardcover for a bargain price of £10, which ended up in my bag.
We spoke to another artist who was selling A3 prints of some pretty funny Deadpool art he'd done. Dave bought one that was of Deadpool being chased by Batman whilst saying "A billionaire who dresses up as a bat to fight crime?! Now THAT'S my kind of crazy".

By then, things were starting to wind down, so we decided to call it a day. A much less eventful, yet just as fun, day. A good way to ease a friend into the fun of attending cons, I'm pretty sure Dave will be hitting next year's event with me pretty hard, judging from him mentioning about going with £100 to spend!

All in all, an awesome weekend, which is testament to the hard work by the Expo team. They're a small bunch who manage to pull off something brilliantly fun, diverse and immensely gratifying. I can't wait for next year!!!

To finish off, here's a picture of a young lady (if you can call her that, given what she's up to) blowing some dust off Darth Vader's helmet:

and a one of some brilliant Gears of War cosplay.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!