The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The Birmingham International Comics Show has undergone a name change, now being re-branded as the British International Comics Show (swell of patriotic fever, dons Britannia costume, waves flag and plays God Save the Queen on a kazoo). Why the change from Brum to Brit then? “This is simply to reflect how the show has become the UK’s largest comic industry event and to help attract a wider variety of visitors, exhibitors and sponsorship. We also don’t want to be limited to Birmingham as a location for the show, and the name change allows us flexibility on this front,” organiser Shane Chebsey explained to the Geek Syndicate.

Shane goes on to note that they are pretty happy with Birmingham as a location and this doesn’t meant BICS will be abandoning their traditional home, but they are considering the option of events located elsewhere. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (unless you live nearby and enjoy the fact you don’t have to travel far to attend it) – the major annual weekend bash of British science fiction and fantasy, Eastercon, moves around the UK each year so it isn’t a case of fans every year having to travel to the one spot (say London), which can be pretty annoying if you live several hundred miles away. And that seems to work pretty well for Eastercon; likewise also in SF&F the Worldcon moves around, usually a different location in the US every second year and another country the next, which offers local fans more of a chance to take part and also to generate more interest in the genre in a new location (with hopefully a lasting effect on those local fans wanting more and going to their local comics and book shops afterwards).

So I’m not unhappy at the idea that the re-named BICS might venture to other locations from time to time (and it is only a possibility), perhaps even – gasp! – coming a bit further north for a change (it is a bit of a shame that two major UK comics events are located fairly far south, a pretty far haul for those of us who live further up the country) and as I said, the SF&F community have shown that the changing location event is a model that can work well. Work is going on for a new BICS website and they hope to start announcing the first guests sometime in February. (thanks to Barry from the Geek Syndicate for the heads-up)