The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The plan was to head across to Leeds on Saturday to enjoy the first (annual?) Leeds Alternative Comics Fair. Got everything ready, camera (and spare batteries), notepad, business cards, something good to read on the train etc etc. And then started helping Molly with her homework. For those of you who don’t know, Molly’s just starting Year 7 at secondary and the sheer volume of homework is rather overwhelming her at present.

Worst of all, one of the outstanding pieces was her art, and Molly looks like she’s going to be as good an artist as I was/am, meaning any homework takes her ages, fills her with frustration at how she can’t get her ideas onto the page and generally turns into a bloody nightmare. All this (plus Geography and History and RE) meant it was too late in the day for me to get across. In retrospect I should have grabbed her and her art homework and taken it across. I’m sure we could have found enough artists to help her along there!

So I didn’t make it to Leeds Alternative Comics Fair. I’m sorry Hugh and Steve, it sounds like it was a great day for all and I’m hopeful to see another one next year where I promise to be in attendance.

The least we can do here on the FPI blog is to run a mentions and photos round up piece from the day, starting off with a couple of reports from the organisers… Hugh Raine & Steve Tillotson. And Hugh even pulled it together despite being burgled the day before:

(Co-organiser Hugh Raine raises a toast to the first successful Leeds Altenative Comics Fair. Pic kindly borrowed from Hugh Raine’s report of the day.)

“Exhibitors filtered in and we were faced with the task of setting up. The nice girl who worked there offered us the use of just five tables at first. How embarrassing… But Steve quickly calmed matters and we managed to pull in available tables from every corner of the pub. I even had a large speaker for a surface! And you know what? The rag tag collection of tables really made for a quirky and interesting set up. Due to a lack of space (if we’d had taken on even one more exhibitor we’d have been screwed!) Steve and I cherry-picked who we thought best represented the Northern scene. Plus a bonus Gareth Brookes all the way from London!” (From Hugh Raine’s report).

(Co-organiser Steve Tillotson. Pic kindly borrowed from Hugh Raine’s report of the day.)

“Well, the dust has settled on the first ever LACF and a splendid time was had by all. …. In the end the venue couldn’t have been better- we took over one corner, but there was still plenty of space for people to mill about and have a beer afterwards, or ignore us completely if they weren’t interested. … The place has got a relaxed arty atmosphere which suited us and the location was great, bang in Leeds city centre. I think we had a good mix of exhibitors too, and a good mix of punters- i reckon there may have even been more female than male customers, but it was at least 50/50, which is of course how it should be, but its nowhere near this at the big comics cons.” (From Steve Tillotson’s report)

From the looks of Hugh and Steve’s pictures and reports it seems like it was a very good day, full of talented people plying their wares for a very discerning general public. Here’s a few more of the people exhibiting on the day….

(Adam Cadwell popped over from Manchester)

(…. and Gareth Brookes came all the way from London. Pic kindly borrowed from Steve Tillotson’s report.)

(I reckon Helen Entwistle gets the prize for best stall of the day though – so much stuff. And a quick perusal of her website shows me it’s bloody good stuff too. Pic kindly borrowed from Hugh Raine’s report of the day.)

(Oliver East mans the communal table – it was meant to be an hour, it turned into an all day thing. Pic kindly borrowed from Hugh Raine’s report of the day.)

Oliver East (Trains Are … Mint) was there and ended up running the communal table all day (he’s a trooper that lad) and has written up the day in typically Oli style here:

“Arriving hung-over after my first date since new years eve, I was stuck in a corner away from the main fare, which was a major hurdle even before the pregnant lady sat in front of me, basically creating an inland island of comics reachable by only the most intrepid digger. And no one was intrepid, everyone looked hung-over. This didn’t matter for long as the fair was in a very decent bar with Erdinger on tap plus I shifted the gear to a better spot thus creating my own corner booth from which I could orchestrate hipsters’ browsing. And browse they did! Having a “British small press celebrity” brings a certain draw with it but the comics did their bit too, bless them. I was quite excited that some people pitching up booth side had actual knowledge of my stuff and some owned the lot all ready. One nice bloke knew a lot about Trains, massaged my ego for a while, but then bought Trains 1. Erm, shouldn’t you already have that? Sold my last complimentary copy of Berlin to a girl who was going to laud it over a Berlin-less friend. Trains Are…Mint gloating? I’m having that.”

I reckon it sounds rather good, don’t you? More details at the Leeds Alternative Comic Fair website and their facebook page. Hopefully it was enough of a success to convince Raine and Tillotson that this becomes an annual thing. Like the Birmingham Zine Fest the weekend before, it does sound like it could easily have fitted into a bigger space, which is a very encouraging sign.

We’ll end with these words from co-organiser Steve Tillotson, somewhat a call to arms to you, the comic fan, the comic creator reading this…..

“Anyway, i dont want to blow my own trumpet too much, and it could have been beginner’s luck, but i think we managed to put on a well-received event with minimal effort and (travel aside) no costs to anyone- so why don’t you have a go too?” (From Steve Tillotson’s report)