Sarah McIntyre has a fair few pictures of the event…lots more at her post: Drawing Parade sounds, and looks great,  …. here’s Sarah’s Philippa Rice photo, doing a great My Cardboard Life / FF collage mash-up:

And another from Sarah… the main hall:

Can you spot a problem with that picture? All I can see is the complete lack of space for exhibitors and punters alike.

And then I read John Allison’s report on it, where he brings up the aisles, the space, and the problem of the two roomed venue; one room busy, one deathly quiet it seems:

“Firstly I’d like to thank the organisers and staff, who were helpful all day. The drawing parade was fascinating to watch and I was well looked after throughout.”

“But I cannot ignore the elephant in the room: the hall was near-impossible to traverse. Three people could not pass down the aisles simultaneously, so it was very dificult for people to browse your work comfortably most of the time. Exhibitors on the central aisles were crammed in back to back with almost no room for manoeuver, and it was hard to stand up and engage with people face to face because there was inevitably a chair in your way, buckling you at the knees.”

And then I got around to reading the report by Dan Berry, who also brings up the aisle thing, the problems with having a main and second (far, far quieter) hall, and goes one further… with a comprehensive set of very reasonable suggestions for improvements…

“I’ve had some thoughts on how to make comics shows better for exhibitors. Happy exhibitors make for better shows I think.

1. Aisle space. There’s nothing worse than having people’s bags or jackets inadvertently knocking your precious comics onto the floor or having your table blocked by people just trying to get past. Here’s what organisers need to do; in setup, get the three huskiest members of the team to stand face to face with big camping rucksacks on and then try to squeeze past between the tables. Can’t do it? Not enough aisle space.

2. Exhibitor space. Same as above really, but with chairs in the equation too. Some kind of left-luggage or cloakroom would be ideal.

3. Timings. Having time at the start before visitors arrive to look through what everyone else has on display would be great. It’s not essential, but if it is a particularly well attended show, this may be the only chance people get to see other people’s work. Trying to get everyone in and set up can be a challenge, but trying to get all the visitors out as well as getting all the exhibitors and their tables packed away at the same time is horrible. Giving exhibitors an extra half hour at the end to pack up without having someone trying to buy something from you or having someone hurry you along to fold down your table would be great.

4. Hospitality. It would be worth considering having some kind of organised drinks-run system. At the moment, if you want a hot drink, you have to abandon your table and fight through the crowds to bring back a half-spilled lukewarm drink. Using a portion of the profits from selling tables to pay someone to fetch refreshments for exhibitors would result in an awful lot of goodwill.”

And then I see co-organiser of Comiket Paul Gravett has commented on both of these posts:

“Hello and thanks for everyone’s valuable feedback here. Megan, Peter and I are glad most people had a great Comiket last Saturday but we do understand there were problems with the downstairs room for some exhibitors. SOOO we have offered to either refund those exhibitors affected in full or offer them the same equivalent table space at our next Comiket in November at no cost and guaranteed to be in The Great Hall. We hope this will go some way towards apologising and compensating for this disappointment. We had hoped that the programme of interviews and signings and regular announcements would draw more of the public to the extra rooms, but this did not work out. We’re listening to your suggestions and learning lessons, as we try to develop Comiket further. We’ll be making some important changes to Comiket in November, more news to follow shortly. Comica: Putting Comics First! Cheers, Paul”

Congratulations to Paul and Comica for acting so swiftly. Hopefully Comiket November will be better than ever, and these problems ironed out.

One of our very faves, Sarah McIntyre, was at Comiket last weekend and has turned in one of her by now traditional great blog reports on the gig, loaded with art and photographs (including the one above we shamelessly borrowed with organisers Megan O’Donnolley and Paul Gravett escorting Woodrow Phoenix to the Loudest Shirt Parade section of the festival). It sounds like everyone had a great time, with lots of creators present, comics sold and drawings made (including live drawing projected onto a big screen). Also of note Sarah talks about how she liked the kids who were running their very own comics stall and how she would like to see something like Comiket but aimed more at younger readers. And actually something very much like that may indeed be happening later in the summer – rather than paraphrase here’s what Sarah said about it herself:

“Which brings me on to the second event. I think kids would LOVE to have a comics fair like Comiket aimed more toward them, more of a family kind of place. And since kids don’t usually have a lot of money, even if there were comics for sale, the focus would be more on them making comics than buying them. Which is what I’m hoping will happen at this summer’s Pop-Up Festival in King’s Cross, London, on Saturday, 30 June. I’ve been invited and funded, with ten other creators, to curate a marquis, and I’m turning it into a comics festival. I asked the super-organised David O’Connell to help me with the logistics of it, and on Tuesday, we curators went to Central Saint Martins art college, who are hosting the festival on their site, to select and be selected by students whom we’re hiring to do set design work and make the tent look FABULOUS. ”

Sounds like a lovely idea – perhaps as she says there would be more comics creation than selling, but anything which gets kids more interested in reading and storytelling is always a good thing for them and for the rest of us (they are, after all, tomorrow’s book and graphic novel buyers, inspire their narrative and visual imagination now and they will read for life, some will be making the books we will be reading in ten years).

Comics peeps in that London – Comiket tomorrow from 11am to 6pm, admission free: top indy comics, living drawing and more, a perfect day out no matter the weather, if you’re in town give ‘em some love.

Coming in April; the now twice a year Comica Comiket….

“Following the huge success of last November’s Comica Comiket in the spectacular Great Hall at the Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street station in London, we’re organising a brand new Comica Comiket for the Spring, a one-day comics and art fair – bigger and better than ever, offering the best of British creators, publishers, small presses, graphic artists and suppliers under one roof, and admission is free from 11am to 6pm. Throughout the day, John Allison, Darryl Cunningham, Tom Gauld, Simone Lia, Maarten Vande Wiele and Andi Watson are among the top artists who will be taking part on stage in the Comica Drawing Parade, with their live artworks and demos projected on a giant screen.”

And the comic drawing parade is just the tip of the iceberg! For a start there’s pretty much the who’s who of UK comics publishing exhibiting: Accent UK, Blank Slate Books, Cinebook, Jonathan Cape, Knockabout, Myriad Editions, Nobrow, SelfMadeHero.

On top of that there’s a host of artists going to be exhibiting; to many to mention here, but many familiar names from the FPI blog. The full list and more details from the Comica Comiket site.

In London tomorrow? You could do far worse than heading to the Comica Comiket.

Guests include Roger Langridge, Luke Pearson, Warren Pleece, James Jarvis, Savage Pencil, Eyeball, Frederik Peeters and Brecht Evens, and what are the odds that the great and the good of UK Comics (or at least London Comics) will be in attendance, along with several Brit companies: Accent, Blank Slate, DFC Library, Jonathan Cape, Knockabout, Myriad Editions, and Nobrow.

Full details at the Comica website.

London peeps, a must-have for your comics diary this month, a lovely part of the larger Comica festival – Comiket, in the Great Hall at the Bishopsgate Institute on Saturday 12th November. The guest list includes Roger Langridge, Luke Pearson, Warren Pleece, James Jarvis, Savage Pencil, Eyeball, Frederik Peeters and Brecht Evens, while the list of those who will be attending includes a veritable who’s who of British Indy comics such as Accent UK, Sean Azzopardi, Dan Berry, the Blank Slate Books posse will be there, the DFC Library crew too, Jonathan Cape, Howard Hardiman, Lizz Lunney, Knockabout Comics, Myriad Editions, Phillipa Rice, david O’Connell, Nobrow, Doug Noble, We Are Words + Pictures, Solipsistic Pop, Kevin Sutherland, Katie Greene and many more. Phew.

And on the subject of Comiket, the Comica site has posted up this video shot by Steve Poulacheris of last year’s Comiket Drawing Parade, featuring the likes of Charlie Adlard, Gary Nothfield, Paul Duffield and more drawing and being interviewed – we’re told a second part is in the works featuring Ellen Lindner, Hunt Emerson and more.

And I just have to post this lovely image up again – Isaac Lenkiewicz’s fabulous-looking poster for this year’s Comica, isn’t it brilliant?

This year’s Comica includes the now customary bevvy of wonderful comics events, including the one and only Warren Ellis in conversation, Laydeez Do Comics will be joining up with Comica to bring guests from the USA, Canada and Germany, Swiss comics creator Frederik Peeters (Sandcastle), launch parties for The Strumpet, Nobrow’s Klaus and Solipsistic Pop 4, talks, lectures, the Graphic Short Story Prize award and so much more – as we say in the trade, check the site for full details.

The 8th (nearly) annual Comica Festival, curated by Paul Gravett, returns to London in November. As usual, it promises to be an involving and informed mix of all the best in comics. Taking place between the 3rd and 25th of the month, the events list is shaping up nicely; a premiere of the Warren Ellis documentary Captured Ghosts, an exhibition from Berlin based Biograftiktion collective, Nobrow launch parties for Nobrow 6 and Richard Short’s Klaus, and more in their conversations series, this time round featuring Laydeez Do Comics, Paul Gravett on superheroes, and Nicole Rousmaniere discussing Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure. Full programme details, with promises of more announcements to come at the Comica site.

The annual Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story Prize will be announced during Comica, with the winner receiving £1000 and extensive coverage in the Observer. And this year sees the return, bigger (and hopefully better) than ever, of the Comica Comiket, the alternative comics fair taking place this year on the 12th November.

This coming Sunday in London has the return of the Comica Comiket independent comics fair. It’s happening as part of the annual Comica festival, curated by Paul Gravett.

Previous years events have been great successes and from the looks of it, this years should be no exception. Very little word on exhibitors yet, aside from appearances by Woodrow Pheonix, Paul Grist and Gary Northfield, but I imagine the fair will have a large number of very talented London artists there, either as exhibitors or visitors.

Full details available at the Comica/Comiket webpage.

Its Comiket time this weekend! Back and now relocated to the ICA’s ground floor theatre which allows for even more space for exhibitors, some fab talent from the British small press comics scene will be there, check out some of the folks on the list: Aben Maler & Steffen P. Maarup, Alternative Press,  Jimi Gherkin, Banal Pig Press, Atlantic Press & Steve Braund, Sean Azzopardi, David Baillie, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey & Douglas Noble, The Bedsit Journal & Richard Cowdry, Capes & Drapes & Van Nim, C2D4 & Martin Buxton, Cobalt Cafe & Zarina Liew, Cute But Sad Comics & Howard Hardiman, Decadence & David Lander, Donkeys Tails & Christopher Bateson, Marc Ellerby, James McElvie & Kieron Gillen, Fabtoons & Francesca Cassavetti, Famicon -  Leon Sadler, Stefan Sadler & Kitty Clark, Glyndwr University Graphic Novels Course (Dan Berry), David Greene, Ink Soup & Graphic Short Stories @ BIAD (Chiu), Aidan Koch, Last Hours & Excessive Force, Ellen Lindner & Jeremy Dennis, Philip Marsden, Kat McMorrine, Mild Tarantula – Josceline Fenton, Modern Monstrosity -  Oliver Lambden & Laurence Powell, Murky Depths & Terry Martin, My Eye is on Fire & Chiu, Ninja Bunny – Philip Spence, Nobrow, Luke Paton, Pittville Press – Kieren Phelps, Popcorn Peacock – Timothy Gavin, Paul Rainey & Martin Eden, Karen Rubins, Gwen Kortsen & Paul Fryer, Savage Messiah & Laura Oldfield Ford, Semiotic Cohesion & Terome McNally, Skinny Bill Comics & Hannah Glickstein, Solipsistic Pop & Tom Humberstone, Space Babe 113 & John Maybury, Tempo Lush & Richy K. Chandler, Tozo – David OConnell, TP Cat Melody Lee & Terome McNally, Ushio & Chris Bottoms, We Are Words + Pictures & Matthew Sheret, Ali Winstanley & Edwin Rostron.

Phew! How can you resist a line-up like that? There’s a goodly number of the blog crew’s faves on there, so if you’re in town please do go along and enjoy yourself and give some deserved support to the vibrant UK small press scene at the same time. Comiket is on Sunday 8th November from 1 to 6pm (entry is free) and there will be live drawing and DJing (we all know you can’t keep those Modern Monstrosity blokes away from the decks) afterwards; check the site for full details and links .