(Highlands superhero Nessie, along with Tank Girl, Dredd and Dennis the Menace, art by Tanya Roberts, TG (c) Martin & Hewlett, Dredd (c) Rebellion and Dennis is (c) DC Thomson)

Richmond Clements and Vicky Stonebridge drop us a line to update us to the latest details for the return of the Hi-Ex comics con in the capital of the Scottish Highlands, Inverness, this coming March 31st and April 1st, again in the usual home of the splendid riverside Eden Court and Tanya Roberts has created the fab new poster art (above) for the 2012 gig.  More details will follow in the next few weeks but among guests confirmed already are Tanya (who also has a great track record in animation as well as art, working on Toy Story, Strawberry Shortcake and the Clone Wars among others) paying a return visit, Gary Erskine will be back once more, I am pleased to see and so will Al Ewing, Michael Carroll and making his Hi-Ex debut comics and fine artist (indeed he won second prize in the BP National Portrait Awards, notes Vicky) Simon Davis.

(scene from the 2010 Hi-Ex, pic from my Flickr)

David Barras and Scott MacKay were there at the 2009 Hi-Ex raising awareness and finance for their micro budget film project Electric Man, a film revolving around a pair of loveable losers working in an Edinburgh comic store who fall into a plot involving the world’s rarest comic. Well the guys are back and, as regular readers will know, they raised the finance and made the film, which they will be bringing to Eden Court’s cinema for the convention. I was lucky enough to be in the first audience for the film in Edinburgh’s Filmhouse back in August and highly recommend it as a cracking wee Scots Indy movie with great characters and very inventive in employing its limited funding to create a great movie (you can read my review here). More guests and other details will follow soon, so make sure you have bookmarked the Hi-Ex site bookmarked.

(Colin MacNeil and Cam Kennedy at the first Hi-Ex in 2008)

And on a personal note I’d like to add that I have loved my trips to Hi-Ex – it started very well with the first event and has grown nicely but remained a very open, welcoming event, very family friendly (loads of very contented kids present), it is well worth your support – likewise for comics biz folks who may be put off by the distance (hey, how do you think we feel having to go all the way to Bristol from Scotland?!) I’d say consider heading up, it’s a great and growing event on the Brit comics scene. And the scenery on the way up takes you through some of the most beautiful landscapes in these islands. (my 2010 Hi-Ex report is here, pics from the 2010 show here,and the first 2008 show here.)

Regular readers will know I’ve really enjoyed the Hi-Ex bashes – I thought Rich and Vicky did a great job with the very first one and last year’s third outing showed that it had grown a good bit, attracting more artists, publishers and visitors and yet still retaining the intimate, family friendly feeling that came with the smaller scale, best of both worlds, really. Bit early for details yet, of course, but I’m sure we will be hearing about guests and events over the next few months – I’ll certainly be circling the date in my diary for a return trip and I suggest you do too.

(Gary Northfield sketching at the 2010 Hi-Ex, pic from my Flickr)

“Hi everyone,

Well, there’s no easy way of saying this, so we’ll just come right out with it: there isn’t going to be a HiEx in 2011.
We know, it’s terrible!
But at the moment, we simply don’t have the spare time available over the next few months to get things ready on time and to do it justice and give you the event you deserve. Plus we’ve been struggling with finding sponsorship for the event.
However, we fully intend to return in 2012 (the End of the World not withstanding!), and hopefully that extra time will give us more room to find sponsorship and/or grant money and get things organised!

Sorry for dropping this on everyone, it really is the last thing we’re wanting to do, but we have to be realistic with the amount of work required compared to the number of hours we have available to do it!

Speak soon, and we’ll see you all at a convention near you soon! ”

(Hi-Ex co-organiser Richmond Clements, fresh from his one-man show “An Evening With Colonel Sanders”, with artist Alex Moore at this year’s Hi-Ex, pic from my Flickr)

I’m sorry to hear there won’t be a Hi-Ex next year – I enjoyed the very first one and found on a return trip to the third one this spring that (report here) it had grown very nicely (Rich and Vicky managing the miracle of even securing some arts funding, a major coup for a comics event), expanding, with more folks, a better dealer room, activities for all ages and yet still felt a good size, friendly and accessible. But I can understand how stressful and how much of their time organising and overseeing the birth and impressive growth of Hi-Ex must have been for them and I’m heartened to hear they are planning for it to return to the Highlands for 2012 and hope to be there myself again.

(“these aren’t the comics you’re looking for, move along…” Some of the 501st directing visitors where to park their landspeeders at Hi-Ex, click the pics for the larger versions on Flickr)

(Hi-Ex co-organiser Colonel Richmond Clements, with artist Alex Moore. Not pictured, leading brand of stain remover who were sponsoring Rich’s ensemble)

It’s been a great day, as anyone who followed my and other attendee’s Tweets will attest. With the Eden Court venue having a very good complimentary wifi several of us were able to log on and enjoy posting updates on Twitter and a bit of live-blogging. Several times I cyber-squatted next to Dave Evans and the FutureQuake Press table to post some updates; I have to say there’s something enjoyable about being able to sit cross-legged with a laptop across your knees posting updates on the con and even getting some photos onto the web. Gone are the days when we attended conventions, wrote up our report in the local inn afterwards then either handed the copy to a fast pony express rider to carry to the editor or used the new fangled telegraphic device. By the time I stepped off the Edinburgh train the Saturday Hi-Ex (there are many more events on the Sunday) was in full swing – after a short walk along the Ness I came to Eden Court and a plethora of Imperial Stormtroopers guarding the entrance, a whole bunch of the 501st on parade. Inside I was to find that Hi-Ex has grown – when I came to the first convention two years back most of was in the adjoining 19th century Bishop’s Palace. Now the main room in the Palace was used for the role playing gamers while the dealers and the artists now shared one much larger space than before in the main theatre, in the spot where at the first con the panels were held. The theatre seating cleverly recesses backwards into the wall leaving a great two-storey space, plenty of room for the writers, publishers and dealers to set up their tables and for the crowds to get around.

(some of the artist’s tables – Alex Moore, Gary Erskine and Simon Fraser just visible from this angle)

(Looking down into the main hall with the artists and dealers’ tables)

And crowds there were – it was impressively busy by midday and quite a few of the dealers’ table and the artists had good crowds around them. Dave Evans with his FutureQuake Press table told me that by mid afternoon he thought he’d done as much as he’d do at a busy day at the Bristol comic con, so he was a happy bunny and there was busy traffic around all the table. The artists seemed to be doing a steady trade with original artworks being browsed and sketches drawn and again I noticed that the contingent of manga artists, along with the Beano crew, were a big draw with the younger convention goers (Asia Alfasi seemed to have a constant line of folks waiting to get a manga portrait made and her mini-comics tied up with ribbon were things of beauty). Actually again, as with the first Hi-Ex, I was struck with the number of kids who were there and clearly having a ball, it’s a very family-friendly event and although I don’t have a breakdown of guests I got the strong impression a number were local families who had come in because it looked like a fun event, complete with face-painting, sketching and how-to classes. Sarah McIntyre and friends were obviously enjoying themselves with the kids and I noticed she was constantly posting up more artwork some of the delighted kids were making with her.

(Sarah McIntyre and her other half Stuart – you have to dig Sarah’s Gerry Anderson UFO-era retro SciFi costume and shiny white space boots!)

(Dave Shelton with his Good Dog, Bad Dog, part of the very first wave of DFC Library releases which we’ve been enjoying. Fortunately the dogs were all house trained)

There was a good mixture of folks in the main hall – guests ranged from some of the small press crew (I’ve come home with several fun looking mini-comics, which I will post more on later) through to very well known names. In addition to the aforementioned Sarah McIntyre, Asia Alfasi and Dave Evans there was Gary Northfield, Gary Erskine, John Higgins, Jeremy Briggs (flying the flag for Down The Tubes), the boys from the Indy Scottish superhero movie I mentioned recently, Electric Man, Simon Fraser, Cliodhna Lyons, Will Pickering (fresh from doing a stint as an extra on the John Landis Burke & Hare movie – clearly not content with just being the artist on the B&H graphic novel), Colin McNeil, Kevin F Sutherland, Charlie Adlard, Graeme Neil Reid (who I somehow kept missing), Cam Kennedy, Andi Ewing, the Com.X boys, Roger Gibson and Vince Danks and from the Harker comics (solid faves around and more. Panels included discussion on horror comics and the European scene and Kevin Sutherland managed to entertain and more than likely scandalise some with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre which had me roaring with laughter (seriously, I know many of you have seen bits of the Falsettos at various cons or the videos Kev posts on YouTube, but if you get the chance to go and see the whole performance, take it, you’ll thank me. His Sock Puppet Star Wars is genius).

(Dave Evans with the latest issue of FutureQuake)

(Asia Alfasi’s manga portraits were hugely popular and despite being so busy she always seemed to be smiling)

Co-organisers Richmond Clements and Vicki Stonebridge, ably assisted by a team of enthusiastic young helpers, were buzzing around radiating a fascinating mixture of urgency, pleasure, concern, tiredness and happiness that I generally associate with convention organisers. Rich was especially fetching in his dapper three-piece white suit, somewhere between Randall & Hopkirk, Deceased and a scary Southern evangelist minister crossed with Colonel Sanders (Kentucky Fried Comics anyone?). The now annual Hi-Ex charity auction took place in the afternoon – Rich told me he was pretty pleased with the amount they had raised between the auction and raffle (we’ll get the final figure later in the week, but unofficially it was looking like £1500 quid when I had to leave) and, in a very touching gesture, a number of the artists present came up to Rich to present their own further contribution in the shape of money they had made from their sketching during the day. Since I know many artists who attend comic cons rely on paid sketchwork as part of the way they can make a convention financially viable for them that’s a really generous move on their part and huge kudos to them.

(Roger Gibson and Vince Danks, the team behind FP blog fave Harker)

(Cliodhna Lyons, Deirde and Kyle Rogers with a fine array of mini-comics – including some in Irish Gaelic they were showing to some of the Scottish Gaelic readers of the Highlands. On the basis of Mr Rogers’ mini-comics he is a very sick man and I look forward to telling you more about that later)

All in all a cracking day out for kids and big kids alike – the only small niggle for me and, as I heard later, others, was the bar staff were rather bad (I gave up after several minutes of them taking turns to ignore me, heard later there had been other problems with service, which seems downright unprofessional not to mentions self defeating given the sheer number of visitors Hi-Ex was bringing in to the venue). But other than that minuscule aside I had a great time, even better than I had at the first Hi-Ex, and I loved that. It’s grown nicely, there’s more space, more guests (guessing the arts council funding must have helped a bit too and how great was it to see a comics event getting arts council help?), but it’s still at a nice, human scale that makes it very easy to move around, talk to folks and simply to enjoy it. Congrats to Vicki, Richmond and everyone else who made the third Hi-Ex a great success and here’s looking forward to it continuing to grow in future years.

(an Iron Man fan – perhaps he should have come as Big Daddy! – with adorable but getting a bit sleepy mini-fan’ there were a lot of very happy looking kids wandering around Hi-Ex)

(hunting the most dangerous of all prey – comics fans...)

I know more of you who were there will be posting your own write-ups and pics from Hi-Ex, so please do send in links to those postings (and also the folks who were at Schmurgencon or The Thing over the weekend too) and we’ll try and post up a links round-up for them for everyone; there are more photos from Hi-Ex on Flickr here.

(looking down into the main space at Hi-Ex with all the dealers and artists – click the pics for the larger version on Flickr)

Those of you who follow our Twitter feed will have already spotted that I am up in Inverness, capital of the Scottish Highlands, for this year’s Hi-Ex! comics con. The venue, Eden Court, has decent wifi so I’m wafting through the ether as I speak. The con has really grown since I came up only 2 years back for the first one – this year the artists and the dealers are all in one space in one of the main theatres. Rather niftily the theatre seating stands all fold back to create a large, two storey space and it’s way better than before, far more room for everyone. It’s seriously busy, lots of kids around once more too, I notice (it’s a very kids-friendly con), Stormtroopers from the 501st and cosplayers walking around, comics workshops for the young ‘uns, artists sketching, a special effects make-up man is transforming someone into a werewolf in one corner.

(Gary Northfield on day release from the Fleece Station sketching Derek the Sheep)

Gary Erskine is explaining to one young fan how to do tartan (or plaid shirts if you are drawing a lumberjack and he’s okay), Sarah McIntyre is making some groovy comics aliens with kids (and she is in a very retro futuristic SciFi ensemble of silver dress and white boots, very Gerry Anderson UFO era), the boys behind one of our fave comics, Harker, say they should have Big News hopefully in the near future (details as and when they can), Lauren O’Farrell is sitting next to Gary Northfield and purling away with her needles creating a knitted Nessie (punk comics knitting! It’s where the kids are at).

(Lauren O’Farrell working on one of the Highlands’ local celebs – yes, it is a knitted Nessie! click the pic for the larger version on Flickr)

Meanwhile a busy Dave at the FutureQuake Press stand tells me it’s been so busy he’s done as much business by mid afternoon as he would in most of a day at Bristol, so it’s going good for the small press folks too. Cliodhna Lyons has handed me a cute brand new mini comics and I’ve picked up a fab wee mini comic from Dave Shelton. Right, off to circulate some more – will post more pics and a full report over the next day or two, but for now stay tuned to the FP Twitter and I’ll try and do a few more updates if I get the chance – myself and everyone else here is adding the #hiex hashtag to our tweets so you can click on that to follow what everyone is posting, including us. First few photographs are on my Flickr as well now, more to follow!

(signed original page of art from Grandville by and (c) Bryan Talbot)

With the third Hi-Ex Highlands comics convention due to see a number of comics creators riding into Inverness on the backs of giant atomic mutant haggis in just over a month the website has up some of the fine goodies that have been generously donated by writers, artists and fans for their accompanying charity auction, which has raised a good deal of money for the charity Children 1st at the previous two conventions. A quick look down the page reveals some covetable items which will be going under the hammer for a good cause, including a signed original page from Bryan Talbot of his wonderful Grandville, some cool art from Boo Cook, Simon Fraser, Cam Kennedy, David Lloyd, John Higgins, Jon Haward and Graeme Neil Reid (love his Dredd painting) among others. And yes, if you can’t make it to exotic Inverness for Hi-Ex at the end of March you can still make a bid by getting in touch with them.

(‘ole Stoney Face as depicted by Graeme Neil Reid, Dredd (c) Rebellion)

(Nessie and Dredd – with Ro-Jaws! enjoying a spot of fishing on Loch Ness in the Cal-Hab Zone; art by Colin MacNeil, Dredd (c) Rebellion)

The third Hi-Ex is coming at the end of March in Inverness and boasts some great guests, including Colin MacNeil, Gary Erskine, Charlie Adlard, Asia Alfasi, Sarah McIntyre, Jim Medway, Gary Northfield, John Higgins, Al Ewing, Cam Kennedy, Alan Grant, Simon Fraser, Graeme Neil Reid and more. Its great to see the event growing and becoming a firm part of the UK comics scene.

(artwork for the 2010 Hi-Ex convention by Declan Shalvey)

I’m sure many of our readers will know first hand how hard it can be to obtain grants and funding for any artistic project, let alone one based on comics, so I think its a bit of a triumph to secure such funding and it speaks highly of the success this young comics festival has created and the work that’s been put into it. Rich and Vicky posted a press release to update us on the latest developments:

“Eden Court theatre in Inverness will, on the 27th – 28th March 2010, play host to the third Hi-Ex International Comic Convention. The first two years where such a success that we really had no choice but to do it again,’ explained organiser Vicky Stonebridge.

Co-organiser Richmond Clements said, ‘We have some very exciting guests already confirmed- among them the incredible John Higgins, Gary Erskine, Colin MacNeil,  Asia Alfasi, Alan Grant. Many more artists and writers will be coming along, as well as the popular stormtroopers from the 501st UK garrison. Keep checking the Hi-Ex website,  as we’re adding all the time. For the first time this year, we’ve had some Highland Council funding which will help us attract some great guests.’ Over the course of the weekend, visitors can expect a range of events. “Our children’s workshops have proved to be very popular, and we’re planning to run even more of them this time around,” Vicky said.

There will also be workshops for both art and writing, for adults. Tickets go on sale soon, with a special discount for early booking through the Hi-Ex website. Hi-Ex will be organising a series of outreach events in schools all across the Highlands in the run up to the weekend with support from the Highland Council. Richmond said, ‘Any school’s who want to get involved, and would like to have a visit from a writer or artist should drop us a line.’”