Saturday 29 May 2010

On meeting creators

Went to pick up my comics from Gosh! yesterday and had a brief chat with Mr Salmond. He mentioned that the Chris Ware and Dan Clowes signing had gone well and that they were both nice blokes. I was quite sad to have missed the event, but at the same time I'm not really that fussed about meeting comic creators. I once bumped into Alan Moore at The Tate, I went up and shook his hand and said I enjoyed his work, but that was that. I did go to the Gilbert Shelton signing at Gosh where I got a nice sketch in my Freak Brothers Omnibus and had a bit of a chat with him - you can check out the video proof HERE.

So yeah, Mr Shelton was a lovely old fella, but in the main I really can't be arsed to queue for hours to chat with writers and artists. That's the main reason I haven't bothered with the MCM Expo today. I'm sure it'll be great. I was half tempted to go just to gawp at the cosplaying masses, but I find it hard to get enthused at the thought of standing in line to get Warren Ellis to scrawl his name on a comic when he so clearly doesn't really want to be there.

In truth, as much as I love comics, I find the people who collect them a lot more interesting than those who create them. That's why I enjoy the stinky old marts so much. I'm far more comfortable people watching at The Royal National than I would be trying to make small talk with Jamie McKelvie. I can see the attraction of starting a sketch book, or getting a few commissions done to stick on the wall, but I'd rather be rifling through longboxes of decaying tat than mixing with the great and the good of the comics world.

What a miserable old cunt, eh?

Sorry kids.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean, I'm going to EXPO tomorrow but mainly to gawp as I don't really have much to say to the creators, other than, 'I like your work', to which they say 'thanks'. I Can live without it. I think Warren Ellis talks himself up a bit as someone who would rather avoid these things, but I also know, through following his Twitter and that of one of the EXPO organisers that it was him that contacted and offered to do it so to some extent he wants to be there, if only because he's a really nice guy that wants to help out others in the industry. Or maybe he just secretly loves cosplayers.

mr wheatley said...

true. and i enjoy reading about old stinkers at marts more than hearing about comics gossip.

Jared said...

MCM is a good one for meeting creators, as 98% of the people there are going for weird manga cosplay stuff, and don't care about the comics. That said, it is terrible for collectors, as there isn't a single comic book dealer at the event.

I love it all. Creator mingling is a blast but so is longbox browsing.