2007's Thing wasn't so hot for us. It was mainly down to us being lazy sods and not actually trying to sell anything. Which is always a big no no.
This year however was bloody wonderful. Despite the shitty weather there seemed to be a pretty big turnout. Bigger than previous years it seemed. There was a random panel at one point which I missed. No idea what they were talking about. Giraffes probably. I seem to remember some panels at our first Thing in 2006. I reckon it's probably a good idea to bring some sort of panel or workshop events to the Thing, gives the visitors more bang for their buck and all that.
I also seemed to be the only person who wasn't affected by the "freezing conditions". Toasty warm all day I was.
A great anthology this year as well, although I don't understand why everyone doesn't make the most of being able to have something in full colour, in print. Quite a novelty to us non web comic based people. It had a good cover this year too!! Shocking!!
Sales were good, lots of people picking up the latest two issues of TFTF as well as plenty of sales to potential new fans of the first Collected Edition. Managed to make back table costs with extra booze money to spend as well. Whee!
Jake Harold's Tards also did well in it's first proper solo convention outing. Well done fatty.
Bought and swapped loads of great comics too, including Francesca Cassavetti's new one, "Party Pieces" which I'm yet to read, Aaron Murphy's "Fecal Depot" which is CRAZY-WEIRD and the second part of Claude T.C's adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau. The first part of which I got last year. Yeah. Read Reckless Youth, it's wicked-styles.
Special mention has to go to Crack. I love Crack. "Crack" is a comic that had a table somewhere but also had a couple of guys wandering about with it and pimping it to other stall holders and customers. I bought it and got a free poster. I took it home and read it and it rocked me. It made me laugh and scream and almost gave me a heart attack as my heart was racing at the end. It says Chapter One on the front cover so I can't wait for more. It's by Ed Hicks who has a Deviant Art page here. Apparently the main character is him. Brilliant.
Managed to get no decent photos all day which is a shame since we'd planned on bringing back our photo-comic report for one last time. Don't think we ever did one for a Thing. Here's me with Phil Spence's Ninja Death Bunny instead.
Post-Thing shenanigans were as good as always, with a far bigger turn-out from comic-folk, old 'spoons was under siege.
Over the course of the day I was supposed to be doing interviews with different exhibitors for Alex Fitch's Panel Borders show on Resonance FM. He'd given me a little recording device thing with a microphone and all that. But I never quite got around to it and ended up having to do the interviews in the pub, drunkenly running around and persuading people to have a quick chat about the day. Most people managed to veer away from talking about The Thing itself and just talked about themselves and their comics using lots of swear words. And I was probably asking shit questions anyways. I'm no journalist and I can barely string together a coherent sentence when I'm sober. I also managed to make a complete tit out of myself by interviewing Marc Ellerby's girlfriend and not Marc himself who was standing right next to me. Balls.
Another big thanks to Mal for her back-up story in TFTF7and her limited edition alternate cover which I failed to actually acknowledge existence of within the actual comic (It's 'cos it's a super-secret alternate cover I've decided). Her Sin City cover actually sold more than the regular cover and I had to ask for some of her copies back.
In all a great Thing and I look forwards to more Thingy goodness next year.
Yippie for all!
