"House Of Ra" 2004 Bristol UK Comic con report.
Friday 28th May, Our journey began after a manic rush to finish
printing off ashcans, T-shirts, posters and flyers having been let
down by our printers 24 hrs before we had to embark on our relaxing
245 Km drive.
Luckily a very helpful Frenchman came to our rescue working all
night to print what we needed, "Vive le Francaise" .....
The car loaded and bags packed we set off thinking we would take
the scenic route along the A36... This proved to be a mistake as
road and bridge repairs caused a 16 km tailback at Salisbury making
our trip 6
hours in total... 8pm We arrived at a guest house called "The
Arches" situated in Portishead, the building is beautifully
kept having been built in the 17th century. Bristol as you know
has a lot of History as a
shipping port & being a major city where the Pilgrims left for
the New Lands, Brunel was the foremost Victorian engineer who designed
and built the famous Clifton suspension bridge over the Avon gorge.
A most spectacular sight for anyone to see when visiting this historic
city.
After coffee, rest & a small bite to eat we left the guest
house for the most important event of the British comic industry
hosted every year at the Ramada hotel and Commonwealth Museum. Founder
"Kev F" put on a spectacular show again this year with
an allstar cast. Starting with the "Diamond National Comic
Awards" ceremony on Friday night, followed by a welcoming party,
where large numbers of professionals hovered around the bars of
the hotel spilling the latest gossip. We met with the rest of the
Ra team and had the pleasure to catch up with David Lloyd who bought
with him the latest artwork for our 2012 project. Although the Bristol
Comic festival may not match the size of many US conventions it
is the highlight of the UK Comics industry.
Saturday 9 am, we set up our "Hospitality Room" in the
Ramada and opened the doors to welcome guests and pro's alike. Scott
Dunbier of Wildstorm, Craig Lemon of SBC and Rich Jonstone of CBR
popped in for refreshments and previewed our submissions, all taking
with them ashcans and a full rundown of Ra!!!
As the day progressed we became extremely busy recieving guests
as well as seeing many talented people including "Cow and Chicken's"
Jim Alexander who's thirst was quenched with Tiger beer ;).....
John Mc Shane, Mitchel Scanlon and John Erasmus liking what we had
done so far and lending their welcomed advice and support... Kris
Justice, Alex de Campi as well as Shane Oakley joined us in celebration.
Jim "Ganjaman" Stuart glided in bringing his uplifting
presence, Lawrence Miles and not forgetting David Braysher said
their Hello's. Lee Townsend, Sam Hart, Jesus Barony, Natalie Sandells
and Len O'grady with Daniel Boultwood took shelter away from busy
floors... Some of the "Underfire" crew Colin, Aaron and
Cosmo White joined in relaxing from their busy schedules. Tony Lee
as well as Tim "Can I have a T-shirt" Pilcher came by
to supply show updates and asked how things were going. In fact
neither Ka nor myself had chance to leave the room, being so busy
we did'nt see the show or any of the panels.
Many red eyes were seen roaming the halls and stalls on Sunday,
as the merry making didn't stop until the early hours. Although
not living up to the standard of Friday night where a well known
cover artist had to
be escorted from the building at 4 am after being locked out of
the room where he was staying being unable to provide proof of ID..
Having few hours sleep Sunday was mostly subdued with strong coffee
all round..... Mike "Demigod" Conroy of Comics International
joined the team as we wound down and started packing the projector,
laptops and what was left of the goodies... we finally started our
journey at 5pm, luckily taking only 4 hours to get home as opposed
to the six hours there.. Next time we're hiring a Chinook and ab-sailing
an entrance to the festival of 2005..........
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