BLOG Small Press Creators Assemble

SFX Blogger Stacey Whittle goes to the pub… and finds it full of comic creators

There were about a dozen small press creator tables and a communal table which housed a stack of small press comics donated from OK Comics and an area for creators without their own table to leave their comics for sale. I had a chat with Hugh and Steve and they told me that their event had been really easy to organise; The Nation of Shopkeepers had given space for free and so they didn’t charge any creators for their tables, the nice thing about that is that they knew all the creators who came would walk away with profit – which as I understand is harder and harder for the small press to do at the bigger comic events.

The venue was incredibly well chosen, plenty of space for the Fair at one end of the pub and a big space at the other end for people to sit and eat reasonably priced and very lovely food – or ignore the comics shenanigans completely, though why anyone would want to do that is beyond me!

The highlights of the day for me were; a gorgeous portrait drawn by the incredibly talented Adam Cadwell ( www.adamcadwell.com ), the comic Sherlock Holmes v Skeletor written by Gareth Brookes which had me crying with laughter; hanging out with the incredibly talented guys from Newcastle’s own Paper Jam Comic Collective; and finally a walk around the corner for my first visit to the award-winning comic shop OK Comics – there may as well have been light shining out of the windows and the Hallelujah Chorus playing as I walked in. I am so jealous of you Leeds folk and your awesome comic shop!

Hugh and Steve also told me that the most difficult problems they ran into whilst arranging the event was accidently creating two Facebook pages and having to find a few extra tables on the morning of the Fair. This led me to think two things 1) Why aren’t there more of these little events? And 2) Can I arrange one in my town?

I think I may run into difficulty convincing a pub to give me free space in the Stag/Hen do capital of Britain but surely it is doable? And so I put it to you small press creators and fans let’s do it, let’s arrange a plethora of small, intimate comic events all over the country; let us be inspired by the Leeds Alternative Comic Day who pulled this off with aplomb and see if we can’t do it too! Rope in your favourite pub and local comic shop and let’s do our bit for our local creators! Small press creators and fans assemble! And for gawdsake let me know about it!