Expocomic Madrid Photos

Panoramic view of the Expocomic venue, showing the main stage.

Back from Madrid, happy, tired and about two pounds heavier. Expocomic was very different from the low-key Avilés festival; in Madrid, it's a ticketted show in a large venue, similar to the Bristol con but on a larger scale and for four days. There were many people in costume (largely Manga and Anime-based) and signings were strictly time-limited - I did three 90-minute sessions, but after the first couple of guys on the first day I gave up one the usual "hall of fame" shots because I didn't want to hold up the queue.

The hospitality was excellent - we had a fantastic hotel right in the city centre and we were fed to boot! Thanks to all the organisers for looking after us so well, particularly Miguel for inviting us.

I've loaded my photos from the trip onto Flickr - they do at least give some sense of the scale of the thing.

Who'da thought it? Natan asked for a sketch of a Dalek!

Avilés Photos At Last

I didn't take as many photos of sketchees as I meant to.
Top row (from left to right): Alfonso with a sketch of Galactus & me; Kapy with Death from Sandman; Oscar with Morpheus & Death
Bottom row: Miguel with a sketch of Delirium & Dr.F

Stickleback: England's Glory has been eating me alive since I got home, but I finally found a bit of time over the weekend to sort my photos of the trip to Avilés and post them on Flickr.

Left: Juan & me in the Plaza de España, Avilés. It turned out I already knew Juan via this blog; he'd supplied helpful corrections to my articles on Alberto Breccia.

This was the twelfth annual comics festival in Avilés, and the biggest to date; aside from a stellar cast of US guests (including George Perez, Michael Golden and Gene Ha), the largest-ever number of past invitees had asked to return on a voluntary basis, packing out the main hotel. Dr.F and I ended up in the overflow hotel, which in many ways was nicer; the decor was reminiscent of a set from a Bond film, and there was free wi-fi. The only drawback was that our room was up under the eaves, so the ceiling sloped down dramatically at the foot of the bed.

One of the great advantages of Avilés is that it gives you a chance to meet the other guests on a more-or-less equal footing; if Michael Golden, George Perez or Mike Ploog had attended the Bristol Expo, I'd probably never have got anywhere near them, but in the laid-back free-for-all of the meals, everyone was mixed together, and a more gentlemanly bunch I'd be hard put to describe. All the American guests worked like Trojans too, with George Perez alone clocking up more than sixty detailed, finished sketches in three days.
From a personal point of view, the greatest pleasure was getting to meet Gene Ha, whose quiet enthusiasm and sense of fun made him a delight to be around. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the trip was watching him produce a fully painted sketch using only red wine, coffee dregs, cigarette ash and his fingers!

Gene Ha painting with coffee & wine dregs - amazing

It was my third time at Avilés, and I was pleased to see some familiar faces coming back for sketches. Thanks also to those patient compañeros who were willing to let me practice my Spanish on them; in particular Juan, Leticia, Alfonso and Silvia.

The Hulk from the main marquee; I think he's remodelled from this really well-hung chap.