OVS - Post Prestonpans

Well, it was a very enjoyable day out at the Prestonpandemonium comic event at Prestonpans near Edinburgh. Many thanks to Nigel and Jan for putting on a really nice event. It was a lovely day, it was relaxed (apart from the outbreak of drumming in the car park opposite).

I sold a decent amount of the latest OVS, thanks to everyone who bought one! I wonder if I sold as many in Denmark at the Copenhagen festival the same day? I have no idea what a more sophisticated comic audience would make of it!

I talked myself out of at least one sale to a boy in his teens when his grandad asked if it would be suitable. I said it had the occasional moment where it was not for young children. But it was later obvious that he was reading 2000AD which has its moments of swearing, debauchery and gore, plus he bought Arkham Asylum (which frankly is a foul rubbish). So there you go, perhaps I'm too cautious, but that has to be better than being irresponsible. I think :)

I won the Tales of the Trigan Empire book in the auction for Burma Cyclone Relief. And this is the first time I've had a chance to read any Trigan Empire. But I will talk about that another time once I've got through the whole book.

Ben Clark generously donated his Zenith book 5 and it was won by another friend Paul Glasswell, just pipping Jeremy Briggs (who deserved it for bringing up the House of Hammer incident in the bar later) so that was all well and good!

My Grant Morrison Dan Dare (more foul rubbish, but beautifully drawn) book didn't go for much, which was fine, but it went to a horrible chancer who was putting it straight on e-bay, like everything else he bought that day (though his wife carried all the books). Why he bothered annoying all of the stalls with his ridiculous haggling when he presumably has a decent well-paid job I don't know. It was a lovely day, so why spend it scratting around for this stuff if you neither like comics nor know anything about them? Please don't fund this idiot if you see it on e-bay, instead buy the Knockabout Publishing Ryan Hughes book which contains the Dare story, it's a much better experience :)

I also bought Alan Moore's Forty-Niners and a few DVD's, but luckily came home with much less that what I went with.

It was good to meet up with some friends and it was a good day out. All of the strange stuff that happens at these things (and there were some stranger people still, but it probably isn't fair to mention them) at least makes for an interesting time at the bar later :) As I was driving I was on the orange and lemonade, though I did bow to local customs and have a Barr's Irn-Bru at the end.

As I live in the North East of England, Prestopandemonium and the Leeds Thought Bubble (which I'm booked for this November) have pipped the old Moniaive festival in Dumfries to being my closest events, so it feels like I should support them. Now having been to Prestonpandemonium 1 and 3, if there's a 4th, I'll hopefully make that one too.