Ztoical

March Comic Jam

A very quick recap of the Jam - Offically 9 people showed for the actually Jam but we managed to aquire a great many more from the other patrons of the duke [which is an awesome pub by the way, go drink there!] We were sad to discover we weren’t the biggest nerds there when a guy asked for a sheet of paper and a pencil so he could prove a maths equation to his friend. We felt sorry for this rather odd looking bloke sitting by himself who so obviously had been stood up and we encouraged him to let his feelings out on paper and then there were the eight Americans we poured shots into and let loose with pencil and paper. It was at this point we felt the need to sing [very badly] all the tv show theme songs we could think of thou I’m not really sure why. finally, and luckily for our livers, the pub stopped serving and the bar staff kicked us out. We headed to Declan’s gaff were memories of 24 hour comics day returned with another parade of dead ginger baby jokes.

There were several Jam Comics attempted and below is the one from my sketch book [only the first panal is mine, then it was past on to others] I think this may be the only Jam comic from the night that Fysh didn’t manage to stick a penis with wings into. There are two panals done by some of the americans but for some reason when I asked they write their names by the panals, they wrote what state they were from.

Sketchbook time

hmmmmm I was planning on uploading some pages from a recent sketchbook, just some doodles and things, but wordpress is freaking out and won’t let me upload the files. I’ve posted the pages over at my DA account [http://ztoical.deviantart.com/] for now and might have another crack at uplaoding them here later.

Dublin Comic Con 06

Warning long, rambling and not spell checked yet.

Rather interesting to be writing a report for the Dublin comic con, the con I had the least distance to travel to, right after my report for the stumptown comics fest, the con that, so far, I’ve traveled the furthest for.

This report is also different from my other con reports because I forgot my camera so no pictures [thou there are some links to pictures taken by others], I didn’t buy alot of comics [more on that in a bit] so not really alot of linking to other artists and I’m also posting this two weeks after the event which is bad for me as I do try and get these things written up as soon as possible.

So the road to the Dublin Comic Con started early in the week as I tried to sort mini comics and zines along with buttons, prints and postcards, while working all day, commuting for three hours on a bus each day and house hunting on top of all that. Thursday was the most hectic day as I managed to sort a house in kilkenny [yes no more bus!!] and get the majority of my mini comics copied.

Firday night I headed up to Dublin later then planned but I’d opted for the train rather then bus so I could use the two hour travel time to sort, staple and fold mini comics, much to the amusment of my fellow passengers. When we arrived in Dublin we were forced to sit on the train for a further 20mins while the police were called to deal with some drunk idoit at the back of the train. It was 21.30ish by the time I was back in my flat and I’d given up any idea of making the comic con table quiz that night but then noticed I’d missed a text from the Cork crew [sorry wasn’t sure what to collectively call you all] who had only just made it to Dublin and were heading to the quiz. So I left the last of my min comic construction for later and headed to the pub.

The quiz was all but over when I arrived but there was a packed room of merry comic drinkers and I proceeded to hand out 24 hour comics day badges to those who had attended the event and pretty much anyone else who walked past our table. It was then I realeased I’d spent to much time at american cons as in american the they call badges buttons, which was what i was calling them, but everyone at the pub that I was offering chocolate buttons.

After many drinks and a trip to eddie rockets I headed up home in the wee hours and collasped into bed for all of 3 hours sleep. I was up and moving, thou not really awake, at 7.30. I packed comics, buttons, postcards, stickers, posters, and at the last minute a selection of prints [I didn’t think they would sell but would make the table all colourfull and pretty] into one hold all and headed into town. On the way I picked up some bags of chocolate buttons so people wouldn’t be disappointed when I offered “Free Buttons”. My happy helper for the day texted to say his house had collasped or was on fire or something so I’d be on my own for most of the day.
I made it to the temple bar music center at 8.45, alot later then I’d planned as the doors were set to open at 9 but I arrived to a scene of organised chaos. The tables for the event were only arriving and the majority of exhibators were standing around waiting for some sort of floor plan to be annouced. I tracked down organiser John and was told that while the dealer tables would be set up in the main hall area, the small press tables had been assigned to the corridor outside. Needless to say this is one of the reasons I avoid dealer shows and try and stick to samll/alternative press shows.

I do feel bad writing anything negative about the con as it was clear to anyone attending that John worked his ass off to make the event happen and its like kicking a puppy or something to say anything bad but there were problemes with the event.

John’s thinking with placing the small press tables in the corriodor was that everyone attending the con would have to walk past the tables to make it to the dealer tables and signings. He meant well and had put some thought into the floor plan but a corridor is a corridor and not an exhibation space. How it wasn’t breaking some fire regulation I don’t know but I set up anyway and was happy to find fellow 24 hour comics day attendie and the undisputted Macdaddy of Irish comics, Bob Byrne, as my neighbour for the day. The last couple of con’s I’ve exhibated at really have been made by my neigbours and I lucked out again with Bob on one side and the happy lads from 20000 leagues on the other.

Still I must admit for the first hour or so of the con, I really wasn’t happy and was ready to just pack up and head home. The corridor had poor lightening, and an awful draft and my attempts to use Bob to block it failed as he is far to skinny and wouldn’t sit still all day.
The doors didn’t open until gone 10 and there was actually a large queue of fan boys who had come for the signing [and this is how out of thouch I am with main stream comics, I don’t actually remeber who any of the “pros” were, i know one didnt show but thats about it. I do buy mainstream titles and a number of my friends work for the big publishers as pencilers or inkers or whatever but I’ve little interest in going to a con and getting stuff signed] The queue for the signings started at the top of the corridor and ran down the whole lenght and out the door but those in the queue were the true hardcore fan boys who had little interest in small press comics, particualler irish ones. The clutched their plastic covered, board backed comics for signing and stared straight ahead, only a couple were enticted over for some free buttons [the chocolate kind].

This went on for the first hour and I spend most of my time buying DVD’s from the Sancho boys then actually taking or selling comics but after 12 the organisers re-shuffled the queues so they didnt block the corridor and the early rising hardcore fan boys were replaced with the more relaxed, sleep in till noon comic fans. It started to feel like comic fest [i hate the word con even thou I’ve used it about 50 times already in this report] People stopped by the table and talked with me for 20+ mins, I gave out free mini comics and copies of 24 hour comic and sold alot of silkscreen and etching prints along with some of the digital ones. I actually made money on this con which is something I havent done since MoCCA two years ago [granted I only had to cover my table and printing costs for this one and not flights and hotel but still]

The Cork crew finally made an appearance some time in the afternoon and one of my silkscreened jigsaws was made on one of the tables. Most of the 24 hour comics day people showed at some point during the day and all got superman space ship badges for their efforts from the day. I was interveiwd by someone from a random student union using a fisher price recorder which was pretty funny. Around 3ish a happy helper came round and asked if I’d any questions for the panel and I was delighted there would be a panel, I love con panels and find them far more interesting then signings. And what was the theme of this panal - “comics”……..needless to say I wasn’t overly impressed with the theme.

The rest of the afternoon went by fairly quickly, the corridor got crushed again with people as the signings started back up. It was hard to keep track of people and several items were stolen from my table, which I wasn’t to pleased about as I’ve never had that happen at a con before. This is the first con that I’ve attended were I didn’t walk around and check out the other tables. I never went into the main hall at all. There were no back issues that I needed and I find most of the toys/statues in Ireland to be way over priced so just buy them online or when I’m in new york. I did pick up some comics, I got Bob’s new book [meant to get two, one for myself and one for my friends son but I forgot], copies of 20000 legues Sancho comics which I must admit I’d seen in shops but by passed as I didn’t get the covers, I’m sorry I didnt pick them up sooner as they are great reads and have solid art and inks [even if they ink with sharpies!!]. One person was walking around with really mini mini comics and I traded with him but alas I can’t find the mini mini now. Also got the preveiw of Fail Comics “thorne” not much to really go one with the preveiw, mainly just alot of action shots and little plot to make me want to pick up the first issue. That was really it, given I needed to buy an extra bag to bring home stuff from portland last month I’m really suprised how little I got.

After the con I meet up the Cork lads and we headed to the foggy dew were the after con drinking was to happen. I should have dropped my bag home and come back but I knew the minute I went home I’d fall asleep and not be back. We were some of the first to arrive in the dew and then we realised we were all really hungry so we left and headed off for food at sufi’s then we had to wait for some people to join us so we went looking for some were to sit down but finding somewhere quite in dublin city center on a saturday night is a hard task. Couple of bars were already full at 7 so we ducked into Dragon and lucked out as someone was leaving one of their fantastic booths just as we arrived. We took over the booth and a couple of cocktails later I was attempting some thumbnails for my “hamster stappled gunned to a wall” comic. We had a pretty decent comic jam session under way and I was planning on staying out for the night but at 12 my body gave up - to much running around, not enough food and little sleep didn’t work and I had to admit defeat and head home. Sunday I had to get up, pack up my whole apartment and move to kilkenny……fun!
Over all the Dublin Comic Con was good but flawed - the venue was a bad choice as the layout did not suit a comic fest. Personnal I would rather have seen a focus on small press, Irish produce comics and a varrity of interesting panals [with slightly wider topics then “comics”] over dealer tables and signings but those things did bring a decent crowd in. John and his team should be proud as they did work very hard leading up to it and alll during the event and really hope they pick out the pros and cons from this year and try for bigger and better things next year.

Finally after all that ranting and nothing spelled checked heres some links to photos from the day [some of which I’m in, thanks Tree!] Fysh’s images and Tree’s images

I will scan in my hamster sketches during the week and add them.

Stumptown 2006

Be warned long and rambling report - skip to the photos at the end if your not in the mood to read - please click on some of the links and check out the sites of some very talented artists.

First off I have to say Stumptown has to be the chattyest[sp?] con I’ve attended so far. It was great but I’d nearly lost my voice by the time we were leaving. I don’t know if thats a west coast thing or just a portland thing but its an excuse to hit another con on the west coast to double check. Stumptown [and portland in general] is con that loves its small press and I noticed people would by pass the more professionaly printed comics to check out the hand made zines and minis but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I headed off for the con on the thursday flying out of Dublin early in the morning [after having all the explosive bottles of water removed from the plane] and getting to Portland at midnight local time after a very boring 7 hour stopover in philly. My lovely friend Max picked me up at the airport, let me crash at her place and also chauffeured me around for the whole weekend. She’s also brought me to some damn good eating places, Portland is a great town for veggies i must say.

Early Friday morning, after breakfast, we hit The Independant Publishing Resource Center to staple some mini comics together. The IPRC is a fantastic resource for cartoonists and I would love to have/set up something like that in Dublin - we need more small press comics here rather then more “I got a copy of how to draw the marvel way comics”. We then tired to make our way to the convention center but, despite Max being a portland native, we managed to get lost and arrived bang on 4 when the doors were opening to the public. Still the firday was very relaxed and we had plenty of time to get set up [after stealing supplies from our neighbours]. I thought it was odd having the con run 4-8 on firday but it proved to be a great time for exhibitors to wander the space and check out the other tables.

After the con we went for food at great restaurant I wish I could remeber the name of. Chris Baldwin was with us and was proudly showing his comic in the current issue of MAD. My friend Lisa arrived down from Seattle. Another SVA’er along with myself and Max, we stayed up way to late drawing and talking rubbish and of course ended up being late saturday morning [but only by 20mins]

Saturday was a great day of talking, shopping, talking, selling, panal attending, and more talking! I discovered a number of people at the con whom I’d spoken with via the internet but hadn’t realised would be at stumptown. One of those was Alex Cahill who I had emailed after picking up a copy of his book “the last island”. I spotted the last island on the table and went up to see which of the people behind the table was Alex and got as far as “I emailed you…” when he shouted “the irish girl!” I guess my accent is alot stronger then I thought [thou Alex claims he just knew before i said anything] I picked up his new book “Something so familiar”, worth checking out and can be purchased via his site.

Dark Horse had a double table just down from us and I got to chat with some of their editors after one of the panals. I wasn’t planning on picking anything up from the table as I normally focus on small press stuff at cons and not stuff I can pick up easily in a store but Tara McPherson’s art book “Lonely Heart was staring at me all day and its so pretty I had to pick it up.

Also super pretty was The Fallen by Camilla d’Errico. Picked up two fantastic minis by Lilli Carre and the worlds cutest little silkscreen mini “The Probe” by Damien Jay. Also traded for some really great little zines and minis which I’m still making my way threw. Got Fragile Prophet from Lost in the Dark press along with a preview of the collected Video series.

Picked up a ton of really pretty prints but a couple had no contact info on them and I’ve forgotton which table I picked them up from. The only one I remeber is “Spring Cleaning in Paris” by Chris Turnham I had to force myself away from the fleet street table or i would have got copies off all of Chris’s work and also all of Kevin Dart’s as well. I promised myself I could only have one and it was such a hard choice as everything those two guys produce is gorgeous.

And now PICTURES. I went to great lenghts to get batteries for my camera and then forgot I had it with me but I did take a few pics.

Our table first thing while still setting up. The white fringe thing was not my idea and was quickly removed just after I took this photo.

Martin and Deb’s table, all pretty - damn them. I’d been super organised for MoCCA and picked up some book stands and had a banner printed for the front of the table but I’d left them all in new york for some of the other luckyducks to use at SPX. I thought I’d have time to pick some stuff up in Portland but I had so much to catch up with my friends Max and Lisa, who I hadn’t seen in over a year, that I never got round to it.

Fantastic neighbour number 1 Martin Hsu

Fantastic neighbour number 2 Deb Aoki
Martin and Deb were so good to me, they feed me and gave me pens and tape and were general just great craic to be beside.

Hilary and a rather evil shot of Matt, fellow SVA’ers. I purchased one of Hilary’s lovely silkscreens at MoCCA in June and a copy of Matt’s out of Water in Jim’s in new york. I picked up copies of each of their comics for Tom, the director of the feature film I’m a lacky on. He’s a big comic fan [and has done some lovely comics himself] and I said I’d keep an eye out for some comics for him.

Not actually pictured but Amy Kim Ganter was at the end table so I was able to pick up a copy of Sorcerers & Secretaries and get it signed. Amy also went to SVA and beside her table is Hillary and Matt, also SVA and our table is at the end the row [also SVA in case people are confused] - martin and Deb’s table messed up our little SVA block. Also at Amy’s table was Kazu Kibuishi so I got to pick up a copy of Daisy Kutter and also get it signed - that’s my fav thing about cons.

Graham Annable of Grickle fame. I’d picked up Graham’s fantastic Stickleback comic earlier in the year and fell in love with the style. I didn’t realise Graham would be at stumptown but when i spotted someone walking around with a copy of sticklback I quickly tracked him down and went all uber fangirl. Sorry Graham, I’m not a stalker…..honest!

Barry Deutsch of Hereville. Super nice despite my abuse over lack of recent Hereville updates. Not pictured but at the same table [and also super nice] Jenn Manley Lee of Dicebox fame.

o my god how cool is that!!!

Look our neighbours from MoCCA!!! Robot Publishing

Across from our table was explosive six sided ninja action from Isometric.

They even had a live puppet show.

On the sunday couple of us went to the portland zoo to draw and I was very amused by the method the zoo used to feed the tigers.Drove up to Seattle for sunday and monday to spend more time with Lisa and her four pet rats before heading back to Ireland. All in all, I loved ever minute of stumptown and it was well worth the 22+ hour trip over and 20+ trip back. I’m claiming the title as the exhibitor who travelled the furthest to attend the con and am willing to have fisticuffs for said tittle.

24 hour comic

Here’s some of the pages I did during 24 hour comics day last weekend. Click to see larger image………there’s sort of a story going on…..sort of.

24 hour comics day 2006 Dublin

It was during MoCCA in June that I had the bright idea to put together a 24 hour comics event in Dublin and up until about 10mins before it started I thought I’d made a huge mistake - I’d started a new job miles down the country just three weeks before that had messed up all my organisational plans for the event and most of the people I assumed to be coming to the event I’d only spoken to online.

But I showed up at 11 at the hotel to set up and figured if no one showed no showed and I’d head home again. Here’s some pics of the room when i got there - it looked way to big when I first saw it. [click on images to see bigger]

At 11.45 I was still on my own but then Matt [whom I’d spoken with via my DA account] arrived, followed soon by Thumbninja and the Shades. As 12 came and we were the only people there I thought my big fear had been realised until someone mentioned that there were several people downstairs with sketch pads and portfilio case in hand. I headed down to check and was might with a stream of people [fysh and tree from the boards, and several Ballyfermot students among them] Bob Byrne and Briony Noh [again from the boards.ie] rounded off our number at 14 .

And so we started our 24 hour comic voyage just after noon. Everyone seemed to get into things quickly and for the first 2 hours the room was a hive of rapid scribbles. Slowly people started to chat with those around them and thumbninja provided tea and coffee as the first of many guests arrived. I was suprised how many people wandered in to us [not tons but considering we were way up the back of the hotel we had a far few come in] One of the first was “Hot” Colin from getyourcomics.com

At this point we sorted some chips and plenty of ketchup and i went around and took some pictures of peoples progress.

My thumbnails for 24 pages that I spent so long on I ended up only getting 18 finished

We are about 4 hours in now so I think Bob has about 10 pages done at this point lol

It was around this time that Brian, of Shiznit fame, arrived to offer “moral support” to his friend Bob.

Around 6.30 Chris arrived [having been stuck in work since 9am] He wasnt to happy when he saw how much Bob had already done at this point

we had a pretty healthy diet of cold coffee, crisps and chocolate

Most of the above photos were taken between midnight and 2am, i tired to take a picture of the paper airplanes that were made inflight but kept missing. It was right about now that the dead ginger baby jokes started and the true maddness of 24 hour comics was felt.

we had a few crashers but both got back up and started drawing again after an hour or so.

come 10am the next morning some of us were still standing…….just.

we lost a few in the wee hours but here are the proud few who made it to the end. I have to say I have never had so much fun stuck in a room of total strangers for 24 hours. The craic was mighty even at the lowest points and I hope people had as much fun as I did and I really hope people are up for doing it all again next year!!

I’ll hopfully have my comic up this weekend along with a few of the others - check Bob’s site www.clamnuts.com for his.

MoCCA 2006

My blog has been acting really weird and wouldn’t publish my pictures the way i wanted so I’m bored now and as a result my report will be more a ramble with the odd image and a heap load of links to amazing artists you should check out!!!!

The happy Puck Building, home to the MoCCA Artfest 2006 [as well as ever other one to date]

So MoCCA has been and gone and once again I spent way more then I planned but I picked up some lovely stuff and talked/traded with some great people. I forgot I had my camera on the saturday so nearly all the pictures are from the sunday. It’s a pity I forgot about my camera as there were some people who only came on the saturday that I would like to have had some pictures of. Gary Panter, my portfolio teacher my last year at SVA, sat with us for bit on the saturday and World War three illustrated had it’s 25th birthday party on the saturday with cupcakes topped with little green W’s. Saying that I wouldn’t have had much time for picture taking on the saturday as it was very busy [esp in the afternoon].

At last years event we were stuck in the room with the broken AC and nearly died from heat exhaustion so this year they put us right beside the AC in the largest of the three rooms and we nearly forze, so we figure next year we’ll be like Goldielocks it will be just right. Parts of Saturday are a blur due to jet lag on my part but I did run around and pick up stuff I’d “pre-ordered” from people and visted those I knew I wanted to trade books with. Sunday was impluse shop day. I didnt get nearly as many buttons this year as i did the last couple of years.

The only photo i took on the saturday - Griffin and William as we set up the Lucky Ducks table for the weekend.

For some reason the table beside us was empty on the saturday, very strange for MoCCA as there was a huge waiting list for tables. We took advantage of the extra space and at the next table down was Robot Publishing - i fell in love with their little mini comics and i think i picked up nearly everything bar a t-shirt My fav’s are “In the Sea” by Joy Kolitsky and “pater contrarious” by cathy malkasian.

Those happy ex-SVA-er’s Meathaus were across from us - MoCCA really is becoming a big SVA party.

More ex-SVA….the wonderful Joe Flood [i don’t know why his head is like that] how fab is his big tacky gold frame? He made it himself [i think i wasn’t really listening when he told me as i was to amazed by its uber tacky goldness….i want one!]
I didn’t take a picture of Raina Telgemeier but I did pick up a copy of the babysitters club graphic novel and I purhcased an orginal page from the book [page 184 if anyone cares] and I also picked up the latest astronaut Elementary mini comic and a cool sketch book mini from Riana’s husband to be Dave Roman. Their comic How we got engaged has to be the cutest thing ever [and both are also ex-SVA lol]

The o so talented Alec Longstreth of phase 7 fame [ignatz winner at last years SPX don’t you know] We traded comics at MoCCA last year and again this year [Not SVA ]

The lovely [very talented] Sakura Maku [yes SVA again - sorry but of course I’m going to know all the SVA kids] She’s a grad student at Yale now.

Andreas do you have a website??

The first time I got to sit behind a table at MoCCA it was with World War three illustrated a couple of years ago. This year they had a 25th birthday party and a kick ass location in the first room [thats co-founder Seth Tobocman pictured, Seth hung out at our table for some of the saturday and showed me some of the stuff he’s working on at the moment and gave our little anthology the once over]

SVA cartooning teacher Keith Mayerson also stopped by and gave our book a look. just the night before I was reading an article about how beards are really in fashion in New York - Keith have you become a slave to fashion??

no not Alec again but his table mate [and i assume friend ] Bwana Spoons. i was annoyed I didnt check out his print work earlier cus i wanted to buy everything on the table but was running low on funds so could only pick up one print. And notice - more beards!!

Loo manning [or is that womanning? is that a word?] our table sunday.

Charles Burns designed the poster for this years event, he was signing at various tables over the two days and host a panal on the sunday. I found out later he was giving out orginal artwork from black hole if you purchased a copy at MoCCA…..damn why did i pick my copy a couple of months ago?

Some random images of the ballroom……it wasn’t as busy on the sunday as last year but there was still a fair crowd in.

Books I picked up:
All of the mini comics for “Knights of the shroud” by Matt Bayne, had a great conversation about hurling, I’m making him support Tipperary in the up coming munster final. Great webcomic but i have to say i prefer it in print, Matt’s inks are fantastic and you get a better feel for them in print.
“broken Chain” preveiw by Aaron F Gonzalez one chapter from a larger graphic novel - got me hooked for more - some new preveiw stuff should be up on the website soon
Out of Picture……..mmmmmm pretty, I’m such a sucker for pretty books
Four t-shirts from the lads at Squid Fire [not all for me]
lots of stuff from Jennia of devil’s panites fame. She was trying her best to cover the big old navy logo on her jacket with free buttons.
“Catch me if” by Briana Miller plus some silkscreen prints
“the devils T table” by erik siano [who is sorting out a website so stayed tuned]
“Hung” no 1 + 2 by Shannon Gerrard
“Content” 1+2 by Gia-Bao Tran
A heap load of prints [mainly silkscreen but couple computer prints] Couple of the prints i picked up had no names anywhere on them so i’ve no clue who did them - People always have your contact info!!!
Also saw some friends who were just shopping not selling Dr McNinja himself Chris hastings and Ryan D Beckwith and missed some who couldn’t make it this year like Justin Maddson and EriK Craddock hopfully both will back next year.

As i’ve already paid for my table I guess I’ll be there too.

ps im sure I’ve spelt or linked something wrong - will fix ‘em as i spot ‘em

The thing 2006

Our flight back from london today was delayed for about 5 hours [thank you ryanair!] so this will be mostly pictures with some random comments. I might try and write more when I’ve had some sleep.

FRIDAY
I had to teach a class firday morning before rushing to the airport. Don’t my students look happy!

My happy helper for the weekend, Alex. Knew nothing about comics [and still knows nothing] but the other lucky ducks couldn’t make it and my other option was my mum.

Stayed at the ETAP hotel with some other merry Thing people - hotel was nice but a bit out of the way as far as nightlife was concerened.

I didn’t take any photos of our trip to the pub which was a fun, and at times scary, adventure. Pub turned out to be not so much across from the hotel but up the road, past the roundabout, left up the bridge and across the river. Not everyone who tired actually made it to the pub but the couple of us who did enjoyed a few beverages as we got to know each other.

After discovering we had two people called Alex in our group, we felt it best to chanage everyones name to Bob.

Some more of Bobs arrived

And more

After the pub we had an attack of the munchies so pizza and ice-cream for all.

the lovely Mal along with Alex number 2 and Anna arrive back from the pub just in time for pizza.

SATURDAY
Our table first thing saturday morning before our neighbours for the day arrived.

And the table a little later after our neighbours set up.

The comic group I belong to is called the Lucky Ducks, but we’re all so focused on our first anthology and the MoCCA artsfest in june that we forgot to get our logo printed up for the Thing so I brought along my own lucky duck to repersent.

Fantastic neightbours - the comics creators guild - had a stack of free comics early in the morning that brought many our way ad they were very good and yelled at people to check our table out.

The talented Lee and his happy helper [and girlfriend] Kristy pushing Lee’s amazing 800 page graphic novel.

Mike from Portland, USA, who attended Stumptown 2005 as did the Lucky Ducks, hopfully we’ll make Stumptown 2006 as well

the event filled up quick………

……..but we had a small break from crowds when the panals started, thou Lee appears un-impressed with the break

Some colour added to the room by the blink twice boys

and Tozzer beside them

Fantastic coffee cups by richard tingley, I feared it would be destroyed in my travels home but i got one anyway [it got a little crushed but it made it back more or less ok]

After eating nothing but junk all day we planned a nice sit down meal after the event but as our hotel was in the middle of no where this is what we got..

SUNDAY
Made it to the airport very early but we spent another 5 hours waiting for plane to make it through the snow up north

we did have this pretty aston martin DB9 to look at while we waited

and finally back in Dublin the most important moment, looking at my haul of comics from the con…

hmmmmmmm comics pretty

So that was the thing 2006, sorry I haven’t really mentioned any of the great people I talked with, gotta go sleep now. Will be in thouch with people and hopefully will see everyone at next years event. Not sure yet about Bristol but if anyones heading to MoCCA in New York I’ll see you there!