Comix Influx Blog: UK Web and Mini Comix Thing
Ellen pleased with sales of Undertow!
Ellen and I went to the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing in East London yesterday. Ellen was there to debut Undertow, her graphic novel that she’s just self-published through Lulu. I was there to help her out, and to promote Comix Influx. I took along a little stand displaying the Comix Influx homepage, and a pile of quality European comics, loaded with Snip-Its.
It was a really great little festival – lots of invention, creativity and an enthusiasm which it can be all too easy to miss in the UK scene. It drew people from America, Ireland and Germany – and other places too I’m sure – impressive for a small-press fair in Mile End.
An attendee reading
Chute De Vélo, with Comix
Influx Snip-Its in place
I managed to talk to quite a few people about Comix Influx, mostly using my copy of Chute De Vélo stuffed full of Katherine Farmar’s translation in Snip-It form, to demonstrate what the site’s about. I got a lot of interest, and hope that will, ahem, translate into some new subscribers and some more translations. Two herren from German publisher ?Zwerchfell Verlag? also left a couple of German comics which they thought might be of interest to Comix Influx. Unfortunately I was dashing back home at the time to fetch more copies of Undertow, which did a roaring trade all day, so I didn’t get to meet them. But it was very nice of them. The books in question are ?Daniel & Oleg?, by Olli Ferreira and René Roggmann, and ?Disco Amore? by Piwi.
I also picked up some cool comics. Patrick Lynch and Katie Blackwood, who are Cardboard Press of Dublin, had some great comics and handmade books on sale. John Aggs introduced me to Willie Hewes who was there with her own comics, and an anthology of comics that had been entered in a competition run by the Japanese Embassy in London. The excellent and irrepressible Jimi Gherkin had his new comic for sale, with a great silk-screened day-glo cover – available in multiple colour variants! I also picked up a short anthology of robot stories published by We Are Words And Pictures, with an absolutely outstanding cover by Sarah Gordon.
David O’Connell, Sarah
MacIntyre and Woodrow Phoenix
Unsurprisingly, the talk of the day was the recent demise of the DFC. A massive shame – but I’ve personally been very impressed by the positivity shown since the announcement that Random House were halting publication. Hopefully that will turn into a new buyer at some point, but even if not I still expect to see much good rise from its ashes.
Certainly in its brief existence the DFC already had a considerable impact on the UK scene – providing an injection of new blood and talent, and giving people the faith and belief that comics can work out here. On the very weekend that the DFC shut up shop, you would have expected to see that belief dented – thankfully, there was little sign of that.
