The Castlefield Artisan Market is a new market for the canal-side area of Manchester’s city centre.

“A monthly (every 1st Sunday of the month) fine food, antique, vintage and craft market. Bringing some of the regions highly acclaimed Artisan food producers with interesting antique and vintage stalls.”

The MCC was there last month and will return again to sell the best of Manchester’s self published comics and a selection of Travelling Man’s small press section.

If you’d like to sell your work on the MCC Comics Stall it is totally FREE! Simply get it to me. Either bring it down, ideally, before 10am on the day or drop it off at Travelling Man (4 Dale Street) before 5pm on Saturday 3rd. Please label your stock ‘FAO MCC’.

Come along for a fine selection of comics as well as award winning food such as chocolate, curries, cakes and pies, plenty of other hand crafted products like jewellery and clothes and there’ll be a Jazz band and Swing Dancing too!

Come on down and get some Christmas shopping done early. Our comics make perfect gifts, waaay better than socks.

Here are some photos from last month:

Here I am (shivering) in the MCC Gazebo! The Hot Vimtos got me through but this month I will actually have a winter coat and thermal underoos, so I won't look quite so curmudgeonly.

Richard Hughes manning the stall in a manly fashion. What a man!

The open area of the market basking in the autumn sun. Our stall was located under the arches.

The Castlefield Market is a new market for the canal-side area of Manchester’s city centre.

“A monthly (every 1st Sunday of the month) fine food, antique, vintage and craft market. Bringing some of the regions highly acclaimed Artisan food producers with interesting antique and vintage stalls.”

Last month was the Market’s first event and I’m glad to say the MCC will be there this month at the second. I will be there selling my own comics (Blood Blokes #1 out now!) and a selection of Travelling Man’s small press section.

If you’d like to sell your work there too just GET IT TO ME, either bring it down before 10am on the day or drop it off at Travelling Man (4 Dale Street) before 5pm on Saturday 5th. Please label your stock ‘FAO MCC’. There is NO CHARGE for the table, it is totally FREE.

Come along for a fine selection of comics as well as award winning food such as chocolate, curries, cakes and pies, plenty of other hand crafted products like jewellery and clothes and (if it’s the same as last month) there’ll be Swing Dancing from 12-2pm.

I hope to see you there!

HEY GUYS! Before I go on about this month’s DnD, you may have noticed on Twitter that last month’s BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw won the 5 Star Forever Manchester Award judged by Large Manchester for the Not Part Of Festival!!! You can read Large Manchester’s 5 star review of the event here: http://www.largemanchester.com/drink-n-draw.html

Thank you to everyone who came and made it such a success and special thanks to our guests Andy Diggle, Jim Medway, Leah Moore and John Reppion and our friend at Sandbar Mr. Dom Harbot. Thanks everyone for winning me an award, bwahaha! I missed the Not Part Of closing party/award ceremony so I’ll post a photo of the award itself just as soon as I pick it up.

Anyway, onto business! This month’s event will be the usual affair but will hosted by Dom Harbot. I (Adam) will be there but not necessarily for the full 4 hours. Also as it lands on the day after the Manchester MCM Expo, we should be joined by a few guests in town for the show, namely the sexy Marc Ellerby!!! Lock up your daughters! Hopefully a few more people staying over in town for the show will come along.

As always the Drink ‘n’ Draw will be FREE to attend, and we’ll have the usual drawing games, FREE snacks AND pizzas, FREE comics at the Comic Swap table, materials provided and 10% off at the bar! Sandbar is now doing food so now there’s no need to leave early and get some grub because as well as the FREE PIZZA there’s a full menu to choose from. Huzzah!

On a side note, if people do find the Sunday afternoon timing of DnD gets in the way of their Sunday tea time, please let me know because Sandbar is now opening at 2pm on a Sunday instead of 4pm, so we could easily move the event to 2-6pm. Thoughts?

That’s about it! See you at the AWARD WINNING Drink ‘n’ Draw! (I wonder how long I’ll keep doing that)

RSVP on the Facebook Event page and see who else is attending! Join the Drink ‘n’ Draw Facebook Group while you’re there too, for updates of all future events.

Venue:

Sandbar
120 Grosvenor Street
Manchester
M1 7HL
0161 273 1552
(Map)

Next Saturday sees the very first Manchester MCM Expo! For months following its announcement there was no news about the event and simply a holding image on their website of Spidey humping the old G-Mex. Finally, late last month the site went live and shortly after that the ‘Artist’s Alley’ line up was announced, the equivalent of the Comics Village at the much larger London shows. Tables are free for creators and a nice handful of talent will be there on the day including…

Special Guests Leigh Gallagher (Dafoe, 2000AD), Marc Ellerby (Chloe Noonan, CBGBs), Anthony Johnston (Wasteland, Daredevil) and John McCrea (loads of stuff). Plus Lizz Lunney, Timothy Winchester, Joe List, Rob Jackson, Dumpy Little Robot, Accent UK, Graham Pearce and me Adam Cadwell and lots more.

As well as all the other movies, games, anime, manga and merchandise stalls there’ll be a few stars there doing signings (I don’t know if this is free or not) including Warwick Davis which I’m most excited about!

I suspect there’ll be a few other comic folks hanging around too, taking advantage of the fact that people are travelling TO Manchester for a comic show for a change. As for after party shenanigans I don’t know of any official event, so I’m thinking of picking a pub and telling everyone to go, therefore creating an MCC MCM After Party. Just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? More on that soon.

AND for anyone staying in Manchester overnight, there’ll be the AWARD WINNING monthly Drink ‘n’ Draw event on the Sunday, 4pm -8pm at Sandbar, free entry, free snacks and pizza, free comics and 10% off at the bar. It’d be nice to see some out of towners join in.

Any additional info or suggestions for an after party venue, please leave your comments below.

TICKETS (More info here)

EARLY ENTRY OPENING – Saturday: 9.30am to 5pm (Last ticket sale 10.55am)
£8 each regardless of Adult or Child, includes booking fee.

GENERAL OPENING – Saturday: 11am to 5pm (Last ticket sale 4pm)
Adult Ticket: £5 (15 years old & above)
Child Ticket: £3 (11 to 14 years old)
Kids Go Free: (10 years old and below)
*Children (10 years old & below) gain Free Entry if accompanied by a full paying adult (restricted to 2 children per full paying adult) The ‘Kids Go Free’ offer only applies to ‘General Entry’ tickets.

VENUE

Manchester Central (formerly G-Mex)
Petersfield
Manchester
M2 3GX
(Map)

Just a little note to say that the Andy Diggle talk at this week’s BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw will focus on the idea of literacy in comics and the medium’s potential as a learning aid for children. Joining us for the talk will be cartoonist and comics tutor Jim Medway! If you are at all interested in the role of comic books in education, you’d better not miss this talk at 6pm, Thursday 30th, at Sandbar.

The BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw is only ONE WEEK AWAY! Here’s a nifty poster for everyone to tweet about! Please feel free to use this image and blog about the event to help spread the word and make our first BIG DnD a success.

Just a reminder that the BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw is a FREE event and you can RSVP on the Facebook Event page.

“The Birmingham Zine Festival returns in July 2011 to celebrate alternative publications! It will feature a varied collection of exhibitors who self-publish books, comics and magazines. Over 30 individual zine-makers and distributors are coming from all over the country to display and sell their work. Members of the public are invited to browse the work on show and take part in our workshops.”

There’s a lot of events happening this year as part of the Zine Festival, so check out the site for all the info, but the highlight for comic fans will be the Zine Fair on the Saturday with badge-making and drawing workshops and refreshments as well!

Comic artists attending will be Marc Ellerby, John Allison, Lizz Lunney, Luke Pearson, Phillipa Rice, Dan Berry, Adam Cadwell, Kristyna Baczynski, Howard Hardiman, Joe List, Katie Green, Timothy Winchester, Sean Azzopardi, oh the list goes on.

If you’re thinking you would have loved to get a table but it’s too late now, there is a communal table on offer to drop off your work and maybe make some sales while spending your cash on other people’s comics.

After the fair will be a BBQ in the courtyard of The Jekyll and Hyde pub from 6pm – 9pm followed by an after-show party above the pub in the Gin Parlour, 8pm – 1.30am.

I can’t wait! See you all there!

“Bryan Talbot discusses his graphic novels Grandville and Grandville Mon Amour and the venerable and on-going tradition of anthropomorphic characters in illustration and comics from which they have emerged.

£5.00, Salmon Room”

Buy tickets at here at We Got Tickets or pay on the door.

Part of The Lass O’Gowrie‘s LassFest.

Venue:
The Lass O’Gowrie
36 Charles Street
Manchester
M1 7DB

Map

0161 273 6932

“An audience with Al Ewing – a British comics writer with extensive experience in the small press and for 2000 AD.

£2.00, Salmon Room.”

Buy tickets at here at We Got Tickets or pay on the door.

Part of The Lass O’Gowrie‘s LassFest.

Venue:
The Lass O’Gowrie
36 Charles Street
Manchester
M1 7DB

Map

0161 273 6932

“One half of the celebrated Moore-Reppion comics writing partnership, John Reppion presents a talk on different incarnations of the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, real and imagined, in his own writing, the work of others and beyond.

£2.00, Salmon Room”

Buy tickets at here at We Got Tickets or pay on the door.

Part of The Lass O’Gowrie‘s LassFest.

Venue:
The Lass O’Gowrie
36 Charles Street
Manchester
M1 7DB

Map

0161 273 6932

“A mini-convention celebrating nearly 30 years of the legendary Warrior Magazine. Launched in 1982 as the UK´s next big thing in comics, Warrior was an ambitious attempt to redraw the map of comics in the UK that almost made it. Fondly remembered by comics fans around the world, Warrior was a daring mix of traditional and new wave storytelling launching V for Vendetta and Marvelman on an unsuspecting public, underpinned by a host of the UK´s keenest writers and artists including Alan Moore, Steve Dillon, Steve Moore, Gary Leach, Steve Parkhouse, John Ridgway, David Lloyd, David Jackson and Alan Davis. British and American comics would never quite be the same again.

Join your host Warrior Editor and Publisher Dez Skinn and special guests for a celebratory look back at one of our true comic treasures – Warrior.

This celebratory event is planned for Saturday, 2nd July 2011 as part of LassFest our month long fringe festival of arts, culture and music and in association with the ‘notpartof’ Official Manchester International Festival Fringe.

£13.50, main pub.”

Buy tickets here at We Got Tickets.

Venue:
The Lass O’Gowrie
36 Charles Street
Manchester
M1 7DB

Map

0161 273 6932

This month we’re doing something a little more special than usual, the MCC and Sandbar will be hosting the first BIG Drink n’ Draw on the very first day of the Not Part Of Fringe Festival!

As always the Drink ‘n’ Draw will be FREE to attend, and we’ll have the usual drawing games, FREE snacks AND pizzas, FREE comics at the Comic Swap table, materials provided and 10% off at the bar! But that’s not all…

As part of the BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw we’ll have a LITTLE Comic Fair! We will have tables set aside for selling YOUR comics! We’ll have a few of table for creators with lots to sell and one communal table for anyone’s comics, minis or zines! Tables are FREE but limited, so please leave a comment to show your interest and I’ll be in touch! If you can’t make it but would like to sell your comics, please drop them off at Sandbar with a note saying “For the BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw”.

As if that wasn’t enough Matt Badham will be hosting an informal chat and Q&A with Andy Diggle, writer of The Losers, Daredevil and former editor of 2000AD! This will start about 6pm and last about an hour.

EDIT: Our second talk of the day will be with acclaimed writing duo Moore & Reppion about The Thrill Electric and their many other projects. This will start at 5pm and be followed by a Q&A.

AND the BIG Drink ‘n’ Draw will be continuing late into the night. There’s a comedy event starting at 8pm and after that a short film night running through the evening, but all the while the DnD will continue in a reserved area of Sandbar with a BIG Comic Jam on a Wall!

It’s going to be a brilliant, creative and social day and I hope to see as many people there as possible!

RSVP on the Facebook Event page and see who else is attending! Join the Drink ‘n’ Draw Facebook Group while you’re there too, for updates of all future events.

Venue:

Sandbar
120 Grosvenor Street
Manchester
M1 7HL
0161 273 1552
(Map)

Time for another Drink n’ Draw! Every last Sunday of the month at Sandbar. FREE entry, FREE comics, FREE snacks, materials provided, and 10% off at the bar. Come along for a relaxed social gathering of artists and comic fans of all ages.

RSVP on the Facebook Event page and see who else is attending! Join the Drink ‘n’ Draw Facebook Group while you’re there too, for updates of all future events.

Also, thank you to all our attendees last month who made the event a laid back success without me there! I hope you all had fun and that we’ll see you again this time.

EDIT:

Seconds after creating this event page I saw that the 24th is Easter Sunday. I didn’t realise this because I am a heathen! Would anyone be interesting in coming on the 24th of should we move it to the Saturday before perhaps? We could make it an Easter themed event and doddle on eggs?

What do you guys think?

Venue:

Sandbar
120 Grosvenor Street
Manchester
M1 7HL
0161 273 1552
(Map)

That start of next month sees another Graphic Novel Group meeting at Madlab on Edge Street, which is currently holding an exhibition of Lars Fiske’s comic art from a graphic novel about the German artist Kurt Schwitters. But I’ll do a post about all that soon.

The next GnG will be discussing Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, debated to be the first Graphic Novel. Every month they also talk about a free to read web-comic and this month’s is ‘Think Of The Children‘ by Cristian Sager & EC Steiner about the creation of the infamous Comic Book Code.

Some very historically important choices there, I’m sure they’ll be very informative reads and will lead to a lively and interesting discussion.

It’s free to attend but bring some pennies if you’d like to join in with the take away pizza!

Also, the next three month’s books will be:

‘Astro City: Life in the Big City’ by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson
‘Local’ by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly
and the joyous tome that is ‘Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth’ by Chris Ware

The Madlab event page for the GnG is here.

Venue:
MaDLab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester (map).

A casual get together of people who like to draw and chat about comics and art while enjoying a drink. Anyone is welcome. Suitable for all ages. Free entry, free comics, free snacks, materials provided and 10% off at the bar! What more could you ask for?

There’ll be the usual Comic Jams going around and the Comics Swap table (still loaded with 100+ comics) will be set up, but I’d like input or opinion on anything else we could change or add that would fit with the casual atmosphere of DnD. Is there anyone you’d like us to invite to give us a talk, or a really casual signing? Could we make one month a mini comics fair? Please leave your suggestions below.

See you there!

You can RSVP and see who else is attending over on the Facebook Event page. Join the Drink ‘n’ Draw Facebook Group while you’re over there too, for updates of all future events.

Venue:

Sandbar
120 Grosvenor Street
Manchester
M1 7HL
0161 273 1552
(Map)

Towards the end of last year I posted a summary of all the comic conventions listed in the Calendar section of this site (which you can add to your computer’s calendar btw). This year instead of creating individual posts for events months and months ahead of us, I thought I’d create the summary first and post more info nearer the time of each show. So here’s a list of all the comic conventions, shows, fairs and fests that I am aware of. If you know of any more, please leave a comment.

February 26th – Cardiff International Comic Expo (CICE)

As well as Charlie Adlard (Walking Dead), the fantastic Rob Davis (Don Quixote) and a host of Dr Who artists and writers, Manchester’s own Abigail Ryder (2000AD, TMNT) and Dave Bulmer (Demon Tomato) will there too. Also, premiering at the show will be a double preview issue of Stiffs and The Pride, both by Joe Glass (co-writer and writer, respectively) with art by rising talent Gavin Mitchell.

March 12th – London Small Press Expo

The London SP Expo is the successor to the long running but now defunct Web & Mini Comix Thing (aka The Thing) and will play host to a wealth of British self published talent, far to many to mention here. Special guests are David Hine and Shaky Kane (Bulletproof Coffin).

March 19th – Leeds Alternative Comic Fair

After the success of the first show last year, Steve Tillotson and Hugh Raine bring us another collection of fine artists and writers, selling there wares in the welcoming confines of The Nation of Shopkeeper’s bar.

April 9th-10th – Kapow!

Mark Millar’s newest attempt to make comics cool (though he called it Kapow!) was to envision a Comic Con for London promising big names, movie studio announcements, TV stars and the Stan Lee Awards. All in a hall for 3000 people. Table prices are £140 each, so don’t expect any self published artists or smaller publishers to be there.

May 14th-15th – Bristol Small Press Expo

May 27th-29th – London MCM Expo

The Comic Village section of this movies, games and anime show gets bigger and better each year; it’s a good sized comic show in it’s own right. 50,000-80,000 people are expected to pass through it’s doors over the three day show which will be affiliated with the Green Lantern movie, so expect plenty of film and TV related panels and events. And for exhibitors, tables are just £40!

May 28th-29th – International Alternative Press Fair

As part of a festival of comics running from the 27th May to the 13th June,featuring exhibitions at Orbital Comics and much more.

July 9th – Birmingham Zine Festival

Lizz Lunney & Co. are at it again. A weekend of independent books, comics and magazines.

July 31st – Manchester MCM Expo

This Summer for the first time, the MCM Expo comes to Manchester for a one day show. There will be a dedicated Comic Village portion of the show and the MCC may be involved in organising it. Much more news over the coming months.

October – British International Comics Show

Dates to be confirmed.

October – London MCM Expo

Autumn show. dates to be announced.

November 19th-20th – Thought Bubble

Tim Sale has already been announced as one of this year’s big guests, and the wonderful original art by Becky Cloonan has been revealed. Follow the Official Thought Bubble Blog for more information about what is widely regarded as the best comic show in the UK.

]]> http://manchestercomixcollective.com/2011/02/2011-conventions/feed/ 3 http://manchestercomixcollective.com/2011/01/not-one-for-knocking-on-2-exhibition/ http://manchestercomixcollective.com/2011/01/not-one-for-knocking-on-2-exhibition/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:52:35 +0000 admin http://manchestercomixcollective.com/?p=507 February 18, 2011 6:00 pmtoFebruary 26, 2011 6:00 pm

Oliver East (best known for his Trains Are… Mint comics and Elbow album art) is curating yet another exhibition of comic art, a second incarnation of ‘Not One For Knocking On’ (the first taking place last November).

Not One For Knocking On #2 features the artwork of Derik Badman, Malcy Duff, John Porcellino and Frank Santoro! Sounds pretty interesting to me.

A book featuring all the artists will available FREE on the opening night, Friday 18^th February, 6pm-9pm. Be there!

Viewing is by appointment only so email olivereast(at)hotmail(dot)com to arrange.

Venue:

Rogue Artists’ Studios & Project Space
66-72 Chapeltown Street
Piccadilly
Manchester
M1 2WH
(map)

Here is some advice for pitching your comic idea to a publisher from Warren Ellis. Matt Badham linked to a blog post from last September on The Comic Book Script archive, which itself unearthed the advice from Ellis’ old ‘Come In Alone’ column on Comic Book Resources. Ellis has a lot of experience at this and a lot of wisdom to share, as well as valuable tips for writers, such as this:

“There’s a rule-of-thumb for dialogue writing you might want to try. Stan Lee used it, Alan Moore uses it. An average-sized panel can stand about twenty-eight words of dialogue. Try it for a while, before you go your own way; no more than twenty-eight words in each panel.

Larry Hama’s got a trick to keep the page turning and the eye flowing across the page. He makes sure he has a caption or a piece of dialogue in the top left corner of the page and the bottom right corner. Try it for yourself, look at the effect it can create for action stories.”

Over on his blog, Comics journalist Matt Badham has an in depth interview with professional comic book letterer Jim Campbell. A must read for any creators out there who intend to do it all themselves, or just for anyone interested in the theory and method behind perhaps the most under-appreciated aspect of comic art. There’s also some intelligent discussion of the future of digital comics and nuggets of wisdom such as “the better you get at it, the less people should notice it”.

Link

Dr. Sketchy’s, the “anti-art school”/burlesque life drawing night set up by Molly Crabapple in New York in 2005 has had a branch in Manchester before. During 2008/9, Ruari McDowell and Faye Adams did a tremendous job of the running the event with varied and enjoybale themes and perfomers each month. After a year or so the time and expense took it’s toll and they decided to let someone else take over, though this being Manchester, nobody stepped up.

Well, in late 2010 Ruari and Faye took up the mantle again at a new venue, the eclectic Madlab opposite Common Bar. I completely missed this event but there’s a write up here and more photos here on their Facebook group. I’m glad to see it returning monthly. Time to stretch those life drawing muscles once again.

This month’s performer is burlesque/fetish/luchadora explosion Marnie Scarlet who looks like she’ll provide a entertaining and bizarre evening for all. I’ve been told places are limited so you have to buy a ticket beforehand.

Ticket’s are £6. Madlab’s event page is here and the booking page is here. Any problems with booking, get in touch with Ruari or Faye on the Facebook page.

Venue:

MaDLab
36-40 Edge Street
Manchester
M4 1HN
(Map).