Manchester MCM

Saturday just gone and I fancied a trip to Manchester to attend the MCM COMICON event.
 A two day comic and Memorabilia convention held at Manchester Central (formerly the GMEX).

Hell, the last comic convention I went to was Demoncon in Maidstone, and that was in February, so I was really looking forward to going.

I knew Colin Mathieson and Dave West (AccentUK) would be there…well it’s local for them isn’t it.
I thought I go and sign a few copies of Westernoir for anybody who wanted me to. Also Dave had mentioned that they had run out of sketches for the sketch packs. So I took a heap more, call it  an incentive fer folk that fancied buyin’ all four Books.

The weathermen forecast rain fer the day and they weren’t wrong…
Just as I left the house the rains came down. A torrential downpour to see me off.
But I weren’t gonna let that put me off; 

Nor the fact that the train were twenty minutes late…

Or that a pigeon shit on me while I was waiting fer the train.

Nosireebob!
 
The rain did ease by the time I arrived in Manchester, so the fifteen minute walk to the venue wasn’t too bad.

It was only as I queued to get inside that the heavens opened again. But that was alright because I came prepared: -Good waterproof coat and a decent umbrella.

 Not so, some of the folk queuing with me. A lot dressed in really wonderful and elaborate cos-play costumes getting absolutely soaked. Such a shame to see a mum, dressed in a star trek uniform, and her young son getting drenched.

Luckily for everyone it was well organised and it took only 15 minutes to get inside and out of the rain.

                                    Right lets find out where AccentUK are, shall we?


 All I had to do now was find where AccentUK were…
I found Steve Tanner first. Now, Steve publishes some damn fine books under his “Time Bomb” banner and so I stopped and had a quick chat.  He pointed me in the right direction and I soon stood in front of AccentUK’s table to find Dave all on his own.

                                             Dave moonlighting while Colin is away.


 It seemed Colin had gone off with his son, Scott to see what delights could be found in the huge hall.
So I took off my wet coat, rolled up my sleeves and gave Dave a hand behind the table.
And it wasn’t long before I had a sale.

And another, and another…

And a whole heap more right up when Colin and Scott returned to give Dave and me a break. 
We had a bite to eat and the chance to have a look around but we soon returned to the table where sales we constant all day. And it didn’t stop even after I left at four thirty to catch my train home.  

We had returning customers and new customers wanting to try anything and everything that AccentUK had to offer.

Nothing more satisfying when a customer makes a beeline to the table, having bought WESTERNoir book 1 last year and returning to pick up books 2,3 and 4 this year. 

I signed some books and people liked the sketches so we sold a fair few sketch packs.

Met a couple of gents dressed in magnificent “Steam-punk” costumes who bought all four issues of WN and the western anthology.

                I think it's time Josiah had a change of waist-coats...
                        both of these looked terrific.

 It really was a terrific day.

And I really did enjoy myself.

As a bonus, the sales for Saturday were excellent; Dave and Colin were extremely pleased how things were looking.
 And so was I because WESTERNoir was the best seller…

It was a two-day event but I didn’t go on the Sunday, but Dave kept in touch with the odd text throughout the day to say that sales were even better.

I have no idea just how many people turned up on Saturday, but they were still queueing at 4.00 in the afternoon. I did hear someone say they'd queued for over three hours, (that's the reason I  pre-book a ticket if I can..I learnt to my cost a couple of years ago that the queues can be big.) 

I'm assuming similar numbers on Sunday because the sales were even better.

In fact best con ever: - sales wise.

So that's all grand when we start printing the next series of books of WESTERNoir.
 
And fer those who waitin' patiently waiting fer Book 5...
It's comin'. it's written and there are completed pages of art... in fact a goodly amount if art.
Keep a look out for sketches and layouts and stuff that I'll start posting very soon.