Post the Third: Neil Gaiman is surprise World Horror Con guest!

Here's Neil Gaiman and Abaddon author Paul Kane - the two friends worked together when Paul edited the Clive Barker-inspired anthology Hellbound Hearts. (See below!)

Here's my copy, signed by Paul and Neil, with a little pinhead doodle by Neil! Neat! Makes you wonder why he pays Dave McKean to draw for him. ;-)

SFX Weekender: Ninth Post

Eighth post is here.

So, yeah, some more costumes for you. Pretty cool, I thought.




Part ten here.

SFX Weekender: Seventh Post

Sixth and final post last night is here.

So we hit a bar in Rye last night to have a bit of a drink and get down. Here's us around the table.

Not me, obviously. I'm holding the camera.

The taxi driver recommended it to us. We walked in and Brian Glover shouted at us to keep off the moors and stick to the path.

Well, he didn't, really, because he's dead and that would have been creepy. Also awesome.

Seriously, it was quite a nice pub and they were quite friendly.

The DJ was extraordinary. He'd brought about fifty CDs with him and was all "yeah, come up and let me know any requests!"

Fifty.

So we went up and asked, but even trying to be as cheese-friendly as we could, we had about a 30% hit rate. His face fell every time we asked, but he was so happy every time he could help. It was kind of half-DJ, half-Spaniel.

So now it's Day Two of the con (Day Three onsite). Tired, bleary, slightly hungover.

Living the dream, baby. Living the dream.

Eighth post, for those reading the whole thing in order, is here.

SFX Weekender: Fifth Post

Fourth Post is here.

Check these out. They got girls on stilts wandering around freaking people out.

Mmm... giant, terrifying women in fishnets.

Next post is here.

SFX Weekender: Third Post

So the Second Post is up on the Solaris blog.

And the con is in full swing. We're selling books - Paul Kane's Arrowhead and Broken Arrow are quite successful today, as are Scott Andrews' Lee Keegan books - chatting folk up, and pottering about.

Our very own (and 2000 AD's) Al Ewing has been up for a comic-writing workshop along with 2000 AD's Leigh Gallagher, talking up the audience and getting them to call out plot ideas while Leigh drew.

The ideas posed a bit of a challenge, in the end; they ended up writing a story about Dredd investigating an MP who bought porn on expenses, only to discover that the porn was poisonous.

Hm.

At any rate, above is Al rocking the mic like a born MC, and below is Leigh getting his penmanship on.

Fourth post is here.

SFX Weekender: First Post

Hi all,

As promised, I am blogging live from the SFX Weekender, where I will be updating you intermittently throughout the day.

So we got on site yesterday after my first time ever driving a van - a harrowing, but in the end reassuringly straightforward experience - and went for a pint. Because that's how we roll.

Then we unloaded the van and had another pint.

Then we went to find our chalets and had another pint.

Then we wandered around Camber looking for a fictional restaurant, gave up, grabbed some supermarket pizza and came back for another pint.

Limped out of bed at around 8.30 (or so; some got up earlier than later), sorted the boxes a little and saw these guys.

Do you suppose convention stormtrooper guys turn up, see other convention stormtrooper guys, and think, "Oh my god! Somebody else came dressed as the same thing! I'm going to just die."

No?

Whatever.

Breakfast at some horrifying cafe where the woman made us fix her lights before we were allowed to sit down - this is actually true - and back to set the stall up.

More as the day progresses. I'm really just in it for Tom Baker.

The second post is here.