Elayne's UK Report
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
[Sorry this is so late. I was waiting for a go-ahead to post some
information, and finally gave up on receiving it, assuming everything was
okay to release in the absence of any cease-and-desists to the contrary;
all due apologies if it's not, but I've done all I can and I'd rather not
wait on this any longer. Beware, there's a bit of non-comics content
herein, but I'm sure y'all can live with it. This one's for you, Heidi.]
Elayne's UK Report
or, "Give me a Ribena and some crisps and I'm good to go"
It's been about 18 years since I've done a trip report about England. My
previous travelogue was written for INSIDE JOKE, a newsletter I published,
at the time, for fans of the Uncle Floyd Show, a local variety program
disguised as a kiddie show. I discussed the near-interminable flight
there and back, the strangeness of Heathrow airport, touring London and
the Cotswolds with my British friend, and other strangenesses. The show's
cast members were baffled, but the report was received well by others, and
was instrumental in convincing me to take IJ beyond its then-narrow
subject matter and turn it into a general interest humor and fiction
outlet, a real turning point in my writing life.
Almost two decades later, my writing has now taken the form of Usenet
posts, comic book reviews and scripts, and I'm a bit more familiar with
both the UK, from having a partner who lives there, and with airplanes,
from having flown to so many conventions in the intervening years.
Unfortunately, while I was assured I'd have a lovely time flying Virgin
Atlantic, nobody happened to mention how cramped the seats were in economy
class-- much less roomy than on most domestic flights I've taken. In
addition, having asked for an exit row (for more legroom) and a window
seat, I found myself rather jammed in by the fact that the exit door stuck
out right in front of my seat, there was no seat ahead in which to stow
reading matter or anything else, the tray and video monitor had to be
lifted from the side of the seat and penned me in even more... In short,
six hours of hell. Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep on the
overnight flight.
Still, it was only five minutes through Customs, where I was asked what my
partner did for a living. "He's a graphic artist." They still let me
through. Oo the way out of Heathrow Airport, I noticed a sign warning of
a "humped zebra crossing," and while the context seemed to indicate the
phenomenon referred to was nothing more than speed bump painted with
diagonal stripes, I had quite a different mental picture going by that
point. During the taxi ride out of the city area and through some country
that reminded me a lot of south Jersey (Hosun Lee would have hated it), I
observed there were a lot more two-lane and three-lane highways and
motorways than in the 1970s, and spotted another sign I quite liked, "Soft
Verge," (is that anything like soft ice cream?).
About an hour and a half later I arrived in Ringmer, a small village
outside of Lewes, the slightly larger town where I'd be staying before and
after the convention. My partner, Robin Riggs, greeted me at his door,
and I exchanged a few pleasantries with his parents before begging to
crash for awhile while Robin worked on some SUPERGIRL pages. Turns out I
didn't get any actual sleep until after I'd checked in at the White Hart
Hotel in Lewes, but by the time I'd returned to Ringmer for a lovely
dinner cooked by Robin's mum, I'd shaken most of the jetlag and was able
to help out with some of the SUPERGIRL inking.
After a couple trips to the local supermarket (I need my crisps!), and a
lovely lunch the next day at a local family restaurant, we continued
inking SUPERGIRL #23, "Double-Edged Sword," a story about racism featuring
guest-star Steel. I guess I'd never noticed before that Leonard prefers
to fill the spaces between the panels in black rather than white-- but I
sure noticed that day, as I blacked most of them in! It was really
interesting seeing how they changed the balance of the page, how they made
Leonard's precise pencils and Robin's very faithful inks stand out in even
starker relief. Meanwhile, Robin was doing some of the best work of his
career on this issue, whilst taking me through some of his CD collection,
accepting coffee refills from Mum, and fielding calls from editors--
Darren Vincenzo wanting to make sure the last batch of pages for GREEN
ARROW #135 (Robin's work for after I returned home) had arrived okay,
after being waylaid in the post from penciller Dougie Braithwaite; and
Mike McAvennie, checking on when the SUPERGIRL pages would make it to New
York. As it turns out, Robin was working steadily on them (so much for my
tour of Ringmer) in time to give them all to letterer Pat Prentice in
person at UKCAC, so we were right on schedule!
On Friday morning I sat next to Robin while he finished up the "scratchy
pen" (Crowquill) work on the pages, particularly page 20, which I thought
came out spectacularly. I look forward to learning how to use this
instrument, if my hand stays steady enough for Robin to teach me the
"tracing" aspect of inking. I briefly glanced at the script for SUPERGIRL
#24, "Die and Let Live," guest-starring Resurrection Man, but didn't get
any farther than noticing the opening scene takes place at the Leesburg
centeniary celebration. By noon we were packed to get to the Lewes
station for the train to Gatwick airport, and Robin almost forgot to take
the pages for Pat-- I know he'd have remembered by the time he got in the
car, but I was still happy I could nag... um, remind him he'd left them on
his drawing board. The flight to Manchester was crowded but comfortable,
and we were surprised that they even fed us, although I got a few strange
looks from the cabin crew when I asked for lemon with my tea.
As soon as the taxi dropped us off at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester, I
felt like I was home again. It's a vibrant, lovely city, with public
transit and restaurants all over the place-- my kind of city. And the
hotel room had an actual shower! Of course, it would have been nicer had
they supplied a remote control for the television, but hey, you have to
rough it sometimes. After locating a copy shop so Robin could make
photocopies of the SUPERGIRL pages, we checked out the local mall (before
it closed at 5:30!), where Robin bought a new portfolio book in which to
put his newest work and reorganize some of the other stuff he's done.
Then it was out to dinner at-- yes, we found a sushi place. Now we were
truly ready for UKCAC.
Having been around the American convention circuit for the past few years,
I was used to recognizing most faces in the local drinking establishments,
but when we hit the hotel bar, I felt quite lost even though it was
obvious most of the folks there were "comic book people." (Yes, I suppose
we do have "a look" about us.) Robin, who'd quietly hung out with Alan
Davis and Mark Farmer during most of his previous UKCAC experiences, was a
bit more reticent than I'd expected him to be, so we pretty much sat on a
couch and watched the passing parade. No Americans that evening (I knew
most of them, at least), but we were finally approached by my CompuServe
and Legion fandom friend Ben Tansley, who recognized me from San Diego.
Ben had grown up in the Manchester area, and hadn't been back in about 25
years, so it was a nice homecoming for him. Robin did eventually
introduce me to some of his old mates from his Marvel UK days, including
Alan Cowsill, Glen Dakon and David Leach; in fact, Alan's still an editor
there, and I was surprised to learn Marvel UK still existed! But it was a
pretty mild night compared to what I was expecting, so I turned in rather
early.
The next morning we walked down to UMIST, the college that served as the
site of this year's United Kingdom Comic Arts Convention. I knew UKCAC
had been shrinking in attendance and interest the past few years, but I
was really taken aback by how small the dealers'/creators' room was--
about the size of a typical Big Apple con in New York. The panel rooms
were lecture halls, so they were nice and roomy (especially with such
sparse attendance for some of the panels!), but the real "action" of the
con took place at the adjacent bar and coffee shop. Still, I got to touch
base with, and buy books from, Terry Wiley and [artist] of SLEAZE CASTLE
and [writer and artist] of OCTOBRIANA. We also ran into Rich Johnston
from Usenet, Bob Wayne from DC, and Peter Hogan, who will be writing at
least another story for THE DREAMING.
I found Colleen Doran sitting next to Andy Lanning and Anthony Williams,
and chatted with her a bit (she was majorly jet-lagged after her stops in
Germany and Switzerland!) while Robin caught up with Andy. It was great
to hear Andy's reaction to Robin's current work-- a response we would,
quite happily, hear over and over throughout the weekend. It's one thing
to know that you're doing good work, but it never hurts to have others,
especially your peers, validate your opinion.
We briefly attended the Legion panel, which pretty much consisted of the
moderator showing slides of covers and select pages from the Legion's
40-year history, and Colleen and a couple others on the panel adding their
reminiscences. These guys have nothing on Legion fandom in the US; I
can't count how many times I wished Sidne Gail Ward or Tom Galloway were
in the crowd to add cogent bits of information or historical perspective.
The atmosphere was pretty convivial, though, with the expected Tyroc jokes
and lewd comments about Matter-Eater Lad and oral sex (yeah, *sure* the
British are reserved...).
We then caught the last of Bill Loebs' panel, and invited Bill to lunch in
the cafeteria. I was sorry to hear about the ill fortunes of his
wonderful BLISS ALLEY series, for which I had high hopes, but was
heartened to hear he's considering bringing out the first six stories in
collected form, which I think is the smart way to go in today's market.
He also talked a bit about reviving his seminal work JOURNEY in the same
format.
After another trip or two 'round the dealers'/creators' room, we went
looking in earnest for Pat Prentice, and found her sitting with Martin
Griffiths (whose work has appeared recently in, among other places, the
SCARE TACTICS Plus books, and who wound up being the only artist from whom
I got a sketch this time) and Lee Cecil (I think that was his name). We
were also joined by David Lloyd, who I'm told did the art on this little
series called V FOR VENDETTA a few years back. I hear it was quite well
received... It was a real pleasure meeting Pat, to whom I've been
referring as my "lettering goddess" for awhile now, and I couldn't help
but "talk shop," asking her all kinds of questions about her work. I was
surprised to realize that she doesn't believe in tucking her word balloons
into panel corners, as that's how I've become comfortable working, but she
mentioned that the free-floating balloons were preferred by lots of
storytellers, like Alan Davis, with whom she's worked on a lot of work.
(Alan was definitely there in spirit at this table, as Pat and David and
Robin all regaled each other with their favorite Davis stories.) Another
thing Pat mentioned which I didn't know was that balloon placement in
general was determined by the editors and assistant editors (and
occasioanlly, when working Marvel style, by the writers), not by the
letterers. This was quite a surprise to me, as I'd always considered
placement decisions to be the purview of the professional creating the
balloons and captions, but I suppose it makes sense when one thinks about
it, in terms of being a coordination/organization kind of thing. Pat
still letters by hand, usually finishing her balloons and captions by the
time the actual boards arrive so that she can set them down and get them
out with maximum speed. In many cases, this finds her working concurrent
with or even slightly ahead of the inker, as she'll have been faxed
scripts plus pencilled pages with the placements at about the same time as
the inker will have started his/her portion of the job.
Pat, Martin and Lee decided to join us for the last of the auction, where
the original art from the program book was sold off to benefit a local art
college (we were too late to see how much Robin's work fetched). On the
way there I was detoured by a wonderful surprise-- Mark Millar's wife was
feeling better so he'd been able to make the convention after all. He
enquired as to whether I'd come up with any more suggestions for baby-girl
names for his and Gill's impending bundle of joy (sorry Martha, "Simone"
has been shot down), and I suggested he ask Denise Voskuil-Marre, because
Denise's friend Steve Darnall was also at the table. Steve and I
exchanged a few words of greeting while his collaborator on UNCLE SAM,
fellow by the name of Alex Ross, looked at me quizzically wondering where
he knew me from (which he's done just about every time I've met him)...
The "Legionnaires are recruiting new members" costume parade which was to
follow the auction was cancelled-- it turned out only the convention
organising committee bothered to show up in costume-- so we called it a
day, walked a bit with Pat on her way to the train station to catch
transport back to Liverpool, then I had a bit of a lie-down before dinner
(Robin chose Korean sushi this time, but the sashimi portions were so
small that we ended up ordering room-service pizza as well). We chose not
to peruse the bar until around 11:00, a good choice since many of the
people we knew had been at the annual British comic awards and started
showing up around 11:30. I said a few more words to Rich and Mark and
Bob, spoke at greater length with Steve about UNCLE SAM and EMPTY LOVE
STORIES, and waved to Bill and Colleen. Still no sign of the Vertigo
folks, but I did spot surprise guest Bill Tucci at the bar, and my fellow
New Yorker almost keeled over when he saw me. Our greeting was probably
rather boisterous by staid British standards... except that we *were*
among comic book people, so we were rather drowned out. Billy had been up
for a few days-- when I saw him the following day he mentioned he'd gotten
no sleep Saturday either, having gone to bed at 4am-- and I must admit I
found it rather amusing that I was the only American who didn't seem
jet-lagged.
Another old friend of Robin's, Simon Jowett, stopped by to catch up, as
they hadn't seen one another in a few years, and we brought out the
portfolio, which turned out to be a great idea, and a nice ego-boost for
the both of us as Simon coo'ed over Robin's SUPERGIRL pages, his coloring
work, and especially his art on the Soulmate Productions stuff we'd done
which was toward the back of the book. I got a few compliments on the
scripting as well, which meant a lot coming from someone who's now writing
successfully for British television. A good way to end the evening.
On Sunday we checked out the train station near the college to get our
tickets back to the airport, then stepped into a nearly-empty hall on our
way to the bar, where I'd spend much of the afternoon writing this report.
The consensus seemed to be that this was the last UKCAC-- as Robin said,
quoting Dave Gibbons, "it's like a dinosaur, it's been dead for awhile but
the signal has yet to reach the brain." It's certainly the last show the
current people are organising. We had a nice chat with Peter Hogan, who
caught me up on his imminent projects (lots of DREAMING stuff for Vertigo,
including some Cain and Abel work), and sat through a tripping of the
emergency alarm at about 2:45 which seemed to wake the bar up a bit. Lee
from our previous day's conversation sat down to chat with Robin again,
while another Lee-- my CompuServe friend Lee "Budgie" Barnett-- came up
and introduced himself to me. We chatted a bit about mutual friends, and
one of the hightlights of our conversation was a reminiscence of our good
friend Kim Yale, whom I still miss dearly.
We realized about 4:00 that we'd missed the panels we'd planned on
attending, specifically the Archie Goodwin memorial and the Kirby panel,
so said a few goodbyes, shrugged at the folks with whom we never did meet
up (I'd been particularly keen on seeing Stuart Moore, Shelly Roeberg and
Andi Watson) and headed out to catch the train back to the airport, then
the plane, then another train... then on Monday morning, for me, another
train to the outbound-plane from Gatwick, which turned around an hour out
because of a sick passenger, and wound up arriving at New York *11 hours
after the flight began*. Yeah, you could say I was fried. <g>
Overall impressions: The food is fine, don't believe the stereotype. But
the cold (non-alcoholic) drinks leave something to be desired. Although
tea is the national drink, the Brits have never heard of *iced* tea.
Contrary to Rich Johnston's predictions, nobody seemed to think my
American accent was glamourous. Teletubbies are all over the place, but
Spice Girls stuff seems on the way out. "Friends" is immensely popular,
God knows why. The comics scene appears to be going way downhill-- there
was apparently an event on Sunday for kids, and only seven showed up.
It'll take a minor miracle, attached to deep pockets, to keep any sort of
United Kingdom convention going for next year and beyond. And it's not as
easy to stay "within the lines" on an actual comic board as one might
think, especially if one keeps saying to oneself, "My God, I'm working on
an actual comic board..."
- Elayne
--
"The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female
reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent
as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
ComixAce
Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...so how WAS the Manchester
sushi?
>>>Another thing Pat mentioned which I didn't know was that balloon placement
in general was determined by the editors and assistant editors (and
occasioanlly, when working Marvel style, by the writers), not by the
letterers. This was quite a surprise to me, as I'd always considered
placement decisions to be the purview of the professional creating the
balloons and captions, but I suppose it makes sense when one thinks about
it, in terms of being a coordination/organization kind of thing.
Good artists incorporate balloon placement into their pencils. But not always.
You'd think it should eb left to the letterer, but I believe the process
originated back during the days when comics were thought of as a machine-like
assembly line. Letterers weren't really expected to read and comprehend the
script.
And indeed, I've worked with some letterers (among the best in the business)
whose balloon placement is lousy. (Not that I'm always that much better.) In
general, if balloon palcement requires someone to sit down, and analyze the
script, that job is expected to be the editors, not the letterers.
Heidi MacDonald
--------
"Death is the mother of beauty." --Wallace Stevens
"Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful." --They Might be
Giants
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
Heidi MacDonald (comi...@aol.com) wrote:
: Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...
Which ones? Robin and I pretty much kept to ourselves at UKCAC, so I
wasn't in in as much socializing as I expected. And I wrote a lot of this
report on Sunday afternoon in the UKCAC pub, so what do you expect? :)
: so how WAS the Manchester sushi?
Not as much variety as we get here, but not too bad, overall. Pricey, but
not overly so.
: Good artists incorporate balloon placement into their pencils. But not always.
Tell me about it. A lot of it has to do with a recent discussion we had
here on racm about the use of negative space. Allowing for balloons and
captions is part of understanding how to use negative space. For
instance, when drawing closeups wherein you know the person in the panel
will be speaking, rather than just having a reaction shot, you *don't*
fill the panel with the person's face or put the face in the middle of the
panel. You put it over to one side to allow for the balloon; the net
effect is it'll still LOOK balanced, like they're center-panel, because
the balloon will balance out the face.
: You'd think it should eb left to the letterer, but I believe the process
: originated back during the days when comics were thought of as a machine-like
: assembly line. Letterers weren't really expected to read and comprehend the
: script.
I suppose so. But lettering is such an art nowadays that I guess I was
pretty surprised to find out that placement isn't the letterer's choice.
: And indeed, I've worked with some letterers (among the best in the business)
: whose balloon placement is lousy. (Not that I'm always that much better.) In
: general, if balloon palcement requires someone to sit down, and analyze the
: script, that job is expected to be the editors, not the letterers.
Hmm, okay, makes sense. Thanks!
Unknown
In article <6gasc6$s...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
>
>Heidi MacDonald (comi...@aol.com) wrote:
>
>: Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...
>
>Which ones? Robin and I pretty much kept to ourselves at UKCAC, so I
>wasn't in in as much socializing as I expected. And I wrote a lot of this
>report on Sunday afternoon in the UKCAC pub, so what do you expect? :)
Presumably you missed out Glenn Fabry? Now there's a fella who likes to party.
And break glass tables.
>: And indeed, I've worked with some letterers (among the best in the business)
>: whose balloon placement is lousy. (Not that I'm always that much better.) In
>: general, if balloon palcement requires someone to sit down, and analyze the
>: script, that job is expected to be the editors, not the letterers.
>
Anybody want to do a step-by-step guide to the really bad lettering in Judgment
Day Aftermath?
Rich Johnston
Denise L. Voskuil
In article <6g9jcb$q...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
>Still, I got to touch
>base with, and buy books from, Terry Wiley and [artist] of SLEAZE CASTLE
That's Dave McKinnon, and - I might be misremembering this - but Terry's the
artist, Dave's the writer (though Terry does some scripting/writing at times, I
think). Terry does the writing and illustrations for his _Surreal School
Stories_, a "Jocasta's teenage school days" prequel to _Sleaze Castle_, done in
the style of Victorian-era serialized stories. Both series are great!
>On the
>way there I was detoured by a wonderful surprise-- Mark Millar's wife was
>feeling better so he'd been able to make the convention after all. He
>enquired as to whether I'd come up with any more suggestions for baby-girl
>names for his and Gill's impending bundle of joy (sorry Martha, "Simone"
>has been shot down), and I suggested he ask Denise Voskuil-Marre, because
>Denise's friend Steve Darnall was also at the table.
I'm sorry, but you've lost me here - I don't understand this. Has someone been
posting/spreading rumors about me or something?
- Denise
--
Denise L. Voskuil-Marre - dvoskuil@: uic.edu/mcs.com/eden.com
http://www.uic.edu/~dvoskuil/
I'm too low in the hierarchy at UIC to officially even
*have* an opinion, so this sure isn't theirs.
David Tallan
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput <fire...@panix.com> wrote:
: Heidi MacDonald (comi...@aol.com) wrote:
: : Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...
: Which ones? Robin and I pretty much kept to ourselves at UKCAC, so I
: wasn't in in as much socializing as I expected. And I wrote a lot of this
: report on Sunday afternoon in the UKCAC pub, so what do you expect? :)
It's the whole engagement thing we were interested in reading about,
Elayne. Did he get down on his knee when he proposed? Did he pick a
suitably romantic time/place? :)
--
Respectfully,
David Tallan
dta...@interlog.com
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
Denise L. Voskuil (dvos...@uic.edu) wrote:
: In article <6g9jcb$q...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
: >Still, I got to touch
: >base with, and buy books from, Terry Wiley and [artist] of SLEAZE CASTLE
: That's Dave McKinnon, and - I might be misremembering this - but Terry's the
: artist, Dave's the writer (though Terry does some scripting/writing at times, I
: think).
Gah! I can't believe I didn't fill in those blanks before posting! Last
time I let Robin proofread. :)
: >On the
: >way there I was detoured by a wonderful surprise-- Mark Millar's wife was
: >feeling better so he'd been able to make the convention after all. He
: >enquired as to whether I'd come up with any more suggestions for baby-girl
: >names for his and Gill's impending bundle of joy (sorry Martha, "Simone"
: >has been shot down), and I suggested he ask Denise Voskuil-Marre, because
: >Denise's friend Steve Darnall was also at the table.
: I'm sorry, but you've lost me here - I don't understand this. Has someone been
: posting/spreading rumors about me or something?
Just me dropping your name. Everyone's always accusing me of dropping
pros' names on Usenet, and nobody believes I also drop Usenetters' names
to pros. :) I found the use of your name was *the* best ice-breaker with
Steve. I was pretty sure he knew me, but me mentioning your name might
have made a "click" in his head that helped the conversation along.
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
twis...@hotmail.com (RichJohnston) wrote:
: In article <6gasc6$s...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
: >
: >Heidi MacDonald (comi...@aol.com) wrote:
: >
: >: Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...
: >
: >Which ones? Robin and I pretty much kept to ourselves at UKCAC, so I
: >wasn't in in as much socializing as I expected. And I wrote a lot of this
: >report on Sunday afternoon in the UKCAC pub, so what do you expect? :)
: Presumably you missed out Glenn Fabry? Now there's a fella who likes to party.
: And break glass tables.
I missed Glenn entirely. I missed everyone to whom you didn't introduce
me, Rich. :)
: Anybody want to do a step-by-step guide to the really bad lettering in Judgment
: Day Aftermath?
Off the top of my head, without the issue in front of me-- page one, "you
must be ONE ONE of Jack's boys"; the last two captions on the last panel
of the first page of the Maximage story are repeated on the first panel of
the second page; there are a bunch of typos that didn't stick in my head
because I was so infuriate with the more obvious stuff; and worst/best of
all, instead of putting in the alienspeak for the Spacehunter character,
they typed the word "alien" (i.e., they typed the direction rather than
drawing in the symbols). Did I get all the egregious ones?
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
David Tallan (dta...@interlog.com) wrote:
: : : Good report, Elayne, if lacking in a few details...
: : Which ones? Robin and I pretty much kept to ourselves at UKCAC, so I
: : wasn't in in as much socializing as I expected. And I wrote a lot of this
: : report on Sunday afternoon in the UKCAC pub, so what do you expect? :)
: It's the whole engagement thing we were interested in reading about,
: Elayne.
At the time I wrote the report, I wasn't sure of the timing in terms of
announcing our engagement. Besides, our engagement-- even though my first
husband tells me it was actually mentioned on Ken Gale's NUFF SAID radio
show last night-- is only peripherally comics-related.
: Did he get down on his knee when he proposed? Did he pick a
: suitably romantic time/place? :)
Yes to both, if you must know. :)
And now you're obligated to tell everyone about your and Tara's engagement
circumstances, you know. :)
Gérard Morvan
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput wrote:
(Snipped for the sake of brevity)
Great report, Elayne! Sorry I missed you. I tried to meet you and Robin,
but didn't have any luck. Too bad! Anyway, my con, although a bit sad,
this being the last one and all :-( , was also very rewarding. Colleen
Doran got herself a new reader for A Distant Soil, I managed to
interview all the people I wanted to interview (Alex Ross, Bill
Messner-Loebs, Colleen Doran, Frank Plowright -long overdue-, and Mike
McKone as an added bonus), found a few issues I looked for for a long
time, visited a bit of Manchester, saw two musicals in London (Chicago
and Miss Saigon), in short had the time of my life. But I'm still sorry
for missing you and Robin. Where were you all this time? (Me, I was the
6 ft guy in black pants, white shirt, greyish-balding hair, carrying a
green bag on my shoulder). Well, maybe at the next convention somebody
will organize in the U.K.
Gérard Morvan
http://perso.club-internet.fr/heroes
P.S.: My report will be online very soon, complete with an interview of
Frank Plowright. BTW, have you checked the Slings and Arrows guide to
comic books? Really impressive! If you haven't read it, do so. It's a
very valuable tool for journalist, comic fan and collector alike (and
I'm all three)
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
Gérard Morvan (her...@club-internet.fr) wrote:
: Great report, Elayne! Sorry I missed you.
Likewise. You were one of the people I was looking forward to meeting.
[great activity list snipped, and I'm glad you're now into Colleen's
work!]
: But I'm still sorry
: for missing you and Robin. Where were you all this time?
Mostly in the adjoining pub, as I recall. :) :) :)
Denise L. Voskuil
In article <6gb9vl$c...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
>Denise L. Voskuil (dvos...@uic.edu) wrote:
>: In article <6g9jcb$q...@panix3.panix.com>, fire...@panix.com says...
>: >way there I was detoured by a wonderful surprise-- Mark Millar's wife was
>: >feeling better so he'd been able to make the convention after all. He
>: >enquired as to whether I'd come up with any more suggestions for baby-girl
>: >names for his and Gill's impending bundle of joy (sorry Martha, "Simone"
>: >has been shot down), and I suggested he ask Denise Voskuil-Marre, because
>: >Denise's friend Steve Darnall was also at the table.
>: I'm sorry, but you've lost me here - I don't understand this. Has someone
bee
>n
>: posting/spreading rumors about me or something?
>Just me dropping your name. Everyone's always accusing me of dropping
>pros' names on Usenet, and nobody believes I also drop Usenetters' names
>to pros. :) I found the use of your name was *the* best ice-breaker with
>Steve. I was pretty sure he knew me, but me mentioning your name might
>have made a "click" in his head that helped the conversation along.
Oh, OK. I was worried that there was a rumor going around that I was
_pregnant_, thus the reference to being a source for baby names. I thought for
a second that Steve would be very confused with me (knowing my attitude towards
children and all ;) ).
Terry Wiley
In article <6gav7v$2f4e$1...@piglet.cc.uic.edu>, dvos...@uic.edu (Denise L.
Voskuil) wrote:
> >Still, I got to touch
> >base with, and buy books from, Terry Wiley and [artist] of SLEAZE CASTLE
>
> That's Dave McKinnon, and - I might be misremembering this - but Terry's the
> artist, Dave's the writer (though Terry does some scripting/writing at
> times, I think). Terry does the writing and illustrations for his
> _Surreal School Stories_, a "Jocasta's teenage school days" prequel to
> _Sleaze Castle_ , done in the style of Victorian-era serialized stories.
> Both series are great!
That's correct - in case Elayne needs to know, the red-headed one with glasses
is Terry Wiley, who is the artist, who is me :)
Dave is the writer - although I'm currently *ahead* of him :
me 10 comix (Tales from Sleaze Castle #1-#4, Surreal...#1-#6)
him 8 comix (More Tales... #1-#8)
and SC#9 is officially late, by the way... (fx: wailing, gnashing of teeth)
Terry Wiley
(Gratuitous Bunny Comix)
Artist on 'Sleaze Castle' (which is hardly sleazy at all, really)
http://home.clara.net/tycho/sleaze_castle
Robin Riggs
In article <6gbet5$m...@panix3.panix.com>,
fire...@panix.com (Elayne Wechsler-Chaput) wrote:
>: But I'm still sorry
>: for missing you and Robin. Where were you all this time?
>Mostly in the adjoining pub, as I recall. :) :) :)
What can I tell you, it's been a UKCAC tradition. :)
Robin.
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
: >:been posting/spreading rumors about me or something?
: >Just me dropping your name. Everyone's always accusing me of dropping
: >pros' names on Usenet, and nobody believes I also drop Usenetters' names
: >to pros. :) I found the use of your name was *the* best ice-breaker with
: >Steve. I was pretty sure he knew me, but me mentioning your name might
: >have made a "click" in his head that helped the conversation along.
: Oh, OK. I was worried that there was a rumor going around that I was
: _pregnant_, thus the reference to being a source for baby names.
Oh gosh, NO, I just figured you'd be clever enough to think of some that
Millar hadn't. (Rich, have he and Gill decided on a name YET? He was
joking awhile back that he was considering running a contest in Wizard to
choose one. <g>)
alas...@hyperlink.com
In article <6g9jcb$q...@panix3.panix.com>,
fire...@panix.com (Elayne Wechsler-Chaput) wrote:
> During the taxi ride out of the city area and through some country
> that reminded me a lot of south Jersey (Hosun Lee would have hated it), I
What direction were you heading in? I live all of half an hour from
Heathrow, and I'm bemused as to what looks like S Jersey near there.
> and we were surprised that they even fed us, although I got a few strange
> looks from the cabin crew when I asked for lemon with my tea.
That's because it's a strange thing to ask for. :)
> As soon as the taxi dropped us off at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester, I
> felt like I was home again. It's a vibrant, lovely city,
We are talking about the same Manchester here, aren't we? It's full
of life, I guess. It just smells odd.
> photocopies of the SUPERGIRL pages, we checked out the local mall (before
> it closed at 5:30!),
This is also normal - we don't believe in working our shop assistants until
they drop, over here.
> But
> the cold (non-alcoholic) drinks leave something to be desired.
Not true - we have Lime and Banana flavoured fizzy water!
> Although
> tea is the national drink, the Brits have never heard of *iced* tea.
Oh, we've heard of it - we just think it's heresy.
> God knows why. The comics scene appears to be going way downhill-- there
Sadly, yes. I'm very lucky to have a local retailer, and I live on
the outskirts of London. They accept charitable donations, if anyone
want to help. :)
Alasdair Watson.
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
alas...@hyperlink.com wrote:
: In article <6g9jcb$q...@panix3.panix.com>,
: fire...@panix.com (Elayne Wechsler-Chaput) wrote:
: > During the taxi ride out of the city area and through some country
: > that reminded me a lot of south Jersey (Hosun Lee would have hated it), I
: What direction were you heading in? I live all of half an hour from
: Heathrow, and I'm bemused as to what looks like S Jersey near there.
I believe I was heading southeast. Towards Brighton. A lot of the area
was hilly with farmland and such, and reminded me of stretches around the
otherwise-interminable NJ Turnpike. Hosun would probably still hate it,
even though I found it very picturesque.
: > and we were surprised that they even fed us, although I got a few strange
: > looks from the cabin crew when I asked for lemon with my tea.
: That's because it's a strange thing to ask for. :)
It's friggin' TEA. Your NATIONAL DRINK. And nobody drinks it with lemon
(which is *great* for the throat, I try to pack lemons if I remember every
time I go to a convention) and they've never HEARD of it iced.
: > As soon as the taxi dropped us off at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester, I
: > felt like I was home again. It's a vibrant, lovely city,
: We are talking about the same Manchester here, aren't we? It's full
: of life, I guess. It just smells odd.
Doesn't, really. I only had one "could have been a New York smell"
experience. Mostly I smelled beer. There's like a pub every 20 paces in
Manchester. I thought it was a good city in which to have a comic book
convention, but I guess it's rather out of the way for many London-based
folks.
: > photocopies of the SUPERGIRL pages, we checked out the local mall (before
: > it closed at 5:30!),
: This is also normal - we don't believe in working our shop assistants until
: they drop, over here.
Flex-time. Shifts. Look into it. :)
Denise L. Voskuil
In article <6gbtb9$qk0$1...@plutonium.compulink.co.uk>, tw...@cix.co.uk says...
>In article <6gav7v$2f4e$1...@piglet.cc.uic.edu>, dvos...@uic.edu (Denise L.
>Voskuil) wrote:
>> That's Dave McKinnon, and - I might be misremembering this - but Terry's the
>> artist, Dave's the writer (though Terry does some scripting/writing at
>> times, I think). Terry does the writing and illustrations for his
>> _Surreal School Stories_, a "Jocasta's teenage school days" prequel to
>> _Sleaze Castle_ , done in the style of Victorian-era serialized stories.
>> Both series are great!
[snip]
>Dave is the writer - although I'm currently *ahead* of him :
>me 10 comix (Tales from Sleaze Castle #1-#4, Surreal...#1-#6)
>him 8 comix (More Tales... #1-#8)
>
>and SC#9 is officially late, by the way... (fx: wailing, gnashing of teeth)
When was _Sleaze Castle: The Director's Cut, Part Two_ supposed to have
shipped through Diamond?
BTW, for anyone who hasn't read _Tales From Sleaze Castle_ yet but thinks they
would like a fun, humorous story, look into this one. No, it's _not_ sleazy;
the name's a pun. It's about a young grad student from England who suddenly
finds herself caught up in some weird adventures with a friend who unbeknownst
to her (for a while) is really the ruler of another planet! Lots of SF
references, good characterization, and a twisting and turning plotline (and
timeline!). It has well-done, cartoony art too.
Check out my review of it at <http://www.mcs.net/~dvoskuil/html/sleaze0.html>.
For sample art, character and plot info, and the chance to read part of one of
their comics online then head to their web site at
<http://home.clara.net/tycho/sleaze_castle/page1.htm>. For ordering, look in
Previews under the publisher "Gratuitous Bunny Comix."
- Denise
--
Denise L. Voskuil-Marre - dvoskuil@: uic.edu/mcs.com/eden.com
http://www.uic.edu/~dvoskuil/
I'm too low in the hierarchy at UIC to officially even
*have* an opinion, so this sure isn't their official one.
mwowm
In article <6glggp$18to$1...@piglet.cc.uic.edu>, dvos...@uic.edu (Denise
L. Voskuil) wrote:
>
> When was _Sleaze Castle: The Director's Cut, Part Two_ supposed to
> have shipped through Diamond?
It shipped TWICE last year; in March and October
--------------------------------------
mwowm@ <----- USE THIS EMAIL
cix.
co.
uk
Dave McKinnon
- writer "Sleaze Castle"
Gratuitous Bunny Comix
http://home.clara.net/tycho/sleaze_castle/
and...
For the benefit of Spambots everywhere:
webmaster@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@localhost
Denise L. Voskuil
In article <memo.19980410...@mwowm.compulink.co.uk>,
mwowm@Tycho_Brahe.ac.uk says...
>In article <6glggp$18to$1...@piglet.cc.uic.edu>, dvos...@uic.edu (Denise
>L. Voskuil) wrote:
>> When was _Sleaze Castle: The Director's Cut, Part Two_ supposed to
>> have shipped through Diamond?
>It shipped TWICE last year; in March and October
<sarcasm>Ah, I love it when my local comics shop gets shorted on its
orders...</sarcasm> *sigh* Thanks for the info.
- Denise
--
Denise L. Voskuil-Marre - dvoskuil@: uic.edu/mcs.com/eden.com
http://www.uic.edu/~dvoskuil/
I'm too low in the hierarchy at UIC to officially even
*have* an opinion, so this sure isn't theirs.