This is going to be my report, or more accurately, my vague recollections of the Uk Web and Mini Comix Thing that occured this very March 20th 2004 at the Ocatagon, Stepney Green, London, which is a bitch to find as no-one in the local area seems to know it exists either. That, or we asked directions from the only other tourist in the area, which frankly I wouldn't put it past us.

The convention was for all and anyone who had an interest in web/mini comics and was situated in the U of K. Fortunately it was also close to where I live and cheap to get in. Hurrah! Al of Narf and his delightful companion of the female persuasion Ellie came down to partake of the event with me and we met one Johnny (Jonny? Johny?) of SabbathCat.com at the event itself once we got there.

Al.

Immediately upon arrival - well, not immediately, you have to spend two hours on a train first - upon arrival at the venue you are struck by the fact that there are a lot of people in this place with exactly as much free time as you have, and you feel comforted. The room was indeed octagonal, and was actually really nice - smaller than I imagined but quite cosy.

We bought our tickets - well, I did, I paid for everything on this bloody trip - and kinda wandered loose for a bit, looking around any table we got near. It was quite amusing, actually, that we only managed to get all the way around the room very quickly at the end, it took us a good hour or so just to get half way round to the table Eddache from bolloxcomics.co.uk had, and then we kinda got no further, but more on that later.

The first table we kinda really got stuck at was the one for www.kindamanga.com which had a hilarious little freebie brochure thing. I also bought the print book that was for sale and it is awesome. Awesome. Very keen on that one. We then went to the next table where for The Goldfish Bowl, where we proceeded to have a conversation about scalping Townies whilst grabbing as many free CDs as we could conceivably get away with ^_^

We then wandered back the other way for a bit because we'd arrived just in time for the panel/open conversation. We went and sat down but unfortunately didn't possess the brain power nor the buttock stamina to sit it out for more than a half hour. Remember who we are; I do a glorified copy and paste comic and Al is Al. We left Jonny there and made our way back into the main room.

Our next stop was the Earthbound table as we noticed there were free sweets there - kaching! Jonny rejoined us around this point, I think - I can't quite remember when he got back, actually. I think it was around here because I remember talking to him about the hot girl sitting behind the Earthbound table :> Also the comic rocks! It was a close thing but I nearly bought a framed picture. I didn't as I couldn't figure out how I'd get it home in one piece.

We then went up to the Bollox table, as I wanted to say hi to Eddache. But he wasn't there, instead he was being SNEAKY and table-sitting for another comic back near the entrance. I think he saw us coming when the person next to the Bollox table told us where he was and pointed, as he seemed to all of a sudden get nervous. As we made our way over we could veritably see sweat springing upon his brow ^_^

But we introduced ourselves and guess what? Eddache is a bloody nice guy too! Yay! We had a conversation about his British Webcomic Pissup idea which me and Al participated in, and talked about being in the next one. It was really cool to talk about this strange hobby I have with other people without being looked at funnily. However, I soon solved that...

Then we wandered over to the Two Sides Wide table because they had genuine KITTY EAR HATS. It was around this point it got a bit fuzzy for me, and my next memory is of walking away five pounds down but one kitty hat up. I do have a photo of it, when I get all the photos together it'll be in them. Two Sides Wide is also a cool webcomic, and the creators are lovely nice people who have KITTY EAR HOODIES.

Kitty ear lady.

Then some random person took my picture with my kitty ears on! God only knows why ^_^ I have a leaflet from her somewhere...aha, I think this is the one, it's yellow and about alcohol. www.alleged.org.uk 'tis, I think, the one. If not...well, uh...

Me in the kitty ears.

Then we spent another few minutes just wandering. I picked up a few more leaflets but unfortunately didn't have another conversation - everyone was either already talking or looking worried by the person in kitty ears. I think I was the first person to buy them, I'm not sure, but other people soon did so it was okay ^_^

We decided we were hungry then so wandered outside for about an hour. Of course, since we were looking for food, we managed to find probably the only pub in the area that didn't serve food. But we bought scampi fries! Mm.

When we got back we sat and drew things whilst eating our sandwiches in the lobby bit. We each drew for our respective comics then stuck it on the wall. When we wandered back into the main bit we decided to find and join the collaboration comic, so we made our way to the middle circle of tables. I noticed on the way the Earthbound lady had bought a kitty hat too, yay!

We found the comic and quickly caught up on what had gone before. Apparently it involved teapots and death. We decided, rather than spend ages on a page each, our group would all chip in on one page. I admit to some trepidation at this idea as both Jonny and Al are much better artists than me. But fortunately I cheated outrageously and somehow managed to do a copy and paste pair of panels without copying and pasting! Hurrah!

My two panels in the collab comic. Sod the rest of them.

Overall our effort proved quite good. I was suprised that it didn't look all that disjointed. You can see them HERE, we're the ones who did page eight. Then the nice Two Sides Wide lady with the KITTY EARS came and watched us ink up our page, and did the last one as it was around this time everyone was starting to pack up, aw! I also took a picture of her. We also had a nice conversation wherein I accidentally called her male companion ugly because I thought I heard Jonny say it whereas he didn't so I was repeating nothing and therefore it sounded like I said it first when I wasn't thinking anything of the sort. Much hasty apologising and cursing ensued ^_^; Really, if you guys see this, I'm sorry.

Johnny and Ellie drawing.

I then took the oppurtunity, since my panels were done, to do a quick circuit of the hall again. I picked up a poster from Bollox comics (pic below). I also got a quick peek of other comics and bought a copy of Mr. Nile The Illustrated Bastard from e-merl.com, which is hilarious. Al joined me briefly and we both took pictures of Eddache from Bollox comics although neither of us thought to get a pic of him WITH one of us to prove we were actually there. Doh.

The nice Mr. Eddache.

We returned to the collaboration comic table in time to see kitty ears lady finish her page before they had to go. Sad farewells all round, much shaking of hands and the suggestion of stalking them at Amecon happened pretty much in that order, and then we went out the door and got lost in London again. Despite me living there, I really do know sod all about the London tube system.

It was great fun, it really was. If there's one next year, count me in. I was invited to exhibit this year but didn't because I'm lazy and couldn't think of anything to display, but now I've stolen lots of ideas from other people I can next year! Yay. Totally and utterly awesome.

KITTY EARS!

-Vis