Vanguard

Hello you!

On Saturday, I was super happy to invited as a guest, along with fellow Awesome Comic Podcast hosts Tony and Vince, to attend the True Believers comic art festival at Cheltenham race course.

First off, I have to say Stuart and all involved ran an absolutely tight ship on this one. The execution was absolutely flawless. As a guest, me and the lads all received a pack containing hand gel, sweets and a personalised mug. Awesome, eh?

We rolled up to the event at 8:30ish, which gave us plenty of time to set up and nose around the other tables.

Early on, we were approached by a chap to draw a jam piece, which both Vince and I pitched in on.

The jam piece theme was ‘Wacky Races’, with each artist doing a section of the comic, starting with me drawing ‘Vyper’ at the top. I gotta say, I was feeling a little spaced out and this isn’t my best. Knowing that I had to contribute to another jam piece later that day, this put me on edge a little! Ha.

You can see Vince’s character here, ‘The Red Mask’ driving in the second panel. Vince smashed it!

True Believers was also the event in which we were launching the first issue of ‘The Awesome Comic’.

Here’s the creative team on the book:
Starting from myself and going clockwise, Vince, Tony and artist on Cockney Kung-Fu, Nick Prolix (Sheep and the Wolves).

It went down really well! We we’re aiming to sell 30 copies but ended up selling over 70! Go us, eh? I also sold the first trade of VANGUARD and went on to sell a number more. I’m going to have to get book one printed again!

If you’re interested in picking up a copy, check out the online shop to buy yours.

Here’s a pic of me selling my first copy of Vangaurd in 2018 to Dan Mallier, organiser of the upcoming Lemington Comic Con.

Vince ended up clashing with his long-term nemesis, Matt Garvey, who writes the excellent THE ETHER, WHITE NOIR, CHUNKS and a whole lot more great comics.

but they ended up becoming fast friends at the end of the show… until next time they clash

The dreaded Jam Piece arrived and I was presented with a piece industry professionals had worked their magic on… and it was my turn to contribute

I was a little intimidated, especially since I had to follow-up Chris Wildgoose’s Batgirl *gulp*

Anyway, after Chris jokingly told me to ‘Man Up’, I think i banged it out of the park with a drawing of Malakai!

I didn’t let us down! Ha ha!

Speaking of Chris, we were glad to spend time with both he and his lovley wife, Laura Trinder, who made the brilliant NIGHT POST. I was gifted copies of the amazing PORCELAIN, so I repaid the favour and gave Laura and Chris both Book One and Two of VANGUARD. If you’ve not heard of or read either title, you’re missing out. They’re fantastic.

We also meet so many great people during the day, including: Sarah ‘Milmo’ Millman, Andy Bloor, Gavin Mitchell, Emily Owen, PJ Montgomery, Emily OWne, Dani Abraham, Kev Brett, Chris Jenkins, ANdy CT, Matt Garvey, Sam Webster, Kev Couling, James Gibbs, Aaron and kate from Little Heroes, Marc Penman, Stuart Mulrain, Tom Curry, Dan Harris, Rob Jones, Alex Thomas, Sarah Harris, Rachael Smith, Shawn ‘Dobes’, Chris Imber, Chris Sides … so many great creators – Hard to list and remember them all! We also had the opportunity to speak to fans of the podcast – huzzah!

One stand out was the legend Darrell Thorpe. He brought along the pencils to his upcoming comic which he’ll be launching at Thought Bubble. He also gave us all an awesome set of prints. What a dude.

We end the day with a live Awesome Comic Podcast which went well despite the fact we all felt totally knackered.

I’ve barely scratched the surface on this one, as it was a hell of an event.

I’ll just quickly share one last photo that Tony took of Jon Laight (Brethren Born) and I sharing a moment. I spotted Tony taking a pic at the last moment and posed appropriately – haha!

I’ll be reviewing all the awesome comics I picked up at the show on the Awesome Comic Podcast. We also have a bunch of interviews with creators and audio from the panel. Give it a listen yo!

Overall, True Believers was a great show. The venue is fantastic and the event is well run. I’d happily do this one again.

Dan