jasonfranks

Hey all,

This is gonna be pretty barebones, I'm afraid, owing to fatigue and illness.

I went to Supanova over the weekend. Under the monicker of th eMelbourne Indie Scum, I shared a table with Brendan Halyday (left) and Matt Emery (right):


(Photo courtesy of Matt Emery)

The show seemed bigger and better-attended than the Melbourne show, full of cosplay crazies, fanboys, gamers and the usual TV show fandom. Guests included Dave Gibbons, Tim Sale, juggler Richard Hatch, Kiwi Karl Urban, cigar-smoking Dirk Benedict and some generic hot-girl-with-bodyguards from, I think, TWILIGHT. The air was thick  with excitement and the literal stink of every strain of geekdom united for two brief days under a single roof.

Saturday was pretty slow for sales. Matt was the star of our table and he sold buckets of timeless classics ONE DAY I WILL KILL YOU, GAY GAY KILL KILL, SALLYFUCKSHORSES, MANFIGHTERS, and his latest collection, GUZUMO COMICS. I put most of my own effort into moving the SIXSMITHS promotional minicomics.  Of the other stuff, ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE 2.0 proved again to be the most popular, followed by the KAGEMONOs and ONE MORE BULLET. Brendan concentrated on moving the preview for his upcoming GRAPHIC NARRATIVE book.

It was good nice to meet some fo the various and sundry Australian indie creators. Colin Wilson stopped by, and so did Rhys McDonald. I finally got to meet Nic Hunter and he gave me some copies of his new book, YAMBA STRAIGHTS,  to sell. Nic and I had a good, if short chat about movies and our big new project and that was a real highlight.

Saturday night we found ourselves in the Homebush Bay Brewery  under the Novotel, across the road from Supanova, drinking with Rhys McDonald . The discussion ranged across a variety of geek topics, including DR WHO, Y THE LAST MAN, and THE WIRE. Brendan and Rhys got into a deep discussion about inking which went way over my head. Drinking by himself,  not a couple of meters away, was Scott Stapp, lead singer of the band Creed. You can see his funny inbred-looking face next to the guy with the yellow scarf and behind Rhys's head in the photo below. (Rhys is in the white shirt, flexing up). 



Sunday was a better-than-average day for con sales, but not good enough to make up for Saturday's dire performance. I had some good conversations with Tim McEwen (GREENER PASTURES), Chris Sequeira (SHERLOCK HOLMES: DARK DETECTIVE and MARVEL ADVENTURES), Komala Singh, Kylie Utz, Chewie Chan (MARVEL ADVENTURES), HAYDEN FRYER (BILLY DEMON LAYER)  and Jan Scherpenhuizen (TWILIGHT AGE). I also, briefly, got to meet Michael Michalandos (GREENER PASTURES). Apparently Chris Wahl was around, but I didn't see him. Marcelo Baez (DIABLA)  came by the table while I was away and unfortunately I missed him.

Sorry for the less-than-entertaining summary, dear readers. Rhys McDonald's far more entertaining writeup is here, as well as a veritable flickrload of photos:

http://www.the-plastic-age.com/?p=969

-- JF