The Green Goblin Blog

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday dear John,
Happy Birthday to me.

Dates for the calendar:

THE 2nd ANNUAL LONDON COMIC FESTIVAL, London Oct 23 2004
Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury, Oct 23 2004.

THE 7th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL COMIC FESTIVAL, Bristol May 13-15 2005
Empire & Commonwealth Museum + Ramada Plaza Hotel, Bristol

Join the Comics 2000 egroup online or by emailing Comics2000-subscribe@egroups.com.

Had a quick search round the dealers when I arrived on Saturday and netted a Groo for my collection - 90 Marvel Groos down, 30 to go. Looked harder on Sunday and found another 4. Need to have another eBay raid to put this collection to bed.

Took in a few events - tail-end of the "The Dandy, The Beano, The Rest", the "Raptus International Panel", "Comics and Movies", "Small Press and Self Published Comics" (subliminal message - Co-operation) and the "Charity Art Auction" (Why can't I afford anything? Did pick up a pack of cards for a fiver.).

Did the rounds collecting free sketches - some of the artists are starting to get the idea that they can actually charge for the larger drawings. Not a problem for me - £10 for an A4 line-drawn that's good enough to go on the wall seems fine by me. I managed to embarrass myself trying to buy some art from James Hodgkins (Batman artist) while he was doing me a sketch. He said that he hadn't priced up the pile I was browsing but the one I was looking at would go for "two fifty". Seemed a bargain until he informed me that the fiver in my hand wouldn't cover the £250 he meant. Saw the picture (now coloured) later on as a cover for a magazine - oops. I liked the technique James used on the inked work he was doing for other people (who hadn't made fools of themselves...) Once he had drawn a black Batman with lots of dark background, he would use a white Typex stick to break up the black with streaks. Looked very effective.

Here's his sketch - The Joker:

and here's James with his South American (?) colleague (completely mad, his mate. You could listen to him rambling on while he was sketching for hours):

In the Creator Corner had a good chat with Boo Cook and asked for a sketch that displayed his excellent way of drawing severed limbs. Yes, I know, bit strange but there you go. Here's his sketch - Ace:	and here's the man himself:
Nick Dyer of RapidFire let me steal one of his Judge Dredds:	I spent what seems like days choosing a page of original Bec & Kawl artwork - I'm sure Steve Roberts would have given me a sketch WITHOUT paying him the £20 for the artwork already but here it is: