Blog Entry
This past weekend was the largest convention of transformers in Europe- Auto
Assembly.
This is one of my favourite events of the year not only because I
a big transformer geek but it's relaxed, fan friendly, has great guests and is a
cheap event.
It is a two day event but I only went on the Saturday so alas I
did miss out on the live panel script reading and party but still for the low
ticket price I defiantly got my money's worth.
First off just want to say
how relaxed the atmosphere is. There were 700 plus attendiees and it never felt
like it. Always room to sit for talks and room to move freely between stalls.
The lines for guests were all very steady and was only due to lthe voice guests
spending so much time with each person - chatting signing taking photos - that
some queues seemed longer for the amount of actual people in it. But when the
guests are so nice and really care about meeting the attendees you forget the
time it took you to get to the front.
But I'm getting ahead of myself let's
start at the begining. I arrived at the Hilton at half nice just as the line was
being lead in. Was a nice fast queue picked up my badge and goodie bag with
ease.
The comic creators were already at Thier tables so headed out to
procure sketches - first stop was Andrew WIldman who I have met many times and
was after a final sketch from him to finish off a piece I had started with him a
few years ago - the autobot leader vs the decepticon leader- each picture is of
a diff time of the comics and each picture has characters in same pose- the
sketch price was twenty pounds which was the steepest at the event but as for
two figures it cheaper then most other events , i was put out that he wanted
donations to sign comics tho as usually at every event comics are signed for
free and i had a fair few to be done. II left my sketch book with him and went
on to get some other signatures whilst I await it's completion and contemplated
should I pay for the autos. I know the money goes to charity and yes I took a
lot to be done but being only one charging put me off a bit.
Simon Furman was next to him signing the brand new regeneration
issue and were all suprised and happy to see the variant cover i had with me as
it was only a few days old and none had seen it yet, i have met simon so many
times over the years its gettign harder to talk tranformers and have run out of
things to ask btu the new comic has opened up a new world and yet as its ongoing
they can never comment - curse you and your non spoiler ways
The next guest I
went to was digital comic artist livio ramondelli who was very nice did a couple
of quick head shots in my trades and if I honest I not like his art in the
comics bit seeing the pencil originals and the sketches he was doing I converted
- I now will blame the inker and colourist for them looking bad, though I thinks
that's him as well. I booked a Cliffjumper commission and we discusse his future
plans for the digital transformer comics and how i still cant enjoy comics in
that format.
Next was on to another Auto Assembly regular and writer of my
favorite comic at the moment- Transformers More Than Meets The Eye. Had a good
chat regarding the style of the book both in look and the comedy aspect. he has
the book plotted until issue 20 and hopes for longer brought from him a script
from one of his issues and moved on to the longest comic queue of the day the
ever talented Nick Roche sadly by this time his sketch list was full but he did
do a quick springer headshot in my hardback trade and nick having heard about my
redundancy gave me a free print which i love and also why i love this event,
havign been for last 5 years i know alot of the comic people quiet well and
makes it seem a lot warmer experience.
my next stop was to
original uk transformers artists Jeff anderson and Stephen baskerville had nice
chat regarding Jeffs previous work and tried to avoid buying any original pages
but got an amazing Galvatron and henchmen sketch and had chat with stephen about
his new work on the regeneration comic and getting a great Unicron sketch to
complete my evil leaders set.
The openign ceremony started about 11 and was a
fun event with special graphics and intro music per guest. The way the guests
interact onstage and with attendees is so different to most events you do forget
that they are all famous as they really include you in every aspect of the
day.
After a bit of a wait finally got to meet the voice actors.
Michael Bell was first- i found him warm and interested in what i had to say
regarding show and his charcaters in particular. Paul Elding kept disapearing
btu when finally caught up to him his line was very long and semed like forever
but as soon as you meetthe guy you realise why and that it was worth the wait.
He loves talking about the work he has done and why the fans love it so and
really makes that brief time with him seem like you known each other for years.
He was telling my friends son Elijah secrets to the new Ben 10 series he working
on and you could see him enjoyin he excitment in the childs
eyes.
My last guest meet was from legendary voice of the Tick
Townsend Coleman he was funny and loved doing the voices and seeing all the
random things people had fo rhim to sign from my random screen shots to actual
wooden spoons. i was lucky wenough to get a Tick voice message which made my
weekend.
i saw bits of the talks whilst was in queues but i couldnt tell you
what was being said the main issue with this whole event was the sound. either
it was music that was too loud so couldnt talk to the guests easily and then
when the guests were on stage couldnt hear the microphones either and the
lighting was just as bad hardly any of my photos came out as was too dark with
bright backing screen so that was frustrating, other then that couldnt fault the
event at all.
As usual below are the photos of me with guests and my
sketchs,autographs and as usual because i got so many comics signed i wont add
them all here
Assembly.
This is one of my favourite events of the year not only because I
a big transformer geek but it's relaxed, fan friendly, has great guests and is a
cheap event.
It is a two day event but I only went on the Saturday so alas I
did miss out on the live panel script reading and party but still for the low
ticket price I defiantly got my money's worth.
First off just want to say
how relaxed the atmosphere is. There were 700 plus attendiees and it never felt
like it. Always room to sit for talks and room to move freely between stalls.
The lines for guests were all very steady and was only due to lthe voice guests
spending so much time with each person - chatting signing taking photos - that
some queues seemed longer for the amount of actual people in it. But when the
guests are so nice and really care about meeting the attendees you forget the
time it took you to get to the front.
But I'm getting ahead of myself let's
start at the begining. I arrived at the Hilton at half nice just as the line was
being lead in. Was a nice fast queue picked up my badge and goodie bag with
ease.
The comic creators were already at Thier tables so headed out to
procure sketches - first stop was Andrew WIldman who I have met many times and
was after a final sketch from him to finish off a piece I had started with him a
few years ago - the autobot leader vs the decepticon leader- each picture is of
a diff time of the comics and each picture has characters in same pose- the
sketch price was twenty pounds which was the steepest at the event but as for
two figures it cheaper then most other events , i was put out that he wanted
donations to sign comics tho as usually at every event comics are signed for
free and i had a fair few to be done. II left my sketch book with him and went
on to get some other signatures whilst I await it's completion and contemplated
should I pay for the autos. I know the money goes to charity and yes I took a
lot to be done but being only one charging put me off a bit.
Simon Furman was next to him signing the brand new regeneration
issue and were all suprised and happy to see the variant cover i had with me as
it was only a few days old and none had seen it yet, i have met simon so many
times over the years its gettign harder to talk tranformers and have run out of
things to ask btu the new comic has opened up a new world and yet as its ongoing
they can never comment - curse you and your non spoiler ways
The next guest I
went to was digital comic artist livio ramondelli who was very nice did a couple
of quick head shots in my trades and if I honest I not like his art in the
comics bit seeing the pencil originals and the sketches he was doing I converted
- I now will blame the inker and colourist for them looking bad, though I thinks
that's him as well. I booked a Cliffjumper commission and we discusse his future
plans for the digital transformer comics and how i still cant enjoy comics in
that format.
Next was on to another Auto Assembly regular and writer of my
favorite comic at the moment- Transformers More Than Meets The Eye. Had a good
chat regarding the style of the book both in look and the comedy aspect. he has
the book plotted until issue 20 and hopes for longer brought from him a script
from one of his issues and moved on to the longest comic queue of the day the
ever talented Nick Roche sadly by this time his sketch list was full but he did
do a quick springer headshot in my hardback trade and nick having heard about my
redundancy gave me a free print which i love and also why i love this event,
havign been for last 5 years i know alot of the comic people quiet well and
makes it seem a lot warmer experience.
my next stop was to
original uk transformers artists Jeff anderson and Stephen baskerville had nice
chat regarding Jeffs previous work and tried to avoid buying any original pages
but got an amazing Galvatron and henchmen sketch and had chat with stephen about
his new work on the regeneration comic and getting a great Unicron sketch to
complete my evil leaders set.
The openign ceremony started about 11 and was a
fun event with special graphics and intro music per guest. The way the guests
interact onstage and with attendees is so different to most events you do forget
that they are all famous as they really include you in every aspect of the
day.
After a bit of a wait finally got to meet the voice actors.
Michael Bell was first- i found him warm and interested in what i had to say
regarding show and his charcaters in particular. Paul Elding kept disapearing
btu when finally caught up to him his line was very long and semed like forever
but as soon as you meetthe guy you realise why and that it was worth the wait.
He loves talking about the work he has done and why the fans love it so and
really makes that brief time with him seem like you known each other for years.
He was telling my friends son Elijah secrets to the new Ben 10 series he working
on and you could see him enjoyin he excitment in the childs
eyes.
My last guest meet was from legendary voice of the Tick
Townsend Coleman he was funny and loved doing the voices and seeing all the
random things people had fo rhim to sign from my random screen shots to actual
wooden spoons. i was lucky wenough to get a Tick voice message which made my
weekend.
i saw bits of the talks whilst was in queues but i couldnt tell you
what was being said the main issue with this whole event was the sound. either
it was music that was too loud so couldnt talk to the guests easily and then
when the guests were on stage couldnt hear the microphones either and the
lighting was just as bad hardly any of my photos came out as was too dark with
bright backing screen so that was frustrating, other then that couldnt fault the
event at all.
As usual below are the photos of me with guests and my
sketchs,autographs and as usual because i got so many comics signed i wont add
them all here