Wednesday 17 July 2013

London Feedback

Orbital Comics

Last week I took some of the more successful comics from the Pop Up Comic Shop to London to see if Orbital Comics would stock them for us. 


We met Karl at the London Super Comic Con in Feb 2013 and he suggested that once we were up and running properly to pop down and he would see if he could stock them for us.

On sale was the 2nd years Anthology of Hitchcock. We found that this sold particular well as it was a collection of peoples works, and also it was a subject matter that people were generally familiar with.

Esme Baran Mischief & Marauder was one of the few children friendly work produced and this went particularly well at LSCC and also the Pop Up Comic Shop. Some time we forget who the potential audience are for our work. The Pop Up Comic Shop is aimed at people who probably wouldn't usually buy comics, and had a preconception of what there are.



We also sold the 2nd year work. Spore was very popular and we basically sold out of those copies, so I had to take my copies down on sale. Also War of the Worlds was very popular and I took the remaining 3 copies of these for sale at the shop.

Comics and Magazines

Cartoon & Comic Arts are in Print


This is just a quick round up of where you can read more about the exploits of the Cartoon and Comic Arts Award. The Fringe Festival had its own magazine out where we were interviewed by a range of journalist students to gather information about the award and what were had done and what we are going to do in the future years. 



I was also delighted that we were allowed to have an article published as part of the degree Show magazine.


Some time next week I'm going try and do a summary of what we did as an award from September 2012 to May 2013, so that we've got a record of whats happening and how we can go on and improve the award.
Later on this week I'm in London where I'm hoping to meet up with some independent artists as well as visiting Orbital Comics to try and get them sell the Students work. A visit to the cartoon Museum and also booking a table for the MCM Expo in London in October. When we hit London with the new intake I want to be in a position where we can blow them off their feet and show them what we've managed to do in 2 years and what they have to live up too.

Big Times Ahead !
 

Monday 15 July 2013

UniQ Selling Comics

UniQ Comic Stall

As well as the Pop Up Comic Shop, we also had an attempt at selling work at the first university UniQ market stall.

This was a place where other students with a range of work on sale were also encourgaed to try and sell their work as well. It was a good day though it started off slowly, but using our enterprise and entreprunerual skills we managed to over come the slow start and got a range of people coming overand showing and interest in our work.
We also attempted face painting and doing caricatures of people in various Super heroes costumes.



Overall it was a fun experience just doing the carticatures and chatting to people who wouldnt usually have thought about buying comics

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Pop Up Comic Shop

Pop Up Comic Shop

Well the Pop Up Comic Shop was finally finished. This is a picture of the final shop front with the range of Comics that were for sale at the event.

As you can See Jack Baker was there selling his comics which included "Spore" "Return to the Beagle" and his own creation "The March Of Winter!"


The price list of the comics where the average price is £2.00 though there were some cheaper and we also had discount if you brought the work in bulk. The Spore and War of the Worlds comics were £1.20 each, but if you wanted to buy all three copies of a series we offered them at £3.00 rather than £3.60.

A big thanks to all those who stayed and helped make the Comic Book Stall the success it was. From Left to Right Millie, Jack, Verity, Tom and Becci. I should also mention Esme and Henrietta who also tagged along for the ride. Obviously there were some quiet days where we didn't really sell that much but other days we had a good turn over. Overall we raised £230
I think it gave the students present a real life encounter into the industry that they want to enter. It got them talking to people about their work and more importantly it got them practising their selling technique to an audience who wouldn't be the normal demographic of comic book readers! 



Monday 1 July 2013

London Road Festival Stoke

Stoke-on-Trent
London Road Festival

One of the things that I've been doing is Drawing caricatures of the Landlords and ladies of the pubs along London Road. The event was sponsored by the Arts Council and the idea was to publicise the event in the local public houses and also put a piece of art work in peoples hands, so they would realise what art work was and where you could find and see it everyday.




Here are the people and my drawings of them.

The First off is the Cottage Pub with Rob and Angie. They are dog lovers and have 2 massive Great Danes and a young Saint Bernard called Wilson.





Next up is the Wellington with Dave and Andrea




Here is Dave from the Commercial Inn



I cant find the original image of Dave from the London Road Pub, but if you ever see him you will recognise him!

 
Here is Lisa from the Albert Pub, which isnt strictly on London Road its just off down Bilton Street.



Below is Trevor from O'Learys. I managed to capture him just as he left the pub and the New owners came on board. I think there are going to call it The Vine now!



Finally here is Debbie from the Sutherland Arms. She is Ken's daughter who I use to drink at his old pub, the Gardner's Retreat.


and here are the beer mats in use at O'Learys Pub, London Road.