ITCH and Inspired Comics were once again in charge of the drawing competition for the MCM Midlands Expo in Telford. With much deliberation, we picked a winner in each category, and two entries we thought deserved special mention. The categories were “Premade” for pictures brought in from home and “Artist Alley” for pictures drawn on the day, with a split between under and over sixteen.

Only the winners will get a prize: some goodies from our sponsor, Letraset.

Over 16 – Artists Alley

Winner: Bethany Carless-Turland. The judges were impressed by the way the characters and the tricky angle hold up, and we liked the words on the furniture. Well done!

Commended – Olwen Hills and Donna Evans (below).

Over 16 – Premade

Winner – Sharice Atkinson. After much debate, the judges worked out that this depicts a fox dressed up as a rabbit, cuddling a carrot plushie. We all thought that was very odd, but we didn’t want to be prejudices against foxes, and the colour work swayed the vote.

Commended – Louise Eckeroall and Lyndon White.

Under 16 – Artists Alley

Winner – Adele Cockerill. Very cute, and even if the colouring is a bit streaky, the judges loved the movement in this image.

Commended – Hannah Stanway and Clara Toellner (below).

Under 16 – Pre-made

Winner – Beatrice Robbins. Lovely soft colours in this image. We’re sure Beatrice will put her prize to good use.

Commended – Hannah Nutting and Liz Crompton. Good job including a background, guys!

Special Mention

Awesome mention – Alissa Barnley. We loved the zen cat on top of the mountain, the curious cat on a flower and especially the airplane, with lots of doors and lots of windows. Good job Alissa, we think you and your sister are both promising artists!

Congratulations to all the winners, a big thank you to every one who entered, and we hope to see more excellent art next year!

Remember when I used to get someone to take a picture of me at my table, at events? And then I switched to just taking a picture of the table myself, without me in it? And now I don’t even have a picture at all?! I really need to work on a way to remember to bring my camera & take pictures!! >_<

Anyway, despite not having a picture, I really was there. I even got interviewed by some guys from a university doing a documentary (the documentary wasn’t about me, you understand). I had a lovely time, I was right near the stage so I had every opportunity to enjoy the live Taiko drumming and dance performances to the Evangelion tune. It was right on! No, really, I enjoyed it. ;___;

ITCH actually had a new book at Expo, the mysterious almost-unannounced “Super Jax” by Karen Yumi Lusted. It was, uh, a pre-release. The book will be available online sometime soon, but I need to sort out some tech stuff first. Yes. I also did some drawings, and talked to one of the judges for the Jiman competition, who said the winners will be announced soon (exciting!!) And chatted with artists and comics people, oh, and spent more money than I actually made, on comics. Ha. Just like the good old days.

Cosplay highlights to me were the excellent Neo & Agent, Magical Trevor (who everyone loves) and the creative interpretation of Glados. Very cool stuff. The number of L cosplayers seemed to be in slight decline, as everyone is starting to realise just how lazy a costume it is, and that everyone else is doing it, too. Free hugging remains popular, as does that new “game” thing. Naruto headbands are definitely out.

*waves* to everyone who came by and said hello, especially if you bought something but even if you didn’t! Thanks to all the crazies and normals for making the weekend what it was. And see you in May (with Leek and Sushi 2! Eeeeh!!)

Robots by Little Mooglet (click to visit her DA)

Some tips to make sure your outing at a comics convention is an enjoyable one:

1. Don’t be ill or under the weather. Not only will the headache and general misery put a damper on your day, you’ll only infect everyone.
2. Bring a friend to help you out on your table, so you can doze off, go to the toilet, or run around saying hello to people without having to leave your stuff unattended.
3. Don’t pack your bag so full of books it’s too heavy to lift it onto or off the train. This will be very annoying and will get you nasty looks at Birmingham New Street station. And that is not a good place to be getting nasty looks.
4. Be nice to the con organisers so they give you a table in a good place, rather than behind the queue for the signing tables so no one even knows you’re there. =_=;

Bonus points (I did manage these):

1. Have a table next to Paul Gravett and David Lloyd, so you guys can chat about how awesome you are.
2. Make sure Naniiebim is around to save the day by lending you her minions.

OK, so I only made it on Saturday, I was feeling ill and cranky and decided it would be better for me to be at home on Sunday instead of going postal at Brumcon. Hopefully I will make a recovery soon so I can be bright and cheery at the Expo and not be tempted to kill anyone. See you there! ^_^

So, er, I used to write con reports whenever I went to events, and that was a good tradition, really, so although some time has passed (ahem) here’s a little summary of where ITCH has been recently:

Alternative Press Fair, London: This was a small event with and artsy/subversive/book geeky flavour. In was in a basement and it got pretty hot as the day went on, but it was an enjoyable diversion. It was a different kind of crowd, and there were lots of new faces behind the tables, too: people I hadn’t seen around before, so that was pretty cool. The grow-your-own comics scene is pretty small, which is great because you get to know people quickly, but meeting new people is also good.

Ayacon, Warwick: AKA The Big One. I’m really a noob when it comes to anime cons (this was my second) but I did enjoy the weekend a lot. The cosplay was out of control. The cheap manga was highly temptatious (despite my worries about having a too-heavy bag) and the crowd was cheerful if a bit bleary on Sunday. ^_^

Bleary is fine though, I was wasted on Sunday myself. I spent a lot of time drawing interesting things for people, including lots of portraits, a cow-person who was also a bee, the redhead from EVA in steampunk cosplay (!!!) an Octopus and, of course, Cloud.

Bracknell Library: This wasn’t really an event, more of a visit. Kate Brown ran a workshop and Red Garden Manga was on hand along with me and Karen Lusted. This wasn’t long after Ayacon so I slept through most of it. We got a mini Japanese class, of which I remember nothing except this —

“Genki des-ka?”
“Genki des!”

“How are you?”
“I’m fine!”

I’m not even sure I remember that right. XD I fail at Japanese.

Next up: Birmingham, also known as brum-con or BICS. I better go arrange some train tickets for that one. Maybe see you there!

Photo by Natalie Dwinky

Hey you guys!

Man, how awesome was the MCM expo? Totally awesome, that’s what! I spent most of yesterday in a comatose haze, but it was worth it.

Stars of the little ITCH stand were of course Leek and Sushi (who will be returning next year, but more about that soon) and the evil bunnies versus agent Pepsi (more about that soon, too). We also had Urban Beasts, live portrait drawing, badges and all the usual goodness.

For this Expo I can also honestly say that not only did I have a really good time, ITCH did very good business. And that’s good news, because it means I can continue to come back bigger and better and bring out more books and just generally rock on.

So I have a big thank you for everyone who bought something from the ITCH stall, and to anyone who stopped by and just had a look or took a leaflet, thanks to you too. Please don’t feel nervous about not immediately getting your wallet out, I’m not that mercenary, honest. ^_^ I’m perfectly happy to have a chat and talk about drawing or making comics just in general. It’s my hobby/obsession, so yes, I’m talk all about it.

Enjoyed watching all the cosplayers, there were some excellent real-life anime characters wandering around. I do have some old fogey advice though, for some of you cosplayers: if you’re too young to have pictures of your butt in a men’s magazine, you’re too young to have men take secret phone pictures of you butt at the MCM Expo, okay? Please give this some thought when choosing your outfit and the length of your skirt, you make people like me very nervous. o_O

So, I finally have a decent picture for this event, and that’s because the picture was taken by someone else. It’s of the Leek and Sushi signing we did, with, from left to right, starting at the back: Sam Barker (Volker) (looking var stylish), Sammy Borras, Olly Dead (who is not actually a skeleton), Karen Yumi Lusted (she did Final Blossom), Sally Jane Thompson, Jade Sarson (also looking very stylish), and at the table me (!) and Kate Holden (who complained she looked like a midget on the poster. She’s not actually that little, I admit. XD ) Thanks for coming along to you all, it was good to meet you.

For those of you who are new to the ITCH site, hi, I’m Willie, I am your host. Please do have a look around and ask any questions in the comments or sound off thread.

Thanks, and keep an eye out for some cool news coming soon.

ITCH had an excellent weekend and didn’t even need to get out of town this time. The Bristol Small Press Expo happened, alongside the Bristol  Comics Expo we all know and love.

Our star of the show was Urban Beasts, which launched at Bristol and will soon be available from the websites and shops. It’s about spirit animals and how our animal instincts drive and define us. The main character is an urban shaman who can interact with people on the animal level. Sounds good? Get a copy soon through the webshop or at our next event, MCM Expo (in only two weeks!)

I had a very good time this weekend, met interesting people and picked up some cool goodies. I now own a Vampire Freestyle mug, a creature by Mmm… Biscuits and two new books from Top Shelf. Me and teenage sidekick Karen Rubins chatted to Genki Gear for a while, and are very excited about their upcoming products. They’re working on more panda and cute-godzilla related wearables. Hurray!

I also met Asia Alfasi, who is working on lots of interesting things, and Bevis Musson, whose clean, cartoony work gets more stylish every year, and who gets away with wearing glitter make-up. Beat that! I can’t link to them though, because they’ve been banned from the internet. I think.

If you missed Bristol, or couldn’t get a ticket, I’m very sorry for you. Hopefully we can meet somewhere else.

See you then!

Edit: bless those Goodmans! They have photos.

And Comic Mole has a write-up.

Well, that’s it. If you weren’t there, you missed your chance to be the Coolest Bean At The Thing, with a badge.

Besides badges, Itch was on hand to sell Leek and Sushi, Amaranth and Final Blossom, as well as some original art by Karen Rubins. We did very well, so well I sold out of Leek and Sushis. Sorry to anyone disappointed, please consider picking one up from the web-shop.

It could just be me, but I would say this was the best Thing yet, with regards to the quality and variety of stuff on sale. I met many new faces with cool things, but many don’t seem to have websites for me to point to. Come on, you guys! It’s the 21st Century, you don’t exist if you don’t have a website!

Exception: Moogs Kewell, who sold stickers, jewellery and cute little things. I wanted to eat her stuff, check out her etsy site if you’re into cute.

There was some talkin’ and dealin’ with regards to future Itch publications in the dark alleys outside the event, and although I don’t want to go into details, I feel confident in telling you Itch will continue to bring you the best in home-grown manga and comics in the months to come.

My attempts to take photos once again failed miserably. Luckily, the ever-reliable Zip Gun Comics guys have photos. The only sharp photo I managed to take all weekend was a photo of our Cool Bean-creating badges. Some of them were hand-drawn by me and Kaz, and some featured tiny little naked people. Because nudity is always funny.

Akemi Solloway

This weekend Itch was at the Japanese Art Festival in Richmond, pulled together by the charming Akemi Solloway.

My usual events are more pointed at comics and manga, and it was refreshingly different to be here, as it was much more of a cultural event. There was some manga and anime, and of course cosplaying going on, but there were also ladies in proper kimonos, Japanese snacks, martial arts demonstrations and live music, including some awesome Taiko drumming! I had a good time and met many interesting people.

Others in attendance included Sonia Leong, displaying that combination of cuteness and sophistication over a core of pure righteous fury that I’ve come to associate her with. I went to her talk on how to do manga, which was mostly familiar territory for me but nonetheless very enjoyable. I missed Paul Gravett‘s talk, much to my chagrin, but I met him later and I got his card. I really need to work on my formal business card exchange-fu, though. ^_^; I’m sure I messed it up!

Getting to and from the festival, and the deeply creepy hostel we stayed at were less pleasant, but those stories will have to wait for another time. For now I’d just like to say hi to anyone who is visiting my site for the first time after picking up a card, and thanks to everyone who got a book or some art or a portrait done. I really love drawing people at events! Hope to see you again sometime.

I was there too! I'm just not in the picture.

After a long and early train journey, Itch was happy to join hordes of cosplayers, a Dalek and several normal people at the MCM Midlands Expo. It was sort of a condensed version of the bigger London MCM, but it was lots of fun.

Itch and Inspired Comics volunteered at the last moment to run the artists alley and art competition that are a solid tradition at MCM. Neither of us had done it before, but it turned out to be fun and not too difficult. Lots of enthusiastic artists of all ages entered the competition, which was great to see. I attach some photos of the art wall and our table.

Thanks to everyone who entered the competition. There were many really cool and worthwhile drawings which we couldn’t include in the winners unfortunately. If it turns out you didn’t win anything, please try again next time.

Art drawn in the alley

Willie at the table

Normally, the artists alley is run by Sweatdrop, and the change led one girl to exclaim: “You’re not Sweatdrop! Where is Sweatdrop?” as if to accuse us of kidnapping them. Anyway, fact is, Sweatdrop can’t do everything. We’ll let them know you missed them, red-eyed girl. XD

Other highlights include the 6 year old Jedi who wanted to take on some Stormtroopers with his slide-out lightsaber, but couldn’t get their attention. “Hello!” he shouted, “Excuse me!” I love it when young Jedi show good manners.

Other highlights include the very convincing Dalek, who was extra scary because he moved at speed and it wasn’t clear whether he could see where he was going! I talked to the guy inside later (who was dressed as the doctor, to confuse things even more) and it turned out he had great vision, actually. He couldn’t hear much on the other hand, but neither could anyone else. MCM sure is noisy!

All in all, I had a great time. Hello to everyone I met, I hope you’ll check out the website while you’re here, and maybe I’ll see you again sometime.

PS: Winners will be annouced here very shortly! Thanks for your patience.

Yesterday, we officially launched “Final Blossom” by Karen Yumi Lusted at the Red Garden Manga shop in Reading. Thanks very much to everyone who was there, Karen and I had a good time and it was good to see you all.

Red Garden Manga turned out to be a well-hidden but friendly shop with lots of excellent manga and goodies, and a very friendly proprietor. Since yesterday, they are one of the few elite stockists of Itch’s manga, so if you’re in Reading, do drop by and pick up some of our books.

I’m very happy the signing was a success, and send special thanks to Frank at the shop for being our gracious and supportive host and Dwinky, whose matchless enthusiasm helped turn out the crowd. Thanks so much and we hope to see you again soon!