Stuff Round The House Part Two...

Hi Its time to put your geek duffel coat on as i thought I'd show you some more picture that I've taken using my camera the first one is my extensive action figure collection. "It's starts with just one and turns to two then three" That what Ricky Wilson sings in the song "The Angry Mob". I guess i could say the same about my figure collection way back in 02 i saw a picture of a Hulk figure.

It was part of series called Marvel Legends the figures were super poseable so you could re create action pose from the comics. I was impressed by the sculpt and articulation i ended up buying the figure at the time i thought only about buying the Hulk figure from that point it all snowballed from there, i ended up quite a lot as you see over the years!

The toy line was originally conceived by Toy Biz, they are a part of Marvel Comics recently the rights to make toys about Marvel characters were bought by another company, Hasbro I've bought a few of them most of the sculpts look like knock offs from Madame Tussuad's unlike the realistic sculpts used by Toy Biz. Since Hasbro took over they've been quite expensive and the line is only released as exclusive ranges in American stores.

Its a shame as there's loads of collectors and kids in this country who are hungry for Marvel Comics related action figures....

Graphic Novels
As the year is about to draw to an end, I'm thinking of cutting back on my never ending collection of comics. I really need to cut down on comics. I've got loads... far too much in fact, there some that i haven't read. I've been into comics since i was a kid i love the art form but i want to stop but its hard man... Buying graphic novels saves time and money on monthly comics it's got the shelves creaking! As you look at one of the pictures you'll notice that there is a title called Marvel Omnibus Incredible Hulk its reprints the early tales of the Hulk. That tome cost me £64 quid still, I'm glad i got it...

What ever i post next will be different I'm not going to keep going on about comics and action figures but what ever i write about i would just like to say Happy New Year everybody!

Stuff Around The House..... Part One...

Hi as they say "its time for something that's completely different". This is what the interior of the house looks like. I'll start with the TV I've taken this pic with my mobile phone. The picture quality's decent It's on one of the music channels we've got. The girl singing in the music video is by jailbait Gabriella Cilmi i can't believe she's eighteen! Moving swiftly on, there's some Xmas cards from friends, one of them(which obviously sticks out) is a sketch of Batman which is drawn by a friend he's influenced by a drawing by X Men artist John Cassaday who drew him a Batman which was inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns mini series or graphic novel depending on which version you've read.

Pics At BICS 08

Ok i should have done this a while back but here are some pictures that i took when i went to the Birmingham International Comics Show a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

The Birmingham International Comics Show.

Well where on earth do you want me to start about BICS. I attended both days and its left me with a case "Je Suis Fatigue"For those of you guys and gals who aren't in the know about of these sorts of events. Its a celebration of the four colour art form that is comics with guests ranging from artists,writers and small publishing companies, and not to mention dealers selling comics and various paraphernalia. Its also an arena for talks,contests and competitions for the discerning panelologist out there.

BICS drives some comic fans to dress up as thier favourite chracters i don't know why someone i know dressed up the DC Comic's Black Canary her mate came along as Cheetara, one of the chracters from the animated series Thundercats she was decent id say... I have to mention this there was some one dressed up as Harley Quinn the following day she came as Lara Croft she's very attractive and i thought about chatting her up but she seemed the kind of girl that's hard work which i didn't have much energy for ah nevermind.....

This time round i got in because I'm on good terms with one the organisers. Originally i wrote a small piece about one the artist's that attended the event but due to budget problems it wasn't used and i was little gutted about it. I'm not going to let that get me down as Ive realised that there's other of way of getting written work published and this is what i'm working on right now.

One of the reasons why i went there is to fill in gaps of my comic collection and at the time of writing, I'm currently looking eight comic boxes, along with one box down the cellar these boxes is where put my comics. Ive managed to get almost everything i want although there's a few odd and sods that i want. More i recently started reading Miracleman for further information about him go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracleman

A few days back i won of one of the rare graphic novels which featured MM in an online auction and to date its the most expensive graphic novel I've ever bought, i ask various dealers if they had any back issues that featured the character none of them had any or had just forgot to bring them. This really surprised me. Working in a retail environment i get a fair share of customers who ask where such and such is kept or if we have a product in stock i usually to what i get paid to do which is to help the customer out. At the end of the day, i believe that comic dealers are there to serve fans like myself an excuse like "Oh i didn't bring any with me" or the classic "Could you order it online please?" just doesn't cut it for me.
I'm not slagging off the majority of dealers i did but i do expect them to have a quality range of comics although i did find some stuff which i was quite content with I suppose the big buy of the day was a T shirt I've just recently begun buying t shirts featuring comic related featuring characters l like but some reason they keep making them in extra large sizes which probably is for all those obese comic geeks out there in the U.S.

As for the guest's list i was impressed with this year's line up which included Olivier Coipel(Thor) and John Cassaday(X Men) those two were the big guests at BICS. i began buying Thor because of the writing by J. Michael Straczynski and it was a fresh start for the character i didn't rate Coipel that much as his artwork reminds of X men artist Marc Silvestri but i can now say that i'm a fan of his work.

When i asked Olivier to do a sketch of my favourite character, The Incredible Hulk he told me he didn't like drawing him i thought to myself "Oh great he's one of them lot". As he began drawing the not so jolly green giant i was completely blown away by the detail he put into it and i left completely chuffed. At some point i'll put scans of the sketches that were done by the artists One of the highlights for me was that I really enjoyed meeting Dave Gibbons who did a small sketch inside my Watchmen graphic novel.

The downside of getting a sketch is waiting in a queue sometimes it's up an hour or even longer than that but I'm not complaining as i think its worth it as artists like John Watson and Cassaday were approachable and good to talk to i can't really say the same for artist Micheal Golden who was charging to way to much for a drawing i thought about getting a sketch off him but a for a fee? Forget it.

I left the event quite pleased with what i got and knowing that patience is a virtue and perhaps next time at the event i'm taking an example of one of the fans who was there, he carried a small folding chair with him he sat down whilst everyone was standing there and waiting. Hey if it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me!

More about myself

One of the main reasons why i created this blog is to jumpstart my writing career ive done written work for a magazine, it's called Voice 21 Ive been writing for this magazine for years its a quarterly periodical its aimed at yoofs who live in Sandwell. but if you if wanna find out more check out their website, http://www.voice21.co.uk/


Why do i wanna work in the media? That's a good question i'll give you two answers, ive always been interested in magazines journalism etc. I think it started off with me as a kid reading comics,newspapers ive got over a thousand comics and i have to admit there's some stuff i bought and i haven't even read! The second one is abit poignant i didn't do well in school and screwed up in sixth form i ended up doing the wrong course and made a total hash of it. Its like "If i only knew then what i know now". Still "one must not dwell on the past" as they say. But i can't help having regrets.



There's a great perk about writing for V21. In fact its the only one, well whenever im there, they always seem to have a food buffet! The big one is i get to go to press showing's. There basically film's shown for critics and what i'll be doing is posting a review of films ive seen, once i get used to this blogging lark...

Hi

Hi for those you who don't know me my name is Neil, Im thirty year's old ,and thats all you need to know for now.

Ive decided to to turn the clock back and start from scratch. I wasn't happy about the blog i made a few errors, so this is my new blog. I'll try to update it on a regular basis.

Anyway im off to bed so i'll see you soon.