Last Saturday was the THING in London a small press comics event. Sally and I represented IndieManga, and we shared a table with Caroline Parkinson.

Sadly due to a spot of bad luck we didn’t have any new titles but we did get a nice fresh run of Little Thoughts and Origins ( both now available again in the shop.). Our table was placed up on high by the stage, which meant we got a good view though we were a little out of the way. We were also right next to the panel area, but sadly we couldn’t really hear what was going on.

Sally brought some pretty things!

We ran into a number of familiar faces including Emma Viecelli, ITCH, and Denji . Denji had a new book out “ Far out Mantic”, which we all enjoyed very much. Sadly by the time I got there ITCH had run out of Leek and Sushi’s manga show. I had a good wonder and on Kate’s recommendation got some Scary go round which I am enjoying a lot, I also picked up a selection of Bahala Na!, Chloe Noonan Monster Hunter and a cute mini comic about a blue tack dog. I am also grateful to the folks at Turnus for informing me about the website for the new Red Dwarf. Sadly their new book didn’t make it in time for the Thing, so I couldn’t take a look. I also picked up the adorable Microwavable Fox by Tammy Taylor.

Lots of panels we only heard about 1/3 of everything from our table

The Thing was an interesting event, there was a steady flow of visitors around the event and as is normal there were high spots and low spots. We did manage to sell a few books and got to chat to some nice people. For maximum after vent coverage I went for an Indian meal, and Sally had the pub covered.

We could see all the con from where we were. But there was a pillar in the way.

Hi everyone it’s time for an update! Is it March already?! Time flies.

To remind you the shop is back open!  We’re a little low on stock but that will be fixed soon.

If you want to get a book or perhaps even some prints  then you might want to come see us at a con. We’re busy organising all sorts of things this year. We’ll try and add some more events,for now here’s what’s booked:

In London on the 28th of March we’ll be at the UK Web & Mini Comix thing, sharing with Caroline Parkinson over on table 81.  The Thing is an interesting mix of Small press comics and panels and pretty easy to get to as well.

On the 9th of May we’ll be in Bristol exhibiting at the Small Press Expo, which is running right near the Bristol International Comics Expo so you can visit both getting the super amazing chance to say hello to us and then pop on off to the Bristol Expo for your usual con fun.

In other news, Sally is also giving a paper on “Cosmopolitan Tension in Contemporary Comics” at the Academic Perspectives on Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels conference in Växjö, Sweden!  Everyone at IndieManga is wishing Sally luck, so we hope you will too.

More updates to follow!

This February at Barrow-in-Furness library in Cumbria, Kate (Darth Mongoose) will be holding another manga workshop, this time on yon koma, four panel gag manga! Places are, once again, limited, so be sure to get in touch with Barrow Library if you’re interested in coming. The workshop is on the 18th of feb ’09, from 1.30-3.30pm.

Hooray! Manga love for Cumbria!

The Barrow Manga Workshop went well, and plans are already being made to put on another after Christmas, so if you missed your chance this time around, be sure to keep an eye out for when places open!
This time the focus was on character design and introductions. First I got everybody to design an interesting and unique character. Take a look at some of the fab work everybody did!

By the way, if your work is down as ‘unknown’, please send me an email with your name and which one is yours! darthmongoose@gmail.com
Also drop an email if you took your work home to finish and scan in yourself. I’ll add it in!

IndieManga will be at Thought Bubble in Leeds on November 15th – come say hi if you’re there!

Thought Bubble is an event which dubs itself a sequential art festival and has beautiful promotional design, with softer colours than one might usually see for a comics-related event – it seems like an event geared towards expanding ideas of what comics are, and that can only be a good thing! Kate and Sally will be attending, with copies of Origins and Little Thoughts in tow. See you there!

Woohoo, IndieManga’s first con, with our first book! Ah, brings a tear to me eye. That’s probably just because I was so tired when I got home though. Anyway! The magic that was Birmingham International Comics Show:

BICS has a pretty rad location literally inside a science museum (Thinktank at Millennium Point). Panels, etc. were housed downstairs in an excellent lecture theatre. It was a good location all in all – the dealer’s hall wasn’t crowded or sweltering hot, and the con itself had a nice calm, laid-back vibe – not what I was expecting given the packed, frenetic buzz of some other cons (they really do all have their own personality!). The event seemed to run really smoothly too – so much so that Shane Chebsey, one of the organizers, could be spotted wandering around chatting to the dealers and seeing how things were going – so good on you lot, a well-run con!

But anyway, you can read all about the con online – you want to hear about IndieManga, right? Of course you do! As was only appropriate for IndieManga’s first public outing, all four members – Kate, Rebecca, Anna and myself (Sally) – were present and accounted for! It was also the first outing for Origins – which had been delivered to my house, meaning to the other members had not even seen the books before the con! We were all delighted with the results, and sales over the weekend went well. We also spent lots of time sitting and staring at the books, because they came out so pretty and shiny and yay! Also on sale were copies of my previous work Little Thoughts, now with IndieManga (thanks to some slave labour by Kate, who seemed to be the only one of us capable of peeling the backings off the little IndieManga stickers I printed to put on them!), and on the corner of the table could be spotted a pre-promotion flyer for Atomic Sheep, a new series coming soon from myself and Markosia, which will be available to read for free on Myebook.com (who were also there – an exciting new platform for comics!) – so keep your eyes peeled for a further announcement on that, coming soon!

Of course, probably the best things about cons is seeing all the people you don’t usually get to hang out with! Lots of friends both of IndieManga and its individual members were present, so I won’t even attempt a comprehensive list! Across the aisle from us were ITCH Publishing, who had a shiny new graphic novel available in the form of Willie Hewes’ “Amaranth”, and just down from them were Emma Vieceli and Sonia Leong (who brought along copies of her new collected graphic novel of “Once Upon a Time”). To add to the new work, new collective Inspired Comics was there with an anthology titled “Slice of Life”. Inspired’s members were all successful applicants on the StripSearch comic studio scheme for 13-19 year olds – young talents to watch for!

To everyone who stopped by our table, and all the other exhibitors whose work we adored (special nods to Naniiebim, whose Mephistos we all ended up with a copy of, as well as the When Pigeons Weep guys, as well as New Think books and Willy MJ of “Eekeemoo” (who gave me art!)), thank you for making the weekend a great success and a really fun time ^_^

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Hooray! our big debut. In case you haven’t seen the big orange thing all over the site we’ll be in the dealer’s hall selling our debut anthology Origins as well as Sally’s Little thoughts comic.

Birmingham comics expo will be next week October 4th-5th! We advise cosplayers to check out the BICS site since there’s a cosplay contest going on.

Let’s draw some manga! For 2008, the British National Year of Reading, I’ll be running a workshop on the basics of character design, scripting, panelling and pencilling your own doujinshi (that’s Japanese for a self-publication)! It’s at Barrow-in-Furness Public Library this October, and it’s free! There are only 20 places open though, so book in quickly! Cumbria needs manga love too!

PLACES ARE NOW ALL FULL!

Sorry if you missed out, but it’s looking likely there will be another one of these in the not-too-distant future! So keep your eyes peeled, people!