Elizabeth, my wife, has always wanted to travel, and I have never had any particular desires to do so. I decided, Heck, if I try and get this comics career going, hitting some comics conventions in different places would be good for spreading the word about my work and hopefully building up a fan base, and it would serve the double purpose of getting us to different places, so that Elizabeth is having the opportunity to travel. It’s gotten so bad, that friends tease me, “You know, Chris, you could go somewhere that there isn’t a convention.” But what crazy talk that is! There are conventions EVERYWHERE! Take this one, for example. Elizabeth had said she wanted to go to Europe. We talked about going to a con in France called Angouleme, but the timing was kind of rough, and after hearing from the runners of the convention, it sounded like it would be difficult to get a table. That’s when we found the Bristol Convention in England. Perfect!
We flew into London, then took a bus to Bristol safe and sound, checked into our hotel, and wondered what we were supposed to do next. I had brought the organizer’s phone number, and he said that things were getting started that evening. We went down to the hotel’s lobby, where we were told things would be happening. There were a few interviews of some of the bigger names at the con. It was a relaxed, intimate setting, and afterwards, looking for Michael, the con organizer, we met Dez Skinn, the other con organizer, who we took to right away. He had an odd, sort of cranky sense of humor. We ended up visiting with him at the bar for the rest of the evening.
Next day, the con began, and we were kindly positioned right near the entrance. I was looking forward to hunting down Brian Bolland, Mike Ploog, and Dave Gibbons. I knew Simon Bisley would be there as well, but I was a little afraid to meet Simon, because I’d heard some horror stories of how rowdy he could be.
Early on, I actually saw Dave Gibbons standing around nearby, so I got up from my table and went up to him. “Are you Dave?” It was him, all right. I made my pitch, and showed him my folder full of all my Doris Danger giant monster drawings I’d done, and all the pin-ups involved so far. He looked moderately interested, and asked, “And are you paying anything for these contributions to your book?”
“Naturally. I would want to pay you what your time and talents are worth to you.” He seemed friendly enough, and gave me his email. Wow! Dave Gibbons!
I found Mike Ploog fairly early, and he was easy to approach. He said he was pretty busy, but to go ahead and contact him. I also found Bryan Talbot and Paul Grist.
Brian Bolland didn’t appear at the con until later on, and from the moment he did, he had a huge line waiting for sketches. In the past, I would have gotten in line and waited to talk to him. But I figured, Now I’m a professional. And all these people are waiting for either a signature or a sketch or whatever. I just want to talk to him, so I rationalized it should be okay to just do that. I cut in front of everyone, which still took some time and some waiting to get through the crowd. When I finally got into position, I leaned over the table and said, “If I could just introduce myself while you’re sketching,” and I made my pitch and showed him some of the pin-ups, and he was interested. Or at least friendly about it. He said my project reminded him of the old Strange Adventures, and I reminded him he did a great “Strange Adventures”-style giant-monster cover for Animal Man. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” he replied. He kindly gave me his email as well. Wow! Brian Bolland! Unbelievable! What a great con!
Later at the con, I met a self-publisher, who told me he had been in line when I approached Mr. Bolland, and he wished he had had the guts to approach his favorite artists like that. He said he’d love a Brian Bolland cover for one of his books. So everyone take note! You’re all free to ask, fans! You just have to hunt them down. And they may not say yes. But if you ask enough people, a few of them might say yes. I’m living proof of it.
It turned out, someone told me Brian hadn’t been to this convention for maybe seven years, so I lucked out just happening to come out to this particular convention to meet him.
I’m a huge, HUGE fan of his Judge Dredds. They were some of my favorite comics during my formative years. I wish he did more comics work, besides covers. Always great to see his covers, but just the same…