New Artists (Cardiff Comic Con 2013)

Wow so many zombies! Even a Teddy zombie series; the sticker is in front of me right now.

I had a really good time rummaging through this year’s Comic Con in Cardiff. I have only been to the ones at the Mercure hotel in the past. This one at the Motor Point Arena was pretty huge in comparison and there was a lot more there. I think the cast of Red Dwarf was there yesterday but unfortunately I was still on a bus travelling back from Amsterdam. Never mind, I suppose you shouldn’t meet your heroes!

There were loads of places to buy merch, a bunch of talks and lots of famous faces there. My favourite section though was the first row of tables I came to (near the bar) where all of the independent artists and publishers were. Really friendly bunch of people and all of their stuff was great.

Just a few links to some I particularly liked:

• Sarah Millman, author of Heart Of Time. The first chapter is great and has a really nice film noir style to it.
• Sian Jefferson, author of  The Book of Fey. You can check out the book on her tumblr page. She had a lot of really nice prints at the con and has a cool illustration style.
• JM Redman is a freelance illustrator. She had some awesome prints and I loved the cutout illustration style.
• Subversive comics. I don’t usually like zombie themed stuff but I couldn’t help but like the Zombear merch they had at their stall (yep that’s right, zombie teddies)!
• Jenika Loffreda, author of Vampire Free Style. The cat in her comic series Vampire Free Style is pretty damn cute. Had to get a few badges for my girlfriend.. I think Simon’s Cat could have a rival here!
• Thomas Kriebaum author of Little Death. Last but certainly not least is this Austrian artist. He wasn’t there in person but I talked to his London publishers ‘Soaring Penguin Press‘ who told me the story of how they met him. Apparently they found a vending machine  in Germany with small early comics he had done of ‘little death’. They liked them so much they contacted him and asked for a whole book of them (which I highly recommend). They’re basically short sketches of a salesman (who is also death) going about his business. Check it out, it’s very witty, the style is really cool and I quite admire the fact that there is no need for dialogue. Also I love the Charlie Chaplin hat raise whenever he killed someone! Don’t know if that was intentional but nevertheless a nice touch 😀 Toll buch Thomas, ich hoffe ich mit dich einem tag treffen. Ich brauche deine unterschrieben auf meinem Kopie!