Comica Comiket Autumn 2012

It has been a couple of years since Grandville the badger detective made a Christmas appearance with Bryan Talbot being busy on other things. This year he has returned in Grandville Bete Noire and I needed to get a signed copy to go alongside my signed copies of the first two volumes.

The ideal opportunity came at the Comica Comiket Independent Comics Fair. I have been tempted to go to previous fairs yet somehow I have managed not to get to one. This time the pull of Grandville and the need to be in London for something else later in the day was enough to get me there.

The venue was the Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street station. The journey should have been easy enough but the new Lord Mayor of London had decided to have some sort of parade through the City which meant that I had to walk up from Bank.

That was not all bad news as I used to work in the NatWest Tower (now Tower 42) so this was a welcome chance to retread some familiar pavements.

Arriving at Comiket I almost immediate walked in to Paul Gravett, the driving force behind so many events and books that bring comics to the attention of the public. He is also incredibly enthusiastic and the wearer of some of the brightest and boldest shirts that I have ever seen. I'm jealous.

One of Paul's jobs that day was to introduce the artists who came up on to the stage to draw under the probing eye of a camera that relayed everything on to a screen for us all to see.

Bryan was soon on the stage, I had timed my arrival with this in mind, and he gave us a variation of the opening panel of the first book.

As soon as he had finished I rushed off to the Gosh stall to buy a copy of Grandville Bette Noir and then went to Bryan's table to get it signed. Sadly tradition says that I have to wait until Christmas Day to receive it officially. And that is when I'll read it too.

The hall was full of other tables with other creators and publishers selling other comics. I had no great intention of buying much but there was so much good stuff around a lot of which I was already aware of thanks to my many comics related RSS feeds.

I was also gently nudged towards a couple of titles by Paul and that nudging worked.

Grandville Bette Noir was swiftly joined by several other books including Hildafolk, Hilda and the Midnight Giant, Everything We Miss, The Yellow M, Scars and Ruptures. And those are just the books that I bought from the Nobrow and Cinebook tables. There were more tables and more books.

I managed to escape with credit card not too damaged and a pile of books hopefully small enough to plough through over the next few weeks. I'll prove it by reviewing them as I read them.

One thing that Comiket did for me was ensure that I make it to another one such was the buzz and the passion for comics. It also helped to rekindle my love for the medium that had been slightly dented by Mavel's and DC's incessant relaunches.