Malta Comic Con 2012

Malta Comic Con 2012.

Well, this is about the third time I have tried to write about this trip we took to the Malta Comic con 2012, and each time I have failed. To write every intricate detail of our journey would take me forever and I would still miss things out that I feel would be necessary to share, so instead I will give a brief paragraph by paragraph description of the more important events that took place. So, without further ado, I give to you, the story of School of Bitches and their launch of the preview issue at the Malta Comic con 2012.

Stealth sporting some merch. on flight day eve.

Our things literally arrived the day before we left. You hear people say that all the time, but ours literally did. The neighbours brought around our trading/business cards which had been delivered to the wrong address, our vinyl's were completed and picked up, and the comics themselves arrived in the post with less than 24 hours until our flight departed.

One thing that did not arrive however, was my t-shirt, despite being ordered with the others which arrived on time, mine decided to arrive separately, and for that I would like to send out a personal message to Zazzle. "Fuck you Zazzle, you had one job and you botched it, fuck you!"

We do not forgive, We do not forget.

We flew out from Bristol and landed in Malta where my brother picked me up. At this point I realised how handsome he is and how much of a crack head I look in comparison, if I was a girl, and not his brother, I would fuck my brother. . .

We headed to St. James Cavalier in the capital city of Valletta, and met organiser Chris Le Galle who showed us to our table in the main gallery across from Herb Trimpe, Sonia Leong and just down from Dave Gibbons.

Our stand on day one of the comic con

We set up and met our first 'comic con friends' Nel pace and Chris De Souza, local artists who were a great pair of people who we became to know a lot more throughout the weekend. Definitely a pair it would be great to hang out with in the free time.

We were invited to an artist's dinner that night, but were late and decided not to attend as we still had a lot to prepare for the comic con the next day. Always late, that's why my punctuality at school was closer to the nil box.

Food. Because that's what everyone else posts photos of.

Stealth and I stayed up into the late morning hours of Saturday completing our 'board', and it was at this point that I discovered that learning to use old manuscript pens and Indian ink to write scripture at 4am after 100 mugs of coffee wasn't the simplest of activities. However, we prevailed and as the sun rose and as we were due to leave in 3 hours, I finished my work and Stealth finished creating my t-shirt (again, thanks Zazzla. . .I'm not even going to correct the spelling of your name).

Two sides. One is light, one is dark.

We arrived and spent the morning discussing our work and the plans ahead whilst selling our first issue of the comic itself, this itself was a special moment for us. We talked afterwards about how we can still remember everyone that we sold an issue to, good times.

The 'Board'

The afternoon was a repetition of the mornings events but with a slightly larger understanding of the operations of comic conventions. We received a lot of good feedback and felt hopeful to the future of the project.

Mocha break.

That night we were once again invited to go out for drinks with the overseas guests in a town called Bugibba, but which I will now refer to as Bug-I-Ba from this point onwards.

We were meant to arrive at 9pm but we got there minutes before midnight. We had issues with the Maltese bus service before exiting into a gale force wind which almost literally took me off my feet and created one of the funniest moments of the trip as the other two believed I was having a stroke along the beach. I felt like Michael Jackson in 'Earth Song', was later disturbed to find out it felt good.

We arrived and met everyone, Tim Perkins, Emma Rios, Maria Grech, Michael Quinton, Ken Micallef amongst others. A couple of triple Jim Beams later I was ready to enjoy myself, but the bar had other plans and closed. Good night despite the initial hiccups, and it was amazing to be simply having a drink with some well known established artists.

The next morning we were late once more, this time by slightly over an hour, and as we walked through glary eyed and dirty looking. I realised how different our project was compared to the crisp clean approach the others took. Good or Bad? I don't know, but I can say is we definitely took a different approach.

Today I was determined to be pro active in getting the comic out there, so I spent much of the morning giving our comic to many of the other artists who were also attending the convention. These included,

Richmond Clements, this guys a character and was a real laugh to be around. He organises the Inverness comic con and will be attending the Cardiff comic con in March with us, and also helped us get in contact with Thought Bubble organisers for 2013. Looking back now I didn't buy his books, would have been nice to, but there's always Cardiff and Leeds.

Dez Skinn, if you don't know of this guy who was once described as 'The British Stan Lee' then Google it. Dez is a legend, and he gave us some great critique on our comic and seemed really impressed with our trading/business card idea.

Maria Grech, Maria is a wicked local artist and was stunning too, she shared a table with another local art student Redd. Great guys with great potential.

Emma Rios, Marvel illustrator known for titles such as Dr. Strange. Emma was lush, I wonder if all the times I said 'I'm just passing, thought I would say hello' became obvious after awhile?

Photo time with Dave Gibbons

Sonia Leong, Sonia is an anime artist and was a really nice person to be around. We hung out with her a few times over the weekend and she taught us a lot about certain aspects of creating comic books.

Sean Azzopardi, (you wouldn't believe how long it took me to look and find his business card to remember his name, sorry) Sean was really funny and had a lot of stories to share with us. Another helpful artist we made friends with along the way.

Mike Quinton, one of the comic con organisers and a real top guy. Had some fun during the cigarette breaks talking about a lot, really looking forward to hanging out again next year.

Chris Muscat, another of the organisers and another really nice guy. See you again next year.

Dave Gibbons, Well Dave is a legend and allowed the amateurs like ourselves to join his group over the weekend. He even signed a copy of School of Bitches for fan, and third member of the School of Bitches crew, Cap Ron, who could not travel with us to the convention. (Something to do with drug smuggling back in the nineties)

When I returned Stealth was shaken and described how Herb Trimpe came over and said he had seen our board and work whilst we were 'late'. He said he really enjoyed it and gave some incredible feedback stating that he is a fan of it and looks forward to seeing more.

Meeting herb and Patricia

I walked to Herbs table and was introduced to his wife. We talked about both our works and the future ahead, he was a really nice guy and after the sweats and shakes that I was experiencing subsided we talked for a long time about all sorts of things. Herb gave us the biggest boost we had yet received, and when we prevail we will always have Herb (now become somewhat of a godlike creation in the realm of the school of bitches board room) as one of our first fans.

The legend, Herb Trimpe.

We met local comic book creators Comik Tas-sikkina, who were the only ones with comics in Maltese. They were some great stories we discovered after my little brother translated them, and the characters and art was in a great style.

We had lunch with Sonia Leong, Dave Gibbons and Ben Templesmith this day and continued our holiday way of thinking and drank overpriced mochas like it aint no 'ting'! (It later became a 'ting' when we couldn't afford to pay for electricity during the winter)

The moment we realised it had become a ting.

We 'hung out' with Herb for most of the afternoon, and he taught us about one of his favourite hobbies, the Bugatti 100p airplane. He had even published his own comic on the plane itself, he gave us an issue each which he signed "To Dhalia, Good work and keep it going!! Best wishes, Herb Trimpe" and "To Alan, Keep up the Amazing and Incredible work!!, Herb Trimpe". A genuine nice couple who we will be travelling to see in London during February with a gift.

We hung out with Nel and Chris whilst packing up after a very successful comic con in which the word had been spread, fans had been created, and experiences had been felt.

Saying farewell with Chris.

That night we had an artist's dinner back up in Bug-I-Ba, we were seated next to Dez Skinn, Rich Clements, Sonia Leong, and the organisers. This dinner was amazing, and the servings were huge when you live on a minimal food diet due to finances (which we had saved and spent on mochas). We learnt enough at this dinner that if it was given in a lecture, people would pay hundreds, especially the back and forth conversation Sonia and Dez.

After food we had a couple of pictures (which haven't yet surfaced) and we were on our way, the comic con was officially over and we were happy to ride the high buzz we were on. Why not? We had a great response, met a lot of great people, and it was confirmed that what we were doing could work, and there were now more people who believed in us. It was definitely a high moment.

Overall this weekend had been one of the best in a long, long time. The people were great, the event was incredible, and it gave hope to the future as School of Bitches plans ahead after an extremely positive first showing.

Hope to see you at our next event in Cardiff 2-3rd March.

The 'board' centre

The board (left)

The Board (right)