Malta Comic Con 2013 (Part One)

 Dhalia Says...

I am writing this blog a week after the event itself took place, some pieces of information may have become distorted during that time. But here it is, the first three days of my trip to Malta for the Malta Comic Con 2013. The rest is soon to follow. . .

www.schoolofbitches.co.uk

Malta Comic Con 2013

So this year’s Malta Comic Con marked a pretty significant milestone for ‘School of Bitches’ members Alan Stealth and myself, as it signified the end to the first year since the story of Genesis went public in a limited edition ‘preview’ issue revealed at the Malta Comic Con 2012. This year the School of Bitches team had grown and we were accompanied by our self described ‘comic guru’, we refer to as simply ‘Judas’, as well as School of Bitches affiliate, Todd Collier of ‘Todd Collier Film’.

Thursday 28^th November

I think we left Wales on the Thursday before the event itself, I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure that it was the Thursday . . . And as for the weather? I have no idea, probably cold and highly likely to have been miserable, but I can’t even remember what day it was to check so we’ll move on.

We landed in Malta a few hours after flying out of Bristol Airport with Ryanair. This, if you haven’t flown with Ryanair before, is much like getting on the Megabus that you discover can fly shortly into your trip. At which point you realise it is too late to exit and have to simply ride out the torment, whilst silently praying that this flying tube of cheap plastic and smiling depressants doesn’t decide to give up, and fall to the ground with your shallow hopes and dreams inside...luckily this didn’t happen in the real world. Upon making our way through the Maltese security checks, we were met by two of the Chris’ (@chms71) who gave us a ride across the island to our hotel in Bugibba.

Riding up front in a Land Rover that had the characteristics of a moving house, I felt as though I was a character in the TV series ‘24’. At any moment I was certain a terrorist group was going to jump out from behind one of these Mediterranean buildings and open fire, and I would once again have to save the day and get the vehicles passengers to safety. Whilst simultaneously rescuing a bus load of poor orphans from falling into the open ravine nearby. . . 

My life saving escapades also include saving this woman's life, after she was viciously attacked by a shopping bag in broad daylight.

We were dropped off outside our accommodations, The Santana Hotel, and were left to our own devices for the afternoon until we were meant to meet the other guests and travel to set up in Valletta. Todd, Judas and I entertained ourselves in the northern town of Bugibba’s main square, although quiet this time of year the town remained a hub of cafes and pubs that were still open despite the lack of custom. We sat on the beachside in one particular cafe that was open at the shore, all the time Alan Stealth slept undisturbed in his bed like the Brothers Grimm character he is. . .No, wait, I’m describing Friday already. This is Friday. . . 

 What happened to Thursday? Fuck it! 

Bugibba square

 

On Thursday we did nothing but arrive, get drunk, be victims of a lesbian attack in a bar called Incognito, and watch karaoke before succumbing to our vices and passing out in an undisclosed location, nothing interesting. 

'Dark nights...'

Back to Friday. . .

Friday 29^th November

First meme thing i've ever used.

Alan Stealth hadn’t arisen and the day light was in its last hours, we decided we had better go and check that he hadn’t died at some point during the night or been kidnapped by the aforementioned lesbian. To our disappointment Stealth had just been sleeping and hadn’t ended up in some highly comical situation we could include in ours blogs to make them more interesting. We met up with the rest of this year’s guests and took a bus to St. James Cavalier in Valletta. This is the point where we first managed to catch up with old friends and people we had met at previous conventions.

Outside front of Santana Hotel

After the initial welcoming from the event’s organisers, we all talked and the group began heading to ‘San Giovanni’. Stealth and I decided to remain and finish setting up our table. We had not done so during our allocated time due to being distracted by walking up and down the buildings long tunnel staircase, and pretending we were WWE wrestlers as the crowd went crazy in our heads. This staying behind somewhat backfired once we discovered we had been locked inside the now dark building. It wasn’t until a security guard found us amidst a bitter dispute about who was to be eaten first, did we manage to escape our inevitable fates and join the rest of the group after organiser Chris Le Galle had to come meet us. We had gotten lost following my false statement that I knew where I was going.

San Giovanni was set in a picturesque Mediterranean city square, and although the site must be idyllic in the summer, tonight it didn’t have much luck as the rain poured down relentlessly. Occasionally dictating the movement of tables and chairs as the umbrellas gave way randomly in certain points. It made for a very interesting and enjoyable first meal of the Malta Comic Con . . . . Just don’t feed me pizza again.

Following the meal I caught up with guest and friend from the previous Malta Comic Con, Sean Azzopardi, (@Seanazz) probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met. He can also draw really groovy trees. We got the bus back together and talked about the previous year as we nervously kept watch on the bus’ roof which was doing little to protect us from the rain falling outside. How rock and roll is that!

Sean Azzopardi, drawer of groovy trees.

I love this convention, I was back at the hotel feeling as though I had already had a successful visit, and the convention itself hadn’t even begun yet. However,  I slowly began to realise the longer I stood out in the rain outside the Santana hotel thinking about how kool this all was, the less attractive it all started to become. So I went to my room and watched as the news showed Riots in Kiev and Thailand, and a helicopter that had done exactly what I prayed my RyanAir flight would not do, and I fell asleep.

Saturday 30^th November

Today was the first day of The Malta Comic Con, and was also the day School of Bitches was going to release issue two of Genesis to the public. We weren’t sure what to expect as it was the first convention we had attended twice, and we had received a much larger amount of publicity prior to the convention itself, thanks to the event’s organisers social networking work during the year and ‘The Malta Times’ editor Ramona Depares (@RamonaDepares) prominently displayed our work as part of her article.

'Times of Malta' Article

We met up with friends Chris ‘SeaPuppy’ (@Seapuppy_art)and Nel ‘Widdershins’ (@Widd3rshins), probably the coolest pair of people I know. They are just so cool that it’s hard to explain, SeaPuppy has designed skateboards!! Enough said.

Seapuppy's sexy Antiz skateboard designs

Maria Isabella Grech (@MariaIsabellaG) was someone i was also excited about meeting once again, as we are currently collaborating on a graphic novel ourselves which is titled 'Enigma'. Maria is a Maltese artist we met on our first trip to the Malta comic con.

This is Maria Isabella Grech (Photo Courtesy of Kim Bezzina Jones)

Tim Perkins (@TimPWizardsKeep) is also an old friend of ours, who over the weekend became to be viewed as a guiding figure to our crew, resulting in the infamous image below.

'God was watching over us...'

We met up with Chris Thompson (@popculturehound) during the day also. We have begun to become rather accustomed to seeing Chris  when we attend public conventions, it's even gotten to the point that you feel a little heartbroken when he's not there. He's helped us out during the year, possibly through pity? I'm not sure, but its appreciated.

The convention was underway, and per usual I was sent to run some stupid errand as we had forgotten something once again. This time we had forgotten a table cover. I swear I have never attended the first hour or two of any convention we have attended throughout the year, because of stupid mistakes like this. Yet it will keep happening, I know it will. 

A street in Valletta so you can see how different they are to yours.

 

I vacated the St. James Cavalier and found an old Maltese man who was hiding inside what appeared to be a shed. I asked him if he had something to cover the table with, and he quietly ushered me into the darker corners of the sheds tiny interior. I looked around bemused wondering what was happening as the old man talked at me in Maltese, not to me, but AT me.

He still knew what I was after and provided some black vinyl that we could use. During the transaction a number of pigeons began entering the shed and started climbing on my shoes, staring upwards into my eyes as they did so. As I pretended they weren’t there, the man stated that they were just hungry. laughing awkwardly I began thinking about how the police would tell my mother that I had been killed in a shed by pigeons, and an old man was in custody for covering me in plastic and attempting to drag my broken body into a nearby drain shaft. Luckily my daydreams didn’t progress much further as the man had finished, and told me to turn the vinyl around a giant cardboard tube. He become increasingly agitated as he discovered I was pathetic at this task, and needed to reposition. I wondered how I had ended up on my knees in an old man’s shed, when I was meant to be releasing my own graphic novel to an adoring populace. I didn’t want to think about it too much, what happens on tour stays on tour (and on all popular real time social networking sites).

'See you next year Dhalia...'

The convention itself was well underway and upon returning I discovered the vinyl wasn’t needed, and Stealth had decided to use plain black wrapping paper instead. I didn’t tell him about my ordeal, it would only upset him. So I carried on silently hiding my demons. I was soon put under the greatest of tests as the prime Minister of Malta, Mr Joseph Muscat was visiting the Malta Comic Con and checked out the School of Bitches table for a couple of minutes, before leaving after saying he liked our work and that it reminded him of the old colonial images. Hear that, School of Bitches is Prime Minister approved.

Part of our display

I had been pretty busy early on, and after taking a minutes break, I discovered that we were doing well, really well. We had already pretty much sold more issues that any previous conventions complete sales. People were even returning from the previous year with the preview issue they had purchased, and kept to show us. This was awesome!!

We were situated in the final room in the same positions as last year, the 'School of Bitches corner'. To our right was Dave Lung, someone I had met in the middle of the night on Thursday. I had decided to walk the hotel hallways dressed in a sheet repeating ‘Red Rum’ to myself. Thankfully Dave did not repeat to anyone what he saw that night, and our dignity continues to remain haphazardly intact. 

Dave Lung, the man of many talents.

 Elsewhere in the room was Sean Azzopardi, Paul Allor, A Space boy Dream,  Ales Kot, Rebekah Isaacs, Sea Puppy, Widdershins, John-Paul Bove, Charlie Adlard, Sean Phillips, Michael Dialynas, Tasos Anastasiades, and Frederica Di Nardo.

Check it out! It's Neil and Will from Twisted Dark. (photo courtesy of Kim Bezzina Jones)

 Neil (@NeilJamesGibson) and Will (@arachnid_guy) from Twisted Dark (@Tpublications) also joined us this year. We had met them previously at the 2D Festival in Northern Ireland when they beat us in a pub quiz, they came first, we came  third. Despite that defeat they're pretty kool guys, I recommend Tabatha for a good read! 

'We are School of Bitches, We never forget, We never forgive. . .'

The convention already seemed much busier than the year previous, and we ourselves were much busier than expected, as Todd moved about the venue filming and taking pictures for his future film. Stealth and I were continuously talking to people at our table, as our postcard range and first two issues began to dwindle faster than expected. We ended up selling more than we had done at all previous conventions throughout 2013. Issue two had gotten off to a good start and was about to attract much attention throughout the night as we were soon to find out on the Sunday.

Issue Two Cover

After the first day we headed back to our hotel and decided to take a break, before meeting with everyone once more in the evening. We soon decided to grab food by ourselves as we had once again managed to lose everyone, or they managed to lose us? hmm. . . 

Look our hotel again, because hotels are fucking fascinating.

Either way we resurfaced and went to wake Stealth from his rest once again. He arose kicking and screaming as though we had disturbed the most important of slumbers, and shuffled down the street demanding we find the location of the sacred ‘Club Sandwich’, a holy relic of the Stealth clan in some parts of the world. We found just what we were looking for in an Irish bar named O’reillys.

Stealth managed to obtain his club sandwich before he exploded into a rage, and we had one of the best meals so far. A few cocktails were ordered and soon we had built up a commentators table and began to commentate on a football match on the screens, much to the amusement (or disgust, I can’t remember) of the locals who had come to watch the match with some seriousness. We decided to leave before the waitress’s boyfriend Hulk smashed the bar. Outside it continued to rain, a storm was coming.

We met the rest of the guests at a local karaoke bar, and the night became a mix of power ballads, 90’s pop, smooth reggae and anarchic punk. I became tired after a busy day and decided to walk down to the beach to watch a large lighting storm that was passing out at sea. That was awesome. The storms in Malta look nothing like the ones we get in Wales. They’re bright purple and seem bigger somehow, and watching them pass by was mesmerising. As I stood there holding a piece of iron sheeting above my head to cover from the rain, I thought ‘Aah this is pretty sweet’.

I returned to my room in the early hours of the morning after Stealth and the rest returned to the karaoke. On the news the protests continue and a crane falls on a stadium in Brazil. I fell asleep wondering why LED’s are necessary on TV sets.

To continue reading part two, visit; http://sweet-animosity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/malta-comic-con-2013-part-two.html

Dhalia.

13-12-2013

www.schoolofbitches.co.uk

*All photos have been unknowingly stolen from Todd Collier (@ToddCollierFilm) unless otherwise stated.