BICS Report part 1

Talk about falling behind on deadlines! BICS, or Birmingham International Comics Show was held 2 weeks ago, and LYSAD was invited over in official press capacity to cover the event.

Although getting off to a late start, I’ll be posting small chunks of news and photos from the event throughout this week to make up.

So, BICS.

BICS was held for a second year in Birmingham, UK’s second largest city (although some Mancunians will argue the decimal points).

Birmingham itself was as I had left it. Vast, dirty, industrial, with a shiny mall smack dab in the middle, shaped like a Bull’s ass in strass. Don’t believe me? Behold, the Bull Ring:



After last December’s humbler beginnings, this year the organisers really shot for the skies, moving to the largest exhibition venue in the city, Millennium Point, and caving in to popular demand and bringing in the one thing guaranteed to make an UK comics convention a roaring success:

BOOZE.






Which brings us neatly to the Opening Reception of the Show. Friday night, Bennets, up on Bennets’ Hill. Invitation only, this reception was open only to VIPs (ha!), creators, early bookers and dirty paparazzi – like yours truly-.

The drinking venue was packed to the brim, and everyone was happy-smiley to see familiar faces amongst the professional circles, and get beer down their throats. The evening was sponsored by Tony Lee and Markosia Comics, promoting Tony’s upcoming Hope Falls comic release.

Entertainment was provided by Skelter, headlined by DC editors Michael Wright and Nachie Castro. The only dark spot of the evening was the unfortunate acoustics and loud volume of the music, as it made any conversation within the venue problematic. Geeks love to yabber people, leave the rocking for Saturday night.

Luckily LYSAD escaped with Mike Carey to quieter corners to discover the real nitty gritty of the upcoming X-Men events that brought a grin in this fanboy’s face. But that’s a secret I’ll never tell! xoxo


SATURDAY MORNING, RISE AND SHINE


After Friday’s excess, BICS wisely opened its doors after 10:30am to allow everyone their beauty sleep, or the chance to get back to their own hotel rooms for a fresh change of clothes. LYS@D slept alone, in a room with 4 snoring strangers, and only one fellow geek. LYS@D accuses Birmingham for the lack of sex or sleep on a Friday night.

Making my way to the actual exhibition floor, we picked up our proud laminated press pass (FREEEEE) and got to work.

The queues were massive, taking up the entire foyer of the exhibit, as everyone wanted an early piece of the action (and a freebie bag from Forbidden Planet, which unfortunately LYS@D missed out. The later spotted and highly sought-after copies of Umbrella Academy FCBD included within some of them didn’t help matters)




Rich Johnston (front and center in fashionable green checkers) didn’t share his loot.

COMICS BEFORE BREAKFAST


I still didn’t despair, I already had three free comics ‘shoved’ in my loving pockets before the time I had finished breakfast:

Dan Fish’s always popular giveaway free mini-comics kicked off the trend on the Friday night drink-a-thon. This year it’s Baffling Mysteries #1. It’s a murder mystery done in 13 panels, including, a murder, An accusation, three suspects, a twist, another murder and another twist! Comics compression at its tightest!



The second comic caught me unaware on Saturday morning breakfast from my bunkmate Lorcan McGrane. When he’s not snoring he makes cool photocopy comics. The title is ‘The life and times of Jimmny Homunculus’ and I’ll be pimping it more later. Lorcan’s blog address is http://jhomunculus.blogspot.com

Chime in tomorrow for coverage of Saturday’s panels, Mike Mignola, photos from the floor, Mike Carey playing Wonder Woman and other weird stories…