London event Oct 2014

[Nigel]

Aww, Herb Trimpe has cancelled.

[inflatabledalek]

Primenova: You are the dude (and more useful than the official site). Is there a place with a list of all the talks that are on at the weekend? There's a few (like Lalla Ward) I'd love to sit and watch.

I'm down on the Friday, but as I'll have been working till six in the morning I'm not setting out till late and will probably just eat and go to bed when I get into London.

Got my stuff to get signed almost sorted out (it's a shame the Bond 50 Blu Ray set is a bit cumbersome as I'd love to get Colin Salmon to sign it, I might bung 24: Live Another Day in for him). My choice of hardback for Bob to sign was dictated by wanting something Jose could sign as well. I already have a silly amount of stuff signed by Furman, Wildman and Senior but bunged End of the Road in as well after thinking "You can never have to much". Plus, it gives me the chance to go say "Hi", which I haven't really done for the last few AA's since using The Vault as my default signiture book, a poor oversight on my part.

[primenova]

Go to the website then forums then London WCC whatever its called I just need to check it - they have a post on there with a complete list for both days.

showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showforum=293

The first page of the top post LFCCW

[inflatabledalek]

Your Google Fu beats mine Sir, thanks.

[Jim]

Well, I'll be on my way after a quick lunch and hoping for the best with the queue! I'll be the frazzled*-looking, hipster-glasses wearing chap in a dark blue t-shirt who would have shaved this morning if he hadn't run out of foam. Just so you can avoid me.

* finding the time to do this in the midst of organising my daughter's 4th birthday party tomorrow. I had no idea these could be so much work.

-Jim

[inflatabledalek]

I'll do more details about my day (and my Lee Sullivan sketch of the best character in Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire) when I get back home on Tuesday, but for now I'd advise anyone going tomorrow who hasn't already paid for a ticket that, unless a whole load more people turn up, they're better of going down later rather than paying early bird prices. I had fo queue for ages to get in at 9 but a couple of hours later you can just waltz straight in with no fuss or bother without loosing much.

I think the only advantage to going early would be if you wanted a sketch by one of the really busy artists like Nick Roche or Budiansky and wanted to make sure they could fit you in.

Also, if anyone wants something to put their prints in to keep safely, Lee Sullivan has a huge stock of cardboard tubes ("My wife calls me mad for bringing a big box these things, but they sell better than my prints!").

And yes, Uncle Bob is The Man.

[Bogatan]

A bit gutted not to make it, but I was simply to exhausted to do another over night trip to London.

What sketches did you get?

Can never get enough sketches.

[Jim]

As inflatabledalek said the queues were non-existent by the afternoon and it was generally much quieter than I expected.

Had a good chat with Lee Sullivan, nice bloke, very talkative, but missed the chance to get a signed print from him when we got interrupted just before the first talk (after which he was quite engaged again).

Always a pleasure to meet Simon, and he had the one RG1 RI cover I didn't have - #0, signed by the crew - so mission: accomplished there! (I hadn't even been thinking about it)

Great to meet Geoff for the first time, also a really friendly guy, with a sweet (but tired and restless) 2 year old daughter in tow. Got a Grimlock sketch from him and got him and Simon to sign a Dragon's Claws poster, which Simon in particular loved to see - he apparently has the original painted art for the Death's Head equivalent at home. It seems they have some new joint project coming soon too, from the fliers they had lying around.

I found both Bob and Larry a bit terse, couldn't quite get talking with them (could have just been my appalling social skills), but Bob was great in the writer's talk.

Jose is a bit hard of hearing but I managed to get across how much I appreciated his work and have his signature (along with Bob's) in the front of the Dark Star HC now.

Nick was a bit busy every time I was around so didn't get anything from him this time.

All in all, glad I made it there!

-Jim

[Rich]

The event as a whole seemed to be a bit lacking in A list stars, but that suited me fine as it meant it wasn't too busy. It was a great pleasure to meet Bob and Jose. As has been said, Bob wasn't particularly chatty one to one, but he was kind enough to pose for a photo and his talk was very interesting. He said he has a PowerPoint on all of his original preparatory work, so it was a shame that the facilities were a bit basic and he couldn't show this. It's strange to think that almost 31 years ago to the day, he spent a weekend writing the profiles of the original 24 Transformers and that he was only 4th choice to do the job; everything could have been so different. He even came up with the power ratings and plotted them all out. I asked him if he identified with any of the human characters and pointed out that he looked a bit like Donny Finkleburg (Bob was quite a lot younger than I expected), but it turns out Donny was based on Bob's high school friend and Marvel colleague, Danny Fingeroth. Fingeroth wasn't in love with his alter ego, hence Donny's last minute growth of a conscience. We also learned that Simon was passed the baton for TF US in the punch and judy bar in Covent Garden so a trip to the pub to reenact this famous event is already planned.
As well as lots of signatures, I was also lucky enough to get sketches from Jose and Nick and a script from Simon. And then we headed to the bar. An excellent day out.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I was in pretty much 9-5 both days, popping out to my hotel around the corner from time to time. I think I was the second person to find Budiansky. He was signing about 50 comics for the first guy and was going to cut it short when I showed up (limit is 5 items when there's a queue) but I told him to carry on if I could talk to him while he did it. But there was rarely a queue for anyone in the comics zone.

Oct 15, 2014 11:36:39 GMT primenova said:

Talks all on Stage 3

Sat -
1030-1130 David Lloyd (for all those who remember his cover for Dinobot Hunt issue)
1500 - 1600 Jose & Andrew on art
1630-1730 Bob & Simon on stories

Sun - (i'll miss these ones)
1140-1240 Jose
1600-1700 Bob

I'm also updating the first page post.

It was actually:

Sat -
1500-1600 Roche, Delbo, Martin Griffiths (that Jetfire Christmas story), Wildman, Baskerville, Guidi, with Senior loitering at the back of the room with his daughter
1630-1730 Budiansky, Furman

Sun -
1200-1245 Delbo, supported by Budiansky, with Mrs Delbo loitering at the back of the room
1600-1650 Hama, supported by another Marvel US dude whose name I should have noted

The two talks on the Saturday had maybe of the order of 50 people attending each.

The Sunday 1200 talk was just Delbo, Budiansky, me and two other guys (done informally in a circle without the use of microphones)

The Sunday 1600 talk was Larry Hama and pal, me and three other guys (done likewise)

Needless to say, the Sunday talks were the big result for me!!!

Weekend worth every penny, even if I couldn't sleep at night due to stinking head cold, and so had to cut Saturday evening's drinks short (sorry, guys). I need never attend another TF convention.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

During the lunchtime session on Sunday, Bob learnt from Jose that Buster and Jessie were dead.

Bob signed for me my TF Universe TPB and TF US #1, 7 and 8.

Bob and Jose signed my 'Trial by Fire' Titan hardback.

Larry signed my GI Joe Order of Battle TPB and 'Silent Interlude' 30th Anniversary hardback.

Simon, Geoff and Nick signed my Best of UK: Dinobots.

Jose, Bob and Simon also signed the convention exclusive 'Jose Delbo Retrospective' magazine. (Bob points out Brute Force covers. "I wrote that." "I haven't read it, I'm afraid." "You're not missing much." Jose had a little rant about having to draw animals as if they were people, and the arbitrary good/bad species labels.)

Also got a signed postcard from Lee Sullivan of his Prime/Megatron annual cover.

And the following sketches:

Prowl by Nick:


Scarlett by Larry:


Death's Head by Baskerville, dialogue added by Furman:


Martin

[primenova]

I got a few things signed.

Jose had a 2 per person limit so got Batman sketch & Last stand signed for James & then Vault/Ult Guide signed for myself.

I went to Bob a few times & let him keep my 2 pens so he had it to sign other peoples stuff. He drew Spider-man for James - he did really seem interesting in doing Ghost Rider sketches. Also talking with him re the Movie IDW book Bob did seem to ahve forgotton about it - but Bob did state he can't remember doing most of it. Was talking about the extra pages with the Ark that was in the trade but not the comic & could not remember doing it. I expect Bob must remember the Marvel stuff more.
Vault, Ult guide, last stand, dark star, maximum force, Best of megatron

Larry - Gijoe #138-142. Wolverine #90.
Nick - Doubledealer

Was stood next to Andrew Wildman while he was talking with Lee but didn't get anything signed has Andrew wasn't in his guest area.

Lee - 2015 Dr Who annual, TFUKCv5, Best of megatron
Stephen - TFUKCv5 which he has not seen, SM#192, Best of megatron
Simon - Dragons claws #1, TFUKCv5, Doubledealer, Best of megatron
Guido - RG1 #85,91,93-100 & AHM #7,8, Vault, Ult guide
Geoff - TFCUKv5, Dragons claws #1, RG1 #92,0,100,99

Nick had a good look in Wolverine #90 & stated that is an amazing issue & that I got a bargin at 50p when it normally sells for £6.

re the IDW Movie comic #1. I don't think Bob might have written those extra pages & they could have just been soemthing Don did up.

[inflatabledalek]

Will do some more lengthy thoughts when I'm settled in (though I'll say when I was talking to him that Bob was in theory in favour of doing Auto Assembly as long as they offered him a decent deal. Which by the sound of it was paying his flights and putting him in a nice hotel rather than a room full of hookers or anything rock and roll, but for now my pictures:

www.facebook.com/stuart.webb3/media_set?set=a.10152591890409219.1073741834.611524218&type=3

[primenova]

That sound like a good deal - Bob in one of the Hilton ex room. I expect they are the one to the right when you exit the lifts & not left where my room always is. He'll like the breakfast at the Hilton which is good. I hope they get Bob over for a future event. (you don't need the last 2 bits - Bob can get the r'n'r on the saturday night party.)

[inflatabledalek]

Behold, my Youtube thoughts!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=koQfk1K_QWQ