As I mentioned in passing before, my partner in crime Mat and I will be returning to Bristol Comic Expo this coming weekend. It’ll be my fifth expo, but it’s the first time I’ll be there under my own aegis – in other words, no tasty expenses-paid meals for me.

However, one thing will be the same: Mat and I will be trying to help raise some charity cash for Draw The World Together, although we’ll be doing the easy bit (Taking your donations and keeping people fed and watered) while our amazing volunteer comic artists do the hard stuff, ie drawing your characters.

On top of the sketching – we also have some fantastic original art that we’ll probably be auctioning, in some ad hoc fashion, over the weekend. If we don’t get rid of something at the show, we’ll auction it online afterwards.

Unfortunately as we left the decision to attend so late this year – blame me for that, with imminent visa interviews putting everything on hold – by the time we said we were going, tickets were pretty much sold out. (The Expo’s moved – for one year only, I understand, to the much smaller hotel nearby, so capacity is limited.) I apologise to all of you who are anxious to get sketches – but fingers crossed, Andrew Wildman will return to Bristol (and other shows) to do the same thing.

As well as trying to raise some cash for DTWT I’m also going to the Expo, well, to see the Expo! I was there in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 and never got to sit on any panels, or spend much time wandering around the hall. So this time, at last, I’ll get the chance.

Last but not least… this will be my last show in the UK for a while. I’m hoping to return later this year (Stay tuned for what and when….) but for a while, at least, this will be my last chance to meet up with You People. You know who you are…. and you know the drill! It should be a lot of fun.

Here’s how this weekend’s going to break down, then…

Saturday

• Mat and I are going to travel down to Bristol, leaving at some ungodly hour
• We’re going to explore the Expo a bit, find Andrew…
• … and set up for Draw the World Together at 3pm
• We’ll have a group of artists sketching between 3pm and 5pm – with others around the Expo sketching for us
• We’ll knock off at 5pm ish, unless we can go on longer – you know we’ll try and drag it out!
• After we hit the bar – inevitably – we’ll end up at a curry house. Suggestions?

Sunday

• Wandering to and fro in the Expo itself, doing the traditional comic convention thing!

If you can make it down there, make sure you come by. It’s a small event so I’m sure it won’t be too hard to locate us!

If you can’t get a ticket for the Expo but still want to come down – to get food in the evening or whatever – then get in contact with me and we’ll sort things out.