Posts Tagged Neil Edwards

Bristol Comic Expo 2009… the one without a job

This weekend was another Bristol Comic Expo – my fourth, not my fifth, as I got confused about before.

I’ve gone every year since 2005, except 2006 (when it clashed with a trip to LA for E3), but every year I attended to officially represent NCsoft. What started in 2005 as a couple of us stuck in a corner trying to flog City of Heroes (without actually selling it) culminated last year in a big ol’ stand with practically an artistic production-line to handle the pencilling, inking, scanning, colouring and printing of player sketches. Without a doubt, in terms of our professional ambitions, Bristol 2008 was our high point. As a fun weekend away for me personally though, this year is the hands-down winner.

Despite that, we definitely fulfilled our primary purpose: to help out Andrew Wildman once more with Draw the World Together. Mat and I couldn’t be happier to help, but as always, there were a lot of people who made things happen.

First and foremost was Mike Allwood, Expo organiser, who gave us the space and time we needed to sketch in. It was no easy feat, as with this year’s Expo being squeezed into the Ramada Hotel (with overspill at the nearby Mercure) it was hard to swing a cat, let alone get half-a-dozen artists to sketch in one room. Mike also ensured that our most generous supporters could get into the Expo, even after tickets were officially sold out. As always whenever I saw Mike over the weekend he was a picture of relaxed calm amongst the chaos, and went above and beyond to help things run smoothly.

DTWT doesn’t really work without Andrew Wildman at the centre of things though – even though he’d say he’s not the most important part! As always Andrew pulled strings, stroked egos and generally hustled to get a great group of artists to sit and sketch. He’s a diamond geezer, as anyone will attest to, and of course he sketched more than a few things on the day too.

Mat and I? We just turned up, really. So let’s kick back with the traditional, chronological, rambling retelling….
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UK Games Expo 2008… in one post

Yes, so this is three months late. It’s been written in fits and starts. When (if) you get to the end, you might understand a little about the delay. Enjoy.

Let’s start with a quick recap of…

Friday 30th May

Just two weeks after our last VanQuest we were off again, feeling a distinct sense of déja vu as we assembled at the car hire place, packed the van and ended up at Oxford Services for lunch. I find it slightly worrying that I’ve considered – twice – getting a ‘Frequent Customer’ card at the coffee place there.

A series of unexplained slowdowns on the M25 delayed us a bit, but apart from that we made good time, pulling into the Clarendon Suites’ car park before 5pm. Then it was a quick and easy unload, followed by a stress-free setup, the only slight kink being that we had to ‘haXX0r’ the wifi password for the venue.

The fact that we could hack it sort of speaks volumes… Read the rest of this entry »

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Win a Neil Edwards-painted PC!

First it was Andrew Wildman’s pen caressing the curves (er… okay, flat panels) of a custom-built City of Heroes styled PC.

Now it’s Neil Edwards’ turn, who picked up his paint brushes to create a one of a kind PC case featuring Statesman and Ghost Widow.

Where can you win it? In The Sun, of course – that super soaraway superpowered paper of record.

Click here to go enter the competition and win!!

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Saturday evening with my feet up

Ye Gods, you have no idea how good it feels to be in a prone position with my feet up. Aaannd… relax.

Busy – and then quiet – first day at the show. As a result, looked like a blockbuster of a day first of all, then settled down so that it ended up in the ‘decent’ category. Still, if the same happens tomorrow I’ll be happy with the weekend as a whole.

Draw the World Together went really well it seemed; Karl Kopinski took to the process like a duck to water. Neil and Andrew both of course did great stuff too. Karl did a knockout sketch of Callista that I’ll share soon enough. Suffice to say it contains three figures… but simply looks amazing. We were all green with envy.

Right, now it’s time to get off to the curry house with artists and a few players in tow. (I can tell all the ‘regulars’ are here because my hits today are so low!!) I’ll leave you with me and a box of money.

DTWT cash

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Comic Expo… last part

The last day of Comic Expo started easily enough: out of bed, down to breakfast, back to the room, pick up everything I need to, realise I can’t possibly carry all of it while also wheeling my luggage out… okay, maybe not so easy.

With Mat’s help I got everything downstairs, checked out, jumped in the van, and nipped over to the Commonwealth Hall to park for the day. We were inside in good time, and cleaned up the stand of the usual detritus, ready to face Sunday shoppers.

Artists and colourists - ready for action!

As well as the dynamite team of Neil, Mike, Jason and Kat we also had Andrew Wildman joining us, so we knew it was going to be a productive day. All we needed now was people. Read the rest of this entry »

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