Link: http://www.fantasyevents.org/bristolcomicexpo/

Although Cardiff is my hometown and we now have our very own comic convention, I have to admit that a substantial part of my heart will always belong to Bristol International Comic Expo. It was the first 'proper' comic convention I ever went to (only crappy comic book markets before Bristol), where The Sidekickcast did our first interview with creators and hosted our first ever panel, not to mention all the friends we've made whilst there. This year we're probably only going to be able to make it for the Saturday (14th May) so I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of the things we'll be going to see, what we think looks good and where you can find us during the day...that one is pretty easy actually, we'll be at the bar.

Follow up:

First up will be the 2000AD panel called High NOON for 2000AD! funnily enough at 12:00 at in the Ramada hotel, Sean Phillips (Devlin Waugh, Criminal), John Higgins (Judge Dredd, Razorjack), Patrick Goddard (Savage), Gordon Rennie (Judge Dredd, Caballistics) and Rob Williams (Cla$$war, Low Life) will all be in attendance so you know it's going to be a pretty raucous and informative affair...can something be both raucous and informative, I guess we'll find out.

Next up, and you'll have to run really fast or use your personal teleportation device like I'll be doing as it starts at 1pm in the Mercure hotel, is the 'What's The Point in Small Press Superheroes?' panel hosted by everybody's favourite Northern lass, Small Press, Big Mouth's one and only Stacey Whittle. Representing on the panel will be Paul Grist (The Weird World of Jack Staff), Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle), Matthew Craig (Trixie Biker) and Daniel Clifford (Sugar Glider).

Of course this is a comic book convention and what's a comic book convention without picking up a few choice books? One of my personal choices for Bristol will be the visceral Slaughterman's Creed from Cy Dethan and Stephen Downey, I reviewed the book a while ago and absolutely loved it. Now you can pick up the full collection from Markosia, my copy is already ordered and paid for, I just need to pick it up but I'm sure you'll be able to wrestle a copy out of Cy's hands if you get there early.

My second choice was actually my 619 best comic of last year, David Hine and Shaky Kane's Bulletproof Coffin. A fantastically imaginative and colourful satire on the comic industry and silver age comics, this Bristol Exclusive is well worth taking a look at.

The other thing Bristol has always been great for is artists and exclusive art. They have less of an artist's alley and more of an artist's winding road as the tables of artists are scattered throughout the lobby of the Ramada, spilling over into the small press part of the con over at the Mecure hotel. As well as your own personal commissions from some of the industry's best artists you can pick up some high quality exclusive prints like the Rogue Trooper/Dredd print from John McCrea & Keith Burns that we showcased eariler this week and the Watchmen 25th anniversary print from Dave Gibbons & John Higgins shown above.

The most important and fun place to be when attending Bristol Expo is always the Ramada bar once the con has finished for the day, everybody goes; fanboys, furries, cosplayers and even quite a few of the comic book pros. Mark Millar would make you pay for a VIP ticket for the chance to talk to your industry idols, at Bristol evryone is a VIP. If you see us around please say hi, I'll be in the silly hat and Dan will be the one looking lost, it's how we roll.