Tomorrow is the last day for LUC at Camden Market. Whatever happens after this, i would like to thank Oli for getting me involved. I have had such a great time, and met so many good people.

Cheers mate

Sean A

The Camden stall set up for business at The Bristol expo. It was a hot sexy success. The table sold loads of comics, easily covering the cost. New friends were made, old friends were welcomed, people were interviewed, and in the sunny summer sun we drank and chatted and planned the future.



It felt so good, and if you were there, you will understand





* A big thank you to everyone who dropped by the table, and gave positive vibes towards this adventure.

London Underground Comics announces: No Barcodes 31st May 2008
As part of London Underground Comic’s campaign of bringing comics back to the underground by making small press cheap, cheerful and accessible, we are proud to announce our first mini-con: No Barcodes, the first of two events planned over the summer.

An indoor area of Camden Lock Market has been set aside for us and we plan to fill it with at least six or seven stalls. The whole event will work exactly as the stall does with groups of people on different tables splitting the £30 rent between them equally- the rest is theirs. The whole event will cost no more than £7 per person exhibiting, and the more people come the cheaper it will be.

We are looking for groups of people to man essentially themed tables, for example a web comics table, a caption table for oxford creators and, say, an autobiography table etc. Each table will be given a sketchbook at the beginning of the day to hopefully fill and at closing time each table’s book will be auctioned off to help pay for LUC’s expenses in printing banners, posters, fliers etc. any profit will be put towards the next mini-con.

Depending on how many creators wish to exhibit we also plan to put aside a separate table for visitors to sketch, as well as a rotating ‘featured artist’ who can charge for portraits.

The hall is situated in the heart of Camden amongst an indoor and outdoor market with a steady flow of tourists passing through. I’m sure I don’t need to state that entry to No Barcodes will be free. This means that not only will there be plenty of room in the outdoor seating area to catch up with fellow creators, but we will also be selling to the comics-virgin tourists of Camden who will be wondering what the event is all about. I’m not even going to touch on the quantities of food and alcohol outlets around the area, most providing discounts for stall-mannees.

Also, if you are lucky, once the market closes at six, we should have an entire pub laid on near Mornington Crescent tube station to host the after-con drinks.

LUC needs you:
We want small press creators of any sort to get in touch with us via the facebook group or by emailing camdencomics@hotmail.co.uk telling us that they wish to take part.
Bring your comics, a tablecloth and any kind of merchandise or posters you wish. LUC has some banners and posters but we want to display your work.
The market opens at ten so if you could arrive in the area before then to set up we would appreciate it.
The point of the event is an excuse to bring comic creators from around the country together to socialise and sell comics to an unsaturated market without huge expense. So most of all, we want you to have a good time and bring your mates!

Confirmed exhibitors so far…

Camden, grey cold, raining, thin crowds. A film crew, a rock chick, new work revealed, a comics’ jam scuppered. A visit to the pub, a happy journey home.

On the stall this week Sean, Oli, Luke,Dan,Francessca, Phil, and flying visit from Karrie. The grey sky and freezing conditions continue to embrace the hardy souls who populate the table. Dan and Andy seem to be involved in some sort of competition to see how many comics they can publish each week. Both had two new issues available this week. Andy in particular seems to have turned his skills into being a self contained industry, writer, artist, publisher, reviewer, columnist and committee member. A very busy man. Also new on the table was Ed 4 by Sean. A busy late afternoon saw a flurry of selling, and the general consensus was that it was a good day. Everyone trudged back to Oli central, where a surprise visit by Alex Fitch completed another hectic day in Camden.

People today Oli, Oliver, Mike, Daniel, Dan, Sean, Phil, David. President Oli makes his campaign speech video, while everone is busy selling, and trying hard to ignore this activity. Pity Mike who had to film this event.. It was a slow day, not helped by the seasonal February weather. There seemed to be a grey atmosphere to Camden, perfectly summed up by the burned and partially demolished buildings the remains of the Camden blaze.
The stall has been a resounding success so far, but it was generally agreed that this was not the best day. Also some warm weather would be welcome. Still, there was plenty of time to look at what the creative folk were engaged in as there current projects. Oliver drawing pages for TFTF 7, Block, written by Oli and murder mystery by Dan Lester. He was also celebrating his birthday, and contemplating the sugar rush ahead from the fine cake, handed to him By writer buddy Laurence.




Dan seemed to have completed another comic during the day, and also mentioned that his 24 hour comic project may become weekly. David Baillie was keeping his cards close to his chest about a secret project. Come on David, spill the beans. Anyway moving swiftly on, Oli was showing the pages of his next project, a sci-fi epic.
All of this shows that the artist and writers on the stall are working hard to bring a fresh and dynamic works to entertain the public . Once again determined to bring self published comics to a wider non comic reading audience.

It’s f*****g history!

This weekend saw the bold experiment off two tables back to back There was a healthy turnout of creators; Francesca, Oli, Oliver, Sean, Phil, Andy, Alex, Mitch and Jake. Fantastic sunny weather saw a good turn out of punters. Excellent work was produced in artists corner.

I’m Oli Smith…

Coats were discarded and a forest of pale nerd arms became exposed to the light. Phil resplendent in a red tie, with matching hipster belt was in lounge lizard mode whilst Oliver bleary eyed, stumbled through the morning, recovering from a night of Halo.Sales were good, easily covering the extra expense of a second table, new chair, and extra display stands.The addition of new people on the table changed the dynamic, in a positive way. All were agreed that it was very good day. The end saw a visit to the Oli pad for drinks, Halo and chitchat.

Fran and Oliver.

Just as it was breaking up, Oli received a call that Camden market was ablaze. Worried that the indoor market had been brought to it’s knees by Raveman’s decks generating too much heavy rotation rave heat, we quickly saddled up and waded through the crowds to witness the event. It was a hell of a blaze that was threatning the overheard rail line and also the Hawley arms. I can already see the charity gig being staged on the Hawley ashes, with such Camden has-beens Pete, Lily and Amy parachuted in too revive their bank balance with a lame gig.

Sean and Oli start the day bright and early, admiring the table with it’s nice blue tablecloth. Attending this weekends session was Phil, Dan, Oliver and a breezy hello from Karrie. Trade was brisk, many coffees were consumed. Sean and Phil while on coffee duty, took a well deserved break outside, soaking up some winter sunshine. During a deep discussion about Scott Pilgrim, they both stared in bemused disgust at a tramp fishing his dinner out of the bin opposite their table. As he put his hand in the bin for seconds, he screamed and hastily withdrew his hand with a hungry rat attached to it. Returning to the main arena, Oli’s attempts to film some sort of pop video was being resisted and embraced in equal mesaure. Oliver and Dan were drawing like, well, machines of creativity. Alex Fitch dropped by and geeked out with Oli. Sean rediscovered his mid-life crisis and everyone else got on with the business of selling. And so, another weekend drifted to a quite end. The journey to Oli’s flat took us past that dynamo of energy, Rave-man, the take away encrusted pavements of Chalk Farm Road, and the shopping crowd metamorphosing into the pub crowd.

Round at Oli’s flat, Sean, Dan and Oliver marveled at Oli’s steaming underwear, his video camera skills, and ability to verbally dump all over the web comics community.

This is going to be a very interesting year for self published comics. 

Phil, Oliver, Dan and Oli.

This weekend, Oli, Phil, Sean and Oliver. Sean was pimping his book Twelve Hour Shift, which was  hot off the press. The day was fairy quiet for punters, but a combination of things made Oli pronounce it was  good day for sales.Works in progress were shown by Phil and Oliver , Oli demonstrated his new chunky marker ’street’ style. Watch out Banksy! Flush with cash from a few sales, Sean treated himself to a massage, or maybe he needed to escape the small crowd of fans that had begun to gather round the table. The evening was rounded off with a visit to Oli central, for a few drinks, and more plotting the journey to the heart of the comics motherload. 

 

 Phil and Oli.