"Change of Name and Scene..."

By Tony Lee

So, how did you enjoy the last column? Did you like it? Yes? Excellent. Let me know if you did. Apparently we have a forum too! How exciting!

Some people will notice, however – that we’ve changed our name. Yes, we are no longer the column known as IT’S ONLY A COMIC – We are TWO DRUNK GUYS IN A BAR.

Why? Well, it’s quite simple. I started IT’S ONLY A COMIC at a different Silver Bullet Comics a while back, and while it was fine for Comics International, it feels odd using it again. And, in a way it’s a bit insulting to W.Alan Davis, the guy who owns the other site.

Also – with Dan involved – it’s a different column anyway. So, to blow a fresh start, to begin with the new – A new name. A new image. A new start.

Right. So last week was the San Diego Dash, where the convention rate hotels for the San Diego Comic Con all go live at the same point, and thousands of fans and creators melt the phonelines and the internet in a bid to book some cheap rate rooms.

And this year? It was a bloodbath. San Diego have several convention type things happening at the same time – which meant that old favourites the Hyatt and the Marriott were pretty much out of reach and sold out, and the Omni becoming booked up within minutes.

Actually that's not true – they were sold out at CONVENTION PRICE. So you couldn't get a room for $180 a night? No worries, call them direct! They'll sort you a nice double for $450 a night! I actually know several creators who, unable to get anywhere with the phonelines constantly engaged and the website crashing actually went direct and sorted out rooms at the Hyatt for that price, relying on four or five people to come sleep on the floor to at least bring it down to $100 a night each. Me? I'd never had to worry before, as I had stayed in the uber-cheap J Street Inn, across the road and $300 for the week for a single room. But they've gone residential now, and so this year I bunked in with the Digital Webbing Alumni of Sean Dulaney, Barry Buchannan and Chris Kirby to get a suite in, well, the Embassy Suites. The clue should have been in the name, kids.

So Sean, as rush chairman valiantly attacked the website and phone and discovered –

That the Embassy Suites was booked out on Sunday. Which of course meant that full week bookings weren’t working.

Oh dear. This put a crimp in our plans. In the end, we managed to get a room at the Raddison hotel, thirteen blocks away – and with our fingers crossed that someone at the Embassy Suites cancels.

But we're not the worse – I hear of people resorting to hotels miles away, of train rides to the con rather than cab rides – and I'm stunned at the confusion. Hell, we had a Padres game there last year – and STILL had the hotels sorted. What happened this time? Are block booking publishers and games companies to blame? Or, is it what I personally believe – that, four people want a room together? All four email and phone, get four rooms, pick the best and cancel the rest. Which of course means that a couple of months down the line some rooms will open up. But that’s for the stout of heart poker players who can hold until the very last moment.

Still, one thing is for certain – I will be attending. I have a space on a hotel floor, a sleeping bag and an airbed. I am golden.

This year however, I don't really have a booth to go play at, as Markosia are unlikely to be boothing this year after the hideous San Diego booth cock up of 2006 that put Markosia from in the midst of the big boys to pretty much the children's end of the table, and almost left them with no booth, regardless of the fact that they had paid for it almost a year earlier. So I get to walk about, hang out at friends’ booths and for once actually see some of San Diego. This scares me slightly. San Diego? During the day? Hell, last year the only times I was out of the con centre in daylight was when I went to utilise the free wifi at Horton Plaza to update my blog and check my emails! And possibly a trip to the Old Town that will never be mentioned again! I was like the San Diego Vampire – as were many of the convention’s guests and exhibitors.

But even though we still have the New York convention this coming weekend, and the Bristol UK Expo in May, San Diego still holds a place in my heart. Perhaps it's because I get to see so many friends from across the pond, people I only see once a year. Perhaps it's because I get to speak to every publisher I need to in one bite sized convention hall. Perhaps it's because with the bloody size, I get a convention – and a cardiovascular work out at the same time. Maybe it's because of the evenings in the Hyatt, the meals in the gaslamp, the entire social scene of the convention. Or maybe it's because on my first time there, I was picked up by a Swedish millionairess. Who knows.

This year's SDCC should be fun, though. I have new publishers to speak to, new editors to work with, and I'm adding a condition to people who want to pitch to me in my new position of Markosia Group Editor – One drink minimum. That should save me a lot of money. I intend to set up shop in an armchair in Redfields, one of the Hyatt bars – and if, by the time it's done I can still get up? I'm not doing my job right.

But before then of course is New York, which I'm not going to this year and Bristol, which I am, with my erstwhile sidekick Dan Boultwood. As ever, we shall be sharing hotel rooms, hookers and bodily fluids, and intend once more to do our best to be blind by Sunday morning. Feel free to join us. Come early if you expect coherent sentences.

Bristol will be interesting for several reasons. Firstly, I have some amazing panels I've been asked to be on – including the ever popular Sunday morning panel with Dave Hine, something that's become something of a talisman – the year that me and Dave don't do the Sunday Morning panel, the world will end or something like that. I'll also be doing something to do with Blakes 7, I'm hosting a Markosia panel and also the MAAAMMM-TOORRRR Saturday Morning one. I'll also be at the Markosia booth where, printers willing I'll be signing copies of Starship Troopers book 2 and Midnight Kiss.

Yes, children – you heard that right. Midnight Kiss has finally been re-solicited as a trade this month, and it will be in the shops in June. And hopefully it'll be at Bristol. Including the Michael Moorcock introduction.

By then we'll also have news on a collected The Gloom trade as well. Expect something in the stores around October…

So – a few words of wisdom from Dan Boultwood this week, as he’s up to his neck in art for the above book, designs for Dashing Tales and fixing the Lord Winchester, his stupidly old car that goes a maximum of twenty miles an hour and has flags instead of indicators…