After enjoying the intimate show last year I felt I had to attend again this year. Not only was the experience as an exhibitor great there was lots of extremely friendly people coming through the doors.
This year was very much the same, but on a larger scale, without loosing any of that charm the first

year had.

My adventure started on Thursday night, Rock Band night to celebrate our little roadtrip, many drinks later we ended up watching Rocky Horror Picture Show (my current musical of choice on my iPhone).
Cut to 10am, I’m still in bed after a few hours sleep, with plans to go around 12 in a car to Leeds.

With some hasty packing of clothes (I packed up the merch before Rock Band to be safe) I was ready to roll. 5 bodies and two stalls worth of merch filled my friend Jake’s little Fiesta to the brim. Our trip started off great, myself, stall monkey Ali and Clare of Bogus Baby playing Mario Kart of our DS’s.

After another hour and a stop off we got stuck in some hefty traffic. Meaning we arrived in Leeds after the coachbound Phil and Marc.

After finally booking in to our hotel I found out Lizz Lunney and Adam ‘Hotwell’ Cadwell were staying in our hotel. Joined by Marc and his lovely lady Anna we all met in the hotel. We were soon joined by Adam and also some people who knew Marc, Matt Sheret, Julia Scheele and Sarah Gordon (all who I got to meet in more detail later on).

Once I’d be spotted as being a webcomicer for my Questionable Content hoodie we wandered into the city centre. Clare and the car crew wandered off to find alcohol whilst i chose to stick with Phil, Marc etc to find some foods. A 10 person table was what we were after, Bella Pasta wasn’t able to cope, the noodle place Phil suggested was repossessed, so we settled for Nandos. I’ve enjoyed Nandos before but Marc Ellerby seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for it. We were then joined by the ever lovely Liz Greenfield and her bearded man.

Our starters never arrived, Marc, Anna and I all sat feeling really rather annoyed and then the mains arrived, genius! Once over the poorly served and cooked food (Marcs veggie delight was like charcoal) we moved to find a drinking place. Much like with the food we struggled to make any form of decision, ending up in the Marrotts hotel in the very posh looking bar. Moments later I could barely stand from stomach pains! Nandos had disagreed with me, so after many rushing trips to the very swanky loos I had to head to the hotel. My evening was cut short. Eventually after more time in the loo I got to sleep about 1am.

I woke up feeling human and oddly not hungover (thats usually my way to start a convention off) instead I had a huge breakfast of toast, croissants and cereal, setting myself up nicely for the day. I arrived to find Claude already at the table waiting. With a quick set-up we had one table full of treats ready.

The day went nicely, a steady flow of people taking flyers when I offered them (something that seemed to draw them in to look at the stall). Marc’s ladyfriend Anna also made me a cake!

5pm quickly arrived so we packed up and headed off to the hotel to freshen up. Just as we arrived back at the hotel my stomach decided to give me hell again, but i prevailed this time. Just myself, Phil, Clare and Ali headed to Wetherspoons for a beer and burger combo (cheap as chips… and a burger…). Then we headed to the aftershow party…

My first time in a Casino was amazing, I avoided the gambling completely but the private suite that had been rented was amazing, a dancehall, bar and cinema full of small press and indie comics folks!

After muchos drinking and dancing (including one time I danced alone on the stage, showing off my dad-like moves, woo!) we headed back to the hotel with Julia, Sarah, Matt and Adam in toe for a little  chill out hangout in our room. By about 4-5 we finally all went our separate ways.

Thanks to everyone that bought Dave 2 on the day, it was a great success for me. I’d like to thank all the organisers for such a lovely convention, without their attention to detail I’m sure i’d have not enjoyed it so much.

A big thanks for Jake for driving us all there, Lewis and Ali for selling stuff whilst I was away from the stall. If I’ve missed anyone off I’m sorry