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Yes,it has been quiet over the weekend at CBO.  Reason?  Well,the Comic Expo and Manga Festival for one thing -and the searing Mediterranean heat of Bristol,heralded on Friday with a 4 hour thunder storm.

Anyhoo,rather than write over the weekend [which would have been hindered by all the re-uploading of software I had to do thanks to Virgin Media and their PC Guard],I thought,rather than a very long drawn out report,I would do a couple each day of the week to break things up.

Before I do begin I would like to get the negative aspects out of the way.

To quote the official site:

“Goodie Bags:
As is now traditional for Bristol 500 Goodie bags will be given away over the weekend. Sponsored by Forbidden Planet (London). Advance Ticket holders and the first attendees will be able to pick up a goodie bag. Contents will be announced shortly. “

While I was trying to find out who was where at the entrance,no fewer than 6 people asked about the goody bags but were told they were “reserved for those who had booked their tickets online”.  They were showing that their tickets were [in two cases] 365 and 367 but even when they quoted the “first 500″ they were told “sorry”. 

That left a rather negative atmosphere because not everyone has a computer and it does not say “who book tickets online”.  You declare these items are for the first 500 then that’s who should get them -get extra goody bags for those who reserve online if you have to.

Press Pass.  Got mine.  Asked if there was a press info pack and got a blank look.  Apparently not.

One thing that is evident as you approch the main entrance are the queues -this year going out in two directions and in previous years it has taken so long for people to get their tickets that they’ve missed the first talk or event. 

As Friday is a day only for Diamond Distributor customers and not open to the public,I wondered why,as many attendees get to Bristol on Friday -and some live in the City,on the Friday to ticket desk could not be opened while things are set up.  Reserved ticket -pick it up.  Buy a ticket so you don’t have to queue next day -it would sort out the ticket queues and even help sort out the goody bag question.

Why not?

However,at 4 a.m. on a sleepless Monday morning,I suddenly realised:I had not spotted or seen one obviously drunken guest.  And language at certain panels was toned down. 

Normally,each year I have noticed,as have others,that guests “over enjoy” their drinking making for rudeness and dull panels as well as lots of bad language.

Whether or not anyone else noticed I do not know but it was evident that this year there were -or seemed to be- more family groups moving around the Expo and making it a family day out.  This is something that even the much more travelled guests mentioned;the Expo is excelling at making itself a family event.  What I must admit to really finding interesting were the comments from creators such as Yishan Li that they would always have time for and try to get to the Bristol event.

A few people I spoke to had attended the first two Bristol events and this year was a big surprise for them.  I even caught a couple of teachers looking for material for their classes to get interest going.

So,despite the odd negative aspect there was a major -major- difference in the atmosphere this year.  From Olivier Cadic and Cinebook,the Classical Comics team [who still,incidentally,owe me..three coffees -I’ll add a fourth as an interest charge,thank you,Karen] to even some of the usually,uh,”grumpy” traders there was such a buzz that you could almost physically touch it [the Buzz that is].

I think that the International Comic Expo and Manga Festival has found its niche and come of age,thanks to Mike and all those other behind-the-scenes folk.

A big THANK YOU to them and to all who made this year’s Expo the best so far. 

Can it be topped? 

I just cannot wait to see!