Hi everyone!

Following my last post you may have briefly read something about me saying that I went to Nottingham Comic Con during the weekend to sell my own comic - well, in true fashion of my days out I have decided to write a blog post about the day along with a few things that I spent my money on.

​(This isn't my normal post to write about, but it was very enjoyable to go to - oh and for fans of the comic book world welcome!)

​(Update: unfortunately my SD card which I used to take pictures of the day has decided to finally give up on me after about 4 years of use. Luckily all pictures before the event are on my computer - phew!)

Starting off a Saturday morning by getting a 7 o'clock train is not my idea of fun. As it's winter now, the mornings are darker and daylight is cut shorter - so effectively I left home in the dark and arrived back in the dark, I HATE it! After hopping on a train really wishing I was in bed - I arrived at Cambridge at met the "elite selling crew" for the day. Oh, and we had to hop on another 2 trains to finally get to our destination (WHY is reserved seating a thing on trains?!)

So what actually were we selling?! 

Our task for the term was for everyone in the class to produce their own comic books - this meant there were an array of drawing styles (some simple, some highly detailed - which did put me to shame!) a number of different stories were created and 6 of us from our class had to try and sell around 100 comics all of different genres...yikes. This meant reading my classmates stories so we knew what we were selling before we set up our stall.

It's hard to explain how we set up our stall without any images - but we were definitely in the shadow of some amazing comic artists who had actually spent years on their own product. That, in my opinion, is commitment. I was already done with drawing and producing my comic after drawing the first page and it was only 8 pages long, so I give major props to all the comic book artists out there, because even the simplest of drawings took some doing *yawn*.

And here was what I produced! I teamed up with my friend Samuel and we created a anthology of two comics under the slice of life theme and we named it simply: 'Another Day'. The first comic is mine (ladies first, thank you Samuel) and I named it Blushed, ironic when nothing in the comic links with blusher but it was a working title and I just stuck to it due to the time crunch when this was due. The main character Ola Lay is based off myself when I had braces and had to wear glasses (when contact lenses weren't in my life) and she doesn't look just like everyone at her school. I did a whole description in my last blog post so I'll link that here. I wanted to create a comic to get across the message that the stress that beauty brings on girls of our generation and that we really shouldn't have to worry so much about what we look like.

After my comic is Samuel's one called "Employee of the Day." His comic features Wilson - a supermarket worker who's sick of his job and just wants to help others. After finishing work, he stumbles across a girl being mugged in a alleyway by a mysterious man. Wilson's secret power of super strength comes in handy and falls for the girl he's just save. But is she really what she cracks up to be? (Can't spoil the ending for you!)

We sold ours at £2 each comic then to £1.50 - and surprisingly, we sold the most on the day! Our drawing skills combined aren't the greatest (we both admitted to this) so we weren't expecting to sell many at all. I am still so chuffed that we actually managed to sell, and even to sell 3/4 of our products was such a great feeling!

I'm not a comic fan or part of any major fandoms, so going to this convention I did feel like a fish out of water. However, I did find the best stall ever! Hand made frames with little lego figurines in front of their movie/show. Finding this Disney princess one was too tempting not to buy (they even had a Frozen one too!) It reminded me of my old room and I have found the perfect spot for it to remind me of what my room was when I was growing up. If you'd like to see any more of these creations the link is: https://www.facebook.com/lminiversesfigures/?fref=ts or you can find them under @mini_verses on Twitter or Instagram.

The first comic book I brought at the convention was another self published comic called "Paradox Girl". This comic caught my eye when I was having a mooch around looking at things - I think having a female protagonist really did catch my eye. It's a comic about a woman who has the power to travel time and change her past - however, she's done it so often she can't remember much of her past or how on earth she got the powers. I've only had a brief look at this comic, but stories like this really interest me - so I'm sure it'll be an exciting read! They've only been able to produce the first issue - however, they've got a Kickstarter which will make it possible for the next issue to go live. Go onto paradoxgirl.com to either buy this comic or back their Kickstarter!

And the final thing I brought was this comic called "Almost Eden" another self published comic. It's based off their creators being happily married and starting their life together - the soppy storyline that I really enjoy to read (probably based on my old book reviews you could probably guess that!) However, this is all occurring during the zombie apocalypse and they're the only two on the earth to witness it all. Besides all the drama happening around them, they're completely oblivious to all of it and are just focused on their lives together - very sweet and comical in some ways! Each page is a short story - which was confusing at first when the stories didn't match very well. I really enjoyed this comic and I wish I'd brought more whilst I was there! Unfortunately I'm unable to find a link to where you could buy this or find out from them - which is incredibly annoying as I want more! If you have any luck please let me know too!

And there was my day summed up in a post for you to read! It was a different world going to this convention as I really had no idea what to expect. It has opened my eyes and maybe in the future I will take an interest in comic books, but for now I think I'll stick to books and magazines.

​See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

Oh yes, once again I have disappeared from the blogging universe for a month and haven't been filling anyone in with what is actually happening to this website. Once again this could end up being a lengthy post, so I recommend getting in a comfy reading position on your phone/laptop as we could be here for a while (depending on how speedy your reading is!)

As some as you may know - I have officially started my second year of college and to be quite frank I'm feeling...scared. I'm one of those nostalgic people who think A LOT about things that have happened in the past and is incredibly scared of the future. So being in my final year of something that I have really loved doing for the course of 2 years is sad (with a hint of scariness added into it - well I guess it is Halloween soon so thats probably why...getting off track...) Because this 2nd year will be my final that means a few milestones in my life: driving (haha probably not) turning 18 (yikes) and starting university (kind of.) It has all come round way too quick, I say this to everyone I know when they ask me about the future - I feel like I should be 8 again, not turning 18 within a few months and I am truly and utterly scared of what is to happen next! But - along with the scariness there is a kick of excitement to it all - not knowing whats around the corner produces a weird lot of emotions.

Okay enough blabbering about all that emotional stuff, the reason behind the lack of posts (which does link with above) is due to the college work being a lot harder this time round. Last year I feel like I just dilly dallied around and produced semi average products - where as this year I cannot afford to forget about work (probably due to the fact that I have the same teacher all day every day and he knows EVERYTHING.) So with the work load given - I don't have the time that I'd like to create posts (oh here's the same old excuse) BUT I am going to push myself to actually get stuff on here because in all honesty, I really am missing it. I've missed so much of this blog - Weebly user's will know that the layout has COMPLETELY changed on here so I must've been gone a while!

Right off of all that - you're probably thinking "if there was so much work - what have you actually been doing?" 

Our first unit of the year (which is apparently going to be the 'easiest' unit of our course) was to write, draw, produce and sell your own comic book! Exciting for some but not so much me (the person who cannot draw, hates drawing at a large scale and had 20 different high detailed storylines with a lot of panels - something which had to sacrifice for the short time we had! We had 12 weeks or so to create our own story to sell at Nottingham Comic Con on Saturday 24th November (there will be a separate post on all that I'm sure!)

So what was the story? I thought I would base it off my post brace face and spec-less self, about people commenting on my looks on something that I really couldn't help, but it had to link with me so a bit of make up and hair product was added into it!

Our main character Ola Lay (see if you get that one) doesn't have time in the mornings to get ready - so she doesn't always look out standing for school like most of the people at the school too. After dealing with long time bully Patricia - who begins to start on another girl called Laura Elle (pun) Ola needs to help Laura but she knows she won't be able to get the message across without a little bit of magic make up help...but will she find it in time? Ola Lay and  her best friend May Berlin (it stops now) to help change the stress on physical beauty for young girls' life.

Deep right?

Anyways - I think I'm done ranting, wasn't too long right? I should be back into the swing of things starting now, just bare with me for a while please! Thank you all so much for being patient and for reading this and as always

See you in the next blog post,