Broken Frontier

It's day two at the Long Beach Comic Con for hot British publishers Com.x, the guys responsible for such acclaimed collections and OGNs as Cla$$war, Razorjack and Path. Com.x Publisher Eddie Deighton rejoins Broken Frontier today to tell us more about what he, Com.x co-publisher Ben Shahrabani, Com.x marketing director Jon Sloan and upcoming OGN '45' writer Andi Ewington have been up to at the Con, including *that* movie announcement...

Read Part One

October 2, Day 2

Our first West Coast panel ;-)

Judgement Day. All of us wake up early and head off for the convention centre, feeling optimistic about the show. The feeling changes somewhat from Andi's perspective when we're directed up to the second floor where the panels are to be hosted later that day; ours is one of the first of the show and the room we have been designated is huge and extremely intimidating. Andi looks like he's about to soil his underwear, so we make a quick exit downstairs to check out our booth space. We'll calm him down later, whether it be with a sedative or three pints of Guinness.

Yep, this one's a little daunting.

As mentioned yesterday, the show space was pretty much complete so, for us, it's just a case of tying up loose ends like chasing up our Blu-Ray presentation discs, our Long Beach ashcan and prepping our panel speech. Once we've taken stock of what's required, we head off for breakfast. Bear in mind we're still jetlagged, so it's only 9am in the morning, so we're feeling pretty good about ourselves. We spend breakfast working out our panel presentation. Andi begins to feel a little easier when he realises that we're all down for about 10 minutes each, with me covering the introduction and interjections amongst the rest of the crew.

At this point in the report, I'm really not quite sure where the time went. All I can remember is a flurry of activity after we discover that our discs and print have not turned up yet. Many phone calls later and we get to the bottom of the situation. As with most of these issues, it's a whole bunch of miscommunication and the assets are, in fact, either already delivered or on their way.

Convention centre at 2:30pm. The place is starting to buzz.

Crowd begin gathering for the opening ceremony. I'm walking around trying to get a signal on my cellphone.

2:45pm quickly arrives and we head on back over to the centre for a 3pm start for us vendors. We're taken by surprise when we walk through the main doors to find a huge crowd of people already in attendance for the opening ceremony, which is hosted by (The) Stan Lee. The place is a-buzzing and I suddenly remember why I love attending conventions in America; because they're just into it. We all think it would be a great idea to watch the opening ceremony, but our plans are marred by the fact that we can't get the newly acquired Blu-Ray disc to play. Whilst Jon, Andi and Ben attempt to get the disc playing on the system we have been supplied, I wander around the downstairs floor area, trying to get a reception on the cellphone to call the editing facility, whilst Stan cuts the ribbon and the crowds cheer.

The final room. Andi's bowels starting to calm down a little at this point.

3:30pm the convention staff come to find us for our 4pm panel. We head upstairs to find that the rooms have been changed around (above) and we're not in the Albert Hall-sized one anymore, but one we can handle a little more comfortably in terms of size. The attendees at the panel are a little thin on the ground but, hey, it's the first hour of the show, Stan Lee and Jim Lee are both in the throes of their respective appearances and there are comics and toys to be bought, so we understand these things. We still put on our fully-planned display; first showing all the new projects we have coming out in 2010 and then revealing all the artists on 45 and showing all the artwork. We finish on a special announcement we had planned, which was the appearance of Rick Alexander from Alexander Content, who informs everybody that Cla$$war has been tapped for development with Mandeville Entertainment.

Couple of general shots whilst walking around.

Our panel was pretty much timed perfectly and there was no over-run, so we finish up and head back down to the booth. The place was about a third full which, for a preview night is very impressive. We discovered that we were still having problems with the Blu-Ray player/disc and whittle it down to the player being pretty old. Andi's laptop makes do for the time being and we hook it up to the TV. Jon and myself decide that we're going to have to head out on a mercy mission tomorrow to find a PS3 slim to replace the player so that we can show the trailer properly. Ben's rubbing his hands with glee, as he knows the console won't play back in the UK and he's the only one of the team who lives in the US. Guess who gets to keep the PS3?

Booth? Check. Books? Check. Graphics? Check. Trailer? Erm....

Once we're back at the booth, we're pleasantly surprised that the traffic flow through our stand is regular and healthy. We were expecting the preview evening to be kind of quiet for us, what with the various artists and writers on hand doing sketches and signings, but it was going well; a few people buying Cla$$war and the ashcan (which looked mighty nice, by the way) and others that were bringing older titles for us to sign and just generally coming up to wish us well and wishing us all the best on our return. Thank you, guys.

We did manage to break away from the stand every now and then to check the floor out. Andi was gone for a particularly long time at one point. You'll see why in the photos below. I think Jim (Lee) could have kept artist's alley busy for the entire evening just on his own; the queue of fans waiting for his sketches almost reached back to where we were situated. I've included a few shots here so that you can get a vibe for the floor.

So that's where Andi was all that time. Rebel scum.

The end of Jim Lee's queue on Preview Night. You can just make out his sign at the end.

Jim, sketching at the table.

(Talking of Jim Lee - a little anecdote for you readers out there. A Korean guy walks up to Andi whilst we're waiting outside the room to our panel and asks him where Stan Lee is. Andi gestures to the upper end of the corridor where Stan is holding interviews. Guy thanks Andi and walks off. Turns out, as much as Andi is a huge fan of Jim's work, he can't recognise him in the flesh him when he's asking him directions...)

After the floor closes, we head off to a restaurant with Rick to discuss all things film-related and to generally shoot-the-breeze. Then, the rest of the team head off to party hard and I head back to the hotel to do my journalistic duty and keeping you up to date on the convention. I call it a day when my fingers start to fumble over the keyboard more than usual. See you tomorrow. Enjoy the photos.

To be continued...