Well we had a brilliant innings at ELCAF on...

Well we had a brilliant innings at ELCAF on Sunday. We arrived, yawning, at 9am, ready to set up. There was already a huge gang of people eagerly waiting to get in, which was heartening! Once we were priced up they let the masses in, and we kicked off in style with our postcard competition. (More on that over the coming days.) It wasn’t long before a few friends dropped by, starting off with S. J. Harris. We chatted internet and the dictionary.com word of the day (‘agnate’, in case you were wondering), before he went off to peruse other tables.

Then came Hannah Berry, who popped round the back of our table to sign some books. The fun thing about getting your book signed by a graphic novelist is the fact that you get a special drawing just for you, as well as a signature! After that, along came Joff Winterhart (whose graphic novel is just about to published). If people were jam doughnuts and fun was actually jam, Joff would be the best jam doughnut out there. Boy, is he a hoot! He pulled in plenty of folk for our postcard competition, and made a good prop for us to flaunt our upcoming Graphic Short Story Prize 2012. (More on that soon, too.)

Moving through the throng, we spotted Paul Gravett, who was wearing an amazing blazer which featured a pattern of unidentifiable birds. (We decided they were grebes.) We chatted to him for a while - what a guy. He sure knows his comics. (The jam tart made some interesting comments too, about how many superheroes are tragic characters, and can be foiled by their nemesis… sorry.) Simone Lia then emerged after her talk and did a good job of bothering Tom Gauld while he was signing books for Gosh, who were at the table next to us. Tom and Simone soon went off for a drink, leaving Hannah and Joff getting up to all sorts of mischief. We too were busy selling books and dishing out jam tarts to keep them in check.

And after her own talk, Karrie Fransman came by to say hi, brightening up the stall with her fancy top. It must have put the weather in a summery mood as it brought the sun out, which was nice! Good on yer, gal. As it was quietening down, we popped over to Isabel Greenberg’s stall (who had been opposite us all day) and pored over her wonderful creations. We had said hi already but she was all on her own and had to stick to her stall quite a bit. Sterling effort! Most exhibitors were in pairs, at least, and there she is trooping it alone.

After all that, we had a beer and went home, KNACKERED. But what a great way to spend a Sunday. Here’s to ELCAF 2012, and hopefully ELCAF 2013!