Much of my weekend was spent in Bristol at the Comics Expo. I was delighted to be asked to be on two panels, the first of which was on Saturday and was about the latest developments at DC and Vertigo.

This is the first time I have been on a panel at a comics convention, and I gather from talking to Paul Cornell that such things, especially when about a major comics company, tend to be very corporate. Well, we didn’t have any official DC presence at the event. Also we were doing Panel Parity, and neither I nor new friend Stacey Whittle have contracts with DC. So we did something else instead.

On the panel with me were Paul, Stacey, Mark Buckingham (the lead artist on Fables) and Ian Churchill, a British artist who had some fabulous sketches with him from a new DC book, The Ravagers. (You can see more of Ian’s work here). Discussion ranged far and wide. We talked about the New 52 re-boot, about the various feminist controversies (including the bat-bonking and the boob window), and although the boys had to mutter “Non-Disclosure Agreement” occasionally it all went very well.

Along the way Mark and Ian got into some fascinating discussions about art techniques. I was rather surprised that my question about the implications of double-page spreads for an audience reading on iPads caught them both on the hop, but Mark responded with some interesting suggestions as to how comic art might change in a paperless world.

The audience seemed very happy. We got them involved and I was interested to see that they were in favour, by quite a large majority, of the New 52. Those who were unhappy were mainly mourning the loss of well-loved characters. Paul and I were delighted with how many people came up to us afterwards and said how much they’d enjoyed the panel.

Paul, of course, talked about Saucer Country, which inevitably led to discussion of anal probes. I gather that Paul hasn’t yet had a visit from the Men in Black, though as Stacey pointed out he wouldn’t remember it if he had.

Ian, of course, talked a bit about The Ravagers. I am deeply disappointed that DC didn’t go for his butterfly-winged version of Beast Boy. I’ll check the book out when it launches as I really love his art. (And while I’m on the subject, thanks to Tansy for recommending Earth 2, because Nicola Scott’s art is fabulous too.)

I also got Mark to talk a bit about the new fables spin-off, Fairest. Ostensibly this features all of the famously beautiful characters from the series, and from the Adam Hughes cover below you could be forgiven for thinking that this was just an excuse for “good girl art” (a comic-world technical term that means “big boobies”). However, the first couple of issues mainly feature Ali Baba (who is rather cute) and a imp called Jonah who is very clearly a geek kid and therefore amusing and annoying in equal quantities.

What’s more, the whole point of Fairest is to provide a vehicle through which other writers can explore the Fables universe. One of the first people to do so will be Lauren Beukes. Oh dear, people are going to die horribly, aren’t they…

Footnote: Paul introduced me to Stacey. She said, “You are a science fiction person? You must know James Bacon then.” There may have been giggling.