Post by boomvavavoom on Oct 26, 2004 15:05:16 GMT 1
FACTS 2004
I opened my eyes early that morning. I looked at the clock and it read 5.30 hours and somehow I was really not only awakened but also awake.
That day I woulg go and visit FACTS and my friend Allan for the very first time.
Somehow the internet provided me with more then just zeros and ones and I was thrilled to go out and meet the real thing.
An extra benefit to my visiting FACTS was the fact that I could get in early and for free because I tried to help the organization in any way I cold in arranging some comicguests and I tried very hard to get Billy Tucci, Mark Texeira, Romano Molenaar, Brian Pulido and some other big names but unfortunately I was kinda late involved and some people where booked full. But RO would come and I made also some great promomaterial for him to distribute. Unfortunately RO cancelled two days before the convention started due to his huge workload but FACTS still would let me in to deliver the promomaterial.
Back to my waking up...
I already made my breakfast and for my wife and kids so I could leave in mere minutes after getting dressed and I opened the back door (because the front door might wake my kids) and looked up and there were a zillion stars...amazing...even the stars seemed to wish me the best!
I started driving from Vlodrop (in Limburg/Holland) to Roeselare using a map and somehow I arrived in Roeselare (250 km) with no worries. I only had a hard time looking for Allan's place because he said to turn left at the flags and well...they took down the flags
But fortunately a butcher was awake already and he pointed me the way and in a minute I entered Allan's home and it was great. He made a great home out of two small buildings and he has good taste...great kid also. His oldest is one month younger then my oldest and he is just sweet and shy and cute and he wants to know the time e-v-e-r-y two minutes and that is sooo funny!! Allan also has this amazing room just for his own with his computers and all his (mainly Bronze and Silver Age) spandex comics and he even had some spare comics for me to give to...real nice.
In the car to FACTS I told him I was so much looking forward to the convention and I was dying to get my picture taken with Catwoman...ummmm...he FORGOT his camera!!?? booohhooooo
O well...it grew into a great joke during the day and when indeed Catwoman showed up someone else took a picture of ME and HER....prrrrrrrr I am so gonna love that picture and I am gonna print it and stick it with my Catwoman-comics for sure!!
Anyway...we parked the car at the other side of FACTS for 2.50 E so that was great. It was cheap and near enough to drop some stuff lateron...which we did!! We took a stroll through the parc in front of the FACTS and it was a great site with all those great big trees...really gorgeoous!!
And we entered the building 30 minutes before the doors would open officially. When meeting e-Mino (my FACTS-contact) I could deliver the Romano-promo and I left it at a table at the entry and then I hooked up again with Allan drooling over some comicboxes of a private collector who wanted to sell some of his collection and I also found some great prizes there.
Sidenote: the way the organization communicated with their people was great and very professional. They were recognisable, approachable, friendly and professional! The halls were filled with actionfigures, comics and all kinda merchandise and only some corners and other centerpoints like the doors seemed cramped but overall a lot of room and diversity though every hall had some kinda theme, the hall in the back being the 'guest'-hall with also a Starwars-exhibit. Also a tremendous amount of cosplayers who dressed up like Starwars-characters or the girl from "Kill Bill" or Lara Croft of Trinity from The Matrix or like Scooby Doo -crew or Linsner's Dawn or Catwoman or Witch Knights from LOTR. Also MANY hansom girls were dressed up like Japanese schoolgirls or angels and d**n they looked fine!! It really added something very special to this show!!
We also checked out the actors that were invited to come and it felt surreal to see FACE-Benedict and KUNG FU- Carradine and the crooked-legged Chewbecca and the immensely bicepsed New Zealand fellow Makoare who played in Lord Of The Rings...great!! I do love comics more though so I did not care for a 20 euro signature and went on browse the comicboxes:
there were 3 official comicshops to visit. One from Gent, one from London and the other one from belgium (WAAAY to expensive!!) the other two guys were just selling their private collection!
but there were also comics to be found with those guys that sold the trading cards and there was also this guy that sold a lot of variant covers...to expensive for me but that Witchblade actionfig for only NINE euros was a VERY good deal!!
And in the room with all the manga there was also a French-talking dealer with several shortboxes with comics!!
And I found a Spawn #119 (nowhere to be found in the Netherlands cause that shipment never came through somehow) when I found a little box of comics at a Actionfigure-stand...
When noon struck me and Allan went to the entrance to find some other fellow we wanted to hook up with (Schizmo aka Yorick Martens). I haven't seen him before but talked to him plenty and it was great to also finally meet him. Yorick is trying to make a platform for aspiring artists in Belgium (<http://www.studioraven.com/stripvacature>) and he also hooked up with the Dutch Stripster (http://www.stripster.nl) who does the same. We ended up going to the Ghent's comicshop Betty Boop and I also had a blast there. Great comicshop and definately worth a visit when you are around. I scored some great "Frank Frazetta's Fantasy Illustrated" magazines and I got a great high quality poster of an amazing nude (which I unfortunately cannot put up at home because my wife does think it is a tad too nude...I was not complaining though )
We had a drink and talked some and then we went back to the car and stuffed the comics in the back so we would not strain our backs anymore and then Yorick said goodbye and Allan and I went back in and searched some more comicboxes and merchandise-stands and we ended up missing the Q&A with the guests we had MUCH fun!!
At 16.30 Allan and I went back to the exit and I saw that almost all the promotional material of Romano Molenaar was gone and that also felt good!
I dropped Allan off at the trainstation and I drove home with:
\Possessed TPB 50% coverprice (Liam Sharp)
\Fallen Angel 1-6 50% coverprice (while #1 is doing 10 euro already!)
\Spawn 119 voor 2.50
\Inhumans GN 5 euro (bargain)
\Prestige formats for 2 euro (Wolverine: Rahne/Knight of Terra ; Days Of Future Past)
\Catwoman "Her sister's keeper" TPB 2.50 euro
\Catwoman The Movie 1 euro
\Battle of the Planet/ Witchblade 2.50
\Jungle Fantasy (Avatar) #1 0.30 eurocent
\Smiley the Psychotic Button's "Anti-Holliday special" 0.25
\Witchblade/Silver Surfer "Devil's Reign" 1/2 for 0.25
\Fathom #0 for 0.25
\Catwoman/Batman "Trail of the Gun" [1+2] together for 3 euro
\Sisters Of Mercy (bad grrl comic made my the drumplayer of Poison) almost complete for 0.25 eurocent each
\The Coven (Ian Churchill) 7 comics for 0.25=
\"Almuric" a Dark Horse fantasy GN for 2 euro
\Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated 5 mags a 1 euro/ea
\Conan Magazine a 1 euro/ea
\Just Imagine Stan Lee... "catwoman","Wonderwoman" en Shazam" for 2 e/stuk
and ofcourse a "Lady Death by Dark One" actionfigure for three euros!!! euro and a Witchblade/Sara action fig for 9 euro!!
I opened my eyes early that morning. I looked at the clock and it read 5.30 hours and somehow I was really not only awakened but also awake.
That day I woulg go and visit FACTS and my friend Allan for the very first time.
Somehow the internet provided me with more then just zeros and ones and I was thrilled to go out and meet the real thing.
An extra benefit to my visiting FACTS was the fact that I could get in early and for free because I tried to help the organization in any way I cold in arranging some comicguests and I tried very hard to get Billy Tucci, Mark Texeira, Romano Molenaar, Brian Pulido and some other big names but unfortunately I was kinda late involved and some people where booked full. But RO would come and I made also some great promomaterial for him to distribute. Unfortunately RO cancelled two days before the convention started due to his huge workload but FACTS still would let me in to deliver the promomaterial.
Back to my waking up...
I already made my breakfast and for my wife and kids so I could leave in mere minutes after getting dressed and I opened the back door (because the front door might wake my kids) and looked up and there were a zillion stars...amazing...even the stars seemed to wish me the best!
I started driving from Vlodrop (in Limburg/Holland) to Roeselare using a map and somehow I arrived in Roeselare (250 km) with no worries. I only had a hard time looking for Allan's place because he said to turn left at the flags and well...they took down the flags
But fortunately a butcher was awake already and he pointed me the way and in a minute I entered Allan's home and it was great. He made a great home out of two small buildings and he has good taste...great kid also. His oldest is one month younger then my oldest and he is just sweet and shy and cute and he wants to know the time e-v-e-r-y two minutes and that is sooo funny!! Allan also has this amazing room just for his own with his computers and all his (mainly Bronze and Silver Age) spandex comics and he even had some spare comics for me to give to...real nice.
In the car to FACTS I told him I was so much looking forward to the convention and I was dying to get my picture taken with Catwoman...ummmm...he FORGOT his camera!!?? booohhooooo
O well...it grew into a great joke during the day and when indeed Catwoman showed up someone else took a picture of ME and HER....prrrrrrrr I am so gonna love that picture and I am gonna print it and stick it with my Catwoman-comics for sure!!
Anyway...we parked the car at the other side of FACTS for 2.50 E so that was great. It was cheap and near enough to drop some stuff lateron...which we did!! We took a stroll through the parc in front of the FACTS and it was a great site with all those great big trees...really gorgeoous!!
And we entered the building 30 minutes before the doors would open officially. When meeting e-Mino (my FACTS-contact) I could deliver the Romano-promo and I left it at a table at the entry and then I hooked up again with Allan drooling over some comicboxes of a private collector who wanted to sell some of his collection and I also found some great prizes there.
Sidenote: the way the organization communicated with their people was great and very professional. They were recognisable, approachable, friendly and professional! The halls were filled with actionfigures, comics and all kinda merchandise and only some corners and other centerpoints like the doors seemed cramped but overall a lot of room and diversity though every hall had some kinda theme, the hall in the back being the 'guest'-hall with also a Starwars-exhibit. Also a tremendous amount of cosplayers who dressed up like Starwars-characters or the girl from "Kill Bill" or Lara Croft of Trinity from The Matrix or like Scooby Doo -crew or Linsner's Dawn or Catwoman or Witch Knights from LOTR. Also MANY hansom girls were dressed up like Japanese schoolgirls or angels and d**n they looked fine!! It really added something very special to this show!!
We also checked out the actors that were invited to come and it felt surreal to see FACE-Benedict and KUNG FU- Carradine and the crooked-legged Chewbecca and the immensely bicepsed New Zealand fellow Makoare who played in Lord Of The Rings...great!! I do love comics more though so I did not care for a 20 euro signature and went on browse the comicboxes:
there were 3 official comicshops to visit. One from Gent, one from London and the other one from belgium (WAAAY to expensive!!) the other two guys were just selling their private collection!
but there were also comics to be found with those guys that sold the trading cards and there was also this guy that sold a lot of variant covers...to expensive for me but that Witchblade actionfig for only NINE euros was a VERY good deal!!
And in the room with all the manga there was also a French-talking dealer with several shortboxes with comics!!
And I found a Spawn #119 (nowhere to be found in the Netherlands cause that shipment never came through somehow) when I found a little box of comics at a Actionfigure-stand...
When noon struck me and Allan went to the entrance to find some other fellow we wanted to hook up with (Schizmo aka Yorick Martens). I haven't seen him before but talked to him plenty and it was great to also finally meet him. Yorick is trying to make a platform for aspiring artists in Belgium (<http://www.studioraven.com/stripvacature>) and he also hooked up with the Dutch Stripster (http://www.stripster.nl) who does the same. We ended up going to the Ghent's comicshop Betty Boop and I also had a blast there. Great comicshop and definately worth a visit when you are around. I scored some great "Frank Frazetta's Fantasy Illustrated" magazines and I got a great high quality poster of an amazing nude (which I unfortunately cannot put up at home because my wife does think it is a tad too nude...I was not complaining though
)We had a drink and talked some and then we went back to the car and stuffed the comics in the back so we would not strain our backs anymore and then Yorick said goodbye and Allan and I went back in and searched some more comicboxes and merchandise-stands and we ended up missing the Q&A with the guests
we had MUCH fun!!At 16.30 Allan and I went back to the exit and I saw that almost all the promotional material of Romano Molenaar was gone and that also felt good!
I dropped Allan off at the trainstation and I drove home with:
\Possessed TPB 50% coverprice (Liam Sharp)
\Fallen Angel 1-6 50% coverprice (while #1 is doing 10 euro already!)
\Spawn 119 voor 2.50
\Inhumans GN 5 euro (bargain)
\Prestige formats for 2 euro (Wolverine: Rahne/Knight of Terra ; Days Of Future Past)
\Catwoman "Her sister's keeper" TPB 2.50 euro
\Catwoman The Movie 1 euro
\Battle of the Planet/ Witchblade 2.50
\Jungle Fantasy (Avatar) #1 0.30 eurocent
\Smiley the Psychotic Button's "Anti-Holliday special" 0.25
\Witchblade/Silver Surfer "Devil's Reign" 1/2 for 0.25
\Fathom #0 for 0.25
\Catwoman/Batman "Trail of the Gun" [1+2] together for 3 euro
\Sisters Of Mercy (bad grrl comic made my the drumplayer of Poison) almost complete for 0.25 eurocent each
\The Coven (Ian Churchill) 7 comics for 0.25=
\"Almuric" a Dark Horse fantasy GN for 2 euro
\Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated 5 mags a 1 euro/ea
\Conan Magazine a 1 euro/ea
\Just Imagine Stan Lee... "catwoman","Wonderwoman" en Shazam" for 2 e/stuk
and ofcourse a "Lady Death by Dark One" actionfigure for three euros!!! euro and a Witchblade/Sara action fig for 9 euro!!
) lie there....