The latest Commando and British Weekly Comic Swap Meet took place on Saturday. June 20, at Wolstanton Methodist Church in (the clue's in the name) Wolstanton, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, although it is known amongst the organisers as the Stoke swapmeet, as Stoke-on-Trent is nearby.
Last year, we took a trip into Hanley and it was a disappointment; this year we (please welcome to the stage Mr. Karl Kennedy) headed off earlier (7.15am) and drove beyond Stoke to Shrewsbury, right in the centre of Shropshire. I've always wanted to visit Shropshire because that was where Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine novels were set: the Long Mynd, the Stiperstones... they were semi-mythical sounding when I was nine.
Well, it took me a few decades, and I didn't see any of these mystical hills, but Shrewsbury is a beautiful town full of beautiful old buildings. One we visited was a remarkable market building, with stalls set out on two levels. There was even a guy selling comics and annuals... but he wasn't there! A notice on his pitch informed us that Dave was "drinking in Greece". A good secondhand books stall on the gallery level had a few SF novels, but nothing I wanted. But I asked the lady in charge and she recommended a nearby shop...
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| We met the artist as he was working on this... |
... which we visited after lunch, and it was well worth the walk. Welsh Bridge Books had a wall of science fiction from the era I like (A-format paperbacks, painted covers), plus a couple of other shelves. Karl rooted aound the comic boxes and bins and came away with some nice finds. I knew I had to take it carefully as I'd already over-spent on books this week following our visit to Books-on-Sea and an emergency purchase on Ebay (I managed to pick up the third part of a trilogy, so I was forced—
forced—to buy the other two books, and a couple more while I was at it). I found some Joe Haldeman titles I didn't have (used to, but like an idiot I got rid of them during one of my irregular culls), a Norman Spinrad I didn't have, and a copy of Randall Garrett's
Too Many Magicians, which I've always wanted to read. (An alternate world where magic is a science; I believe it is written in the style of a detective novel and is a locked-room mystery.)
After a mad dash to get back to the car park on time, and a fruitless attempt to visit a nearby comic shop (which wasn't a shop, and was about to close for the day at 3.00pm), we headed to Wolstanton Methodist Church to help Stuart Steele and Ed Walker set up the display boards for the art show. Then off to Andy's to meet up with Andy Yates and his family, Stuart Hume, who was also staying overnight, and Bailey, the friendly family dog.
We returned to the hall to set up tables at 8.00pm and later sat around drinking craft beers and chatting until 11.00.
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| Breakfast of champions! |
We were back in the hall at 8.00 Saturday morning and I crammed as many books onto the table as I could, then helped carry boxes and crates of comics as others arrived to set up. I took a few pictures of the hall as people were unpacking because I knew I wouldn't have time to do it later. As the 10 o'clock approached, I had a wander around the tables and managed to find some books that I wanted. And, I'll confess now, I had another walk around later when things had quietened down around lunchtime and found yet more books on another table.
By now I'd bought a dozen books, so I had a nominal target for sales. I need to get into double figures to make the trip worthwhile financially—I chip in for petrol and food with Karl, and there are one or two incidental costs, but the big cost of accommodation is taken care of by Andy; with the additional spending, I needed to sell a dozen books of my own.
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| The Bear Alley Books table... I've now published too many books to fit! |
The first sale came a few minutes in. It was around that time that Mike Chinn, on the table next to mine, arrived and began unpacking, and we chatted throughout the show as we're both print on demand authors trying to flog our own wares. Shows can be nervous times, because you simply don't know who will come through the door and how much money they have to spend—it's holiday season, there's football on the TV, the weather was scorching... all excuses not to come out or to spend cautiously.
One good thing is that I finally had my card reader up and running. I started on that hazardous journey after the previous show and it's far too long a tale to tell here. The long and short of it is that I think I made sales this year
because I had the card reader. So all the crying and cursing was worth it.
I did eventually sell 16 books and took about £230; below last year's total, but perhaps to be expected as last year I was able to sell a few books to the dealers but this year I didn't have anything new. (But I will have an announcement on that front on Friday.)
We had a raffle around 2.00pm and I won a copy of Commando signed by Keith Burns—to add to the copy I won at one of the other shows—and a Millennium Falcon chopping board. I had hoped for one of the prints or bits of original artwork, but no such luck this time around. The raffle is always worth a punt.
We started clearing up around 3.00pm as we had a long drive ahead of us. I think we left about an hour later, having said our thank yous and goodbyes and see you next years. Apart from a stop off for some food and a drink—we were both starving as neither of us had eaten much (see photo above)—we made good time and I arrived back home at 7.30pm.
I had to do a stock take yesterday (Sunday) and put in an order for some more books which, coincidentally, came to almost £230. So I just about broke even over the weekend. And this morning I got up to a day ahead that involved packing a few orders that need to go down to the Post Office, sorting out photos, writing this, and defrosting the fridge. And there's nothing like defrosting and cleaning a fridge to bring you back to earth.
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