Due to a technical error...

... there are revised times for Games Workshop store signings at Bluewater and Thurrock Lakeside today. I will be at BLUEWATER in the morning from 11 til 1pm, and at THURROCK LAKESIDE in the afternoon from 3 til 5. I look forward to seeing you there.

Event update

Reports on the New York ComicCon (with pics) plus that competition I was talking about - all coming soon.

For now, details of the most pressing signings:

This Saturday (29th), I'll be at Games Workshop Lakeside from 11 - 1, and then Games Workshop Bluewater from 3 - 5 for some serious Salvation's Reach and other BL goodies signing action. Official details here.

The following weekend (November 5/6), I'll be a guest at the Lille Comic Festival along with some very illustrious company. See you there!

Another Games Day Bulletin - plus New York news!

The day began with some nice, informal seminar-type-things, where we sat and chatted with the first folks to fill the available seats. Good fun, with a very engaged and enthusiastic response. Here you see one of my groups trying to figure out how I made the guy in the front row vanish without leaving my chair.

Behold, the assembled writist might of Black Library and friends! Across the back row from left: Chris Wraight, Ben Cawkwell, Graham McNeill, Bill King, some clone dude, Jim Swallow and Neil Roberts. Front row from left: Sandy Mitchell, Sarah Cawkwell, and a child version of Jim Swallow sent back from the future to save humanity. Or something (actually, it's Small Son. Hi, Small Son!).

And here are some other friendly and familiar faces being enthusiastic! And daemonic!

Just wanted to publically thank GW staffers Claudia Cole and Jenny Northeast who, with Chris Bone, so brilliantly steered, managed and otherwise looked after me and my queue all day long. Thank you so much!

So tell me, Mr Abnett. how does it feel to be the older, less-hip version of Aaron Dembski-Bowden? Well, having stolen his shades, I can tell you... it feels like this:

I'll be back soon with a special competition - won't that be fun?

In the meantime, I just wanted to remind folks in the USA, espescially New York, that I'll be attending the New York ComicCon this week, and also doing a special signing at games Workshop in Greenwich village. To bring the details up to date, let me recap:

Games Workshop Greenwich Village is where you will be able to find me and Jim Swallow next Saturday afternoon (the 15th) between 1 and 3.

As for the New York Comic Con itself, I'll be signing at the DC booth with Andy on Friday between 1 and 2, and Saturday between 11 and 12. Then we'll be signing at the Marvel booth (#654) on Sunday between 2 and 3, and then participating in the X-Men: Regenesis panel in room 1A10 between 3.30and 4.30. You will also be able to find Andy and me during the Con in Artist Alley, where we will be sharing a table with the estimable Mr Todd Nauck and running a flamable dwarf juggling workshop (one of these facts is, yet again, a lie - can you spot which?). I'm told our table number is M20, and that still seems to be the case at time of going to press.

See you there!

Signings... incoming!

Just interrupting your Games Day 2011 bulletin-viewing pleasure today to bring you a public information announcement about upcoming signings:

Most immediately upon us is this Saturday's event, which involves me being at Games Workshop Maidstone between 12 and 2. This is my local store, and I'm always happy to visit. Official details can be found here, along with advance notice of the next few events.

One of which will be... Games Workshop Greenwich Village (that's New York, folks! You know, the concrete jungle where dreams are made?) where you will be able to find me and Jim Swallow next Saturday afternoon (the 15th) between 1 and 3.

I'll be in New York for the New York Comic Con. There will probably be more things to announce with regards to this, but for now I can say that I'll be signing at the DC booth with Andy on Friday between 1 and 2, and Saturday between 11 and 12. You will also be able to find Andy and me during the Con in Artist Alley, where we will be sharing a table with the estimable Mr Todd Nauck and doing ice sculpture performances (one of these facts is a lie, can you spot which?). I'm told our table number is M20, but these things change. You know how they change. They are willful and mercurial.

Hope to see you somewhere very soon!

You can't get the staff

For the second quick Games Day 2011 bulletin, I'm posting some pics of the Black Library crew members who worked tirelessly during the day to keep things running smoothly. The BL stand was a particularly fun place this year, divided into corners of activity. First up, Mr Laurie Goulding in Pitch Corner:

Though it sounds like something off Countdown, Pitch Corner was an inspired opportunity for people to come and try story ideas out. There were pencils and write-up sheets, and Laurie with his open ears and open-er mind. Ideas went up on the wall with contact details. Who knows if any will be good enough for BL to come a-knocking? Well, Laurie does. It must have been quite a gruelling day for Mr G, because the corner was very busy indeed. Here we see him early on, striking an action pose just as the enormity of what he has undertaken starts to sink in. Either that, or this is the moment I hit him with my idea, 'The House At Pitch Corner'.

Two thumbs up from the lovely Rachel Docherty, here accompanied by the equally lovely Mrs ADB, who has brought thumbs of her own. You see how I went for the "two thumbs up" newsreel commentary-style link there, rather than the more obvious "in the red corner", right? I'm not here to objectify. Anyway... Raye-Raye's job was to run a painting corner where people could ALSO listen to audio books (through the uber-cool new Black Library MP3 players - I have a Prospero Burns MP3 player! I'm living in the freakin' future!). The super-text of this corner of the stand was to demonstrate the fact that audio books are the BL treat you can enjoy between paper books without ruining your other activities, such as figure painting. Listen to a chapter while you paint a chapter. You see what I did there?

Master of Hammer and Bolter and all-round High Lord Christian Dunn takes ceremonial command of his post in the - yes, that's right, Hammer and Bolter corner. You could come and chat to him about BL's awesome on-line mag. More significantly, he had cake. He had twelve of them, actually, one for each month of H&B's existence so far, each one decorated with a cover print! In the grim darkness of the far future, there is CAKE!

Unjustly not represented here by pict, but equally deserving of praise, was Caroline Pritchard-Law, who was running the audio corner, and also BL staffers George, Nick, Rik, Chris, Lindsey, Eddie, Graeme... well, look, it's quite clear I am going to forget someone on this without-whom list, and then it'll be all awkward and tense and embarrassing next time I'm up at BL Towers, so BL was there, okay? BL. All of it. All of them. And they were great. Fething great. Take a bow, BL staffers!

Finally, Mr Goulding again, looking very happy with BL promotions maestro Andy Smillie. Why are they looking so happy, you ask? Could it have anything to do with where they're standing?

Ghosts of Games Day!

Can it be that Games Day 2011 was a whole week ago already? On the plus side, that means it's only fifty-one weeks until the next one. And I say that as a good thing.

Anyhoo, I always like to do a little post-match blog of events like Games Day, but due to the fact that deadlines are baying outside my office window like giant, baying deadline-y things, I'm going to break it down into a few bulletins this time.

First up today - where would a Games Day be without Ghosts reporting for duty? Let's take a look at some of the Tanith Finest I managed to snap this year...

Nice cape-work, sir, and I like your body armour.

In almost any 'Best Tanith Costume' competition, Connor McElligot here's gonna win by dint of his boyish cheek, and his dad's frightening attention to uniform detail. The AWESOME long las prop helps, too, because it's AWESOME. Also, did I mention it was AWESOME? Is it wrong to covet the possessions of a minor? Is it REALLY?

Do these guys want to live forever? Presenting two members of my very own answer to the 501st. Synchronised present and salute. Full fething marks!

Now, with added Commissar! This was at the seminar, first thing. Picture it - you're talking to a group of readers, and the meeting is attended by one of your fictional creations, and one of his fictional men...

The Emperor protects. The Emperor also makes those guys in the background think "crap on a stick, I wish I'd dressed up like a Tanith Ghost..." Well, that's what next year's for, fellahs!