Kickback!

Went to Forbidden Planet today for a signing - David Lloyd, who is mainly known for having illustrated V for Vendetta, was promoting his new graphic novel, Kickback.

I had turned up just after 2pm for the a 3pm signing, but there was no queue yet! Oh well, I went off to look at Spanish phrasebooks (as you do) at Foyles bookshop, and came back at 2.30pm, and still no queue! Oh dear, I always feel bad for a person coming to a signing and hardly anyone turns up. The guy only wants to flog his book to pay his bills! There was one guy there already, a serious collector, who I've seen at lots of other FP signing events. He was first in line, and maybe 7-10 other people turned up by 3pm? Not good! When the signing began, the first guy pulled out a whole stack of comics, mainly David's early work in Warrior and Captain Britain for him to sign. David asked him if he was going to buy Kickback, as that was what he was there promoting, and the guy said no! David tried to converse with the guy about what comics he collects, but it was like talking to a brick wall. I don't know if the guy just has no social skills or flogs all the signed comics on eBay, but I was embarrased! Anyway, I was next, I only had two comics (one of them being Kickback), and I proudly announced that I had bought it, and had read it too! I think this made David a bit happier, or it could have been the beer he had in his hand.

The graphic novel itself is a good little corrupt-cop drama about corruption and redemption, but I think I would have liked it more if it had been in black and white, instead of the computer colouring it was done in (it just didn't sit very well on the art I think). Anyway, David's a nice guy, and I had a good chat with him about the book while he did a sketch in the front cover, which he did without me asking which was nice! I feel it is rude to ask an artist for a sketch, as if you like the person's art, don't you already have the book in front of you with their art in it anyway? I guess I just hate getting stuck in a queue when they take 10mins to do a sketch for someone ahead of you, and all you want is your comics signed...