It had been a fair old while since any Avery Hillers had pulled their (our) socks up and got themselves (ourselves) out of the house with a bag full of wares and a glint in their (our) eyes, and what a magnificent choice it was to do so for MKomix, the small press comics event organised by Paul Rainey in Milton Keynes. You’ll of course know Paul from his series There’s No Time Like The Present (a big AHP favourite), his current ongoing Thunder Brother: Soap Division, and his contribution to the latest Reads, and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to finally meet him in person.

Despite our best efforts to be late – due to a self-inflicted coffee spillage by Michael, and a collective lack of any sense of direction whatsoever (we had to ask a nice lady if we were going the right way – ‘Yes, you are’ she replied, before enigmatically adding ‘lot’s of people ask me if they’re going the right way in MK – they always are’), we arrived at the MK Gallery and managed to get set up before kick-off.

We were also lucky to share a table with Richy Chandler, who is not only a lovely chap, but also the creator of many fine comics – check his stuff out, particularly his latest  Lucy the Octopus about a teenage girl who just happens to be an octopus.

The entire evening was great – we met lots of lovely people, both attending and exhibiting Ash Pure, Sean Azzopardi, Karen Rubins, Selina Lock and many more). We even had time to take a turn around the Pushwagner exhibition on at the Gallery – we’d never come across his work before, and it’s astonishing.

The only downside was we couldn’t stick around for the after fair festivities, as we had to leave as soon as we were done to get our train (once again getting impressively lost on the way – Michael’s photo below was intended to be a last documentation of our whereabouts, should we need to send for help). Fingers crossed MKomix becomes a regular event, we’d love to do it all again!