Posted in: Comics, Conventions | Tagged: Comics, HRL, MACC-POW!

Forget Kerpow, Here Comes MACC-POW! — Cheshire's New Comic Festival

Published Thu, 06 Jul 2017 10:30:41 -0500

Marc Jackson writes:

Last weekend on Saturday, July 1st, I hosted MACC-POW! a one-day comic art festival in my hometown of Macclesfield, in Cheshire. It was held in the historic Town Hall building and nearly 750 people visited throughout the course of the day. Comics fans new and old all came through the doors to see what we had lined up.

I assembled a lineup of fantastic creators including Lew Stringer (who launched his new Combat Colin collection on the day) Paul Grist (Kane, Mudman, The Visitor) David Leach (Psycho Gran) Emmelline Pidgen, Laura Howells (Regular Show, Beano) Jessica on Paper, Rick Eades, Joe Matthews, Lyndon Draws, Dick Vincent, Ken McFarlane, Sophie Morgan, Claire Smith, Sir K, Laurence Copeman, Natalie Burgher, Laura Crow, Missed Deadline magazine (promoting the new print edition of the updated Deadline mag from the '90s), along with WOW comix and the comic book shop from Macclesfield, and, as ever, strong support from my pals Aileen, Roger and Carole from The Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

We also had a great pre-event promo from local community art group Macclesfield Arts Space, who created comic book sound effects out of wood and hung them all over the town. This helped to introduce the town to what was going on, in a fun and creative way, a typical approach for events in Macclesfield.

Also in attendance — via the wonders of Skype — was Tillie Walden, who chatted and answered fan questions. She also revealed that her high school English teacher was the brother of Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes). James Kochalka also Skyped in, who exclusively revealed his next comic would be called Duck Fighter! Arguably one of the highlights was a video workshop from Denis St. John from the Schultz corporation, who showed a packed audience how to draw Snoopy from his studio in California.

Throughout the day we showed lots of cool cartoons like Gravity Falls and Peanuts, plus a one-hour tribute to Adam West showing two classic Batman TV episodes. We also had a drawing table that my 6-year-old daughter Nancy ran, helping children to draw and create comic book characters. My wife Jane ran my table in awesome fashion, fielding questions about comics and generally supporting me throughout the day. A real family event in so many ways! We also gave away back issues of the Phoenix comic, as they kindly donated 100 copies for me to use.

All this was in the name of helping expand the world of comics to those who might not know much about the medium, which was the idea behind the entire event.

The vibe on the day was fantastic; as a creator myself I've been to a number of events, and I know what I look for in those. I wanted the creators to feel welcome, and to feel they were joining a fun comic book making and loving family. And most of all, I wanted them to want to come back.

And it seems they are — Lew Stringer and David Leach have already agreed to return, and with the power of comics and the town of Macclesfield behind us, we could really go places!

See you in the funny pages, and remember: MACC-POW!!