ConSequential Pub Meet - Unsettling Comics, Thursday 29th August

Who doesn’t like a good scare? Realistically, people with nervous conditions. But everyone else loves it, so everyone else should come to the pub and talk about comics of the uncanny. 

Adamtine, Interiorae, Black Hole, Ed the Happy Clown, Swamp Thing, everything by Chris Ware - there’s plenty of comics out there that unsettle and unnerve without straying into explicit horror.

Unsettling doesn’t need to mean scary. If Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman gives you warm and fluffy Christmas Eve feelings, you should look at out some of his other works, like When the Wind Blows, a slow-burn dark comedy about what happens when an elderly couple follow the actual “Protect and Survive” advice given by the UK government in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. If the little scarf on the ground gives you the sniffles, this will leave you weeping under the stairs.

So bring along the books that send a tingle up your spine, and we’ll talk about that and doubtless more besides. August 29th, 8 p.m. onwards, the Geldart pub, Cambridge.

ConSequential Cambridge Comics Meetup II - The Meetening

It’s time to sit in a pub and talk comics again (well, it will be on the 23rd of May). Following on from last month’s discussion, this time around we're asking: What is your favourite comic of all time? With the application of alcohol and vigorous discussion, we can almost certainly narrow it down from our selection to find the one that is categorically best. It’s just science.

Like stand-up comedy in the 80s, talking about comics is better with props. Bring along your favourite (or anything you’re enthusiastic about). It’s all about sharing, and probably about berating people when tipsy.

We’ll be in the Geldart pub on Ainsworth Street (off Mill Road) from 8pm until later. The pub does food if anyone's got the hunger, and there’s parking nearby on Gwydir Street. If you want to register your interest, you can track the whole deal on Eventbrite - this is strictly optional though, feel free to just turn up.

The First ConSequential Pub Meet Happened!

Last Thursday, I went to the pub. With Dave and Roger. Which wasn't really so different from a lot of other Thursday evenings, except this time we asked the comics fans of Cambridge to come and join us. Also, there were a couple of bags of mini Daim bars floating around, which doesn't usually happen (because they're basically crack in little red wrappers)*. We were pretty pleased with how it went - both in terms of turnout (including people we'd never met before - thanks guys!) and the general enthusiasm of everyone who attended when it came to Talking About Comics. Among other things, we discussed Chew, Prophet, Long John Silver ("that pirate thing"), Sandman Mystery Theatre, plus some old-timey stuff (there was an old edition of Little Orphan Annie comics floating around the table) and bande dessinée, including La Bête est Morte!. We didn't talk about Hawkeye, but might as well have done. Many people admired Swamp Thing.

It was absolutely lovely to meet new people from all over Cambridge with an interest in comics, and the evening positively flew by (aided by beer, of course). The plan now is to organise another meetup for the middle of May, and to see if we can put on some manner of talk. Watch this space for further details!

*Also, we went for a kebab afterwards.

Would you like to come to the pub?

We would. So we're going to one, and we'd like some people to come too. Join us at our comics meetup in Cambridge on Thursday 11th April.

It'll be quite informal, with people welcome to drop in and out as they please. There's no fixed agenda, though the vague topic up for discussion will be, "what's the best thing you've read so far this year?". Failing that, we'll probably just end up talking about what we've read recently. We're none of us experts, and everyone is welcome, from comics novices to those of you who have managed to microchip Alan Moore and are keeping tabs on his whereabouts remotely (please don't do that, though; it's weird).

The plan is to meet at the Live & Let Live on Mawson Road at 19.00, but if signups are overwhelming then we'll try to book a room somewhere (and will let you know in plenty of time!). There's no need to actually print and bring a ticket - signups are more for us to keep track of numbers than anything else.

But given all that, we would appreciate it if you'd let us know you're coming.

If this goes well, we're hoping to organise some more meetups around Cambridge in the coming months, and probably London and Brighton too.

Hope to see you there!

Just what is ConSequential?

We've had a website live for a week or so. We’ve written about Hawkeye and Sad Comics. But we haven’t really explained what ConSequential actually is, or why. On the homepage, we’re describing it as “A slightly different comics event”. Hopefully, this isn't too smug. It is also sufficiently vague that we couldn't really be held to account if we just threw in our hats and threw a Tintin-themed tantric yoga tea party.

So what is it?

Well, it’s very much a work in progress. But it’s a comics con that's seeking to borrow the vibe from pop-theoretical conferences. Think TED for comics. Or maybe something a bit more like the awesome Playful. Imagine Thought Bubble if the speaker sessions and panels at the con were front and centre. It's something smart, thoughtful, maybe a little bit daft, and all about comics.

We actually had the idea at Thought Bubble, or – more accurately – at a pub afterwards.

We loved Thought Bubble. We enjoyed Kieron Gillen’s session on creativity, and the opening panel on what’s been awesome this year, and we loved the Women In Comics panel towards the end. (and what a line-up – Alison Bechdel, Kate Beaton, Simone Lia, Hannah Berry, Fiona Stephenson). But we want more.

How neat would it be, we asked ourselves, to have spent the whole day listening to these awesome people talking about what they think about comics? How cool would it be to get those perspectives on comics criticism, or cultural theory, or historical contexts, or the creative process, or damn, I don’t know, whatever they want to shake out of their funky-smart-weird brains for most of an hour.

So that’s what ConSequential wants to be – the accessibly-academic, pop-theoretical, half con, half conference comics event.

Great, whatever. Be more specific

So far, we're thinking about a single day event, single stream, built around speaker presentations. We're not sure if we'll do panels or a public call for papers, but if you've got something you'd like to talk about, tell us.

Location and time are still up in the air, but if you were thinking London, probably some time in late 2013, then I wouldn't bet against you. The following spring, as well as Bristol, Brighton, and maybe Cambridge aren't being ruled out either.

Do you fancy it?

No, really though, do you? We’re just starting out, and if you think this sounds like something you’d want to go to, or something you’d gleefully gnaw off a leg to avoid, or if you’ve been to one and it rocked or sucked, we really want to hear about it. What would you want at ConSequential? Who would you want to hear, and what would you like them to talk about? Tell us things so we can try and build something awesome. Go on.

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