The audio recording of my Bristol Comic Expo panel, “Signs and Portents“, is now available from the Sidekick Cast website, iTunes, and anywhere where good podcasts can be found.

Before I write anything about this panel, I want to send out a huge thanks to both the boys from Sidekick Cast and to everyone who turned up to make the panel a success. We had some great questions, an incredible game of Secrets and Lies, and the whole process was made significantly less nerve racking and markedly more awesome by having a room full of friendly faces.

Gushing over.

If you missed the panel, other than a potted history of The Dark and MWM, some shameless plugging (including a new personal best for me), and some light hearted ribbing of a certain missing monkey, you probably missed me talking about codes, fiction, stories inside stories, fringe science, how thinly read I really am, and trying to answer some questions from people who had clearly thought about them beforehand. The swines. (Barry Nugent, I’m looking at you).

We had a lot of positive feedback about the panel throughout the show, so if you did miss it and would like to catch up, download the “Signs and Portents” podcast today.

For anyone wondering what the mysterious “merchandise” that I’ve been alluding to on Twitter is, it’s badges. 100 lovely, 25mm badges, lovingly made by my new best friends at Badge Planet.

If you want to get hold of one, you need to track me down with your copy of The Dark for signing or perhaps try asking one of “The Darkettes”.

Yes, I have Darkettes.

I don’t think you can get too excited about the Bristol Comic Con, can you?

Geek Syndicate have scooped us all yet again with this year’s Bristol Comic Con and Bristol Small Press Expo’s Panels and Talks schedule.

I am very fortunate this year to be appearing on two panels, one at 12:00 and another at 13:00 on Saturday.

At 12:00, I will be taking to the stage alongside Gavin and Dan from The Sidekick cast for a panel called “Signs and Portents”, based loosely on my new graphic novel “The Dark”. The official blurb is as follows:

What do William Blake, symbolic code breaking, aura reading, Byron, Howard Hughes, numerology, World War Two poetry, and cutting edge science all have in common?

Find out as Gavin Jones and Dan Marshall (of The Sidekick Cast) probe the mind of Markosia word smith Chris Lynch and find out about his latest projects, including the critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller “The Dark”, available in a limited edition Expo Exclusive edition this weekend.

Then, at 13:00, I will be sitting down for a “fireside chat” with the Orang Utan Comics crew and the inimitable Scott Grandison for the “Comic Book Outsiders” panel …

Orang Utan Comics and Monkeys With Machineguns are successful small press studios putting out high-quality content for the last five years. Join them as they discuss their experiences in the business so far, give advice to others looking to produce their own titles and their view of the future for small press and independent comics in a world where digital distribution is becoming increasingly important.

Hosted by Scott Grandison of the Comic Book Outsiders podcast.

I will be flying solo this year as Stu.Art, the taller and some say better looking half of MWM, isn’t able to make it to Bristol this year. Still, I’m sure I’ll hold my own!

I haven’t been on a panel since the very first Birmingham Comic Show when I sat on the Horror Comics Panel. Anyone who was at that event might remember be likening the realistic horror of The Walking Dead to Frank Butcher turning up naked on Pat’s doorstep in Eastenders. In context, I was talking about “the horror of the real” and how brilliantly I think Walking Dead portrays the reactions of the human survivors. I think Charlie Adlard is still avoiding me though.

If you want a sampler of the sort of nonsense that I try to pass off as intellectual discourse, even some kind of pseudo-science at a push, you can delve in to the archives of yesteryear with “An Evening with Monkeys with Machineguns” and my guest appearance on “The Orang Utan Comics Round Table” from Bristol 2009.

I apologise in advance to all concerned.

The good, good people of Waterstones will be letting me loose in their Cribbs Causeway store on April 24th at 1pm.

This is the first time I have signed in a “mainstream” book store as opposed to a specialist comic store or a convention; I’m really looking forward to introducing some non-comics fans to The Dark as well as meeting up with any comics fans who come by.

There are some details of the signing up on the Waterstone’s website and, of course, there is a Facebook event if you want to sign up.

To celebrate the launch of “The Dark”, Markosia are producing a limited run of just 100 copies of the “Bristol Expo Special Edition”!

The official promotional text runs as follows:

To celebrate the launch of their new graphic novel, “The Dark”, Markosia are producing a special edition of the book exclusively for Bristol Expo visitors.

With a variant cover from series artist Rick Lundeen, there will be only one hundred of these individually signed and numbered editions available.

A great opportunity to read the graphic novel that critics are calling “highly original“, “a great, fast read“, “confident” and “some of Chris Lynch’s best work to date” as well as owning a piece of comics history. The Dark’s author, Chris Lynch, will be at the Markosia stand throughout Comic Expo!

The Bristol Comic Expo is an immensely important event for me as a creator. It is were I had my first self publishing experiences, were I first met most of the many good friends I now have in the comics community, were I first met Harry Markos and discovered Markosia, and were I first made the decision that this, this crazy comic book making thing … this was what I wanted to do. Forever.

It feels great to be bring the special edition of The Dark to the show were, for me, it all started. All that remains is for me to get on an sign and individually number every single one of them*.

* Yes, I know. I said in my interview with Comic Book Outsiders that I would never individually number anything by hand ever again. I think Harry Markos was listening, and this is his revenge.

The Geek Ninjas of Geek Syndicate have broken some exclusive news on the dates, line up, venues, etc. for the 2010 Bristol Comic Con.

The con will run over 3 days this year; 21 – 23 May to be precise; and will be spread between the Ramada and Mercure Hotels. This year’s double con (the seperate but affiliated Bristol Comic Con and Bristol Small Press Expo) also appear to have merged to create this single super-sized convention.

Also, there’s some guy called Chris Claremont coming.

Exciting news for the return of our of the UKs best conventions!

The last, I think, of our podcast appearances from the Bristol Con 2009 is featured in Comic Book Outsiders Episode 46.

Chaired by Scott, from Comic Book Outsiders, the Orang Utan panel metamorphosed in a round table discussion on indie comics that also features Stu and I, and the guys from Geek Syndicate.

It’s somewhere in the region of 45 minutes of unplanned, unscripted, but hopefully insightful and amusing banter between the two studios as we share war stories from the world of small press comics.

Particularly worth listening out for are the moment where I blantantly repeat myself and then shamlessly deny it, and the moment that Pete Rogers confesses that the biggest hurdle Orang Utan Comics face is Monkeys with Machineguns .

For the benefit of the tape, I think he just means that we’re both tall.

Many thanks to Scott for chairing the panel and special thanks to Peter Rogers and Ian Sharman for sharing their panel with us … absolute gentlemen as always.

Barry and Dave, the Geek Syndicate, very kindly made mention of Monkeys with Machinegun’s MWM Live! mini-event at the Bristol Small Press Expo in Geek Syndicate – Episode 119.

I must admit, I was a bit concerned about words in these guy’s mouths when I wrote “Scott vs. Geek Syndicate” for Scott from Comic Book Outsiders, but it seems to have gone down well. Writing dialogue for fictional people is much easier, as they rarely come back to you and want to talk about it …

The tables are turned on Barry and David as Geek Syndicate are interviewed at the Bristol Comic Con. A great insight into how one of UK geekdom’s most popular podcasts got started, with the added value of Barry looking a little bit sinister in the early moments

Scott from Comic Book Outsiders has set up a Twitter bot that will be re-tweeting any tweets that contain the words “Bristol” and “comic” over this weekend.

Follow the bot here: http://twitter.com/BristolConBot