Last year the Bristol Comic Expo played host to a round table discussion between the twin publishing mights of Monkeys with Machineguns and Orang Utan comics, the crew from Geek Syndicate, and some hardcore comic fans, all masterfully hosted and chaired by the erudite genius Scott Grandison. The result became Comic Book Outsiders Episode 46.

This year, the round table took a more formal … form, and found itself on the official schedule for the Small Press Expo in the Mercure Hotel.

Click here to listen to the Comic Book Outsiders Panel

With another year behind all of us, Peter Rogers, Ian Sharman, and myself all took to the floor to talk about our experiences as both publishers and creators, how we got started in the industry, and where we think we are going next. The differing approaches taken by our respective publishing houses/studios hopefully made for an interesting and thought provoking panel.

If not, you will get to hear me

1. Stretch a one beat joke about a table cloth way beyond its sell by date
2. Somehow pull off a callback to a previous joke at the end of the panel
3. Accuse Ian Sharman of “Saying no, but meaning yes”
4. Accuse Peter Rogers of looking like Lynne Faulds Wood
5. Accuse Peter Rogers of being Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote

The topic of digital comics also features heavily, and I do my best to deliver an impassioned plea on behalf of those who like to share comics. I’ll have to listen back to see if I got my point across or not.

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.

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.

I had the immense privilege of being interviewed by the fine fellows Comic Book Outsiders this week about The Dark as well as other matters comic and, after some fine editing of my more rambling and incoherent moments, the interview is now online and ready for your eager ears.

I have just listened to it and can indeed confirm the following …

1. I say “Basically”, “You know”, “So”, and “Um” … quite a lot, basically, you know?
2. My voice gets ludicrously high pitched when I get a bit excited.
3. I have cursed myself to decorate or fall foul of a terrible fate in October
4. There is no such thing as a dance acamdemy for bees
5. I do not own a Nokia 3210, but have done and have a disturbingly impressive knowledge of the specification.
6. My only good advice for other comic writers is to marry an English Teacher

So, if want to find out what kind of interview can possibly cover such strange and rambling ground, I recommend Comic Book Outsiders Episode 68!

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.