A few comics events make my must list each year – Caption, the annual un-convention, 24 Hour Comics Day, and MCR, the Midwinter Comics Festival.

I attended my first in 2005, with bods collected from Oxford, Caption or my Livejournal friends list. The drill is simple and satisfactory: take a bunch of friends, stick them somewhere remote, get em drunk and well fed, and make comics. There’s a few types: the pro-cartoonist/s; the small pressers both diligent and dabbling; a few writers; an animator; and interested friends, who, before MCR, have never considered making comics. I often wonder why I don’t read of more MCRs. Writer’s retreats pop up all over the place. I think the answer is that this is profoundly a friends’ event.

The BEST CAKE. #MCR15 pic.twitter.com/wsEplkUZOZ

— Terry Wiley (@terrywiley_idcm) November 28, 2015

This 2015 weekend, somewhere between Brighton and London, wasn’t a rental, but hosted at the home of Sophie. It was distinctly private, for various reasons. We had take-away food and Alan Rowell cooked morning breakfasts. We had a roaring fire, comfy furniture, cake, plonk, and room to spread out and draw. It felt like an MCR, with folk yammering away on chat from academic thought to personal friends stuff to petty nonsense and daft jokes. Yes, these are all vital to the experience, and the end product, the comic.

Happy Toast #MCR15 pic.twitter.com/GQBDzsfVIp

— Terry Wiley (@terrywiley_idcm) November 28, 2015

Traditionally Jay Eales will craft a tale out of jokes and stories that come up through the weekend, and the art duties split between the others. Traditionally, MCR bods appear as characters in the comic. There’s a recurring joke/maybe-not-joke, that the work make no sense to anyone outside of the group, which doesn’t really matter, because the purpose of having fun getting there is accomplished.

Ooh, the giants #mcr15

— Andy Luke (@andrewluke) November 30, 2015

(Apparently called out in my sleep)

Some previous comics: Hellspoon!, The Fiend in Five Dimensions, and Professor Kraken’s Portico of Perverse Possessions, are available as free downloads from Jay & Selina (Lock)’s Factor Fiction Press site here.  You can also buy Project Gogglebox, and Tea and Relative Dimensions In Space as a collection from Lulu.

I’ve just met Mildred the Space Kiwi… #mcr15 https://t.co/xqoB4zSnLM

— Selina Lock (@selinalock) November 28, 2015

This weekend we returned to the Professor Kraken story, and format. That is, self-contained pieces by different writers, with Jay on the arc narrative. That’ll be coming down the pipe in the next few months, so watch for it. I can’t tell you what it’s called!

MCR 2015 by Selina Lock, used without permission. L-R: Alan Rowell, Terry Wiley, Jay Eales, Andy Luke.

I can tell you I’ve written and drawn ‘Speed 0’ and ‘Adverts’, written for Lee Kennedy’s ‘Music Box’, and drawn Alan Rowell’s ‘Vegan Gladiator’. Other comickers have contributed tales on Jeremy Corbyn and lingerie stores, unwelcome and beastly fruit, and bonkers cover versions of classic girls’ comics.

Pages stacking up, thrilljoys! #mcr15 pic.twitter.com/oAmOaPr3uO

— Andy Luke (@andrewluke) November 29, 2015

 

Use of internet has crept into our last through gatherings, and this year it pervaded, when Jay mentioned how the MCR hash-tag was fully owned by some band or other.

@SignorFurioso what’s with all these my chemical romance fans? #mcr15

— Andy Luke (@andrewluke) November 28, 2015

 

No tweet-back! “Don’t drag me into your pop star trolling”, said Jay. Apparently lead singer Gerard Way is something of a comics maker himself and has done some stuff Jay likes. That didn’t stop Jay nudging Terry into tweeting this,

No not THAT MCR #MCR15 pic.twitter.com/q2rYLlgYGG

— Terry Wiley (@terrywiley_idcm) November 29, 2015

And when I needed to fill 1/3rd of a page, Jay suggested this…

My Chemical Romance fans, please don’t hate us. We’re quite nice. Think happy toast.