This year was the first time for me as an artist. And many thanks goes out to Richard Boom for arranging a table for me to scare people with my comic Hellene, Devil Girl from Hell.

One of the biggest benefits of having a stand at these kinds of conventions is the possibility to talk to colleagues, friends and of course the people who appreciate your art. For that alone F.A.C.T.S. was a great event to attend.

Colleagues
This year there were quite some local artists many whom I’d met before at other conventions or online.

Colleagues from Windmill Comics were present and I had a nice chat with illustrator Rik and writer Johan again, the cool guys from Dropcomics were also present and had a nice talk with Jorg, Ranjit and Gert-Jan who were also first time standholders at F.A.C.T.S and equally impressed by the size and fun of the convention. Powerbeasts Eelco and Patrick from Kopercomics were also present with their Powerbeast. Fellow first time artist at F.A.C.T.S. Art Grafunkel was also present whom I also had a chance to talk in person.

The only minor ‘disadvantage’ of F.A.C.T.S was that it was so busy that I didn’t have sufficient time to talk to everyone later in the day nor pick up any local stuff from fellow artists. Next time I think I’ll do that first thing in the morning before the doors open.

But it was great speaking about self publishing, the convention, the art, things we’d seen etc. and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone again at the next event.

Artists and Actors
One of the main draws of F.A.C.T.S. is the list of big name artists. And this year Frank Cho, Greg Capullo, Dave Gibbons, Brandon Peterson, Anne Stokes, Ian Churchil and Romana Molenaar were among the big names.

From this list my only favourite was amazing illustrator Frank Cho. Even before the door opened to regular visitors, the early birds ticket holders already formed a big line in front of Cho’s desk. But at 10.00 when the doors opened for the main public, there still was no sign of mr. Cho (or Brandon Peterson for that matter)

Frank Cho finally at FACTS

It seems that there was a miscommunication and Frank Cho didn’t appear until late in the afternoon. With only a few hours left it was quickly apparent that there wasn’t sufficient time for Cho to do sketches, so he’d only sign. Fortunately I hadn’t set my mind on getting a sketch and I’d already be happy with a signature. And that I got along with a quick doodle of Truman, so I was very happy.

Frank Cho signature and Truman doodle

I didn’t know Anne Stokes but definitely had seen her art before so I couldn’t resist getting a few prints from her and also having it signed.

I’m not really into getting live actor sigs though this time it was tempting because childhood favourites Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schulz from the legendary TV show the A-team were present. What was also cool is that they had replica’s of the A-team van as well as Face’s Corvette on display.

And lets not forget the A-team van!

Kristanna Loken and Billy Dee Williams were among the actors present this year.

Cosplayers
Another big draw of F.A.C.T.S. are the numerous cosplayers. In other words lots of people dressing up as their favourite comic, anime, toy, games or TV character.

F.A.C.T.S. really is the place to see and be seen and there indeed was much to see. In general lots of cool and beautiful costumes. Some people seriously spend a lot of time on their costumes and it showed. I even saw Jesus and apparently Jesus also likes goth girls. The only downside was men with too big a beer belly in tight suits and women with too big a beer belly in tight suits.

Fatman

I’ll be back

The Transformers are cool, this costume is not

One of the cooler outfits

Merchandise
And of course 3 halls filled with dealers selling everything cool, so lots of toys, comics, books, games, DVDs and more. It’s very easy to spend a couple of year salaries.

But all good things must come to an end and for this year F.A.C.T.S. is over. Then again it does mean that the next F.A.C.T.S. is waiting!