I spent this weekend just gone in EASTBOURNE for the eighth iteration of The Superhero Project, the conference that discusses SUPERHERO stuff. I had a LOVELY time!
I first went a couple of years ago to Super 6 in Germany and had an EXCELLENT time, so I was excited to be back, especially as it was in a location significantly easier for me to get to. The journey wasn't entirely without issue as the train companies REFUSED to sell me a ticket to get there via Ashford International, which is 1,000 times easier than trudging across London to Victoria, and also QUICKER and with less Rail Replacement Buses, but I used NATIVE CUNNING to HACK IN and get seperate returns for each leg. Take That, THE MAN!
I don't think I've been to Eastbourne before and was expecting it to be a bit run down but it was actually REALLY RATHER NICE. It very much helped that the sun was out all weekend, but it also felt quite ALIVE and FUN - sort of like a Brighton without all the Brighton-ness of Brighton, I guess, or a smaller Bournemouth.
The conference itself was GRATE and also dead interesting. Usually when I got to a comics-type conference I have to PORE over the programme to find SOMETHING about superhero stuff or at least something that isn't about a boring "graphic" "novel", but here it was ALL about GRATE things, although interestingly there were hardly ANY presentations about comics. To my shock and horror there were even people who confessed to never having READ comics, concentrating instead on the MOVIES and TV SHOWS, and so I got even MORE new information as I've not really thought of those in the same DEPTH as what I have comics. I think my favourite was one that examined the effect of different aspect ratios on the film and TV versions of "Superman The Movie" which was EXTREMELY interesting and, even better, made me go and watch it again when I got home!
My presentation went down all right, I think, and there were a whole HEAP of questions afterwards, which developed into a general CHAT. Almost everyone there was also presenting themselves, so it felt like a SYMPOSIUM with several IDEAS continuing across the three days. Oddly, one of these IDEAS was a series of references to "Only Fools And Horses", which is not something that has happened at any other conference I've been to. One of my OTHER favourite talks, for instance, got deep into "The Ship Of Theseus" as used in "Wandavision" and I was very relieved INDEED when someone ELSE put their hand up to say "Trigger's Broom"!
It was a great VIBE all round, which also involved quite a lot of SOCIALISING. It turns out that decades of experience doing GIGS is extremely useful doing conferences, as it means i can stay up DEAD LATE and DRINK BEER without too many consequences, although having said that I did almost miss the Conference Dinner because a DISCO NAP got slightly out of control, and I had to run to the restaurant to get there before they starting serving up!
Other than that it all went off really really well, and I even managed to get an earlier train home that WASN'T a rail replacement service! There's not much more you can ask for from a conference than that!
