Comics Friends

INTRO

Comic Friends United is an annual gathering of comic fans and industry people that takes place in London in early autumn. We never know who’s going to turn up – last year our furthest flung guest was from Japan – but the whole point of the day is to catch up with people you haven’t seen for ages and make new friends.

Everyone is welcome – if you don’t know anyone just find one of the organisers and introduce yourself, and they’ll find you some likeminded souls with whom to chat.

The event takes place this year on 11 September at The Phoenix pub in Victoria, London. We have the upper room to ourselves and share the large and spacious bar downstairs with passing tourists. There’s a good wine list, plenty of interesting ales, and good if not cheap food – it’s very much London gastropub prices but the fish and chips are very well thought of and there are nibbles for those who want to snack. There’s also several fast-food joints within a few minutes walk.

Outside is a shady garden area and a quiet area upstairs for any little ones who need a nap midway through the day. Click here for more details.

Entrance to CFU is entirely free.

THE TIMETABLE

There’s isn’t one.

Comic Friends United is a very unstructured sort of event, if you can call it an event. The early birds arrive around noon but some people don’t turn up until 8 or 9pm. Many people bring their families and a big group gather for lunch; there’s usually a crowd outside as well, keeping the smokers company.

In the evening around 8pm, when everyone’s well oiled, we run a quiz, the only ‘organised’ activity, which is keenly contested but not taken too terribly seriously. The less competitive souls carry on drinking downstairs. When chucking out time comes there are usually lots of beery, slightly teary hugs as everyone goes their separate ways.

So if you like comics, come and join us this September! And don’t be afraid to bring your mates.

SELLING COMICS

We often get asked why we don’t have stalls or some way for people to sell their comics on the day. The simple answer is we’re too lazy and don’t want people to get stuck manning a stall – and we certainly don’t want to do it! It’s difficult enough getting everyone to sign in.

That said, creators are very welcome to bring copies of their work to sell and there are usually empty tables they can put them on and hang around beside, but that’s as formal as we’d like it to be.

HISTORY

Hass Yusuf was one of the founders of UKCAC, the UK’s biggest and many would say best comic convention. The only problem with UKCAC was he was so busy organising things he didn’t get much time to socialise with his friends. Many years after UKCAC finished Hass mentioned to old friend and UKCAC habitué Fiona Jerome that he wished there was a way of getting lots of friends from UKCAC together again and whether a lower key, smaller convention could be organised that was more about socialising and less about star guests. They kept coming back to the topic at gatherings but as is so often the case didn’t do much about it.

What galvanised them into action was, sadly, the death of Steve Whitaker in early 2008. Lots of people who hadn’t seen each other for many years gathered for his funeral and both Hass and Fiona realised the groups of people eagerly catching up with each other was the one good thing to come out of all the sadness. So they started gathering up names and emails, getting people to pass on messages, and invited everyone they knew to Comic Friends Reunited, a day for people who remembered UKCAC and wanted to catch up with old friends from all round the country that was simply an informal drink-up.

On the day lots of different people turned up and after two years they decided that since new fans and creators were coming along as well as old they would simply rename it Comic Friends United

THE ORGANISERS

Hass Yusuf has a house stuffed full of comics and collectables. He’s a big DC fan, especially the Legion of Super-Heroes and has long been very active in Legion fandom. He’s also a graphic designer and both contributed extensively to and designed The Slings & Arrows Comics Guide. Oh, and he co-founded UKCAC and hosted its legendary costume parades. Hass has recently discovered the delights of sangria, pimms and other alcoholic drinks, so he may not be much good in the quiz!

Fiona Jerome used to read comics rather a lot, and write about them in magazines like Speakeasy and Fantasy Advertiser. She also contributed to the aforementioned Slings & Arrows Comics Guide. Her abiding comic book passion is the work of Hugo Pratt. Other than that she only really reads comics by friends these days, but she still loves the camaraderie and massive network of friends her old interest in comics brought her. This means she is useless in the CFU quiz unless it’s all about European graphic novels but she does have neat handwriting, even when drunk.