Dylan! Horrocks! Supa! Nova!

Last week was ten days long.

It began on the morning of Friday 16 April at Melbourne Airport (nee Tullamarine), with me at international arrivals, waiting for someone I'd never met before but had corresponded with across many years, first via letter and more latterly by email. And yes, the picture below is literally true: I had lettered (in the style of Torres) on cardboard and cut out a speech balloon

to welcome Dylan Horrocks to Melbourne for a festival of comics goodness. His first gig, on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18, was the SupaNova Pop Culture Extravaganza out at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Below, Dylan (standing) at Doug Holgate's table. The images beside Dylan's head are of the cover to the recently released second edition of his masterful graphic novel, Hicksville. Sitting on the table next to Dylan was his fellow New Zealander (and hero) Colin Wilson, who these days lives in Melbourne, and who Dylan had never met until that Saturday - happy days!

And hey, y'know, I wasn't just the limo driver. I had some time on the Saturday to do some signings of The Tango Collection for Allen and Unwin, who were trialling having a stall at SupaNova. Below, Zebedee on the right and Joseph on the left take a few minutes out from watching the wrestling to drop in on dad.

I wasn't really around that much at SupaNova over the weekend, which probably explains the expressions (but not the black lipstick mark) on Stewart McKenny and Tim McEwen (he, without lipstick), when I arrived on the Sunday evening to pick up Dylan and journey with him and Susan to 'Tripod versus the Dragon' at The Forum.

Tim has been associated with SupaNova for years and years, having been the Art Director for some time. But he and I and ten other comic book makers were about to spend 5 days in a room with Dylan, talking writing and drawing naught but comics...

NEXT: The Dylan Horrocks Masterclass/ Comics Studio