Missing Melksham Comic Con is gonna suck!!!

So my honeymoon is over!!! I'm currently at my in-laws for a layover before hitting the M4 and heading home. It's a shame that what is essentially a continuation of my recent wedding has come to an end, but I have to admit I'm looking forward to getting married life proper started, as well as getting back to buying my comics from the local shop (I've so missed the comics).

However, there is one drawback going into this return to normality which is that, due to its close proximity to our return from honeymoon, I have agreed with my (now) wife that I won't be going to the Melksham Comic Con this year.... and, I'll tell you, that is a decision that sucks!!!

In some ways I don't regret this decision as there is plenty Which needs to be done upon returning home.

However, so much is expected to happen at Melksham this year that I am really wishing I could make it there.

The top of this list for me is a panel occurring during the day about mental health in comic books. For me, this is the holy grail of what is coming out of Melksham because, having been a sufferer of mental health issues in the past, I find it so very intriguing what a lot of the local creators think and feel about the concept of mental health issues, if they should appear more in comics and why they don't appear enough up until this point (assuming, of course, that there aren't comics currently available which show mental illness as a major plot point which I don't know about) as well as the views of other comic consumers. If I were to be there, I guarantee I'd be queuing for this panel from the moment the doors opened (I sure hope there is a podcast or something of this for me to download later).

Then of course, there are the comics themselves. Top of this list is part 2 of Jon Lock and Nich Angell's inter-book crossover, The Heavenly Chord. I remember when part 1 came out last year and have been looking forward to part 2 since, even though there's been many reprieves in the form of Afterlife Inc. vol. 3, book of life and the the Everthere short as well as Nich's Cat and Merengue omnibus. Before I started queuing for the panel I'd gladly stop here first and get a copy (and maybe chew the creators ears off as usual).

After this is the book Joe Cape by Swindon creator Sam Webster who, again, I first encountered at Melksham last year. After enjoying his prior books Arcadia and Superheroes Ltd, I recently found out about this new book and that it was at issue 2. This bugs me more than anything because it now means I'm missing both issues and really wanna read them.

And then there are all the other comic creators and their own outstanding titles. In fact, I find these comics are what make cons like Melksham awesome!!! It's not the guests, but the creators who all make fantastic books which always bring something different, and most often better, than what is available by the big publishers.

Of course, writing all this just makes me wish I was going all the more, which hurts all the more because I know it won't happen. I'm accepting of this because I have WAY too much to do. But just because normal life is in the way and should be considered more important, it doesn't change the fact that not going to Melksham Comic Con sucks, big time!!!