Saturday saw the London Comics Festival, also known as Winterfest. This was the first comics gathering I had been to since UKCAC 96, but it was nice to see people who I hadn't seen since then, people I had been corresponding with for over 10 years but met for the first time, and not to mention lots of new people too.

In fact, the whole day was crammed with people and it led to me being a bit woolen-headed, so apologies if I was in any way on auto when I met you! More time to talk to people would have been nice, and more space too, but you can't have it all. What I did have, thanks to Jason Cobley (of BAM!), was some space on a table to sell Rainbow Orchid, which did really well, and I thank everyone who bought it and everyone who had generous words to say about it. It was nice to see such an incredible creative buzz from the self-publishers, of which there were many, all genuine and not a hint of geekiness (I don't have anything against geekiness, there's a little geek in all of us).

I had no time to go to any of the panels, unfortunately. And, despite taking my camera, I forgot to take any pictures, but I did do my first convention sketch for David Goodman, and it really was an awful piece of work, for which I apologise, David!

The day was loud, and the bar wasn't much quieter in the evening, but at least we could sit down and shout to each other, our table consisting of Shane Chebsey, Paul Harrison (and his wife), Jason Cobley, me (and my wife, and two friends we were staying with in Greenwich), Colin Mathieson and Dave West. Jason, Shane and myself (and friends) later had a nice dinner at an Italian down the road.

I had a great day, and that was all thanks to the friendly people I met and talked with. For more information on the comics festival, just click here.

I've just received the Chaland Anthology 2 from Mars Import, and what a wonderful comic album it is!

I first became aware of Yves Chaland when 'Le Testament de Godefroid de Bouillon' appeared in Heavy Metal magazine in 1987 and I was swept away by his mastery of the clear line and the quirky but adventurous plot, not to mention the fact that Lombard bore more than a passing resemblance to Tintin! On my recent Paris trip I purchased volume 1 of the Chaland collection, and soon learning the books had been translated, I found volume 2.

The second collection contains two stories, 'Holiday in Budapest', set during the Hungarian revolution, and 'F.52', which takes place aboard an atomic super-plane on its way from Paris to Melbourne. Chaland's artwork is beautiful and he really loves to play with the reader, you just don't know where the story is going to turn next. The first strip mixes tight comedy with some quite black moments, including the suicide of an AVO officer, but a little bit of sex also creeps into the stories in a subtle way - just right. 'F.52' is the stronger tale, and is really quite remarkable. It echoes Hergé's idea that he wanted to do a Tintin story set entirely in an airport. Chaland goes a step further and places the action entirely on an aeroplane. Many authors might make the spy strand of this story the main element, but Chaland keeps this just about bubbling away in the background, turning our main attention to the mix up of two little girls and a particularly scary couple who seem to live in a demented world of their own. The scene where the father releases the ramp and the golden sun streams onto him is fantastic.

Yves Chaland's artwork looks as though it was created in the 1950s as it exudes the look of an idealised version of that time period in style and atmosphere, with more than a passing nod to La Nouvelle Vague. Actually they were created in the 1980s, and Chaland himself died in a car crash at the age of only 33 in 1990.

Regie Rigby writes a very welcome review of The Rainbow Orchid in his weekly 'Fool Britannia' column at Silver Bullet Comics.

Read it by clicking here.

Four boxes of The Rainbow Orchid arrived today - very fast turnaround from the printer. The digital printing looks okay, not superb, but not at all bad either. Due to the printer placing my PDF into QuarkXpress there's some unattractive blocking on the back inside and outside cover due to a transparency incompatibility - which is disappointing, but I'm trying to ignore it. It's something they should have spotted, I think, as it was fine my end - it's the software their end. But it's not bad enough to go through the hassle of changing.

So, if you want to buy yourself a copy, get over to www.rainboworchid.co.uk and visit my online shop!

'A cup of tea with Garen Ewing' has appeared in the independent comics magazine Imagineers issue 7. The six page interview includes art from Buck Zero, Devil's Workshop, Realm of the Sorceress and Rainbow Orchid.