Yeah, it's given me the willies.
Why?
Your clicky wrists.
I wonder why I find that so grotesque.
I don't know.
Like when you like chip your teeth.
Like that kind of.
No, no, what really gets me is the thought
of clipping a tooth with a nail clipper.
Oh!
Why is that so, just imagine it.
There's that picture isn't there,
not of someone that's done it,
but that picture of someone
where they've got a nail clipper on their teeth.
Yeah.
If they're gonna.
Well, the one that really gets you
of that woman with like hocking snot into that man's mouth.
No, yeah, I just can't.
Wherever that video is circulating,
I'm sure there's been multiples with it.
Yeah.
It's the ones where you can feel it in your toes.
You can literally feel it in your toes.
It's so disgusting.
Yeah.
Oh, it's like my sister's neck.
Oh yeah.
It's like crunching.
But she does it in a quiet room.
And it literally, no wonder you can like,
you can like sever arteries and shit doing that.
Can you?
Apparently, yeah.
Can you actually cause harm?
I think so.
Cause I think Connor cracks his neck every now and then.
I mean, yeah, I crack my neck.
I don't think I can.
I like suddenly feel it,
and you can just feel the need to crack it.
And I just do a little crack and you're all right.
I'd love to go to a chiropractor
where they like do like a full body,
like fucking click your bones.
But I also, I wouldn't want to wake up in heaven.
You know what I mean?
Where you go in and you go,
they're just breathing.
Yeah.
Or just like never move again.
Yeah.
If I come out as a vegetable.
Apparently that's all bullshit.
What is?
Chiropractor is supposed to be like all the cracking.
Yeah.
The relief is, is it,
apparently it's either temporary or like placebo.
Because you're releasing the fluid
from the.
Yeah, it's fluid and gases.
But it's not.
It's like, oh my, there we go.
Yeah.
But apparently it's not actually like,
there's no long-term benefit.
Like there's no lasting benefit apparently.
I remember for a long time when people would say
that cracking your knuckles would give you arthritis.
And then I think, I think there were studies that showed
it actually had like no detrimental effect
because of what we just said.
It's just gas escaping from your fucking, from your joints.
It's nothing crazy.
Yeah.
Maybe it's the same for the,
cause that one, it's like when you crack someone's spine
and you feel.
Yeah.
There was a, there was a guy in school
who used to get all of my fingers
and crack those bits of the knuckle.
Yeah, Nick does that.
I cannot do it.
Ah, fucking sucks.
Don't need to be cracked.
Leave him alone.
Where was it Comic Con yesterday?
Where were we?
Yes.
Oh.
What a shit load of walking that was.
Yeah.
Just up and down the Excel center,
up and down, up and down, up and down.
And this, this year round, I didn't have a blocked nose.
Had no cold in sight.
So I got to smell and taste it all.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
Do you get what we meant now?
When we was on the train, yeah.
Yeah. There was, there was sweatiness on the train.
When we was in the venue, I think,
I didn't really catch that much of it.
Did you?
Well, I'll give it, there was less.
Because we obviously split up, didn't we?
Yeah.
We didn't spend any time together.
Any of the day together.
Instantly abandoned the second we got in there.
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks.
Not intentionally, however-
Mate, you literally turn around and went,
we're splitting up now, bye.
Yeah, but unintentionally.
It's just one of those things.
How is that unintentional?
It's just one of those things.
You had Meg.
And that is exactly what I said to Meg.
I said to Meg, I know exactly what he'll do.
He'll go, you had Meg.
Yeah, but you did.
And there it is on record.
Yeah, but if you didn't have Meg,
then we wouldn't have split up.
No.
So basically you wouldn't, yeah.
I wouldn't have just-
You were able to shoulder the burden
of hanging out with me onto Meg.
It's not a burden at all.
However-
You met up with me just to give me a donut
that you couldn't be asked to carry anymore.
And off you went.
A donut that we bought you.
Exactly, spent like five quid on that donut.
And then found you in the depths of sweatiness
and said, here you go.
Darling.
Here's a lovely Biscoff donut.
Was it nice?
You didn't like it, did you?
Did you eat it?
No.
Oh.
I don't like Biscoff, Reece.
I'm sorry.
I don't like Biscoff.
I never have.
I don't like, I don't like Biscoff.
Luckily Darryl paid for it, so it's fine.
Thank you, Darryl.
I appreciate it.
That's on Reece because I'm sure Darryl would have said-
When have you not liked Biscoff?
I'm sure Darryl would have said
which one would you Steph like?
And you would have gone, oh, get a Biscoff one.
I don't like it.
I tried.
I really did try to eat it, but-
When did you not like Biscoff?
I like Lotus biscuits.
Yeah.
I don't like, I don't like, I don't like the spread.
And I don't like the, like crumb, crumbled.
I don't like crumb.
When do you ever see me eat biscuits?
That's a point.
Ever.
I don't ever see you eat biscuits.
No.
Oh, well, it is what it is.
Next time round, I'll get you some of Gelsin.
They only had four flavors to be fair.
It was like Galaxy, Biscoff, the Homer Simpson one.
And then I think it was just like strawberry shortcake
or something like that.
So three flavors-
Any of them.
Any of them you would like.
Yeah.
Oh, well.
It was successful.
I had a good day.
It was decent.
Nowhere near as many Funko Pops as last year.
It was almost like the universe knew
I wasn't particularly looking for Funkos.
That's funny.
What was in like ones that you were interested in or booths?
Cause I probably saw the same amount of booths
as I did in October.
Probably both, man.
We saw, cause obviously we did multiple laps.
So safe to say, I think we saw everything.
And yeah, I just didn't,
I didn't feel that much of a heavy Funko Pop presence.
There was one I walked over, not Funkos,
but do you remember I've got that Mickey Mouse t-shirt
where it's hand drawn.
It was like done by the collaborations
with artists and stuff.
And there was a backpack at the same time.
And I went for the t-shirt
because obviously I have a heinous amount of bags.
And it was there.
And it was really, it was the same price as it was.
It was 20 quid, which is what it ever was.
And obviously they're fairly limited
and sold out and long time ago.
Anyway, I was sort of looking at it.
I was saying to Meg like, oh, there's that backpack.
Well, fuck me.
He appeared out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere.
So I was telling me this detailed history of the bag.
Not even hearing me go, no, I know.
And then I did slip in when he finished the monologue of,
yeah, I know I have the t-shirt.
And he was like, yeah, yeah, I bought two.
I don't know why.
And I was like, I think we all know why.
You thought that they were gonna be.
Yeah, they were gonna be Meg.
A lot of money and then they're not.
Yeah, you cheeky cunt.
Yeah, and I just went, well, I said thank you.
But I've got a lot, I won't.
And there I sort of came away.
But there was a little bit of like, I don't know.
I'm so curious to know the percentage of,
sorry my eyes are itchy.
How much of it is a good deal
and how much of it kind of isn't?
Very, very difficult, innit?
Because I was literally just thinking that.
The, like I said, I knew that person
that was making those custom Funko pops
with Charizard and stuff.
And they wanted 120 quid for this custom,
because the Funko itself wasn't custom.
It was the, what was inside the pop protector.
And it was like a lighthouse and like a little bit of scenery
all fitted in a standard Funko box.
And yeah, they wanted 120 quid.
And it was Darrell that was looking at it
not with intention to buy,
because obviously they didn't have a price on them.
And then they come running over and they go,
oh, do you like that?
Blah, blah, blah.
And Darrell was like, yeah, how much is it?
And that was 120.
And you know when you're very good at being polite
and not giving away, you're like,
because some people would go, fuck right off.
Whereas I feel like we're quite good at going,
oh, right, lovely.
Like when we've been viewing all these houses.
Going, oh, that's lovely.
Fucking hate it.
Yeah.
You live in a smelly dungeon.
I'm happy for you.
And Darrell was doing that.
And yeah, we come away and it like just so happens,
obviously I've got a custom Funko sat there,
the fucking Breaking Bad one behind.
And they're cheap, they're like 40 quid.
So I showed him the page who,
and they also had Charles odds on there.
And I was like, there's no way in hell
that custom Funko is worth 120.
Like there's no way.
And there was two of them.
So they obviously made them with intent to sell.
It wasn't like, this is just like a one off.
I made this, let's see if I can sell it
but price it higher so that it doesn't sell type shit.
And yeah, but on the flip side,
I felt like there was also a lot of stuff
where it was quite a lot cheaper
than you would expect like that Ringwraith
and the Kratos and Atreus.
Now I know the statues.
I know that Atreus bow was a bit bent out of shape
but nothing crazy,
but that was only 45 quid and the Ringwraith was 50.
And I thought that was quite good.
And I believe they were custom made
or at least printed or whatever.
No.
I think they were.
What the God of War thing?
Yeah, I don't think it's, it weren't a licensed.
I don't know.
Well, they weren't licensed
because I'd looked on the underside of the Kratos one.
It was like a blank.
There was nothing on it.
I'd be very surprised.
I think they were.
I don't know.
Either way, not a bad price.
So very,
who's trying to scam you?
And then it's difficult because like I,
obviously this is yonks and yonks ago,
but it wasn't that long after the game had come out.
I paid like 30 quid for the black flag, that edition.
So it's a box.
It was the Edward Kenway figurine.
It was a steel book, art cards, soundtrack.
Can't remember if anything else was on their map.
I remember getting it being like,
fuck here now, it's real cheap.
But then I don't know.
I don't know what, I'll never know why
because I didn't really clock at the time.
But I'm really sorry.
I know no one can see this, but for some reason,
it's like every time I talk, it's so itchy.
It must be horrible to look at.
I was just fucking talking and gouging my left eye.
Just fingering your eye holes.
Is it that itchy?
Take the wheel, take the wheel.
Sorry.
What are you doing?
Sorry.
Fucking hell.
Carry on talking.
The D&D shit was fucking everywhere.
I have no idea what was going on this time around.
There was so much shit.
And Connor was saying that last year,
they had a lot of panels and shit that were like D&D.
And he was saying that they had barely any D&D stuff.
I can't, I can't.
You look so...
I'm trying to talk to you
and you look like you want to die.
I'm sorry.
I'm supposed to engage with that.
It's pollen season.
I'm listening.
Everybody's listening.
I'm watching your eye on the wall.
Did I erupt it too?
Your face is melting.
Great.
There wasn't as much.
He's saying there wasn't as much D&D this time.
No, Connor was saying that last year,
that they had loads of D&D people there.
They had a fucking, you could live do it, couldn't you?
Yeah.
Not a maze, but like a arena thing.
And in terms of merch and shit like that,
they had barely anything.
He said they had one stall of Misty Mountain
and that was it where it was this time around.
And there was like three stalls,
maybe four of Misty Mountain
and then there's shit load of D&D stalls
scattered throughout.
Like you could not move for dice.
Paralysis of choice was definitely hitting us
because obviously, Connor's already got shit loads of dice,
but he's always on the lookout.
Whereas me and Darryl don't.
So I knew that I was going in with the idea
that I would like to have got some D&D dice out of it.
And then being met with just fucking,
you remember when you first go,
look at that fucking eye.
You remember when you,
when, you remember when we first stepped into NerdBase
and you are just done in with choice
because there's just so much to look at.
And you're like, on one hand,
you don't want to miss everything, like miss something.
On the same hat, like you can't conceive
how you're going to look at everything.
Yeah.
And that's basically what it was like.
So I knew I wanted some dice.
Here's a shelf of maybe a hundred different dice.
And of a hundred different dice.
And there was just so much variety, like so much.
And then you got the fucking material.
I swear to fuck.
What are you doing?
It's going to be awful to listen to.
What are you doing?
I'm so sorry.
This is going to be so boring.
Go on.
This is why, yeah.
I don't know if it's better or worse
that you don't film it, to be honest.
Cause at least it would make sense
why you just randomly pissing yourself.
Cause I'm so hideous to look at.
I'll just leave my glasses off.
It's fine.
As you were.
Right, go on.
You can't say fuck all day.
No.
It's nice to open them off.
Go on.
So you've got like solid metal dice
and then you've got ones that are made out of aluminum.
For some reason, Darrell fucking,
they caught his eye.
Aircraft grade aluminum fucking dice.
And they were like 90 odd quid for a set of dice.
And we were looking at them and like,
like he was holding them and shit.
And obviously they're very light and woohoo.
But they're aluminum dice.
Whether they're aircraft grade or not,
they're going to be fucking light.
But I was like, what, what, what,
what we were trying to work out,
what purpose that serves?
Why do we need to make them aircraft grade?
I mean, durable, I suppose.
You know that they're going to be durable.
DND is not that, is not that intense.
I was like, there's, there's no need.
It's just like that was obviously like gimmick type shit.
Well, almost like titanium dice.
The ones he did get were quite heavy.
When I held, when I held.
Yeah, cause we got,
yeah, cause we've got solid metal ones.
Because the heavier ones, they feel very nice.
I don't know how to describe it.
It just, they feel like they roll a lot better.
Well, it would make sense that they do.
Cause you imagine if you had something that was like,
I don't know, like 3D printing.
I always find that when,
when you hold something that's 3D printed
and you think it's going to be heavy
and it ends up being so light.
I feel like there's that.
Cheapness.
Yeah, rightly or wrongly.
I feel like we all associate cheap with light.
Unless it says aircraft grade in front of it.
Yeah, but, and exactly that kind of thing where
you feel something that's weighty.
You feel like, oh yeah, I've got a good deal on that one.
Cause it's heavy, which obviously isn't always the case, but.
Well, that's how it was.
It's probably cause it's like that innate thing of like gold.
Yeah, yeah.
It's heavy.
Yeah.
Cause it was like that with the,
with the dice cases.
There was a Misty mountain had had their cases,
which was obviously like their end of stock ship
because a lot of them were a bit like,
had a couple of little bits wrong with them
and they were asking for a lot of money.
But obviously they're made out of different woods.
So one of them stood out like so much heavier
than the rest of the boxes.
And that was the one that I was like drawn to
because I like, I like the weight of it.
Yeah.
But.
What was on it?
I can't even remember.
I mean, but then there was another store
that had loads of boxes and exactly that they had,
like the one that I got, which was like 30 quid,
which is decent.
But then they had a load of other ones
where if you bought them, you got another,
like a free set of dice with them.
And they were like, I think the K they were like 20 quid
or something like that.
All right.
But they were really thin, flimsy wood.
Like they felt, they felt really cheap.
Are you good?
Yeah.
I'm listening.
Speak, it's boring.
What are you doing?
I'm just trying to get comfy.
Yep.
Oh, I've touched my glasses with my finger.
Nevermind.
I can see the smudge.
Yeah.
And yeah, that is weird how you,
you'd like pick up one of those boxes
and then go, oh no, I don't want that.
Yeah.
I'm just like flimsy.
Yeah.
Flimsy, horrible.
And that is ultimately as sad as it is,
that is the kind of thing.
And you think like, oh my god, these glasses.
That'll be why they were given free dice away with it.
Yeah.
Probably because they had fucking hundreds of them.
Yeah.
They were loads.
Yeah.
And I think somewhere like that,
they're hoping that, you know,
you're going to be sort of like caught up
in the magic of the day as it were.
And not actually really thinking about what it is you're,
I mean like, shit, I went and bought like,
it was probably maybe five sweets in the whole bag,
but they were, you know, like the freeze dried
or whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we had them last time, didn't we?
Yeah.
And they didn't have those ones.
But this time I got, they were like peachy.
Yeah.
And yeah, you think like I'm someone who
I really wouldn't go and normally buy.
Six pound for a bag of five.
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
But when you're in there, you go, yeah, all right.
I literally paid like a pound a sweet practically.
We got chips with chicken.
We got chips.
We got chips with chicken, like tenders cut up on top
with some fucking barbecue sauce and mayo or whatever
and some seasoning, 14 quid.
Yeah, mine was 13.
It's ridiculous.
It was really nice though.
It was nice.
That I will say the food, I enjoyed the food much more.
Yeah, I think we just made better choices.
Yeah.
But then even that on like six pound for bubble tea
that wasn't even like,
I mean, whether they were packing it there or not,
I don't know.
It was-
Yeah, it was like pre-made, wasn't it?
Yeah.
It was weird.
That was literally just a stand.
Yeah.
And then you know what?
I actually nearly bought the second one.
I nearly bought the second one.
I nearly did.
I got very thirsty.
Not from them, but from the other one on the other side.
I just couldn't find them.
Then I ended up getting a can of water,
which was fucking ridiculous.
Drank it in 10 seconds.
It was like, I always think like the basic,
the minimum water you should be able to purchase
is 500 mil, isn't it?
Cause anything less,
if you're buying, you're buying,
obviously buying it out of thirst,
cause otherwise you'd be buying something cool.
What are you doing with a 300 mil can of water?
I don't know.
And then it was like infinitely recycled.
That's gotta be that.
Yeah, practically.
That's probably about 300 mil.
What are you doing with that?
Nah, it's a little bit more than that.
I reckon.
Like a can of Coke, yeah.
Well, this is a pint.
Yeah, but how much is a pint?
Fuck that.
Does it not say it on there?
No.
I have no idea.
Anyway.
And then I did get some Ramune.
Well, how do you say that?
I don't know.
Ramune, Ramune, Ramune.
The-
What is it?
It's a glass bottle with a little glass ball
and then you push it down and it like makes it fizzy.
I don't know.
It's Japanese.
I don't know.
But I pretty much only got it cause it was two pounds.
I was like, wow.
A beverage.
Cheap.
Yeah.
But yeah.
Oh God.
Did you hear the bit where they're like chanting
and screaming?
Did you go and see what that was?
No, no.
I didn't, I didn't see any sort of fan interaction shit.
No.
Did you see any of the panels?
No.
I saw, we-
I walked past and saw like the forehead
of the girl who voiced Zelda, the lady.
Well, where we, where we kept walking around the stages
and stuff like that.
I don't really know what was going on with the panels.
I never looked at the itinerary though.
So I like, I was, I was purely going because it's Comic-Con.
Like I wasn't going because there's a specific aspect
that I really wanted to see.
So I wasn't in, I wasn't originally interested
in looking beforehand to see what exactly was going on.
I just knew that there'd be things that I could buy.
And that was that.
So the panels that we would walk past,
there'd be like 20 people sat there.
What are you talking about?
The little ones, not the main stage.
Yeah, just the little one.
I didn't even fucking, oh yeah.
The main stage was blocked.
That's why I didn't see the main stage
because you can't fucking get in there.
Fucked on as it went on there.
Even the signings though.
The Zelda stuff was there.
Didn't see any of the signing.
And the Ted Lasso panel.
What'd you mean?
It was on the back wall.
Was there people signing stuff?
Yeah.
God, I really weren't paying attention to any of that.
It was terrible.
Yeah, I was, I saw, I saw names I recognized
but they weren't out yet.
They weren't sat there, people were just queuing.
Apart from the, as I say, the,
I think her name's Patricia Somerset.
Something Somerset.
Who voiced Zelda in Breath of the Wild and Tears.
Then the guy who wrote Skullduggeroo Pleasant.
We walked past him.
He was on the Forbidden Planet signing thing.
And then I did catch, I kind of,
I nearly actually walked through the front of,
like in between them sat on couches with microphones
and the people in the chairs.
Meg steered me away.
Great.
I just was, for some reason,
I think it's just because there's so much to look at.
It felt like illegal to just look where you were going.
I was just constantly looking either side of me
because I didn't want to miss anything.
Forgetting that actually, like,
you're also moving forwards.
Which was a wild ride.
But yeah.
I mean, I was surprised actually at how many
of the same people I saw, like in the artist alley bit.
I mean, good for them.
Yeah, yeah, we saw.
And I did actually, there was one,
the print that I really wanted last time
but convinced myself not to get.
I did then get this time, which was nice.
But we were walking through the artist alley
and we maybe went down like five,
maybe six aisles of looking at stuff
and nothing was standing out.
And we were like, oh, this is a bit shit.
And then we all sort of stopped and looked at each other
and went, we all was like,
does it all look the same to you?
Yeah, me and Meg said that at one point.
And we was like, yeah, like this all looks the same.
Even though it's different art.
But a lot of it was the same art.
That's the problem.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A lot of it was like, literally,
when we walked past the lady who did the goat and the fox,
there they were.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I just, I was like, I appreciate it.
Okay, what was it I said to Meg?
I was just said like, it's not been that long
but it's been long enough that you should have,
okay, fine, bring your popular prints
if they sell well and whatever by all means
because the crossover of people that went in October
and went this time, you know, what would you say?
Maybe 40%, maybe even 60%
but still you're gonna get new people or people like you say,
like I just said, a print that I didn't buy last time
went and got this time.
Connor, Connor went back to the same lady,
seen her, recognized pieces and then gone,
oh, yep, you're the lady, that kind of thing.
So I do get it.
But yeah, unfortunately it does kind of have
that similar thing of,
like it did feel a little bit more samey perhaps
but still very good.
It was the color scheme of everything as well.
Everything was following the same shades
of blues and pinks I found.
It was just very like, because we,
it was fine.
None of it was bad, I don't think.
It was just that we, at the time,
nothing was standing out to us
that we were really looking at like,
like Darryl's got, is it a lunchbox or something at work
where he put stickers on it.
So he kept buying and kept looking at stickers
and stuff like that.
And obviously, Connor's looking for prints
and cool artwork and then same with myself
as we were last year.
And yeah, there was just nothing that was jumping out.
But we were more than happy to just continue walking
the route rather than just going like,
getting halfway through everything,
going this is a bit waffled, let's just leave it
because we knew at some point fucking something must pop out.
And I did find that you'd go back and you'd go,
shit, have I been down here?
Yes, exactly what we were doing.
It was basically, it's almost like if there were five
or six people around that bit when you walked down it,
you just didn't see it at all.
Because the first, I think one of the first booths
that I went to when we got in there was a guy
with all these canvases and there was like,
a lot of Elden Ring canvases, edge runners.
There was a map of Middle Earth and then there was Skyrim
and some cool canvases.
Didn't even see that.
And I was chatting to him for a while
because he was talking, he was like,
oh, you have found Lord of the Rings
and I was like, oh boy.
So I was chatting to him about all of that
and then I was like, oh, what do you think
of the riders of Rohirrim and then the hunt for Gollum?
And he had no idea what the hunt for Gollum was.
So I was talking to him about that
and then we were fucking bouncing lore back and forth
and shit like that.
And I said to him, I was like, I've only just got here.
I was like, I'm gonna do a couple of laps.
I'll come back and look at these canvases
because I like them.
Took fucking forever to find him.
Forever, I'd say easily the last maybe 45 minutes
that we were walking around was purely
to find this fucking stall.
Which one was it? I have no idea.
Well, you didn't get anything?
No, because we found it and then I was like,
nah, you're all right.
Found it, I went, nah, you're all right.
Went over to Misty Mountain,
had a look at some other shit and then I was like,
nope, I'm not getting a case from these lot.
Let's go to the other stall where the cheaper cases were
and then on our way over there,
I found another stall that was selling
the exact same fucking canvases that I'd found this morning.
Oh. So I was like, well, that's a bit cheeky.
You've got one stall that's selling those canvases
and then you've got another stall further down
that's selling the exact same inventory.
I don't know whether they were the same stall
split into two or, but even then I find that,
I find that a bit dubious because obviously people,
they have to apply to have a stall.
And I don't know if they have to pay a fee.
Don't know.
They must have to pay something otherwise
the venue makes no money off of them.
There must be something that they have to give.
So it's like, if you've got a big old list of people
that are trying to get in that,
seems a bit odd that you would be able to get more
than one stall as a, but then again,
Misty Mountain had like three or four fucking,
but they're obviously a lot bigger.
Yeah.
There was one girl and I felt for her
because she was right in the fucking corner
of the like left half.
And I think it was just like rugs.
It was like something rugs.
And you would, you're like kind of right out the way,
but she just was so fed up.
And that's, I find quite difficult.
Like, I don't know if I'd be brave enough to do it.
I thought you have to be quite brave to do it.
Like to have people, like can you imagine
when people look up and go, oh, I'm not paying that.
Or like walk away.
I feel like you, because yeah, when,
when you walk down Artist Alley,
I don't know if that's what it's called,
but when you, when you go down there
and you do see the people that there's no one
around their stall and they do look a bit sad.
It wants me to go over to them
and just spend some fucking money,
just find something I like and go fucking have that.
And it was not-
The writers bit was hard to walk through.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was like, because there was obviously quite a few people
that were in that sort of situation.
And there was just like nothing on their stalls
that I was remotely interested in.
So I'll fucking, and you almost feel like
you don't want to make eye contact with those people.
But at the same time, you don't want to be rude
and act like they're fucking aliens.
But I know what you mean.
It would be difficult at the same time.
I think what I noticed with like 90%
of the people that had stalls,
they also had other people with them.
So whether it be like friends or family or whatever.
And I feel like if you set up a stall
and you have it looking the best it can possibly look,
and then you have a decent person there with you
or a couple of people with you,
so you can just like hang out essentially
and just fucking sell some shit hopefully.
Then I feel like it wouldn't be too bad.
Also, I think it depends on the mindset though,
because if you're solely there
because you want to push your stuff and make money,
you're at the come to the end of the day
and no one's bought anything,
then that must kick you in the bollocks.
Yeah, yeah, hugely.
Well, and it's like there were multiple opportunities
where I had the opportunity,
like the kind of like the openness of the conversation
to be like, oh yeah, I actually, you know,
I'm a bit of an artist myself.
I kind of, you know, or like mention my Etsy or whatever.
And it's like absolutely not
because I don't want you to look at it.
I don't know why.
Because I don't want to start a conversation
about these things.
And now I'm having a fucking
What's the Buttons T-shirt?
Look at me.
Yeah, it's just funny.
I've always been like that though.
Like uni and stuff.
And there were people at parties and they'd be like,
oh, do you want to look at my portfolio?
No.
You know what I mean?
Just because we're all on the same course.
I don't have to, I don't know.
To be fair though.
Just awkward like that.
I'm very shy.
I do know what you mean
because any sort of interaction
with anyone outside of who we know,
I never bring up the podcast.
No, I don't know.
I never bring up the podcast.
I very rarely bring up gaming
because even though this is something
that I love doing and especially when it comes to gaming,
something that I do every single day of my life
pretty much without fail.
And if I'm not doing it one day,
I'm definitely thinking about it.
Just a straight up addiction.
I find it so awkward to talk to people about it.
Which again is ironic
because there's a whole fucking podcast
based around talking about gaming.
Like I just find like,
like when we was on the train heading back last night,
there was a group of lads behind us.
And I think they were just like young adults.
Probably like really early 20s.
And I could hear them reading the back of the t-shirt.
Actually?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And talking about what's the buttons.
And a part of me was like, oh.
What was that on the DLR?
Yeah, yeah.
Part of me was like, oh,
I'll turn around and have a chat with them
because they're obviously fucking questioning.
Because obviously the t-shirts don't say podcast on them.
They just say, what's the buttons?
So it's kind of left to like the fact
that we're sat there holding microphones
and maybe it's podcast.
Or I think, I'm pretty sure if you just Google it now,
I think it does come up.
And yeah, a little bit of me was like,
I've turned around and have a little chat.
But at the same time,
I was paralyzed because I was like, no.
Why didn't you say anything to me?
I don't know.
I didn't hear him.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know why.
Because obviously we wear those t-shirts
to those events on purpose.
So the fucking free advertisement, why not?
So more people can hopefully see the podcast.
And yet the idea of talking to a bunch of people about it.
Scary.
Because I don't know what to say.
Because on one end, I don't want to suck my own cock with it.
You want to look at this podcast.
About the same time, I don't want to,
I want to be proud of it at the same,
like, you know what I mean?
I'm proud of it.
But I also don't want to seem like a dickhead
and a douchebag talking about it
like it's the best thing in the world.
Which I find in that.
Like I always find that if I'm explaining something,
talking about something that I do or I've done or whatever,
I always tend to go for self-depreciating.
But I start going, yeah, it's really great.
And by the end, I'm like, and it's shit.
And ultimately you set it on fire because it's horrible.
Like you can't help it.
It's so odd, isn't it?
I think it just comes from insecurity, really.
Yeah, because I think it's a...
You don't want, like you just said,
you don't want to come off as blowing up your own ass.
Yeah, where I feel like some...
But then it's not.
I feel like sometimes if your demeanor is right,
then I feel like you can get away with that.
And if you do it right,
it comes off as just confidence rather than egotistical.
Yeah.
Which maybe we should just work on that.
We'll get a stool set up for...
I don't even know what you would do.
Like, if you, as Barry and Billy,
were to set up a stool at Comic-Con,
what sort of inventory do you have to have on...
Well, like stock levels, or you mean...
Yeah, because you think, so what?
So you would have to do a shit ton of bookmarks,
have a load of prints knocking around.
You'd have to come up with more artwork
to fill out the gaps.
And then you've got to backlog all of that.
Like, because these are just independent artists
and they must do a shitload of prep work.
Well, yeah.
And that's the thing, I think...
They're probably, like Meg was saying,
she was saying, I wonder when you apply,
do you have to give over your social media
so that they can see what kind of following
you have or don't have?
Yeah.
And I said, I don't know.
It kind of makes sense.
I said, there must be some sort of credibility check.
You must have to, I don't know, proof of stock,
or maybe submit 20 artworks or something like that.
I don't know.
I don't know, because there has to be some sort of
minimum to check that you're not just going to turn up
and have three things to sell and then be sold out
for two days and be taken out of space.
I don't know.
Or does there?
Because I feel like I remember from last year
when I was talking to a couple of people in the stores
that I feel, because obviously we can look it up.
I feel like you pay a set amount for the whole event
or if you want like a Saturday or Sunday.
So the event themselves, say I paid for Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, let's call it 300 quid,
100 quid a day.
Well, regardless of how much stock I bring,
the venues make 300 quid.
They're going to make 300 quid regardless of
if I bring a lump of dog shit or I bring all my inventory.
But much like when you're in a shop,
you wouldn't look at that booth and go,
God, let's say, I don't know,
maybe like 15 booths were absolute dog shit.
You're not going to go, those booths were dog shit.
You're going to go, Comic Con was dog shit.
Yeah, I suppose.
So I think they do probably care more than just that
because it is their reputation on the line.
Or if they do something and they're rude or they're,
I don't know, they cause a problem.
You're not going to, as a, you know,
or like I said, the average consumer, the average visitor
is going to blame Comic Con for that, not for,
not that person.
It's like that group mentality thing.
So I think there must be some sort of vetting that goes on.
Because otherwise as well,
you just get like the drop shit people
that just bring in any old shit.
Like there was a lot of that stuff
unless they were someone like Forbidden Planet
or I don't know, Uniqlo was there and whatever.
It was predominantly handmade stuff in the artist's bit.
You know, it wasn't, you know,
there was some that did sort of take the piss,
like the Elphies, you know, being 15 to 20 quid.
Well, the canvases that I see, they weren't hand,
they've just been printed
and they've got fucking loads of them knocking around.
They were nice, but they weren't anything special.
So yeah, so I feel like you have to be involved
in who you're getting in to stop it taking over.
There must be a subreddit about it,
like the requirements for being a vendor on.
Yeah, but I always feel like Reddit gives you a better
user interaction rather than Googling it.
I don't know, maybe.
Because I feel like Reddit, you hear it from the source,
from the people themselves.
Yeah, it's a bit more obvious, I suppose.
Rather than fucking some website
that's obviously gonna say good things.
And I'd love to know,
because I would imagine that the queues and everything
to get or the list to get to become a vendor for Comic-Con
must be like a year in advance type shit.
I'm not sure, because there was a girl I was speaking to,
the one who drew Meg's portrait.
She's done the last six and she said,
I've put in for October, but I'm not sure if I'll get it yet.
Because she said, obviously, I'm not sure
if they're gonna turn around and say,
sort of, okay, we're gonna give someone else a chance.
Yeah, you're taking the piss now.
But then- Seven times in a row.
But then I saw loads of people that were there in October.
Loads.
Yeah, such an interesting event for that kind of stuff.
Because it is almost a backbone of it,
because those artists,
they take up a big old chunk of Comic-Con.
Yeah, I preferred the right side to the left side.
I found the left side, I couldn't work out
what the fuck I was walking around, really.
Yeah, agreed.
That's what we thought. I don't know why.
It just was odd.
That layout is odd as well.
Yeah, well, what was the side with Bandai Namco on it?
Yeah, the left side.
Yeah, yeah, it just felt empty.
There was something odd about it.
Yeah. Yeah.
I was disappointed with the Elden Ring.
It was just a fucking board, wasn't it?
It was the board showing the trailer.
I thought there'd be something else involved, man.
A bit of spice.
Something, but there wasn't any spice.
Just a little bit of hype,
but you're just hyping with the trailer on fucking repeat.
But still a very good day.
Very, very good day.
And we'll probably go in October, won't we?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel like going in October.
It's just one of those, where it's quite close as well.
It's not exactly difficult for us to get to, really.
No, no, it's not bad.
So I don't think it's that expensive to get in either.
No.
I don't think it's that bad.
What would our tickets like, 32 quid, 34 quid a person,
some shit like that.
We got that slight discount, I think.
Yeah, which I don't think is that bad.
And Sunday was definitely an easier one to get into
because we just walked fucking straight in.
But I would be interested to see from a vendor side of things
what it's like on the Friday and Saturday,
because obviously that's where they've got most of their shit.
Saturday in October.
So maybe this October we'll do Friday.
Oh.
Yeah, why not?
I wonder if you could get away with doing a podcast there.
I wonder if you could set up a table.
Yeah.
Cause we wouldn't have that much.
But what would you do?
Stand there fucking chatting.
Yeah.
That's good.
It's, I always feel like having been to like,
I suppose, free Comic-Cons now,
I'll count the star with celebration as a fucking, as a con.
They've always got something that caters for everyone there.
Like the, with the Bandai Namco section,
obviously that you could play video games there.
They had like the arcade set up and everything like that.
I would love to know how many people just stayed there.
Yeah.
Just stayed there fucking playing all of that.
Because the people that I saw that were playing that shit,
they were fucking glued, glued to those screens.
Fuck me.
No.
I can sort of see like,
I kind of wish I'd gone when I was younger.
Cause I imagine it's a sort of thing that you would just,
if you did like all three days,
you would go a bit slower.
Like, and you wouldn't necessarily walk around things.
You might just spend an afternoon sat catching up with people
or meeting new friends and stuff.
Yeah. Cause we were, obviously we were there
from pretty much beginning to end.
Yeah.
And I don't feel like there was a point at all
throughout the day where, like if we weren't pacing
the way that we were, then we wouldn't have seen everything.
No, exactly.
So yeah.
But I also don't think I could do three days.
No, you wouldn't do three days at the same time.
Three days at the same.
No, it'd be expensive as well.
Just keeping yourself fed and watered.
Yeah. Yeah. Fucking hell.
But I don't actually know the rules on food.
If you could bring in something.
I don't know.
A crutch can.
Oh yeah. There you go.
Cause you can, you can bring in water and things like that.
Oh.
Or at least that will did.
Cause they searched this bag and they just,
it was like, just got a bottle of water in there.
Yeah.
I would imagine you can bring food in and off.
It's, yeah.
It surely can't be like that.
It was something that I didn't even bother checking.
I just didn't.
Yeah.
I knew I was going to buy food, so I didn't really.
But it's the same as if you,
if you wanted to get something signed there,
I feel like you'd have to do two days.
Because some of those queues,
especially from like last year, seven hours.
And that's perhaps where,
if you were someone who was doing panels and sign-ins
and this and the other,
you would then get more of a benefit out of the three days.
Cause you might get someone that's only there on the Friday,
some of them.
Yeah, you get a weekend pass or something like that.
Like a different sort of,
you know, I don't believe that there was panels
that were the same every day.
No, no.
All variations.
So that kind of makes it a bit more meaty, doesn't it?
Maybe we'll look nearer the time.
Yeah, I feel like-
And experience a panel next time.
Yeah, cause I feel like I could do a weekend.
Yeah, I would quite like to do a panel as well,
but it has to be a panel that-
Interesting.
Yeah.
And that's the thing I think,
like had I been alone,
then I would have,
but I felt selfish making other people sit through
something that only I was interested in.
Meg likes Zelda though, doesn't she?
No.
Oh.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
She likes Zelda as much as I like.
Whisk off.
Sorry.
Sorry about that.
That's all right.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll do that.
Tired now.
Yeah.
Should go bed.
I'm all calm and calmed out.
I know.
Spoken about Comic Con.
Oh, let me get it in lastly.
Dredge is absolutely fantastic.
What a fantastic, fantastic little indie game.
Do you think you know the end?
I don't know,
but I spent a solid two, two and a half hours
just getting new rods,
being beaten up by fucking fish.
Yeah.
Oh, it's so much fun.
Are you gonna play a bit more now?
I don't know yet.
I might do.
I might seem-
Well, I might turn on just to see what the percentage was
because this morning, I think it was maybe like 30%
What completed?
Something like that.
Or 40%, something like that.
It's not that long of a game.
I know that when Connor was playing it,
he was like, you could tell that he was like,
I could tell I was getting near the end
because his upgrades were,
he was like sort of at the end of the upgrades.
Oh, okay.
So when you're at the end there,
if you've got there passively
and you haven't fucking grinded for it
because there's like these little cog mechanism things
that you can get, which you need to,
it's almost like a skill tree to upgrade your,
so it'll be like a deep sea diving rod
or it's got like different engines and shit like that.
And you need to upgrade through this chart
to get to the end stuff.
And what I found out is a couple of vendors
that you can come across, some of them sell these cogs,
but they only sell one.
But if you buy one and then you rest at the dock,
which is a very normal thing to do
to avoid the spooky night, it resets that vendor.
So you could then buy one again,
but obviously you have to have the cash flow
to sustain that.
Right.
So I was like, if you really wanted to,
you could buy one, like sleep, go and fish,
sell and like rinse and repeat.
To me, that doesn't seem fun.
No.
I just wanted to see how long it would take.
And I was like, that is boring as fuck
because you do that passively anyway.
But yeah, in terms of playability, very fun,
because you can just pick it up and put it down.
I feel like that's what indie games are designed for
is that ability to just chilled out.
You know what I mean?
But this has got,
whatever story's fucking unfolding here,
I ain't got a clue,
but there's some dark spooky shit going on with these fish.
There's one that's in a massive hole.
One of my quest has sent me to like do something
in this hole, but I can't go over the hole
because there's a big fucking monster in it.
And every time I go over it,
it batters the shit out of my ship.
But there's a scientist that's next to it who's stranded.
And she's like, get me these fucking fish
and we'll sort out the big thing in the water.
So now I've got to go and find some fish with her.
It's all about fishing.
Nice.
And the art style is very nice.
It's a very good game.
I can see why it was up four and one awards
because it's just very, very nice.
So ladies and gentlemen, Dredge,
if you've been in two minds about it
and Dave the diver as well,
that's meant to be really good.
Yeah, maybe that'll be next.
Maybe, yeah.
So if you're thinking about Dredge,
I highly recommend that you buy Dredge.
I think it's available and everything.
I think so.
I'm pretty sure.
Decent, right.
Lovely.
Why is Alexa talking to me?
I don't know.
Why is she talking?
And on that note, see you later.
Uru.
Thanks you.