Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, kickstarter, true believers

The True Believers Comic Festival For 2015

Published Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:00:08 -0600

The True Believers Comic Festival is a new UK convention for people who love comics, by people who love comics, taking place on Saturday 7th February 2015 at Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire. By bringing together fans, artists, writers, creators, sellers and cosplayers, True Believers is a great one day celebration of everything you love about comics. Co-founded and organised by Stuart Mulrain, Jo Hartley and Andy Hanks, with the support of Cheltenham's Proud Lion Comic Shop and Jon Lock Comics, the True Believers Guest List includes convention favourites like Dylan Teague, Mike Collins, Lee Sullivan, Laurence Campbell, Lee Garbett, Jon Lock, Kate Brown, Lee Townsend, Nich Angell and Emma Vieceli, with more names to be added. Kickstarter ends at 8:01pm on Wednesday 5th March 2014

Stuart Mulrain writes,

Around a year ago, I found myself knee deep in the organisation of a local short film festival in my hometown of Gloucester. At one point I turned to my friend and co-organiser Andy and we both exchanged a look of bewildered despair at the latest hurdle to overcome one of us said that we wished we were putting on a comic-con.
As it turned out, the film festival was a moderate success for the most part and we began discussing putting on the next one. At the film festival, we'd had a sideshow in which Jo, a burlesque dancer specialising in nerd based routines, had performed her Tron dance. A couple of weeks after the festival, she approached us with the idea of putting on a small comic convention in Gloucester.

This appealed to both Andy and I. We'd both been comic book fans since we were at school together in the early 1990's, both of us spending most of our Spanish lessons talking about the comics I had just discovered. As we discussed the idea of a comic convention of our own, it grew from the initial village hall idea into a full scale event at a major local venue. Our motto was that we could dream big and scale it back.

So we set about drawing up a plan and finding a venue. That bit was easy as the Racecourse in Cheltenham was the obvious spot to be the home of our event. The venue has the recognition and prestige we were looking for if we were to be taken seriously as a new comic book event and if you're trying to attract guests, traders and fans, you want to be taken seriously. With a venue in place and a date in mind (which we them changed – more on that in a minute), we set about coming up with a name and a plan of action to get the money together to put on the event.

The name was incredibly tricky; what do you call your event that hasn't already been used? Several names were thrown around before we settled on The True Believers Comic Convention. The name sounded catchy to us, it had a basis in comics legend and, quite frankly, it would take an army of fans who truly believed in us and what we were doing to get this thing going.

The next logical step was to include some key figures from the Cheltenham comic book community so we approached local comic book writer Jon Lock (who we had met at our film festival) who gladly jumped on board and put us in touch with the owner of the Cheltenham comic book shop; Proud Lion. It was Ben at Proud Lion who suggested we call ourselves a Festival rather than a Convention so that we'd fit in better with the grand tradition of Cheltenham Festivals.

With their help, the word about the event got out and preparations were made to get a Kickstarter project together to get the necessary funds together to make this event a reality. It was a big ask to get people to back an event that was still over a year away by buying their tickets and tables for the event now, but it was something we thought people would be able to get behind to help make it happen.

And so we launched the Kickstarter and it got off to a strong start, pulling in the first 20% of our £5,500 goal within the first two days. Unfortunately it then took another (very tense) 2 & half weeks to pull in the next 35%, leaving us with 45% to get in the last 10 days. It has been an epic journey of incredible highs and despairingly dark lows, but the overall goodwill and support that has been sent our way (by backers and people who just like what we are doing) has been incredibly overwhelming at times.

But then there is still that last 45% to go. No easy task I grant you, but fortunately we have been raised on a diet of can do, triumph over adversity type movies (although in most of those movies, the initial plan actually fails and they succeed by finding another way, but we'll ignore that) so we believe that we can hit that goal and maybe even pass it.
We refined and added to the event as the Kickstarter went on, in a bid to make it more appealing to people, adding names to our guest list, lining more up to be confirmed at a later date. There are a few very exciting emails from some very exciting people in our inbox and we really hope to be able to tell you more about them as the event moves forward.

Probably the biggest and most difficult change we faced was the date. When we chose our original March date (the one in the Kickstarter video) it was so far in advance that the calendar was wide open, and a little naively thinking that once we had set that date, it would be ours. Please understand, we didn't think we would be so big that everything would move out of our way, we just thought that once a date was taken, it was taken.
Realising our oversight, we decided that the best way to bring people the best possible event was to move to Saturday 7th February 2015 instead, freeing people up to go to the bigger conventions that already fill up the month of March. Fortunately the move didn't cause any damage and everybody was happy to move with us. A lot of ticket holders were excited that it was now happening even sooner.

So why should people back us? Why should they believe in our event and what we're doing? Why should they be True Believers with us? This is the part where I could give you a really slick sales pitch and make you a lot of promises that, at this stage, I can't really make. I could tell you about the exclusive offers we have on the Kickstarter, including the True Believer ticket that gets holders exclusive perks on event day. I could tell you about the awesome and Kickstarter exclusive Nich Angell print that everyone who backs us will be getting (see below).

I could draw your attention to the Guest List page on our website and tell you that there are more names to be added. And while it is true that there are more names to be added once we have sorted out the finer details of scheduling etc, it just sounds a little like I'm fobbing you off with the promise of names that have popped into your head, despite me never actually saying them to you.

So why should you back us, because if you're being honest, it's actually sounding like I'm doing a pretty good job of talking you out of it. The truth is I'm a rubbish sales man. I find it hard to put into words, what it is about us that should be getting you excited. . I live in constant fear of over selling the event and let's be honest, nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. I could make you wild promises that could fall through for any number of reasons beyond my control.

What I can tell you is that I am 100% dedicated to this event and making it a success. I eat, drink and sleep this event. When I'm not at work or spending time with my wife and children, I am spreading the word about this event to anyone and everyone who will listen in the hope that they'll buy a ticket, a table, a sponsor slot or even jump on a plane and come be our guest on the day.

I'm not doing it for money (although that would be nice), I'm doing it because I love comics. Because we live in a great time where you can be a comic book fan and have these types of events. I'm doing it because Gloucestershire needs an event like this. I'm doing it because I have told you that it is what I'm doing and I'm damned if I'm going to go back on my word and let everyone who has already backed us (or thinking about it) down.

I'm doing it for my kids (and yours) so that, years down the line, they can have this event, should they ever fall in love with comics like their old man. I'm doing it because Superman came to me in a dream and told me to do it.

Mostly though, I'm doing it for the 7 year old me. The boy who picked up a UK edition of a Superman comic because he'd seen Christopher Reeve fly in a film a few weeks before and didn't even know there was such a thing as a Superman comic book. I'm doing it for the 11 year old me who was in awe of Michael Keaton as Batman. I'm doing it for the 13 year old me who was captivated by the idea of Superman coming back from the dead and who has bought comics every week since. I'm doing it for the 14 year old who watched Dean Cain as Superman every Saturday in Lois & Clark and listened to cassettes of the Dirk Maggs Superman and Batman radio series on an almost daily basis.

I'm doing it because I am a True Believer and I think you're a True Believer to!

If you'd like to know more about True Believers then checkout our website at www.oktruebelievers.com where you can find links to our Facebook and Twitter pages and their Kickstarter project.

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