Games Day 2008

Doesn't time fly? It doesn't seem like 12 months have passed since I put up an early post on this blog about Games Day 2007, and here I am about to commence with my write-up of Games Day 2008...

So, anyway, to get to the point... Yesterday I headed up to Birmingham for a couple of hours to immerse myself in all things Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, catch up with old friends, make a few new ones and even talk a bit of business.

Games Day was bigger than ever, now occupying the NEC's Hall One, as well as the Arena and Pavilion. There were the usual participation games, pre-release models, opportunities to find out more about how Games Workshop's games are created, brand new computer games to test run, and, of course, the latest Black Library products available a good month or more before they'll be out on your local high street.

It was in the BL's signing area that I spent most of my time. BL's top authors - Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill - had their own signing tables with queues that had to be seen to be believed. They were there all day as well, with only a few minutes off for lunch for good behaviour.

But how was it for me? Well I caught up with BL editors Lindsey Priestley and Nick Kyme, talked Doctor Who with top scribe (and all round ace bloke) James Swallow, waved nonchalantly at Graham McNeill, didn't even attempt to chat to Dan Abnett, but instead spoke to his wife and editor Nik Vincent about grammar and style (and our respective kids), got excited about all things steampunk with BL head honcho George Mann, reminisced about the good ol' days with Paul Sawyer (one time White Dwarf editor and now of Warlord Games), got up to speed with what artist extraordinaire Karl Kopinski is doing now and met Rob Clark - who recognised me from my blog and with whom I discussed both the past, and the possible future, of Fighting Fantasy.

So, all in all, a good day.

And to end, here are some snaps from the day...