Another comics event officially calls it a day. Comics Salopia – the British comics festival that took place in the picturesque western English town of Shrewsbury – will no longer continue. The news came via a post on Facebook by event director Shane Chebsey over the weekend.
On public Facebook groups for Comics Salopia and The Shrewsbury Comics Trail, Chebsey wrote:
“So some of you may be wondering why this group has gone quiet.
And some of you may already have heard the news through the grapevine.
Comics Salopia – Shrewsbury Town Comics Festival is now officially closed down.”
He then expanded on the underlying reasons:
“After losing a considerable amount of money on the 2022 festival due to a combination of the train strikes and lack of funding from our usual sources Sarah [Prince, Chebsey’s business partner] and I decided it would not be sensible to try and continue.
“The [Community Interest Company, CIC] has therefore now been discontinued and all activities have been cancelled.
“Obviously we made this decision with a very heavy heart, but firmly believe it was the only option available to us.”
Comics Salopia held its first event pre-pandemic in 2019. The event was spread across the town of Shrewsbury – with set ups at the town museum and the local castle (because Britain…) both years. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed a follow up event until 2022. In the interim, the festival was able to set up the Shrewsbury Comics Trail which was, in their words, “9 giant pieces of art telling one huge story by some of the world’s greatest comic creators”. Artists featured included Doug Braithwaite, Hannah Berry, Rachael Smith, Jimmy Broxton and Mike Perkins with an interlinking narrative written by John Wagner. Unveiled July 2021, it remains standing today.
Comics Salopia’s post-Covid recovery edition was unfortunately beset by a multitude of external problems – Brexit, impact of inflation on incomes, and a train strike the weekend of the festival keeping many away. Guests at the slimmed down 2022 event included locals John Wagner, Charlie Adlard, and Mike Perkins, as well as such known names as David Roach, Esad Ribic, Dave Gibbons, Dan Cornwell, Laura Howell and Anna Morozova.
This isn’t the first show to be shuttered by external circumstances in the UK. Shane Chebsey’s other regular event – the International Comic Expo, in Birmingham and Brighton – also had to cancel after a sudden significant ticket sale drop last year. It had been running since 2014.
While Chebsey has been organising comics events since 2006, he has chosen to refocus on his art and publishing ventures. In April 2022 he started new publishing house Scratch Comics and run multiple successful Kickstarter campaigns for Laurence Alison and David Hitchcock’s Hedrek series and Claudia Christian’s Dark Legacies series (the second issue of which is currently live on Kickstarter). It has also published a Dracula continuation comic – Dracula The Return: Cult of the White Worm – set after the events of the classic novel, written by Dacre Stoker and Chris McAuley, art by Chris Geary and Matt Soffe.
You can read Shane Chebsey’s statement in full below:
“So some of you may be wondering why this group has gone quiet.
And some of you may already have heard the news through the grapevine.
Comics Salopia – Shrewsbury Town Comics Festival is now officially closed down.
After losing a considerable amount of money on the 2022 festival due to a combination of the train strikes and lack of funding from our usual sources Sarah and I decided it would not be sensible to try and continue.
The CIC has therefore now been discontinued and all activities have been cancelled.
Obviously we made this decision with a very heavy heart, but firmly believe it was the only option available to us.
However we would also like to reflect with great happiness and pride on 4 years of very successful events, including the Comics Trail, which is still there to enjoy today, and the drink and draw events we held.
And of course the two main festivals we put on from 2019 to 2022, which saw thousands of people visiting our beautiful town of Shrewsbury and helping to put us on the map as the home of great comic art.
And this legacy has continued with the recent Bell Vue Artist festival incorporating comic art into its programme this year.
I would like to thank every person and every organisation that supported us:
All the cosplayers;
all the guest creators;
all of the venues and their staff;
all the sponsors;
the Councils;
and of course all the fans.
And most of all a massive thank you to Charlie and Lynette Adlard, without whom we definitely could not have made all of the events possible.
I will be running some very small educational events over the years independently so please feel free to follow my personal page for news of these.
Thank you all.
And don’t forget to keep exploring comics… as an art form and a storytelling medium they are almost unlimited in their potential.
With love and gratitude
Shane Chebsey
Former Event Director
Comics Salopia.
Ps if you’d like to see what I’m working on now, feel free to check out my new publishing venture at: www.scratchcomics.co.uk”
