Hi-Ex 2011? We have booked Eden Court for 26th 27th March!  Put it in your diary NOW. We hope to bring you as fantastic event as this year’s, but there will be a LOT of work to do between now and then. Hi-Ex would be nothing without all the support and assistance we get from the lovely comics community.

Talking of which, we had a brilliant time at the Bristol comics and small press expo this weekend, much thanks to the organisers of these for all their hard work. There is always a lot of news and gossip after conventions, we’ll let you know all the good stuff as and when..

The eagle awards; public voting is now live for the Comics industry’s pre-eminent international awards; many of hi-ex’s previous guests have been nominated as well as  FutureQuake which organiser Richmond co-edits. Go vote for your favourites & spread the word! Details will be released soon about the new Eagle initiative which will be a chance for comic creator hopefuls to get published and win cash! We’ll keep you posted.

Also for people keen to enter the industry, a fantastic set of courses in ‘concept art, computer game and comic art’ by computer training academy - these are being offered in Dundee with Hi-Ex regular Gary Erskine as one of the tutors.

The Hi-Ex organisers are off to Bristol Comic Expo this weekend. We will be announcing the Dates of Hi-EX 2011 shortly after. It may seem like a long time away but the Hi-Ex gnomes are working all year around to try & keep the thrill-power levels in the North stabilised.

Meanwhile, The charity Auction, Raffle and Artists donations at Hi-Ex 2010 all raised an astonishing sum for Children 1st of ..... £2331.35 well done and THANKYOU everyone !

Our wonderful Web-genius Micheal Carroll has been un-chained from the javascript mines to get on with the launch of his new book and other exciting projects. We are incredibly grateful for all the un-paid work he has put over the last three years, its been very generous of him. Hi-Ex can has only survived becuase of this good will from all those involved.

So do bare with us while the web tools are picked up by ourselves and we bumble along trying not to destroy the world wide web and civilization as we know it. ( apologies also for the inferior spelling and grammar fu )

Rich and Vicky are also hurricanes of comic activity in their own rights, keep up with them on their sites throughout the year. Hi-Ex slaves Ish and Lukáš have run away to the Czech Republic, maybe we worked them too hard ? We wish them all the very best.

Hi-Ex guest Graeme Neil Reid relates his experiences of Hi-Ex 2010 in his latest blog.

Jeremy Briggs reviews Hi-Ex 2010 on downthetubes.net.

Some more reviews of Hi-Ex 2010 today, from Dave Shelton and Paul Birch!

Update: Some more on-line reviews!
Stacey Whittle in SFX
Terry Martin of Murky Depths

We have another bunch of great Hi-Ex photos for you in the Photo Gallery!

The incredible Sarah McIntyre has written a wonderful entry on Hi-Ex 2010 - complete with some amazing pictures - on her blog: check it out!

More blog reviews - courtesy of Paul Thompson - from Oscillating Brow and Alexi Conman

And check out the Photo Gallery for the first batch of images from Hi-Ex 2010!

Also just in: A message from Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky:

We did it again, it seems!

Hi-Ex 2010 is over, and, by all accounts, you good folks enjoyed it even more than you did the previous ones! We're astonishingly grateful to you all for coming!

Without turning this brief note into a long list of thank-yous, we'll just say a big thanks to all our guests, to the 501st UK Garrison for their bigger and more spectacular turnout this year, to the staff at Eden Court (you'll never know how much we appreciate the incredible work put in by the box office, ushers and tech staff). Thanks to Mike for keeping this magnificent website up and running and Dave for creating the programme.

Thanks to (mmmm... this is turning into a long list after all!) all the exhibitors who came - many for the first time - we appreciate you taking the chance on coming all the way up here and hope it was a fruitful journey! And also, crucially, to the good people who generously donated items to the auction and raffle as well as to the mountain of goodie bags.

At the time of writing we haven't yet gathered all the money raised for Children 1st - but we can report that this year the total has utterly demolished last year's total of £1600. We're looking at a figure of at least £2000! So well done you!

-- Vicky & Richmond

It's all over...!

Hi-Ex 2010 was a great success, judging by the recent press clippings and the mentions on the following blogs:

Hi-Arts
Forbidden Planet
Kev F. Sutherland

Stand by for a message from Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky...!

More press coverage of last weekend's Stormtrooper invasion of Inverness's Eastgate Centre, this time from the Inverness Courier!

Hi-Ex also gets a mention on the BBC website again, with co-organiser Vicky's artwork being featured in an article about renewable energy, along with some artwork by comic artists Johnny McMonagle and Mo Ali!

Hi-Ex made front page news again today after the Hi-Ex team, Children 1st and a member of the 501st UK Garrison stormed the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness to promote Hi-Ex and the charity auction. The stormtrooper was a great hit with all ages & we look forward to a troop of them keeping order at the weekend.

Yesterday's appearance by the Hi-Ex crew at the Eastgate Centre, Inverness proved to be very popular, especially with the younger folks, as a quick trip to the 2010 Photo Gallery will demonstrate! Thanks go out to the loyal and dedicated Stormtrooper of the 501st UK Garrison who kept the crowds under control and provided security for the Children 1st donation bucket!

John Burdis, organiser of the Hi-Ex Hell-Trek, has been going above and beyond the call of duty in his promotion of the convention: he was recently featured in the Kent Messenger and has kindly send us the clipping!

The Paper Jam Comics Collective - a gathering of talented small-press comic publishers - will be exhibiting their wares at Hi-Ex 2010. Among the gems they'll have for sales are...

Don't forget that if you want a taste of things to come or like to visit the shops on a Saturday, head to the Eastgate Centre in Inverness tomorrow where a Stormtrooper from the 501st UK Garrison will be on patrol between noon and 2pm. His duties are to protect Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky who will be on hand to tell folks about the convention. He will also be ensuring that people give generously to Children 1st who will be there all afternoon. May the force be with you! (Yes, that's a terribly predictable and corny thing to say, but it's more appropriate than that other famous Star Wars phrase, "I've got a bad feeling about this.")

We're delighted to welcome a great new addition to our list of guests: Will Pickering, artist of the highly-regarded Burke & Hare graphic novel for Insomnia!

Another gem for the Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction: Sideshow Collectibles have donated a stunning hand-painted World of Warcraft diorama denoting the battle between Blood Elf Rogue and Draenei Paladin. Limited to only 600 pieces world-wide, these 1:9 scale polystone-cast dioramas are officially sold out!

The first of Hi-Ex's Comics Outreach Classes with Hi-Ex organiser & artist Vicky at West Coast Primary School of Lochcarron was a great success! The older pupils all created a one-page comic-strip for their project on the Highland Clearances, many of them tackled issues of perspective, action scenes and 3D buildings with great dexterity. The younger pupils practiced their drawing skills and produced some wonderful comics on the theme of Polar Pegions, some gorgeous friendly polar bears, penguins and fearsome leopard seals.

The next of our Outreach Classes will take place in the medium of Gaelic! On March 23rd animator Leslie MacKenzie of West Highland Animation will teach the Gaelic medium pupils of Fort William Primary School all about writing and drawing their own comic strips.

Hi-Ex guest Kev F. Sutherland will travel to Gairloch High School on Friday March 26th to deliver one of his famous Comics masterclasses. For more info see Kev's website!

These workshops have all been supported by the Highland Council.

Hi-Ex guest Gary Erskine has donated a truly stunning inked sketch of Elektra for the Charity Auction!

Hi-Ex 2010 guest Simon Fraser will be selling two absolutely stunning Nikolai Dante pages - see larger versions on his website here - one of which will be for Haiti Relief.

The Hi-Ex 2010 map of Eden Court is now on-line on the Tickets & Info page - study it well, for there are only 19 Earth days left before the convention begins!

We've also added the 2010 schedule to the Events page - start planning your convention now!

The Great Hi-Ex Hell-Trek has captured the attention of the BBC!

Keep an eye out for the Hell-Trek Radwagon featuring the logo (right) if you're anwhere along the route on Thursday night, March 25th...

The Hell-Trek departs Maidstone at about 17:30, then on to Gatwick train station, arriving at 18:30. Then it's around the M25 and reaching North London at 19:30. Next stop is Milton Keynes train station about 20:30. Then to Manchester's inner ring road, arriving between 22:30 and 23:00. After that, it's north to Glasgow, arriving between 02:00 and 03:00 on Friday morning, and then on to Inverness!

Three great new guests have confirmed their appearance at this year's Hi-Ex... All the way from independent comic company Com.x we are delighted to announce Eddie Deighton, Andi Ewington and Jon Sloan!

Hi-Ex guest Graeme Neil Reid has recently posted his wonderful mock-up cover for the long-missed SF comic Starblazer on the Scotch Corner blog, and - being the truly generous gent that we've come to love - he decided to run a competition in which one lucky winner would receive the original A3 pencil art for the cover, plus a selection of Starblazer issues...

As it happened, the lucky winner was Hi-Ex's very own co-organiser Vicky Stonebridge! Vicky, also well-known for her generosity, has donated her prize to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

The first of Hi-Ex's Outreach Workshops will take place on 10th March at Lochcarron Primary School. With the main Hi-Ex event taking place on the east coast in Inverness, it only seemed fair to bring some actvities over to the West coast too. Hi-Ex organiser & artist Vicky will spend the day at the school teaching a basic introduction to writing & drawing comic strips. The children will produce their own strips themed to match their current school projects: 'Polar regions' and 'The Clearances'.

Congratulations to Hi-Ex guest Sarah McIntyre! Her illustrated book You Can't Eat a Princess!, written by Gillan Rogerson, is available now from Amazon and all good book sellers - a week earlier than expected!

When King Cupcake is kidnapped by hungry aliens, it's up to his feisty daughter, Princess Spaghetti, to save him from becoming their dinner. She blasts off into space to show those naughty aliens who's boss - and introduces them to a delicious alternative to people: chocolate! This hilarious romp will delight chocolate-lovers everywhere!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Alan Grant has unfortunately had to cancel his appearance at this year's Hi-Ex. But we forgive him because he's such a great guy, a fantastic writer and one of the most important and influential comic creators in the world!

ghostboy is a new mobile comic currently available on the Apple App Store and the Android Market, and it's become so popular that its creators, scarycaravan media, are now developing it into an animated series!

ghostboy tells the story of Tristan, who has recently moved away from the city and into a small village on the outskirts of town with his mother, living next door to the local cemetery. On the night of his 11th birthday, Tristan's life takes a dramatic turn after the ghost of a little girl visits him. The comic follows Tristan's adventures in his newfound life.

Check out scarycaravan's blog for lots more info on the project, including details of how everyone can become involved in the production of the animated series!

The Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction gets a nice mention in today's Forbidden Planet blog...

Two more goodies for the Charity Auction...

From Hi-Ex guest John Higgins: the original black-and-white artwork for the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine #292 (illustrating that issue's Dredd tale drawn by John, written by Al Ewing and coloured by Sally Hurst, all of whom are guests at this year's Hi-Ex!).

A genuine Termight Replicas authorised Judge's Belt Buckle, cast (from a 3D sculpt by Hi-Ex guest Michael Carroll, based on a design by Cliff Robinson) in Zinc Alloy and then gold-plated with an enamelled shield. 9cm tall, 12cm wide, 1cm thick and features a 4cm belt loop and spike on the back.

This year's poster image by Colin MacNeil of Judge Dredd and Ro-Jaws fishing for Nessie (or perhaps it's the other way around?) has proved to be a great hit - and now's your chance to own the original line-art! Colin has very genreously offered to donate the drawing to our Charity Auction.

Colin writes: "The image is roughly 12" by 14". It's on layout paper, so it's quite flimsy. I'll frame it up so it'll be easier for whoever buys it at the auction can get it home safely."

How cool is that?!

Hi-Ex Guest Cam Kennedy proves to be not only one of the world's greatest comic artists, but also one of the most generous! He has donated to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction three Star Wars pages: A signed print of Boba Fett, plus two original sequential pages from Star Wars: Dark Empire!

Special Effects company Nimba Creations (who have provided effects for King Kong, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Derren Brown's Trick or Treat, among many others) will be attending Hi-Ex in March, making some of their gelatine prosthetics available for sale and doing two live demos - your chance to watch a real life Werewolf transformation!

Congratulations to Hi-Ex guest Sarah McIntyre who has won the Bishop's Stortford Picture Book Award for Morris the Mankiest Monster! See Sarah's blog for more details!

Another auction beauty... An original page by comics maestro David Lloyd from his classic Vertigo Comics' War Stories segment "J for Jenny"!

Hi-Ex hits the news again... Check out the News Clippings page for the latest clipping, from Highland News (5 Feb 2010).

The Hi-Ex Hell-Trek is an expedition of brave comic fans who are driving all the way to Hi-Ex from the south coast of England in a mini-bus. It's the brainchild of John Burdis, who has kindly donated one of the polo shirts (with a logo designed by the multi-talented Mike Carroll) he's had made up for the trekkers.

You literally cannot buy these shirts - in fact only eighteen are known to be in existence in this dimension - but John has very kindly produced an extra shirt specially to donate to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

More Charity Auction items today, from Graeme Neil Reid and John Owens (who has donated a sketch byThomas Crielly).

Guest Simon Fraser has kindly donated a stunning page of original artwork for the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

More great items for the Charity Auction: two pages of original comic art from top artist Boo Cook!

The DFC is back! Starting with three FANTASTIC books, the DFC Library is a bold new collection of comic stories. Each book showcases a single strip from the much-loved weekly comic, the DFC. The DFC Library launches with Good Dog, Bad Dog by Dave Shelton in March: Dave describes it as 'a knockabout comic noir adventure comedy full of slapstick humour, terrible puns and exciting action'! This is followed by MeZolith in April from master storyteller Ben Haggarty and artist Adam Brockbank and The Spider Moon by Kate Brown in May.

Dave Shelton will be at this year's Hi-Ex promoting Good Dog, Bad Dog so do drop by his table to see him sketch and to buy your very own signed copy of the book!

More great items for the Charity Auction are on the way... First up, an übercool Classic Tardic t-shirt kindly donated by Highland Who (a group of Doctor Who fans living in the Highlands of Scotland).

Oh crikey, it's... The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre!

Oh yes. Tell your loved ones. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. They're not going to want to miss this!

Kev F. Sutherland will be presenting an hour-long presentation of The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre absolutely live at Hi-Ex 2010!

The stars of BBC3's Comedy Shuffle & Upstaged, MTV's Best Show Ever, and 4 whole seconds on The Culture Show bring you a brand new hour of songs, sketches, socks and violence. And stuff about comics.

The Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction is under starters orders... Already we have some very cool items donated, with lots more to come!

Hi-Ex is featured on the BBC News website!

Sadly, Yishan Li has had to cancel her appearance at this year's Hi-Ex. We would like to thank her for all her support and wish her the very best for the future!

Preparations for the Hi-Ex Charity Auction are under way! We've already received some wonderful items from some amazing donors - and there's many more to come - and we'll be featuring some of these very soon on the Auction page.

In the meantime, check out some of the amazing goodies that featured in our 2008 and 2009 auctions!

As seen on this site's welcome page, here's the Official Hi-Ex 2010 Welcome Pic provided by the staggeringly talented and utterly lovely Colin MacNeil...

Better sit down for this one, folks! We are honoured to announce the return to Hi-Ex of the one and only...

Cam Kennedy

Visit the About Hi-Ex page to sign up for the brand-new Hi-Ex Newsletter!

The wonderful people at Cubicle 7 Entertainment have donated a bunch of fantastic prizes to Hi-Ex 2010 - more details coming soon!

Three top guests returning to Hi-Ex for 2010: Asia Alfasi, Yishan Li and Kev F. Sutherland!

Top comic creator Michel Rodrigue has kindly agreed to join us for Hi-Ex 2010!

Another two new guests today: top artists Stevie White and and Neil Roberts!

Update: Graeme Neil Reid will be returning for Hi-Ex 2010! Woohoo!

Today we're officially opening the Hi-Ex 2010 Exhibitors Page - only a few exhibitors on the list right now, but there's lots more to come!

Two new guests: the crack comic-creating team of writer Roger Gibson and artist Vince Danks. Even better: The boys have kindly agreed to launce the second collected edition of Harker at Hi-Ex 2010!

Another new guest: Jasper Bark!

Tickets for Hi-Ex 2010 are now available - see the Tickets & Info page for full details!

We're delighted to announce that comic artist Alex Moore will be joining us for Hi-Ex 2010!

Continuing to bring you the very best comics guests, Hi-Ex 2010 is proud to announce... Charlie Adlard!

Better sit down for this one, folks...

New guest: Simon Fraser. How cool is that?!

The latest great guest to sign up for Hi-Ex 2010: Jim Medway!

Another fine guest for you: top illustrator Gary Northfield!

This morning's news: a new guest and a returning one... Sarah McIntyre and Gary Erskine!

We're back in the news again! Articles on the Highland Council's support of Hi-Ex have appeared today on the BBC and DownTheTubes websites!

The always-engaging Dave Shelton has vowed to return to next year's Hi-Ex - woohoo!

We've been buzzing with excitement all day here at Hi-Ex Towers, for the one and only Alan Grant will be returning to Hi-Ex in 2010!

Guest list update: Comics legend Colin MacNeil is coming back! Oh yes!

And another one... The great Al Ewing has promised to make a return appearance to Hi-Ex 2010!

As promised yesterday, our guest list for Hi-Ex 2010 is still growing... The delightful - and very talented - Chie Kutsuwada (also known as Chi-Tan) will be returning!

150 days to go to Hi-Ex 2010, and in celebration of this auspicious occasion, we're announcing our first batch of confirmed guests! In alphabetical order...

Michael Carroll, Ferg Handley, John Higgins, Sally Hurst, Inko, Ian Sharman and Dave Taylor

There are more guests yet to confirm... Keep checking back!

Hi-Ex co-organiser Vicky has been in the news again recently: There was an interview in The Glasgow Herald Magazine on 17/10/09 for their 'lifelines' feature. And on 25/10/09 She was a guest on the 'Sunday Brunch' Radio programme on Two lochs Radio talking with presenters Mike and Graham about her role as a retained Fire Fighter and how it fits with being an Artist.

Meanwhile Richmond is working on his own projects with include the forthcoming comic Turning Tiger illustrated by Alex Moore with Renegade Arts Entertainment and writing the amazing true-life story of Allen Pinkerton, who founded the famous wild west Pinkerton Detective Agency, for Insomnia Publications.

Hi-Ex 2010 will be supported by The Highland Council through their Highland Culture Programme. This will make a huge difference to what we can achieve and is a great weight off our shoulders, it includes an element for outreach workshops in the week before the main event. This funding gives us confidence that we can keep Hi-Ex going, onwards & upwards!

Special Effects company Nimba Creations (who have worked on King Kong and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, among many others) were on-hand at Hi-Ex to provide stunning live demonstrations of their work. If you weren't lucky enough to see them in action, you can check out the brand-new How-To video (filmed at Hi-Ex) on their website, where a mortal human is expertly transformed into a werewolf!

If you like what you see (and you will!), then you can also purchase your own special effects make-up, prosthetics and other materials from Nimba's site.

Hi-Ex guest Graeme Neil Reid relates his experiences of Hi-Ex 2010 in his latest blog.

Jeremy Briggs reviews Hi-Ex 2010 on downthetubes.net.

Some more reviews of Hi-Ex 2010 today, from Dave Shelton and Paul Birch!

Update: Some more on-line reviews!
Stacey Whittle in SFX
Terry Martin of Murky Depths

We have another bunch of great Hi-Ex photos for you in the Photo Gallery!

The incredible Sarah McIntyre has written a wonderful entry on Hi-Ex 2010 - complete with some amazing pictures - on her blog: check it out!

More blog reviews - courtesy of Paul Thompson - from Oscillating Brow and Alexi Conman

And check out the Photo Gallery for the first batch of images from Hi-Ex 2010!

Also just in: A message from Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky:

We did it again, it seems!

Hi-Ex 2010 is over, and, by all accounts, you good folks enjoyed it even more than you did the previous ones! We're astonishingly grateful to you all for coming!

Without turning this brief note into a long list of thank-yous, we'll just say a big thanks to all our guests, to the 501st UK Garrison for their bigger and more spectacular turnout this year, to the staff at Eden Court (you'll never know how much we appreciate the incredible work put in by the box office, ushers and tech staff). Thanks to Mike for keeping this magnificent website up and running and Dave for creating the programme.

Thanks to (mmmm... this is turning into a long list after all!) all the exhibitors who came - many for the first time - we appreciate you taking the chance on coming all the way up here and hope it was a fruitful journey! And also, crucially, to the good people who generously donated items to the auction and raffle as well as to the mountain of goodie bags.

At the time of writing we haven't yet gathered all the money raised for Children 1st - but we can report that this year the total has utterly demolished last year's total of £1600. We're looking at a figure of at least £2000! So well done you!

-- Vicky & Richmond

It's all over...!

Hi-Ex 2010 was a great success, judging by the recent press clippings and the mentions on the following blogs:

Hi-Arts
Forbidden Planet
Kev F. Sutherland

Stand by for a message from Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky...!

More press coverage of last weekend's Stormtrooper invasion of Inverness's Eastgate Centre, this time from the Inverness Courier!

Hi-Ex also gets a mention on the BBC website again, with co-organiser Vicky's artwork being featured in an article about renewable energy, along with some artwork by comic artists Johnny McMonagle and Mo Ali!

Hi-Ex made front page news again today after the Hi-Ex team, Children 1st and a member of the 501st UK Garrison stormed the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness to promote Hi-Ex and the charity auction. The stormtrooper was a great hit with all ages & we look forward to a troop of them keeping order at the weekend.

Yesterday's appearance by the Hi-Ex crew at the Eastgate Centre, Inverness proved to be very popular, especially with the younger folks, as a quick trip to the 2010 Photo Gallery will demonstrate! Thanks go out to the loyal and dedicated Stormtrooper of the 501st UK Garrison who kept the crowds under control and provided security for the Children 1st donation bucket!

John Burdis, organiser of the Hi-Ex Hell-Trek, has been going above and beyond the call of duty in his promotion of the convention: he was recently featured in the Kent Messenger and has kindly send us the clipping!

The Paper Jam Comics Collective - a gathering of talented small-press comic publishers - will be exhibiting their wares at Hi-Ex 2010. Among the gems they'll have for sales are...

Don't forget that if you want a taste of things to come or like to visit the shops on a Saturday, head to the Eastgate Centre in Inverness tomorrow where a Stormtrooper from the 501st UK Garrison will be on patrol between noon and 2pm. His duties are to protect Hi-Ex organisers Rich and Vicky who will be on hand to tell folks about the convention. He will also be ensuring that people give generously to Children 1st who will be there all afternoon. May the force be with you! (Yes, that's a terribly predictable and corny thing to say, but it's more appropriate than that other famous Star Wars phrase, "I've got a bad feeling about this.")

We're delighted to welcome a great new addition to our list of guests: Will Pickering, artist of the highly-regarded Burke & Hare graphic novel for Insomnia!

Another gem for the Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction: Sideshow Collectibles have donated a stunning hand-painted World of Warcraft diorama denoting the battle between Blood Elf Rogue and Draenei Paladin. Limited to only 600 pieces world-wide, these 1:9 scale polystone-cast dioramas are officially sold out!

The first of Hi-Ex's Comics Outreach Classes with Hi-Ex organiser & artist Vicky at West Coast Primary School of Lochcarron was a great success! The older pupils all created a one-page comic-strip for their project on the Highland Clearances, many of them tackled issues of perspective, action scenes and 3D buildings with great dexterity. The younger pupils practiced their drawing skills and produced some wonderful comics on the theme of Polar Pegions, some gorgeous friendly polar bears, penguins and fearsome leopard seals.

The next of our Outreach Classes will take place in the medium of Gaelic! On March 23rd animator Leslie MacKenzie of West Highland Animation will teach the Gaelic medium pupils of Fort William Primary School all about writing and drawing their own comic strips.

Hi-Ex guest Kev F. Sutherland will travel to Gairloch High School on Friday March 26th to deliver one of his famous Comics masterclasses. For more info see Kev's website!

These workshops have all been supported by the Highland Council.

Hi-Ex guest Gary Erskine has donated a truly stunning inked sketch of Elektra for the Charity Auction!

Hi-Ex 2010 guest Simon Fraser will be selling two absolutely stunning Nikolai Dante pages - see larger versions on his website here - one of which will be for Haiti Relief.

The Hi-Ex 2010 map of Eden Court is now on-line on the Tickets & Info page - study it well, for there are only 19 Earth days left before the convention begins!

We've also added the 2010 schedule to the Events page - start planning your convention now!

The Great Hi-Ex Hell-Trek has captured the attention of the BBC!

Keep an eye out for the Hell-Trek Radwagon featuring the logo (right) if you're anwhere along the route on Thursday night, March 25th...

The Hell-Trek departs Maidstone at about 17:30, then on to Gatwick train station, arriving at 18:30. Then it's around the M25 and reaching North London at 19:30. Next stop is Milton Keynes train station about 20:30. Then to Manchester's inner ring road, arriving between 22:30 and 23:00. After that, it's north to Glasgow, arriving between 02:00 and 03:00 on Friday morning, and then on to Inverness!

Three great new guests have confirmed their appearance at this year's Hi-Ex... All the way from independent comic company Com.x we are delighted to announce Eddie Deighton, Andi Ewington and Jon Sloan!

Hi-Ex guest Graeme Neil Reid has recently posted his wonderful mock-up cover for the long-missed SF comic Starblazer on the Scotch Corner blog, and - being the truly generous gent that we've come to love - he decided to run a competition in which one lucky winner would receive the original A3 pencil art for the cover, plus a selection of Starblazer issues...

As it happened, the lucky winner was Hi-Ex's very own co-organiser Vicky Stonebridge! Vicky, also well-known for her generosity, has donated her prize to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

The first of Hi-Ex's Outreach Workshops will take place on 10th March at Lochcarron Primary School. With the main Hi-Ex event taking place on the east coast in Inverness, it only seemed fair to bring some actvities over to the West coast too. Hi-Ex organiser & artist Vicky will spend the day at the school teaching a basic introduction to writing & drawing comic strips. The children will produce their own strips themed to match their current school projects: 'Polar regions' and 'The Clearances'.

Congratulations to Hi-Ex guest Sarah McIntyre! Her illustrated book You Can't Eat a Princess!, written by Gillan Rogerson, is available now from Amazon and all good book sellers - a week earlier than expected!

When King Cupcake is kidnapped by hungry aliens, it's up to his feisty daughter, Princess Spaghetti, to save him from becoming their dinner. She blasts off into space to show those naughty aliens who's boss - and introduces them to a delicious alternative to people: chocolate! This hilarious romp will delight chocolate-lovers everywhere!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Alan Grant has unfortunately had to cancel his appearance at this year's Hi-Ex. But we forgive him because he's such a great guy, a fantastic writer and one of the most important and influential comic creators in the world!

ghostboy is a new mobile comic currently available on the Apple App Store and the Android Market, and it's become so popular that its creators, scarycaravan media, are now developing it into an animated series!

ghostboy tells the story of Tristan, who has recently moved away from the city and into a small village on the outskirts of town with his mother, living next door to the local cemetery. On the night of his 11th birthday, Tristan's life takes a dramatic turn after the ghost of a little girl visits him. The comic follows Tristan's adventures in his newfound life.

Check out scarycaravan's blog for lots more info on the project, including details of how everyone can become involved in the production of the animated series!

The Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction gets a nice mention in today's Forbidden Planet blog...

Two more goodies for the Charity Auction...

From Hi-Ex guest John Higgins: the original black-and-white artwork for the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine #292 (illustrating that issue's Dredd tale drawn by John, written by Al Ewing and coloured by Sally Hurst, all of whom are guests at this year's Hi-Ex!).

A genuine Termight Replicas authorised Judge's Belt Buckle, cast (from a 3D sculpt by Hi-Ex guest Michael Carroll, based on a design by Cliff Robinson) in Zinc Alloy and then gold-plated with an enamelled shield. 9cm tall, 12cm wide, 1cm thick and features a 4cm belt loop and spike on the back.

This year's poster image by Colin MacNeil of Judge Dredd and Ro-Jaws fishing for Nessie (or perhaps it's the other way around?) has proved to be a great hit - and now's your chance to own the original line-art! Colin has very genreously offered to donate the drawing to our Charity Auction.

Colin writes: "The image is roughly 12" by 14". It's on layout paper, so it's quite flimsy. I'll frame it up so it'll be easier for whoever buys it at the auction can get it home safely."

How cool is that?!

Hi-Ex Guest Cam Kennedy proves to be not only one of the world's greatest comic artists, but also one of the most generous! He has donated to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction three Star Wars pages: A signed print of Boba Fett, plus two original sequential pages from Star Wars: Dark Empire!

Special Effects company Nimba Creations (who have provided effects for King Kong, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Derren Brown's Trick or Treat, among many others) will be attending Hi-Ex in March, making some of their gelatine prosthetics available for sale and doing two live demos - your chance to watch a real life Werewolf transformation!

Congratulations to Hi-Ex guest Sarah McIntyre who has won the Bishop's Stortford Picture Book Award for Morris the Mankiest Monster! See Sarah's blog for more details!

Another auction beauty... An original page by comics maestro David Lloyd from his classic Vertigo Comics' War Stories segment "J for Jenny"!

Hi-Ex hits the news again... Check out the News Clippings page for the latest clipping, from Highland News (5 Feb 2010).

The Hi-Ex Hell-Trek is an expedition of brave comic fans who are driving all the way to Hi-Ex from the south coast of England in a mini-bus. It's the brainchild of John Burdis, who has kindly donated one of the polo shirts (with a logo designed by the multi-talented Mike Carroll) he's had made up for the trekkers.

You literally cannot buy these shirts - in fact only eighteen are known to be in existence in this dimension - but John has very kindly produced an extra shirt specially to donate to the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

More Charity Auction items today, from Graeme Neil Reid and John Owens (who has donated a sketch byThomas Crielly).

Guest Simon Fraser has kindly donated a stunning page of original artwork for the Hi-Ex Charity Auction!

More great items for the Charity Auction: two pages of original comic art from top artist Boo Cook!

The DFC is back! Starting with three FANTASTIC books, the DFC Library is a bold new collection of comic stories. Each book showcases a single strip from the much-loved weekly comic, the DFC. The DFC Library launches with Good Dog, Bad Dog by Dave Shelton in March: Dave describes it as 'a knockabout comic noir adventure comedy full of slapstick humour, terrible puns and exciting action'! This is followed by MeZolith in April from master storyteller Ben Haggarty and artist Adam Brockbank and The Spider Moon by Kate Brown in May.

Dave Shelton will be at this year's Hi-Ex promoting Good Dog, Bad Dog so do drop by his table to see him sketch and to buy your very own signed copy of the book!

More great items for the Charity Auction are on the way... First up, an übercool Classic Tardic t-shirt kindly donated by Highland Who (a group of Doctor Who fans living in the Highlands of Scotland).

Oh crikey, it's... The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre!

Oh yes. Tell your loved ones. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. They're not going to want to miss this!

Kev F. Sutherland will be presenting an hour-long presentation of The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre absolutely live at Hi-Ex 2010!

The stars of BBC3's Comedy Shuffle & Upstaged, MTV's Best Show Ever, and 4 whole seconds on The Culture Show bring you a brand new hour of songs, sketches, socks and violence. And stuff about comics.

The Hi-Ex 2010 Charity Auction is under starters orders... Already we have some very cool items donated, with lots more to come!

Hi-Ex is featured on the BBC News website!

Sadly, Yishan Li has had to cancel her appearance at this year's Hi-Ex. We would like to thank her for all her support and wish her the very best for the future!

Preparations for the Hi-Ex Charity Auction are under way! We've already received some wonderful items from some amazing donors - and there's many more to come - and we'll be featuring some of these very soon on the Auction page.

In the meantime, check out some of the amazing goodies that featured in our 2008 and 2009 auctions!

As seen on this site's welcome page, here's the Official Hi-Ex 2010 Welcome Pic provided by the staggeringly talented and utterly lovely Colin MacNeil...

Better sit down for this one, folks! We are honoured to announce the return to Hi-Ex of the one and only...

Cam Kennedy

Visit the About Hi-Ex page to sign up for the brand-new Hi-Ex Newsletter!

The wonderful people at Cubicle 7 Entertainment have donated a bunch of fantastic prizes to Hi-Ex 2010 - more details coming soon!

Three top guests returning to Hi-Ex for 2010: Asia Alfasi, Yishan Li and Kev F. Sutherland!

Top comic creator Michel Rodrigue has kindly agreed to join us for Hi-Ex 2010!

Another two new guests today: top artists Stevie White and and Neil Roberts!

Update: Graeme Neil Reid will be returning for Hi-Ex 2010! Woohoo!

Today we're officially opening the Hi-Ex 2010 Exhibitors Page - only a few exhibitors on the list right now, but there's lots more to come!

Two new guests: the crack comic-creating team of writer Roger Gibson and artist Vince Danks. Even better: The boys have kindly agreed to launce the second collected edition of Harker at Hi-Ex 2010!

Another new guest: Jasper Bark!

Tickets for Hi-Ex 2010 are now available - see the Tickets & Info page for full details!

We're delighted to announce that comic artist Alex Moore will be joining us for Hi-Ex 2010!

Continuing to bring you the very best comics guests, Hi-Ex 2010 is proud to announce... Charlie Adlard!

Better sit down for this one, folks...

New guest: Simon Fraser. How cool is that?!

The latest great guest to sign up for Hi-Ex 2010: Jim Medway!

Another fine guest for you: top illustrator Gary Northfield!

This morning's news: a new guest and a returning one... Sarah McIntyre and Gary Erskine!

We're back in the news again! Articles on the Highland Council's support of Hi-Ex have appeared today on the BBC and DownTheTubes websites!

The always-engaging Dave Shelton has vowed to return to next year's Hi-Ex - woohoo!

We've been buzzing with excitement all day here at Hi-Ex Towers, for the one and only Alan Grant will be returning to Hi-Ex in 2010!

Guest list update: Comics legend Colin MacNeil is coming back! Oh yes!

And another one... The great Al Ewing has promised to make a return appearance to Hi-Ex 2010!

As promised yesterday, our guest list for Hi-Ex 2010 is still growing... The delightful - and very talented - Chie Kutsuwada (also known as Chi-Tan) will be returning!

150 days to go to Hi-Ex 2010, and in celebration of this auspicious occasion, we're announcing our first batch of confirmed guests! In alphabetical order...

Michael Carroll, Ferg Handley, John Higgins, Sally Hurst, Inko, Ian Sharman and Dave Taylor

There are more guests yet to confirm... Keep checking back!

Hi-Ex co-organiser Vicky has been in the news again recently: There was an interview in The Glasgow Herald Magazine on 17/10/09 for their 'lifelines' feature. And on 25/10/09 She was a guest on the 'Sunday Brunch' Radio programme on Two lochs Radio talking with presenters Mike and Graham about her role as a retained Fire Fighter and how it fits with being an Artist.

Meanwhile Richmond is working on his own projects with include the forthcoming comic Turning Tiger illustrated by Alex Moore with Renegade Arts Entertainment and writing the amazing true-life story of Allen Pinkerton, who founded the famous wild west Pinkerton Detective Agency, for Insomnia Publications.

Hi-Ex 2010 will be supported by The Highland Council through their Highland Culture Programme. This will make a huge difference to what we can achieve and is a great weight off our shoulders, it includes an element for outreach workshops in the week before the main event. This funding gives us confidence that we can keep Hi-Ex going, onwards & upwards!