If you were to think of the UK comics scene as a company, then the annual Bristol Comics Expo would be its Annual General Meeting. Of course, there are several other events up and down the country throughout the year such as Caption in Oxford and the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing in London, but none draw the mix of exhibitors and diversity of fans like the Expo in Bristol does.      

There have been several attempts to recreate the success of the annual Bristol show in other cities, but such attempts have never quite gained as much affection from the exhibitors, fans or professionals. For example, the show held in Birmingham in 2006 looked on paper like it would be every bit as good as many of the Bristol Expos. Unfortunately it failed to engage attendees and exhibitors as well as it might. 

Learning from their experiences of last year, the organisers came back and made some quite significant changes: a new venue and an earlier date for the 2007 show. As one of the organisers, Shane Chebsey, put it, "In a way we were starting from scratch again, as we have changed the venue, but yes... we did learn a lot of lessons from the 2006 show." The result was a show that, for many, had a warmth and vibe that rivalled some of the better Bristol shows. In fact, it's likely that if this event becomes a regular fixture it will grow into an event equally looked forward to as the Bristol events.

Key to any successful show is atmosphere and there was a good, positive feeling amongst the crowds at this event. Part of this must have been because of the pre-show launch party held on the Friday night. The guest list included professionals, exhibitors and many fans that had registered early enough for the event to get themselves on the launch party list. It was a chance for regulars of these type of things to catch up and let their hair down before the hard work of signing autographs, sketching or selling their latest self-published mini-epic.

These gatherings are part and parcel of weekends like this, but usually they take place in the limited confines of various hotel bars. Exhibitor David Baillie told me the reason he enjoyed the event much more than last year was mainly due to "the after-show social stuff being more organised and that we all ended up in the same spots."  Looking around the launch party you almost felt you'd found yourself in a "Where's Wally?" cartoon set at a UK Comic Convention. Almost everyone who's anyone in British comics was there.

But it wasn't just a big pub full of famous comic types. What set this apart from the usual hotel-bar gatherings was the entertainment laid on. Two bands, both with links to the comic industry played through the night. First up were The Black County Cats, playing a selection of rock, blues and county classics fronted by none other than ace underground and Beano cartoonist Hunt Emerson. They were followed by New York rockers, Skelter featuring DC Editors Michael Wright and Nachie Castro. All in all a wonderful start to the weekend.

The show itself was held at the Thinktank, part of Millennium Point, a development in the Eastside area of Birmingham and home to the Science Museum. The area is very much in development. There is little in the immediate surrounding area, giving it the feel of a Wild West frontier settlement. (It is however a ten minute walk from the centre of Birmingham and fairly well sign-posted). The main exhibition hall was in the Thinkahead gallery on floor L1.

While the building itself was easy to find, inside was something else. For a reason best known to the architect the building has three ground floors (G2, G1 and G0, G2 being the lowest – yes that confused me as well). The exhibition hall was accessible via two lifts (and there was always a queue for these) or a set of escalators. That's "set" as in "one set" of escalators that, oddly, were reversed halfway through the day. This did make it annoying if you should leave and then want to come back – you could get down via the escalator, but there was no way of getting back up – hence the almost constant queues for the lifts.

After registering at the entrance, you passed through a short corridor (off which were the rooms where the various panels were held throughout the weekend) before arriving at the Visions of the Future Exhibition, one of those modern exhibits that is high on interactivity, even boasting a programmable drumming robot which proved entertaining for people tired of all the comic-related shenanigans. The exhibition hall itself was a fair sized room, though not as vast as the main room at Bristol, where you could find the usual back issue dealers, publishers and small pressers. Lining the back of the room were the professional guests, all eager to sign and sketch for people.

At a mere ten pounds the event was extremely good value for money - maybe a little too good value, from what Chebsey told me later. "One lesson learned this year is that we are far too cheap," he explained. "£10 for the weekend was too generous for what we were offering, so we'll probably put our entry prices up a little next year, although it'll still be very good value for money, as you can expect the goodie bags to once again be of a higher value than the entry fee."

Looking at the admittedly impressive guest list it was clear that the focus of the show was very much towards the mainstream side of comics, with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola being the star attraction. But walking around the exhibition hall you soon got a sense of the sheer diversity of material that comics can offer. It was good to see publishers like underground specialists Knockabout sitting alongside 2000AD publishers Rebellion. It was also exciting to see new publishers such as Classical Comics at their inaugural comics show, exhibiting their upcoming range of comic adaptations of classic literature. Additionally there was a healthy mix of small press and self-publishers showing that the independent scene is alive and well and still offering as many unique visions as there are stall holders. 

The relationship between such shows and the independent press is strong and you can't help but wonder if either could exist without the other. Certainly it appeared that a good portion of the stalls would have been empty without the indie publishers and equally these publishers need shows like this to exhibit their work.

The diversity of the medium was also clear from the panels that were held. They took place in two good sized rooms with decent audio-visual capabilities and seemed well organised. They included everything from exploring the technological future of comics with Rok Comics' John Freeman to a look into the world of erotic comics with Tim Pilcher, alongside the usual interviews with the star guests and comedy quiz shows.

It was a pity that this diversity wasn't made more of, particularly when you consider that on the Sunday the Observer published the winner of its (along with publishers Jonathan Cape and the Comica festival) graphic short story competition and that this competition in itself was promoting the diversity of stories that can be told with the form.  It would have been nice to see a strand of the show embracing the so-called alternative/art scene in comics, much in the same way as the Sunday embraced all things manga.

"Anime Sunday", as it was known, was a stroke of brilliance for the show's organisers. The popularity of translated Japanese comics has been phenomenal both hear and across the Atlantic. This strand was promoted almost as a separate show: a novel and inspired idea. The big attraction on the Sunday was a screening of the new anime based on the hugely successful manga, Naruto. It was standing-room only by the time of the screening and the fans whoops and cheers of delight could be heard up and down the corridors of the Thinktank.

Overall this was a hugely enjoyable show. The public that attended, the professionals and the exhibitors all had good things to say and were looking forward to next year's. There were a few niggles along the way, such as some exhibitors having access to their tables blocked by the queues of sketch hunters – especially when someone like Mignola was sketching.

The show itself was busy ("We doubled our attendance from last year," according to Chebsey) and most exhibitors reported good sales. But even those that didn't still said they had a good time and didn't really blame the show itself. As Baillie put it, "In terms of sales it wasn't great. I think this might be more to do with my complete lack of salesmanship though. I end up just chatting to people instead."

At the end of the day though, is the key to a show's success is, did people have fun - and I think for that weekend in that Wild West outpost that is Millennium Point, Birmingham they did.

• BICS 2008 will take place 4-5 October 2008, again at the thinktank