Last Wednesday (14th November 2007) saw a crowd of cool, in-the-know people gather at the Animation Art Gallery just off Regent Street, deep in the heart of the happening bit of London Town. That very evening, or so they'd heard, there would be an invitation-only preview of David Bircham's Art Exhibition.

And, as luck would have it, there was.

David Bircham has been a name to watch for the best part of the last decade in British comics, from his early work on 2000AD's axe-wielding archetype Slaine, to his recent collaboration with Daley Osiyemi, Brodie's Law, and examples from his whole career were on show (and sale) here. As usual, the superhero work attracted attention, especially David's depictions of female heroes on the East Wall, but people were equally excited to see original art from the Brodie's Law saga.

For anyone that doesn't yet know (and considering that the boys have a mailing list of 20,000 people, who could that possibly be?) BL, as it's affectionately known, is a supernatural gangster action thriller set in London's East End.

Free wine and nibbles were in abundance, although the unprecedented crowds meant getting to either would be difficult. On my wanderings through the horde of fans I recognised a number of familiar faces from the world of comics, including Tripwire's Joel Meadows, Comics International's Mike Conroy (who I believe interviewed the lads earlier that day for CI), Oli Smith (who produced the Best Comic of 2006 according to the aforementioned CI) and the Eagle Award winning author of Hero Killers, Andy Winter.

Andy Winter, Joel Meadows and Oli Smith at the exhibition. Photo: David Baillie. (No, not that David Bailey)

The chatter faded as David took to the podium to say a few words. He explained that everyone in the room was a friend of the comic, either from Camden Market (where the trade paperbacks are sold daily) or from one of the 35 international conventions that the Brodie's Law team attended last year. If anyone is looking for a model of how to promote new work, they could do a lot worse than to look here.

Of course, when questions were solicited from the heaving masses, talk soon came round to the planned film version of Brodie's Law. Although I couldn't possibly tell you what was said within those hallowed walls, rumour has it that names as stellar as Sammy L. Jackson and Jason Statham are already attached to the Rennie Harlin production.

After the excitement of the public address, people went back to admiring the exquisite art and socialising with the other chosen few. I've since heard that sales of David's prints were brisk and that the free bar was drunk dry. What further measure of success for such an event is there?

Your humble reporter had to leave early due to an energetic workload, but can assure you that the party (probably) went on until there was neither a last man standing nor a bottle uncorked.

The Animation Art Gallery has recently seen a gust of exhibitions from exciting names in animation and comics, including Nick Park's Aardman Animation, and Afro Samurai's Takashi Okazaki. Its website www.theanimationartgallery.com should be in your bookmarks folder and checked regular for exciting upcoming events.

• Reporter and whiz writer/artist David Baillie is the busiest man in Mile End. He can be found at Camden Lock on a Saturday hawking trades of his latest epic, Tongue of the Dead, and he's busy at work on a 144 page graphic novel for one of those big American companies.