KAPOW! 2012

I heard so many good things about Kapow last year that I just had to pop along this weekend to check it out for myself - and boy am I glad that I did! A nice, excited atmosphere, great crowd, friendly staff and really well organised. The main convention floor was pretty big and maybe a little confusing (for me anyway). I kept wandering around convinced that there was an aisle I hadn't been down yet. I think it drove me a little crazy after awhile! But there did seem to be a lot to take in, especially all the small press guys & gals along the balcony. Now, I'm a pretty shy person so conventions can be a bit of an ordeal for me. I did my usual thing of going past all the tables several times, stopping long enough to see if there might be something of interest to me but not long enough for anybody at the table to strike up a conversation. My technique is to wait until a table gets busy and then sneak in at the side to buy a bunch of comics whilst the exhibitor is busy chatting to someone else! Pathetic, I know, but it's the only way I can "settle in" to a convention. After doing that for a little while I found myself buying loads of comics and chatting to lots of nice small press people whose work I hadn't come across before. Although I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't many tiny xeroxed mini comics around. Most small press comics seem to be full colour and printed on very nice paper and...well... a bit expensive these days. I kind of miss the days when you'd see Lot's of stuff like Jonbot Vs Martha by Future Socks Comics. Saying that, there's probably lots of cons out there that cater specifically to mini comics. Anyway, I still managed to walk away with loads of comics, some artwork by the mighty Martin Eden (whose Spandex book seems to be taking over the world right now - go Mart!) and a lovely Harley Quinn sketch by the crazy talented Amano Jyaku.
And how about those cosplayers, huh? There were loads of them, gawd bless 'em. All showing varying degrees of costume making skill; from very professional looking custom made jobs to ill-fitting store bought spandex cossies to a guy in a paper mache Thing outfit. It's great to see so many people get so creative about this stuff.
As much as I enjoyed Kapow I do have one complaint. I generally go to cons for small press comics and panels. Kapow delivered on the small press area but the panels were a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I loved listening to the likes of Joe Q and Sara Pichelli talk about working for Marvel, but it would have been better if I could have seen them too. I spent over two hours staring at the back of peoples heads and, as funny as Joe Q can be, that got boring pretty quick. So much so that I didn't bother attending the Warren Ellis panel (and I'm a big fan of that guys work). I really hope that next year the organisers set up a stage for the panelists to sit on so that everybody can see them and not just the guys in the front row. I hope they sort that out as I am definitely going again next year. Right, I've got loads of comics to read.