LONDON FILM AND COMIC CON

I've always wanted to go to the San Diego Comic Con, even though I know I would probably hate it (too many people, too hot, moan moan whinge whinge). Still, all that comic book awesome-ness all in one place, plus the glamour and the spectacle that comes with the Film and TV side can be pretty alluring. Personally I like a con to be fairly low-key and entirely comics based. For me BICS is the best con experience; busy but not too busy, good venue, great guests, lots of small press comics and fun and interesting panels. However, going to the same type of con all the time can start to get a little boring. Luckily the UK seems to be catching up with staging big multi-media conventions, bringing a bit more variety and some new faces to comic cons. This year I decided to check out a couple of cons that I'd never been to before (I've already posted about Kapow!)  so this past weekend I had a look at the London Film and Comic Con.

I've seen this con described as the UK's version of SDCC and I can see now why people would make the comparison. It's huge! And quite confusing. I found it quite difficult to keep track of where things were, what stages the comics panels were on or what they were about.   Although there's a big difference in the Film & TV element. With SDCC it's all about new and upcoming product. With LFCC it's all about nostalgia and recapturing past glories. I've never been that bothered about autographs or having my picture taken with someone who was in a film for 5 minutes back in 1975 so the Film part of LFCC  wasn't that relevant to me. No, I was more interested in the Comic part. And what a small part that was!  I thought that, as the con was called London Film And Comic Con, there would be loads of  small pressers, loads of artists doing sketches and panels etc. But, from what I could make out, it was all quite marginal. According to the website LFCC 2012 featured an expanded comics zone! Really? wow, what was it like before? 

It wasn't all bad though. I still picked up some comics from some new faces; Jericho by Fwah Storm and Reload Comics (www.reloadcomics.com) and Bearlands by Biggs + Bakki (www.subversivecomics.com) . I enjoyed both of them so much you can expect to see some fan art up here very soon. I found someone selling some original John Byrne Doom Patrol art for £230. a page. I'm a big Byrne fan and he was one of the first artists whose work I began to seek out and follow. And he's still got it. Just check out some of the commission work he has posted on his website (www.byrnerobotics.com). Anyway, I spent most of the time walking around the convention floor trying to convince myself to purchase at least one page. I eventually decided against it, believing that I might find better pages at a similar price on the web (ridiculous!). Needless to say I am kicking myself  right now. Still it was nice to be able to see those pages close up. Maybe next time.....

As well as finding a few gems in various back issue bins I also managed to find copies of the old  1970s Spider Man live action TV show and the 1994 Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie! So, despite my initial disappointment I still came away with some pretty cool swag. LFCC certainly offered a different con experience to what I am used and that's what this was all about anyway. Would I go again? Probably, yeah. It's still a fun and exciting atmosphere and all those Cosplayers are a sight to behold.   But I would like to see more in the way of comics panels, and clearer information on when and where they take place.