Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls; welcome to True Brit, a look at comics based in Great Britain and / or written by British creators – or on this case, British conventions.
I was a bit unsure about attending Comic Con last weekend, after the events that occurred in Manchester just a week before. Thanks to the efforts of the social media team at MCM, I was reassured that there would be extra security on the day, so (despite the best efforts of the rail system) I headed off for two days of comic con goodness…
Boy am I glad that I did!
I love to have a nose around Artists Alley, always my first stop at any con. There was plenty of talent on show, and I bumped in to Blue Fox comics, the crew behind Meanwhile…, which was a nice stop in the heat. I also had the chance to meet the lovely Alex Norris, whose work I often see on social media but had never really gotten around to looking further in to. I soon rectified that, and not only had a great chat with him, but also purchased a print for my youngest to hang above her desk as she studies for her exams!
Thanks to the magic of the press room, I was able to sit on a few round table interviews with geek culture types (more on those later), and had the pleasure of meeting some budding young journalists, Iman and Aicha, who very kindly sent me their own review of the weekend;
I had a ball speaking with some of the celebrities at the con, including but not limited to Warwick Davies, KJ Apa and Verne Troyer. Every singly person that came in to chat was utterly lovely, and one of my personal favourites was Hynden Walch, the voice of Princess Bubblegum, who was not only happy to talk about the different character she portrays in shows such as Adventure Time and Teen Titans, but also got quite deep into the ins-and-outs of voice acting, and the recent changes that many voice actors have tried to have made to contracts regarding working practices. She may have gotten a little too deep into to, as she was showing us her best blood curdling scream when two rather large security chaps came bursting through to door thinking that we were in trouble – oops!
There was plenty of cosplay on show on the floor, and whilst I have been feeling pretty meh about the forthcoming Wonder Woman movie, seeing several costumes from the film on display has gotten me super hyped about it – and I wasn’t the only one…
I’m pleased to say that my youngest and I pulled off Olive and Maps from Gotham Academy well enough to be recognised, although our age different was a bit bigger than that in the comics…! There were lots of Suicide Squad Harley’s, a huge number of manga and anime costumes that I didn’t know but have to give kudos for, and even a full sized Darth Vader / Space Marine crossover that made me feel bad about complaining of the heat in just a wig!
I’m still recovering from the con myself (yay for con crud!), but I’ll be back later in the week to show you some more of the cosplay that I saw around and about, and have some tales to tell of the other folks that I met in the press room…
