London Super Comic Con

The second London Super Comic Con took place last month in the cavernous Excel centre in London Docklands. While it didn't quite have the same star attraction factor as last year's headline guest Stan Lee it still managed to bring many big name creators from home and abroad. The event was well organised and more spacious than last year, whether this was due to a larger hall or a slightly lower attendance only the organisers could say. The result was a more relaxed feel to the wandering around browsing the back issue boxes.

This year's star name was the comic artist Neal Adams who kept up the same non stop pace as Stan the Man last year. Despite the high prices he was charging for signatures, sketches and prints his stand seemed to be always busy. I managed to get to one of his free signing sessions and he kept the line moving quickly while still being cheerful and chatty. Here he is signing a classic House of Secrets cover for me.

And that cover itself.

Other highlight guests included a return trip for Brian Bolland who signed the 36th Birthday issue of 2000AD for me, and Bill Sienkiewicz who signed a classic Demon Bear image on a New Mutants cover. It was also nice to meet legendary writer and editor Roy Thomas.

There was an entertaining selection of panels including a 2000AD session which was patrolled by several costumed street judges. I also had the chance to chat with legendary writer and co-creator of Judge Dredd, John Wagner. Sadly His colleague Carlos Ezquerra had to cancel because of a Spanish air strike. Hopefully I will get a chance to see him at a convention later in the year.

I spent a lot of time happily browsing back issues and buying far too many 1970s horror comics. It was also fun to meet up with Brian and Bryan from the CGS podcast and to get to a listener meet up in a very crowded and noisy pub in the evening. All in all a good two days. It was good to see that the organisers had learned from last year and had the queues, the hall layout, and the panel room acoustics sorted out this time. Hopefully the convention was enough of a success to keep it going and I can look forward to next year's event.

One last item of note, the cosplayers were really out in force this year and very impressive they all were too. This very slick video gives you the general idea.