London Super Comic Con 2014

A quick dash through my haul from last weekend's LSCC, now in its third year with another big attendance especially on the Saturday which was pretty busy. Fortunately the aisles are wide and there is plenty of stuff to see. The big name guests didn't quite reach the heights of Stan Lee in 2012 and Neal Adams last year but there were some interesting people there and a couple of former art-droids from 2000AD. I picked up plenty of back issues and got a couple of comics signed.

Here's Alan Davis with my copy of Prog 350. A slightly unusual picture because Mr Davis appears to be smiling.

He also signed Prog 352 as well.

Dave Gibbons the Watchmen artist was there and signed his iconic Rogue Trooper cover for me.

Mr Gibbons was at the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund stand so I picked up the special edition print he has done for the fund. Here you go:

The other artist I was glad to meet was Garry Leach who was the original artist on Alan Moore's revival of Marvelman/Miracleman in Warrior back in the 1980s. He was signing at the Orbital Comics booth and I got him to sign his cover for issue 2.

Another Warrior artist Paul Neary was a late addition to the guest list so I got him to sign the same cover next to his Madman character. He then presented me with a Madman print as well. Bonus.

As ever I had a splendid time at the Con and met up with some old friends including the guys from the Comic Geek Speak podcast and the 2000AD forums. Sign me up for 2015 now!

London Super Comic-Con - day 2 - more signings

The rest of the Sunday at LSCC was spent happily browsing through the back issue boxes and completing my collections of both the 1972 Swamp Thing series and the 1974 Man-Thing. I also got a chance to meet the writer Tony Lee who wrote a fantastic Doctor Who comic called The Forgotten. He signed my first issue and pointed out that the cover artist Nick Roche was also at the IDW booth, and he signed my cover as well.

The last queue of the weekend was to meet the great artist, George Pérez. I wanted to get him to sign my copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. After the problems with the Brian Bolland queue on Saturday I was pleased to see that the convention staff had things better organised. They closed off the line shortly after I joined it and and announced that everybody in the line would get up to two books signed by George. They turned a lot of people away which was obviously disappointing for them, but better than having to queue for an hour only to be sent away empty handed.


Mr Perez himself was thoroughly charming, with a friendly word for everybody and handshakes and photos all round. Here he is signing my book.

And here is the book itself.

I had a fantastic time at the London Super Comic-Convention. If you get the chance to go next year you should. I'll certainly be back for more.

London Super Comic-Con Day 2 - More Stan Lee!

So day 2 of the LSCC and I had another ticket to see Stan Lee again. My brother was supposed to have come down from Darlington for the day and bring his copy of Fantastic Four #25 for Stan to sign. Unfortunately he was not able to come so I went to one of the dealers and bought a cheap copy of the FF annual #3 from 1965 and joined the Stan queue again. Once again things moved pretty quickly although I did have time for another good comics conversation with the chap I was standing next to in the queue. This time I was better prepared and got a slightly blurry photo of Stan signing the actual book.

My Sunday word for Stan was "Excelsior!" and he said it straight back at me. I read that so many times in Stan's Soap-Box articles from the comics of my childhood that it gave me an incredible thrill to hear him actually say it to me.

Here is the cover of the book Stan signed for my brother.

Well done to the organisers of LSCC for getting Stan over. It was a once in a lifetime chance to meet one of my childhood heroes and I had a great time.

Next up my final creator signings from day 2.

London Super Comic-Con Day 1 - other signings

In amongst the excitement of meeting Stan Lee and some 2000AD thrill power I also met some other creators. Paul Cornell wrote a fantastic run on Captain Britain and MI-13. He has also written for Doctor Who and is currently going great guns on Demon Knights and Stormwatch, as well as having an interesting new book called Saucer Country coming up. I met him at the Big Finish day but didn't have anything for him to sign then. This time I was prepared and he kindly signed my variant cover of Cap and MI-13 #1, as well as my rather battered copy of Human Nature. And I've only just found out that he co-wrote my favourite book about the X-Files, X-Treme Possibilities. I'll have to get that one signed next time.

I managed to get Howard Chaykin, the writer and artist of American Flagg, to sign the first issue in-between him doing sketches and having a discussion about musical theatre with another guest. Somehow I found that rather incongruous for the creator of Reuben Flagg and Black Kiss but he is clearly an enthusiast about several subjects.

I missed the Bernie Wrightson signing while I was in the Brian Bolland queue but fortunately he was happy to sign books at his table in Artists' Alley. This is the first issue of the original Len Wein and Wrightson Swamp Thing from 1972. Swamp Thing was the character that got me back into American comics so getting this key issue signed was very important to me. And Mr Wrightson was absolutely charming. It's fantastic to meet these great creators and kudos to the organisers of the convention for getting so many of them to come over.

Next up is day 2 and more Stan Lee!

London Super Comic-Con - Day 1 - 20000AD

After the thrill of meeting Stan Lee I got my bearings in the huge convention hall. First up was a visit to the guys from the Comic Geek Speak podcast who had helped to organise the convention. I've been listening to their show since I first discovered podcasts about 5 years ago and it was great to finally meet them.

There were a few specific comic creators I wanted to meet, and I had brought along several books to get signatures. Again there were some set signing sessions that attracted fairly large queues. I was in a pretty long line to see Brian Bolland which moved very slowly, especially as the next queue to see George Pérez seemed to be moving so fast. Bolland is by his own admission a rather slow artist, and it seems that the same applies to his signatures. Unfortunately several people went away disappointed as they closed the session just after I got to the front of the queue. Phew!


Here is Mr Bolland signing my 2000AD prog 225.

And here is the cover with signature:

And the double page spread inside:

The writer John Wagner (aka T.B.Grover) signed it for me at the SFX weekender earlier this month. Brian Bolland was rather taken with Wagner writing the 2012 AD date and followed suit.

I also went to the 2000AD panel where Brian Bolland, Duncan Fegredo and Jock discussed 35 years of Zarjaz covers and picked out some of their favourites. It was pretty interesting stuff, but sadly marred by rather terrible acoustics and thumping Zumba music coming from the next exhibition hall. I got to ask a question about what cover they would like to see on a British stamp. Interestingly Jock chose the image of Kraken administering his own lethal injection on Prog 669, although he admitted that it would never be approved by the Royal Mail.


Next up some more creator signings to round out the day.

London Super Comic-Con - Day 1 Stan Lee!

This weekend I went to the inaugural London Super Comic-Con at the Excel centre in London Docklands. And, of course the main attraction was the presence of Stan Lee making his first trip to the UK in 40 years. I had paid the extra for a Stan VIP ticket which got me early entry to the convention, and his signature on one of my books. There was a huge queue just to get into the convention hall and I was delighted that my VIP ticket allowed me to bypass this. Once inside I joined the line for Stan's first signing of the day, so I didn't completely escape the traditional British pastime of queueing politely. However I had a pleasant time chatting with other people in the line about what they had brought to be signed.

As the 10am start time for the convention approached there was a palpable buzz in the hall as a small figure, who was dwarfed by his huge bodyguards, made his way behind the check-in area to his signing booth. Stan the Man had arrived! After that things moved pretty quickly, Stan's people kept the line moving and they were strict about the just one item rule and getting it out of the bag and ready for Stan.

So suddenly I was there across the table from the greatest comic book creator there has ever been. He signed my issue of Amazing Spider-Man #33 and passed it across the table to me as I said the only word that popped into my head:

"Legend!"

Here he is signing someone else's book, I missed the shot of him signing mine.

And here is the book itself.

My ticket also got me a seat on the Stan Lee panel at the end of the day. The room was packed with standing room only as the sprightly 89 year old regaled us with great stories from his 70 year comics career. He was entertaining, energetic and enthusiastic in true alliterative fashion. The story of how he created Spider-Man was great, as was his criticism of the recent blockbuster Marvel movies for not giving him bigger acting roles! All in all a great end to a grand day out. Excelsior!

Next up: some 2000AD thrill-power