London London Film and Comic Con 2014

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Seen the first ad for this in the May SFX issue today. Dates are Fri 11-Sun 13 July at Earls Court 2. The Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) is listed as attending, along with Dave Prowse and Kenny Baker.

Not sure if I will go this year. I'll have to think about it. Also going on is Loncon 3 at ExCel Aug 14-18. It's the annual SF Worldcon and I've never been to one. However it's more money and a lot longer trip than Earls Court. Anyone planning on going to either event?

 

MCM Expo Comic-Con is on in May too at the Excel, convention overload.

 

Stan Lee is doing this! I might have to go, I've never been that big on getting autographs at conventions but Stan is such an icon I can't resist (probably involve a good 6 hours queuing)

 

I heard Carrie Fisher is attending also

 

I shall be heading down on the Saturday. Donning my Maul costume again. Any excuse to get dressed up.

Should be interesting as I am having a tattoo done the day before on my upper arm (Star Wars Tattoo) and will be getting inked for 8 hours.

 

There seems to be no advertised Star Wars talk, even though Ian McDiarmid is going plus Carrie Fisher & Peter Mayhew who are both in Episode VII.

 

Unfortunately I'm going to miss this, will be in Tenerife

 

I'll miss it - I have company coming from the US and his flight lands Saturday morning (Jul 12).

 

I will be attending on Saturday.
But not sure whether I'll get anything. Fisher's autograph is £60 which is too much, and queue time for Stan Lee will be obscene.

 

I'm going on the Saturday but buying a replacement TV yesterday after the old one went senile has severely curtailed my budget. I'm going to try and get Stan's autograph but think I'll need to set some serious parameters of quite how stupidly long I intend to wait for it. I'm pretty excited about George Romero too

 

I hope the weather is better than last year's heat wave for those who have to wait in the ticket line.

 

It was the cosplayers who suffered the most.

 

It wasn't that much cooler in the hall itself - not with the crowds. We finally got the Tube back to Richmond early and stopped in a pub there before getting the train back home.

 

I plan to do the LFCC this weekend. No Torchwood autograph opportunities, from what I scrolled of the guest list, so I'll be filling the digital camera, and hopefully paying some artists to draw, sketch, or otherwise create Toshiko Sato art for me.

And I might accidentally run into friends.

Last year's, the year I heard Earls Court is going to be destroyed, I finally learnt there is a restaurant on the second floor (I could have put that to use on previous sorties!), and the day turned into an improvised re-union with about eight friends that I had not seen for years, with us going to a pub for dinner, near Euston.

 

Today was ridiculous. Queued for 4 hours & didn't get in.
Never seen anything like that in all the years I've been to LFCC. Utter chaos

 

Way more patient than me. I'd have called it a day after thirty minutes. Normally I get there 3pm or later (not a morning person), so I don't know how badly the problems, which I saw today spelt out on Facebook, would have affected me.

Normally I rue that as soon as I get on this computer, around noon on Saturdays, a lot of my previously laid plans, meeting friends, past Showmaster events, get laid to waste; I think it worked out for me yesterday.

 

Sorry to hear people had a bit of a nightmare. I queued up quite early on the Saturday with an early entry ticket so got in quite quickly once the doors were opened. However, the organisation did seem pretty poor with very little sign posting and lots of conflicting information when I was asking staff/volunteers about events, locations etc they definitely need to rethink the way that they set up entering the place.

That being said getting my copy of Fantastic Four #75 signed by Stan Lee was probably a lifetime highlight that I actually didn't queue that long for. I left fairly early mainly because of the heat (I had my son with me refusing to take his Captain America outfit off even though he was melting) but generally had a great day

 

I got in quite quickly on Sunday without a pre-booked ticket, but I went before 11 and had to pay extra.

It wasn't a bad event, some good prop vehicles and a lot of decent guests. I liked the retro arcade area.
There was a lot of talk online about rude and unhelpful staff but the guy we encountered in the line was simply honest and said "I don't know how long you will be here, you might not get in". Not sure what else they could have done if the building was over capacity and people who went out kept going back in.

Stan Lee broke the place but I guess that was to be expected if it is his last UK appearance. But many I talked to were unhappy at the experience of seeing the man himself. No touching, no talking, nothing. If you meet your idol you at least would like them to say hello to you or acknowledge if you tell them how much their work has meant to you. Apparently he just sort of sat there looking like a cardboard cut-out in every picture and didn't say or do anything. I know he's 92, but he did agree to do all 3 days so he could have shown the fans a bit more love.

 

I also never encountered any rude staff etc but it was clear that a lot of people didn't really know much information that was pretty essential for their jobs. Of course this is more the problem of management and the organisers than the staff themselves.

I've often thought it quite silly to go to a con and play video games (having about 10 older consoles already) but I spent quite a while playing on the old arcade cabinets and as a parent it was great to break away from the crowds and get some air while the boy played Marvel v Capcom 2.

It was an odd experience with Stan Lee, I was right at the back of the queue for my slot so actually spent a bit more time than most by him as he was signing but he was just sort of face down looking at whatever it was he was signing and not talking at all. He was signing with both hands as well to get it done faster. Personally it didn't undermine my enjoyment of it for two reasons, firstly I thought that £45 was quite a good price compared to some other guests and secondly because (at least in my mind) Stan Lee occupies a class above everyone else (except maybe George Lucas but I have less conflicting emotions about Stan) and I wasn't at all surprised that it ended up being like it did and the opportunity to watch him sign something important to me was still pretty cool but I can understand why some would be unsatisfied. Ultimately going to his talks may have been better but they sold out before I had a chance.

 

I didn't go in the end. The intention was to go down on the Saturday. Usually for an event like this, me and the g/f will stay in London the night before so that we don't have to get up as early to do my Maul makeup. However we decided on Friday that we'd give it a miss. And I'm sort of glad I did. The feedback I've read about the lack of organisation, the lack of AC at the event and the queues make me think I definitely made the right decision.

I expect I'll go to the one in October instead.

Is anyone aware of any other conventions in the South within the next few months? Missed my dress up session.

 

Do a search on Collectormania. They are usually good for at least once a year in Milton Keynes. I think the rest are further north.

 

Collectormania is good but doesn't do talks or anything. It's really just stalls & some guests, plus because it is in a football stadium it can get very cold in autumn because of wind