London Film and Comic Con (Report 1 - The Day Before)

Note - my experience of LFCC is not featured in this report.

LFCC is probably the biggest convention in the UK calendar for guests. So a big ol' sorry to any other event organizers but you must know it's true, the sheer number of impressive guests they've pulled out of the hat (even in just the last couple of years) surely proves that... (to be fair other conventions have pulled out big names just not as many at the same time).

LFCC always kind of seemed like one of them events where it only felt like a pipe dream that I would attend, then in September of last year I did the maths, searched for any affordable play to stay (a bed... and hopefully a TV are my requirements) which even included looking for potential cheap eateries in the area as well as seeing how much travel would cost and seeing how much I should realistically save (based on previous LFCC events - which was extremely anal of me - where I worked out who I would have met for the last 3 events and worked out a bit of an average), and found much to my surprise it could quite possibly be doable.

So yes I have been planning this since September last year - a full 10 months - and while I am not saying I was the first person to buy a ticket for this event, but I certainly could have been (I brought them very quickly after they went on sale, I also made this claim with the UK Comic Cruise, so take it all with a pinch of salt), So yes I have been saving since I have decided to go - putting away money when I CAN, if I could and hoped I could reach my goal. There was only 2 guests announced when I bought my ticket - as I recall Jeremy Bulloch and Sylvester McCoy (and I always knew there was a chance I could meet either before the event) - and neither as much as I planned to meet them where the showstealers for me.

So I spent a lot of time checking their forums for updates hoping for that first guest that would make me go wow (the first few announcements happened to be from stuff I didn't watch). The first guest which did make me go wow ended up being the announcements of Terence Stamp and Ron Perlman (not forgetting Wil Wheaton and Walter Koenig been announced at the same time - it says a lot of the 4 announcements that Koenig was the one I was least excited about) and the months after had loads of people being announced I was a fan of.

Like the UK Comic Cruise trip I attend this event with my adult Nephew Dominic (who turned 21 the day before we set off for London) and Thursday would be spent the day getting there and spending the day getting myself sorted, and while it's my 3rd time ever in London, It's the first time I'll be making our way solo through London (first time concert in Hyde Park and picked up by coach straight after and the other was a joint-Harry Potter World trip which had the drop us off and pick up at the same place).

So the place I stayed, I wanted somewhere cheap to stay, I even originally planned to go for an hostel in a shared room, but I thought a more private room was more suitable, and we got the coach, train all there fine and found our way to Fulham where the hotel was located...

At least that's where it was located, the hotel had closed down that week, and I booked it via Booking.com and we weren't notified, luckily phoning my Mother (in a panic) she among my family back home in Hull searched for one and found us private room (sans-TV) in a hostel even closer in Notting Hill for a slightly higher price, this mean't that a 6 o'clock arrival meant we were sorted closer to 10 o'clock and I ended up having a tea of vending machines crisps, sweets and Coca Cola.

So yes nightmare averted...

So join me for the next update when I actually talk about being at London Film and Comic Con.

Hall Of Fame #5 - John Challis and Sue Holderness

Met Sue Holderness outside a venue and John Challis at a convention but both where absolutely lovely, Boycie and Marlene are welcome into my Hall Of Fame.

Collectormania 24

The question was to go or not to go, with trips already planned and booked on a comic cruise and the LFCC before I heard of the announcement of this event but I knew it was an event that I really wanted to attend... The event was pretty much originally announced that it was happening in 2017 - no date, no location - I like many assumed it was going to be Milton Keynes which was home of the previous Collectormania events, which I reckon would have likely meant a coach into London (or somewhere else more expensive) then a coach to Milton Keynes and possibly trying to find a roomie to share with me because it would have been the cheapest option and honestly as much as I wanted to go, it would have been something that never would end up happening as much as I dreamed it.

And than selfishly and a thing I was personally happy for - it was announced it would be held in Birmingham - now I totally understand those closer to Milton Keynes are extremely disappointed with this, after all MK had been it's home since the beginning - but for me it, the cool thing it was a place I knew was easier to get too, and I had attended an event in Birmingham (the 2009 joint Collectormania Midlands/Autographica) and in my youth I have been to the city a number of times and always found the people there friendly, so yeah Birmingham as the location was a big thumbs up for me.

There was 4 media guests (and 2 sports guests) initially announced when I booked my accomodation but I had confidence that they would pull some guests I would like to meet out of the hat and in early January - David Bradley was the first name I was massively excited for (if you recall an earlier post I did he was in the top 10 guests I wanted to meet, but sadly he ended up cancelling), then came names such as John Barrowman, Robert Patrick, Helen Slater, Ming-Na Wen and some awesome Buffy alumni, all of which were of massive interest to me.

I went down on the Friday afternoon with my Brother and his Girlfriend (whose a huge SG1 fan and really wanted to meet Michael Shanks among others - somebody she may have ended up molesting), who where sharing a room (I had my own), and the place was well... you get what you paid for, I am not complaining, it had a TV, toilet, bath - I don't need much else, it practically had a McDonalds next door and was hungry by this point. I won't bore you with all the travels details over then saying I spent a fair bit of the three days on some form of transport and I ended up putting my mattress on the floor because honestly it was just much more comfier (this is the interesting stuff you get to know about my weekend by reading this blog!)

So Saturday, we was up bright and early at 7 o'clock with no idea how to 100% get to the venue, but luckily we worked it out pretty quick and got a bus from the city centre, which ended up being quite a long trek, and it was closer to 9 by the the time we got there (that's including the 2 buses and waiting at bus stops), and I have to admit I was worried it might give me high VQ tickets...

Which luckily it wasn't really truly the case, we got in with I hate to say it very minimally security given the reason attack in Manchester (and they'd be another attack in London that day, and headed for the virtual tickets, mostly picking them up in order (I forget the highest but I think it was barely higher than 200 - it was probably John Barrowman) with the guy doing the Charisma Carpenter VQ ticket letting me join the back of her queue since most people must have done the same as me rather then join her queue.

So yes, I am rather a huge fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel (it's only behind MASH in my favourite shows of all time), I don't think I've had the proper chance to share that on this blog, but it was great meeting Carpenter, she was friendly, and was extremely interested in the fact Glenn Quinn had signed the comic (which I will picture later), and she also loved that I had something Veronica Mars (I love that show too) related for her to sign, which was a large photo of a VM logo for her to sign.

This is something I will happily get other people to sign but think it will be unlikely as I don't think it ever truly was a big enough hit over here to justify many more names, but never say never, fingers crossed based on her recent work they get somebody like Krysten Ritter across..

Next up I decided to head for the four Game Of Thrones guests, I started with Gemma Whelan, who plays Yara (whose probably in my top 5-10 characters), she was extremely lovely and while I do think she is a pretty lady meeting her give me a crush on her, she was just that personable. I mostly talked to her about the final scene of GOT with her and the others on the boats with the dragons flying over them and how excited it got me (in an innocent way), she initially just inscribed it "I'm Up for Anything" and I told her I was nervous to ask her what I originally want to put, and then she asked what quote was it and began saying some of her quotes with bad language and it was the first out of her mouth, so yes that's why she added a P.S... and now I have one of my favourite inscriptions I've ever got...

Next up was Kristian Nairn who played HODOR who plays one of the few nice characters on the show and was nice in real life (obviously had a bigger vocabulary), noticed star tattoos on his the upper part of his forehead which I thought where cool, I assume this is something he got done recently or the show did a really good make up job on hiding it.

Next up with Podrick - Daniel Portman who greeted me a smile and a handshake, so yes the Game Of Thrones guests where great, he had great interest in who else had signed it and loved some of the other inscriptions...

The 4th and final Game Of Thrones name of the day for me was Ron Donachie, who played Rodrik, and had no idea until now was the real life father of Daniel Portman, again another friendly fella, who I completely forgot to get him on my Doctor Who poster at the time (I returned later)

I now have 11 names on this poster, which means a goal I had for 2017 as already been completed (the target was to get at least 10), so anyway here is the poster as it is now, and with some names potentially at LFCC this will look a cool thing by the time the year is out.

Next up was Helen Slater, who I had to queue a little bit (compared to London last weekend though it was a walk in the park), I was excited to get my original Supergirl poster signed by her, and she really liked it too, again another friendly guest

Okay from now on, let's just pretend this is how the order completely went (you know how things are in the excitement), the experiences are all I got from them it's just the order is now fuzzy, I will say my Brother's girlfriend had met Ernie Hudson at this point to get something Crow signed and was extremely happy to have met him.

Next up was Ming-Na Wen, who I probably mostly think of her from ER (which is not what I brought for her to sign) or many will know as her as a Mulan (or any Agents Of SHIELD) she is in a wheelchair after surgery but SHE was extremely friendly and shook my hand, she really hasn't aged a day from Street Fighter, and very beautiful in person - which I know, I know is a bad film but I have a lot of affection for, and I got a Japanese Chirashi signed by her which is awesome looking.

Next up was Ernie Hudson, whose queue was a touch more manageable then when I initially had gone by (my VQ ticket was allowed to go up now).  He was another friendly chap and again got another Chirashi signed this time for Ghostbusters

I noticed Julie Benz was not there but her VQ ticket was up to me, so knew I'd get her when she was back, and honestly it was approaching mid-day and even the people who wasn't up to me VQ wise was starting to look good as far as seeing me very soon.

Up next I decided to get the wrestlers who where, all of them in my WWE Encyclopedia, which again if you saw my goals for the year I had a target to get at least one name in it, first up I met Beth Phoenix, was again was extremely lovely (notice a pattern here), I feel I half embarrassed myself talking more about Molly Holly (who paid for Beth's training), I told her I am a big fan of hers too.

Next up was I guess her Brother in Law if you merge real life with Kayfabe and that's Christian (for those who don't know, Edge and Christian real life best friends where kayfabe brothers and Edge later married Beth Phoenix in real life), again he was another friendly guy and he seemed to know that Hull was a place that existed

Honky Tonk Man, who is quite the character was shockingly nice and talked about is daughter watching Game Of Thrones (that was the T-Shirt I was wearing), I kind of wish he had more of a queue throughout the day then he actually did because he was a really cool meet.

Next up for me was Robert Patrick - awesome guy, clearly enjoyed being there and seemed to be having a blast with everybody, did an English accent to a few people, and he signed my Terminator 2 Chirashi

before signing my Wayne's World German poster and singing the theme.

Next up was John Barrowman, who is obviously quite the machine when it comes to signing as he had one of the higher VQ numbers I had, and while my time was brief with him he was still friendly with me and looked me in the eye - you can guess what he signed and that was my Doctor Who poster (which I'll show in full after the last person I got signed over the weekend)

Since I had the DW poster unrolled I moved onto Marc Warren, who I believed for other companies has cancelled in the past so was cool he made it to this one, he stars in one of the least liked Nu-Who episodes (which I don't mind to tell the truth)

Next up was Ben Browder, who is known for Farscape and Stargate but had appeared in Doctor Who so I thought he was a cool name for my poster, again friendly.

I was hoping to get a run of the Who guests on my poster since it was unrolled by alas the ones I wanted were on lunch, in photo shoots etc. and for those keeping count I was up to 36 names on the poster, I decided to join the queue for Jeffrey Combs, who I'm happy to see had a constant queue all day, he again was another friendly chap who even apologized to the line for having to go the toilet, I got him to sign a Re-Animator reprint poster

My final guest before finally deciding I need something to eat was Ken Colley best known for his role in the Star Wars franchise, but he appeared in another great movie Life Of Brian as Jesus Christ himself, I had him sign a German poster, and he said it was the first Life Of Brian poster he had signed today and I said it was one of the greatest comedies of all time (which is true IMO), him and his assistant both agreed with me

So yes a bumper morning of obtaining autographs, and decided to have Subway (neither them or McDonalds are sponsoring this blog), and they had no toaster working - I like it toasted goddamit!, before looking at the stalls, and heading back for those autographs I hadn't got yet, starting with the soon to return Julie Benz, who again was lovely, I talked about her role in As Good As It Gets with her, and she signed the Angel comic that Charisma had earlier signed.

I then got Deep Roy, whose had quite a long and varied career, even playing every Oompa Loompa in the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but he was also in Doctor Who way back in the Tom Baker era, was quiet but a sweet fella..

Next up and just returned from lunch (I assume) was Tony Curran and had a queue all morning and noticed the afternoon queue had yet to from, he played most importantly for me in a terrific performance as Vincent Van Gogh in Doctor Who, he was a really nice guy and talked about working with some of the other Doctors (Ecclestone in Shallow Grave, going to acting school with Tennant etc)

Nana Visitor was my next guest, she had a queue all day so decided to strike when with the best chance and got her on a Battlestar Galactica poster, she was intrigued that somebody had brought something sci-fi that wasn't DS9 to sign (will take a better photo of this later)

Finally went back to get Ron Donachie because of my forgetfulness earlier and that was the last autograph of the day for me

So I then went to only a couple of the talks Robert Patrick and the wrestlers, both entertaining, before heading back home, okay I'll do Sunday here since I only added 3 autographs that day, so apologizes for a long write up - some notes had McDonalds for tea again, brought some snacks etc, and that was that (mattress on the floor again as I watched TV), Sunday ended up being a murder on the bus since they changed the bus route that day and ended up getting there much, much later then planned.

So first person I met on the Sunday, was Mark Capri, who was in Return Of The Jedi but was also in Titanic as the steward who gets a bloody nose, again a friendly guy who became the 4th person to sign the DVD cover

I moved on to getting the autograph of Paul Weston, who has done stunts on plenty of films, including Aliens which is what I got him to sign (German poster again), a very friendly guy, always have respect for stuntmen like him

A note, getting this Aliens poster signed means it's another thing ticked off my 2017 goal list, and the final guest of my weekend was a Doctor Who companion - Bonnie Langford, another sweetheart

That is 39 names in totals, just 1 short of my 40 target total (if a couple of guests didn't cancel I would have beat that), but anywhere here is it as it stands.

Getting home was long, long tired and all that but had a fantastic weekend, Showmasters ran a fantastic event, with every guest being nice.

MCM London Comic Con Day 2

So Day 2, let's get straight into it, was up by 6.00 and out on the bus to the underground by 7 - yadda, yadda, yadda security check and we in the building for opening at 9. There was of a course a big rush for the name guests, but many didn't realize you had to get autograph tickets and many had to go to that desk anyway, but I had 2 leftover from yesterday and got early in the Summer Glau queue, who wasn't due to sign for another hour but thought I'd wait anyway, she like a lot of the signers was late (Catherine Tate came out the same time) and started signed at half 10, she was sweet and loved the Angel comic I had for her to sign (I got this in 2004 already signed by Glenn Quinn, who played Doyle who had passed away in 2002, so this stayed a long time without sigs getting added to) with most people having Firefly (which is a great show) stuff to get signed.

I joined the Catherine Tate queue which was also big but had gone down a little in the time it took me to meet Summer, unlike every other guest she was stood in front of her desk, and was extremely friendly, and I talked to her about the American office a bit and she even touched my shoulder (my camera had died but she was one of the few guests taking photos at her desk), here's are sig where she jokingly said she'd sign over David Tennant's face.

I had no more vouchers and the others I wanted to see where not there anymore so went back to meet my Brother a happy bunny with getting my 2 big wants of the day done by 11am. I decided to have a quick look around to before getting in the autograph ticket queue to meet the remaining ones I wanted to meet.

After that and leaving my Brother again I noticed Victor Garber, who has done loads of work was back and the queue was small enough to be able to join, he was another friendly guy who I got him on he back of Titanic DVD box (already signed by David Warner and Jonathan Hyde in 2009), I decided to talk about Legally Blonde because I like that movie, he called it a fun movie.

Next up was Jemma Redgrave... I have read other people talk about meeting her saying she was nice, so I guess she just didn't like me... she was more interested in what time dinner was and paid more attention to her co-star sat near her ("for her it was Tuesday...) but she signed my Doctor Who poster where I wanted her too

and here is the poster now with 32 names!

I then joined the queue for Flash Gordon himself, Sam J. Jones, another friendly chap who signed my Japanese Chirashi, another friendly guy that made me forget the negativeness of Jemma Redgrave.

Some more Japanese chicken, before sitting down for a bit, before GAME had the legendary Lloyd Kaufman of TROMA fame doing a signing for an hour, I think I can say this is without hyperbole but if I had 30 things for him to sign he would have signed them all free of charge, incredibly nice warm guy who firstly signed the postcard they was giving away

As well as a magazine advert for Toxic Avenger II

and a DVD cover for Toxic Avenger III, wish I had more for him to sign.

So yes awesome, awesome guy who had Toxie with him and loved that he decided to call me Rockin' Rob. After that Eric Christian Olsen was back at his table, and again a very friendly guy, noticed it was a Not Another Teen Movie poster before I even properly got to him and loved that it was a German one, he said it was the first NATM item he'd signed today, and even put his quote and character.

and the poster has it looks as a whole

Again, another cool guy, and after it was onto the final person I was meeting at the event, another Red Dwarf name - Robert Llewellyn - who was another guy was was nice and signed my Red Dwarf IV (I have 5 Red Dwarf signed DVD's now)

and that was it, me and my Brother took some photos inside then left and took photos outside, before going back on the tube and hanging around St. Pancreas area, before doing the trek back for a busy, busy and tiring couple days.

I have to say it was day of sweating (due to the hot weather and venue), queuing and being excited about riding the tube.

Overall, while I don't think I like elements of it - the autograph ticket thing, and just way too much queuing (maybe a virtual ticket thing), with only one bad experience with an actor it was a fun weekend for sure.

Favourite Guest(s) - Catherine Tate, Eugene Simon and Lloyd Kaufman for sure, with many of the others also being great.

Least Favourite Guest - shock horror! Jemma Redgrve

MCM London Comic Con Day 1

* note - I tried to write about the order of the list of stuff that happened and when I obtained autographs but it's from my memory so it might be in the wrong order.

So... I wasn't planning on attending this event until quite recently, I mean I keep an eye on events up and down the country (even the world) to see who might be possibly on the scene - it had never really entered my conscious until there was a guest announcement - Donnie Yen - you see my Brother is a huge fan of Asian cinema and Hong Kong in particular - he's been a fan for years and by that proxy I grew up watching a lot of Asian cinema - this was the early 90's and VHS so it was mostly dubbed in that time period.

He convinced me to go even offering to pay for my accommodation for the night, and then a couple of guest annoumcements happened on top of that that all had some sort of interest to me and so with an incredibly cheap travel ticket to do the Friday and Saturday of this event (the only two days Donnie was doing) and hit the tube (and a bit of trial and error to work it all out)

Disaster almost struck on the Friday though - my Brother thought he had lost his phone and we frantically looked for it and managed to get the station just as the bus was pulling out and managed to luckily wave him and he stopped, he wasn't happy but at least he stopped... In an effort to bore you I'll just cut to the part that we got to the venue at around 12:30 so all in good time, security checked our bags and we went straight to the desk where you buy autographs (I'd prefer cash at table) and I got Donnie Yen plus ones for the others I planned to get on the Friday (which I ended up saving 2 of the vouchers until the Saturday much to my benefit), Yen's cue was huge so we'd be going there later.

My Brother went to the photoshoot for Donnie Yen he had purchased (which ended up running late which was a pattern for the weekend) and I decided to look around, and the first person I ended up meeting was The Incredible Hulk himself - Lou Ferrigno - who I had heard had a reputation as not the nicest... but he was nice, signed this awesome German poster posted here

and a close up of my signature

and he shook my hand and and I was on my way, I noticed a small queue had started to form for Hynden Walch who was signing for free on an item they provided and soon got her on an Adventure Time photo and she was sweet

Next up as Mark Dexter, who has appeared as Rimmer's Brother in Red Dwarf (Series XI I think) but as also been in Doctor Who so of course my poster makes an appearance here (here is just a close up of the autograph as the poster will make a comeback)

His onscreen brother Chris Barrie, was also sat near by so I got him on a Red Dwarf I DVD cover, another nice guy.

I then went to see Eugene Simon who plays Lancel Lannister in Game Of Thrones - such a nice, nice guy and even told him he was nothing like his character, he put an awesome quote and symbol

I met another Lannister after him and got Nell Tiger Free who was only announced on the Thursday and she signed near Eugene to make it a Lannister section

Here is the poster as it stands with 7 signatures (the 10 signature goal for the year is obtainable)

My Brother eventually left the Donnie Yen photoshoot and then we joined the queue for the autograph, to cut a long story short we queued up ages and had to cut it off before they got to us... however they gave a ticket to get in for next autograph session so we'd been seen by him. So we ended up walking around seeing the stalls - a lot of anime, sadly not enough vintage stuff for my liking - and ate some Japanese chicken and ended up coming back for the last Donnie Yen autograph session and true to their word we got to meet him, the experience was quick but she said hello, and I got him on my Iron Monkey DVD cover.

That was it for the Friday and off to find our accommodation which was a hostel, it was only £14 for the night, which could have ended up being a disaster due to us not having her passport but the receptionist looked the other way.

And that was it for day 1.