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.

Humber Unleashed

So it's a return to Humber Unleashed, which is the 1st event on this blog that I am covering for a 2nd time after attending in November last year and meeting Garrick Hagon (though without counting I think this is like the 4th or 5th one I have attended), in the previous write up I wrote about how I was glad that Humber Unleashed was held at a new venue, because it was such a more open space... and then oh so predictably they announced to be back at the old venue - don't know if it was getting some work done last time round, and then a couple of months before the event, they announced it was returning to the same place as last time, so yay and now I've made it a long winded opening to this that really wasn't needed, but if you have any previous convention write-ups the beginning is always way longer then it should be. That all been said more so than usual I was looking forward to this event as it had 2 guests I wanted to meet and also for the first time they are doing advanced tickets (which was one of the main issues at previous events - I felt like I have spent more time queuing to get into Humber Unleashed events then the actual event), however I knew I wasn't going make it for opening time so I just went the normal entry hoping there wouldn't be much of a cue. And then my Sunday plans pre-event got cancelled so then I could have made it to the event advanced but as quick as I got to see the guests it really wasn't necessary to pay that bit extra.

So I got there around 11, with a queue there but luckily they got through it quick and was in no later than 5 past and saw that both guest I wanted to meet had little or no queue, and first went up to Colin Baker, the 2nd man I have met to play the Doctor and the 28th name on my poster, he seemed a friendly enough guy - wished he and signed over himself but least he did an arrow to himself, it's growing on me the more I look at it though

next up was Spencer Wilding, when originally announced I was going to get him on my Rogue One Chirashi, but then at Valiant, Richard Franklin signed it too big - which ended me deciding not to turn it into a multi piece (so I guess he saved me a lot of money over the next few months) - and also there is some sort of question mark of what Wilding actually did in the final cut of Rogue One, with varying reports that he didn't make the final cut (only the trailer) or a more generous one scene in the final cut, it didn't help that one of the main guys from Showmasters (maybe the boss, he's called Jason Joiner) was trying to get to the bottom of it and he replied in a bit of a manner that didn't make him look good -

He could have responded addressing which scenes he was actually in bu it came across ore defensive then that (also given his size aren't a lot people little to him), but anyway he's made it to the screen for a number of roles including a couple of items I was planning on getting today, but anyway I digress I wanted him for two things, firstly I added him to my DW poster where he played multiple characters which he wrote

The poster has it looks now

And I also got him to sign my Game Of Thrones poster (the 5th name on there), he played a White Walker in the pilot

and the poster has it looks now

He was actually a very friendly guy so props to him and he's right Vader is Vader for a collector, I mean I'd get somebody whose scenes got deleted or replaced on a film I like, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt of it all.

I had a quick look around the stalls, to be honest at this point with the local conventions, it's seeing the same stalls again and again, so I was in and out within 30-40 minutes and to be grumpy for a second you seem to get a lot of people happily standing around blocking aisles talking to each other, which makes me not want to spend money..

Overall, a good time and quick, all future Humber Unleashed for me are going to depend on the guests they got, because everything else is personally not enough for me.