London Super Comic Con!!

Sooo yesterday I went to London for the first London Super Comic Con.  Ohhh it was SO much fun!

Let me tell you about my day.....

I get up at 6am.  I realise I have time to have breakfast. I am shocked.  I get in the taxi at 6.30 am, I get on the train at 6.45.  I go oh grife it's really fucking early.

Due to a basic miscalculation about the times of London transport, I arrive at the venue, the Excel centre, an hour before I expected at 9am.  No matter, my friend arrives shortly after and we start queueing.  I am dressed like Jay Garrick, but being British still feel faintly embarrassed about being in public all dressed up.  After half an hour of queueing I get over this and put my hat on.  I blush a bit and then I calm down and get used to it.

We finally get in, the fella giving us our passes compliments me on the hat, and I feel better.  What does it look like?  Well I'll show you!

(Photo taken by this fella)

I'm really pleased by the outfit.  I should have moved the pass out of the way though cos you can't see the belt buckle.  I'd glued a lightning bolt charm to the buckle for extra authenticity.  I'll put a post up about how I made the helmet later.

For those non comic-y people, this is Jay Garrick as drawn by Alex Ross:

So, once in, my friend dived off to the Stan Lee queue and I went a wandering.  I had a hitlist of Jamal Igle, Paul Cornell, Phili Jiminez, Jock and Bill Sienkiewicz.  off I trotted, aware that although each had a signing session lined up, I was anxious not to miss anyone.

I found Jamal Igle first.  He recognised me, because on twitter I had mentioned I'd be dressed as Jay.  So when he shook me hand and said Saranga! I was bowled over.  He was lovely!  I apologised spamming him on twitter the other day - this was a result of a 3 way conversation between me, Sterling Gates, Anj from Supergirl Comic Box Commentary and him, which degenerated into me and Sterling chatting about silly fannish encounters.  So, sorry Anj as well.  I asked him to sign War of the Superman #1 and explained that I brought it because I find it such a great piece of storytelling through art, no dialogue, and it gets me really emotional every time.  He said he was gutted when he had to draw it.  I asked him what he was doing now and he said a Kiss comic set in 1912 (I think) and that something very cool will be announced June/July time.  Then I headed away as other people wanted to chat and I don't feel right monopolising folk.  Oh, I bought one of his sketch books too.

Then I went to the other side of the table and introduced myself to Paul Cornell, as I had been tweeting him about things recently.  (Apparently Demon Knights is set in France, not England).  He said I looked very different in person, I said yes, my twitter icon is doodle that makes me prettier and thinner, he said he couldn't comment.  Now, recently Paul Cornell has decided that in an effort to redress the gender imbalance at comic con panels, he will step off any panel where there isn't a 50/50 gender split, and invite a woman from the audience to take his place.  he was talking about this on twitter, so I chimed in on the conversation saying that women should be better represented at con panels, and, well, the upshot is that I've now volunteered myself for a panel at Eastercon in London on 6th April, to talk about 'comics outside the mainstream'.

Eek.

Anyway, I told Paul Cornell this and he was really pleased about it.  I hope I don't gabble like a fool at the con.  Paul was also giving away his free DC comics, that he gets sent by DC, so I picked up I, Vampire.

Again, someone else wanted to talk to him so I headed off. Oh, I got Demon Knights #6 signed by him.

Next I tried queueing for Bill Sienkiewicz but got bored (I hate queueing) and noticed a twitter friend, AlexanderLyons, behind me, so said hello and we chatted.  Alex is lovely! We queued for Phil Jiminez, I got Wonder Woman:Paradise Lost signed by him (Phil), he liked my hat.  Then Alex was up next and him and Phil had a reallllly long conversation.

By this point my friend Simon had come back, had met Stan Lee, got his signature and got his hand shook by Mr Stan!  This made Simon's day.

Me and Simon headed off to find other cosplayers, specifically a new 52 Supergirl, who quite frankly looked amazing!  She'd got everything absolutely perfect.  I'll upload photos when I've got a hold of them.  We also saw another Jay!   So me and him posed in the running pose and had photos taken.  Man, there were so many amazing costumes there.  This Flickr photo stream has lots of good examples, as does the facebook group I linked to above.  I think my favourite was the Vulture, DCnU Supergirl and She-Ra.  Nearly all of them were throwing poses when asked to be photographed.  Now, quite a few folk wanted my picture, which was cool, but apart from the one with the other Jay, I didn't pose.  Because I'm not an actor and I do fancy dress for the fun of it.  I also noticed that the women in more traditional superhero costumes got asked for tons more photos than I did, which narked me.  I don't like the fact that it annoyed me, and I fully understand why they would get more photos taken, but I still couldn't help feeling narked.  Which I don't like about myself. Oh well.

We stopped at Simon Furman's stand, him who wrote the 80s Thundercats and most Transformers comics.  I met him at Norcon last year, he said I looked a bit familiar.  I bought a couple of his Shulkie comics.

So, after this, me and Simon wandered round each and every stall, had a little sit outside, got some lunch, enjoyed the sun, wandered round the stalls again.  I noticed about 1 o'clock that the soles of one of my boots was coming off, (they were cheap), and got concerned I'd have to buy replacements later.  I didn't have to and they lasted till i got home at 2.45am.

I never managed to get anything signed by Jock or Bill Sienkiewicz because the queues were too long.  Alex got a Wonder Woman issue signed by George Perez.  Me and Simon went to the Stan Lee panel at 4pm which was far better than I expected.  Stan Lee is just like my Dad, when my Dad is in full storytelling mode with a few drinks in him. This made me warm to him so much.

One bad point of the day - while I was at the orbital comics stall 2 of the staff were in costume.  I was rifling through back issues, minding my own business when I overheard a conversation from a couple of fellows behind me.  They were criticising one of the cosplayers - they said she was too flat chested.  To costume as who she was costumed as.  I was flabberghasted and considered turning round and lamping them, or at least telling them they were being dicks.

But apart from that the day was great. It was wonderful to meet older and younger Jay Garrick-specific and Flash-general fans.  It was great to have people like my outfit and ask how I did the hat.  The other Jay made his wings out of balsar wood.  I think he may have done a better finish on the spray paint, as his hat looked much more heard wearing than mine.  Mine now has tons of fingerprints and is also missing a wing, as one cam eoff in the bag on the way home.  I shall replace it.

After the con i went to meet a couple of friend's for dinner, then to meet some other friends for a 30th birthday drinks.  I got in at 2.45am, knackered, but I had a fabulous day!

I think I've reported on everything.  I definitely want to go back next year.