EVENT REVIEW: FTN at London Film and Comic Con 2013

Greetings my fellow Nerds and Nerdettes, well I’m back from London Film and Comic Con 2013 and I have had the most amazing time ever!

For those of you who couldn’t make it, LFCC this year had one of the best line-ups in recent memory with guests from Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Wars, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Doctor Who and even Thunderbirds. The three day convention was once again held in the very spacious (but incredibly warm) Earls Court Arena. If you missed the action, don’t worry as here is my brief roundup:

July 5th 2012 – Friday Evening – Day 1

As most Con-ers will know, the first evening is more of a pre-show with a limited number of guests in attendance. However, the organisers really pulled out the stops on this occasion as Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Norman Redus (Walking Dead), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) and even The Hoff were available for autographs and photographs. The hall provided plenty of space and movement and all of the attendees where able to view the various the actors and guests.

The preview evening was only for 3 hours, but this was ample time for attendees to get some autographs, photographs and have a leisurely look around the various props such as Ecto-1 (The Ghostbusters Vehicle) and the various Terminator costumes. All too quickly the evenings preview was over and it was time to try and get some sleep before the main day.

July 6th 2013 – Saturday – Day 2

This was the main day for the convention, with temperatures soaring as high as the cheers from the fans who were waiting to see their favourite guests. It was also the main day for cos-players to show off their very detailed costumes from various films, tv shows, games and animé (see gallery at the bottom of the page). I too decided to pull out all the stops this year and decided to attend as Captain Chaos from The Cannonball Run as Adrienne Barbeau was making an appearance.

The morning queue, which was formed before 7am, was full of eager fans of all ages waiting to meet the guests. The doors swung open at 9am and the stampede began in earnest with fans rushing in various directions. LFCC isn’t just a signing and photography convention, it encompasses so much more.

There were workshops and talks on cosplay, cartoon and comic drawings as there were over 40 talented and published artists and writers in attendance, all providing examples of their work and offering helpful assistance to those attendees who were interested in taking it up as a hobby or career.

With so many guests in attendance, the programme for the day was filled with various talks and chatting to fellow cosplayers. I must say that although my cosplay outfit was from a film 30 years old, the amount of fans in attendance that knew about the character was truly inspiring. This is, for me, what makes a con as fellow fans comment and congratulate each other on the their efforts and then compare notes on future outfits. This was especially helpful as there was a cosplay contest taking place later that day and the incredibly detailed outfits and numbers taking part meant that this is one competition that I should sit out! The winning cosplay outfits were richly deserved, but then again, everyone who entered the competition deserved to get a mention.

Once the cosplay was over, it was back to whizzing around the arena and obtaining autographs, photographs and even an interview with Dave Prowse (Darth Vader from Star Wars) and Andrew Robinson (Garek from Star Trek Deep Space Nine).

Continues after pictures

With an army of fellow cosplayers and new friends that I had made throughout the day, sadly the time really flew in and the doors closed for the day. However, there was a special screening of an episode of The Game of Thrones with a live commentary by Peter Dinklage, Jason Momoa and Miltos Yerolemou!

July 7th 2013 – Sunday – Day 3

Sunday is always a quieter day (thankfully due to the over whelming heat both inside and outside the arena) and there was once again a great number of guests attending for the one day only. Queuing up again from just after 7am it was easy to notice that the number of cosplayers had dwindled to a trickle as the last day is mainly used for everyone to get autographs, photographs and, of course, to shop at the high number of vendors selling everything from collectible busts and replica weapons from films, to collector artwork and original autographs, not to mention every form of manga and comic merchandise in the galaxy!

Once again I whizzed from guest to guest and obtained the various autographs and photographs from various guests including one of the biggest highlights of my life – Katy Manning kissed me!!

I noticed in a quiet little corner a number of original props from Blade Runner including, costumes, a neon umbrella, Deckard’s stunt revolver and even a model Police Spinner, this for me was Nerd-Heaven. In fact I just had to grab a quick interview with the owner of the collection!

Continues after pictures

With the weekend’s activities drawing to a close, there was one talk that I really didn’t want to miss and that was the DS9 cast talk. This was a special talk as almost all of the main cast were in attendance at the convention and it was truly wonderful to meet them and hear the various anecdotes and memories from the show.

One point I would like to make is that although LFCC is indeed a signing of film and tv guests, they also highlight charities. One such group that was in attendance was The Sea Shepherd – from the tv show Whale Wars. The Captain of The Sea Shepherd was there along with some of the organisers and they provided some very interesting information on their efforts to stop the Japanese whaling fleet from attacking the whales. I was even lucky enough to obtain an exclusive interview with Captain Alex Cornelissen who will be partaking in a charity skydiving jump this coming Sunday (for more information please visit: www.seashepherd.org).

Sadly, the weekend seemed to fly in all too quickly but it was truly an amazing convention and probably the best one I have ever attended. I sadly had to bid a farewell to my various friends, both new and old and even to the guests (I managed to grab a quick interview with Barry Jenner, Admiral Ross from DS9) before returning to my usual FTN duties.

However, there is great news, there will be a winter LFCC this October, and I just might pop along!

(All interviews and photographs will be posted on our main Following The Nerd Page over the next week, so keep checking for these and feel free to tag friends and comment)