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Liverpool Comic Con

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Liverpool Comic Con

Saturday 4th May and Sunday 5th May 2024

Exhibition Centre, King’s Docks, Liverpool

Liverpool Comic Con is massive! This event has grown into a truly huge experience, taking up gigantic halls just at the side of the river Mersey. For one whole weekend, thousands of people visited this convention and were able to be a part of what was a monumental gathering.

With it being Star Wars Day on the Saturday (“May the Fourth be with you”, of course), this event seemed like the ideal place to be. I ventured over to Liverpool with my daughter in tow on the Sunday, eager to make a full day of the whole experience.

Daughtertron attended dressed as Ellie Williams from The Last of Us Part 2. I’ve never heard of it, but she looked pretty cool. Unfortunately I have been banned by Daughterton from sharing her photos, in case they are used for nefarious deeds by evil classmates. A shame, it was nice that one of us made the effort to get into a bit of cosplay – but never mind – there are plenty of other photos here.

With literally hundreds of people milling about, there was no way I could take photos of everybody. There were dozens of amazing costumes worn by talented people on display – thank you all for allowing me to take your picture. You’re all heroes, and one day I’ll join in with you and get dressed up. I’m running out of excuses, so I just need to decide who to be. Suggestions are welcome.

Of course the merch stalls were a big draw for me, as always. There were loads of different stalls selling all kinds of amazing paraphernalia, all in an enormous aircraft hangar of a building.

The best bit was that I was actually able to buy comics at a Comic Convention! I know that sounds crazy, but several of the events I’ve attended haven’t had a single stall selling comics. Luckily I was able to spend a few quid on some classic Bronze Age Marvel publications for my collections.

I was less happy with the action figure situation, as there was little in the way Star Wars and Reaction figure selections that interested me. Tons of Funko Pops, though none I desired. Daughtertron was very happy with a Monster High doll and an Elvira Funko Pop (different to the version I already own!).

There were many celebs in attendance for those desiring of autographs and meet and greets. The guest list was very impressive, with Hollywood big timer Orlando Bloom at the top of the list. There were also some Lords of the Rings dudes, Jay and Silent Bob, and John Cleese – amongst many others.

The only criticism I’ve heard of the day was the inflated prices: tickets, celeb autographs and photos, even the food. One one hand, putting on an event of this magnitude must incur some major expense; but I could see the point of the detractors. This was an event where spending could easily get out of hand.

My only complaint personally was that there was little in the way of guidance for what was where. Visitors could buy a program, which seemed to be the only way to get hold of a map. Without a map, finding your way around could be a headache. It took us a while to find our way into the main arena – but when we did get in there, our jaws hit the floor.

The huge arena housed an array of amazing vehicles and props: a life size X-Wing Fighter, Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, a Jabba the Hutt model. There were also vehicles and scenes from Ghostbusters, Robocop, Stranger Things, The Lost Boys, even the Flintstones. It was photo opportunity heaven, all while live bands played.

My autograph hunting days are well behind me, but we made an exception to meet Tim Rose, the man behind many creations including Admiral Ackbar and Salacious Crumb in Return of the Jedi. Ackbar is one of Daughtertron’s favourite Star Wars characters, and mine too. Mr Rose could not have been nicer, he was charming and chatty and an absolute joy to spend a few minutes with. Thanks, Tim!

And that was about it for the day. I hope you enjoy the photos – there should be some more, but currently the technology is playing tricks on me and I can’t find them. If and when they turn up, I’ll do a Part 2. Hope you had a good time at Liverpool Comic Con if you were there. If not, get yourself to the next one!

Here’s the Liverpool Comic Con website.

Sci Fi Weekender 2018 – Part 1

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Sci Fi Weekender 23th – 24th March 2018

Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, Pwllheli

2017 saw my intrepid crew and I sucked into a black hole, from which we were very lucky to escape.  Following numerous trials and tribulations within the void, we emerged eventually into a bizarre parallel dimension.  This strange new plane was warped beyond any fathomable reason; the UK was no longer in Europe and Donald Trump was President.

I know – unbelievable, right?  I was expecting apes to be in charge maybe, but not Trump.

Luigi
Alien
Lovely couple
Star Lord and Gamora
Harley

Utilising all the skill and resource we could muster, we managed to reverse thrusters and reset our course for Pwllheli, North Wales, for Sci Fi Weekender.  The crew had missed one event, but in 2018 we would return.

The engines groaned and strained, but we were back on track.  We arrived at our destination and set up camp in our static exploration cabin.

Scarecrow
Lethal
Gamora and Groot
Space girl
Punisher vs Kylo

Scouts across the galaxy had informed us that this was the ninth cycle of Sci Fi Weekender.  SFW9 would be full of the usual entertainments: VIP signings; Q&A panels; cosplay; films; games; live music and other acts.

Throw in a few decidedly lethal Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and there would, indeed, be exceptional joviality.

Area 51
Area 51
Area 51

Alas, many VIP guests had apparently missed their trasport shuttles to reach us.  Caught in the same black hole as we had been, perhaps?  This was a bit of a blow, as I was particularly looking forward to hearing from Hugh Quarshie of Highlander (and others) fame.

Never mind, “There can be only one” – and that guest was the deviilishly delectable Emily Booth, actress and Horror Channel star.  Ms Booth’s Q&A was the first event I witnessed of the weekend and she was great.  Although the interview amounted to just a run through of her IMDB credits, Emily came across very well as both a cult star and confirmed fan.  I even asked a question myself, which is a SFW first for me!

The interview did get a bit saucy at times, but the audience was well warned in advance what to expect.  To be honest, I’d love to see much more of Emily Booth’s talents.  By which I mean, of course, more of the various movies she has starred in.  Of course.

Emily
Booth

It was then time to lurk about and peruse the merchandise stalls.  There were many more this year than I’ve seen previously.  Excellent news for me, bad news for my galactic credit balance.  I did get some rad stuff though.

Rocket
Amazing Cylon
Star Lord and Negan
Spot the Oscar winner
Deadly

This was also a great time to start taking some photos.  Armed with three cameras this year (!), I took quite a few pictures but as always missed so many great cosplayers.  There were dozens that I glimpsed briefly but lost in the crowd, never to be seen again.

It was like when I watched the Cantina scene in Star Wars when I was a kid, before we had a VHS player (yes, I’m THAT old).  An amazing creation was spotted only briefly, to be replaced by yet another, and I had no rewind function.

Bane
Rorschach
Orc
Cool SW cosplay
Jay and Silent Bob

As you can probably imagine, Friday evening was somewhat of a blur.  I do remember a couple of things that must be mentioned though.

Professor Elemental was an absolute joy to behold, as always.  The Prof dropped tongue twisting chap-hop rhymes over DJ Nick Maxwell’s funky beats.  He expertly rallied the troops and took us on a tea stained tour of the British Empire.  It was brilliantly engaging stuff, with the Professor uniting all the tribes of geekdom in a pulsating party of steampunk excitement.

Prof Elemental
Prof E, some dancers and a duck
Prof E, some dancers and a duck

Darth Elvis & the Imperials performed what I consider the best set I’ve seen them deliver, despite it being cut short.  There were favourites old and new, including “Burning Sith” and a raging cover of the Beastie Boys classic, “Sabotage” – reworked in honour of Kylo Ren.  I was down the front for a fair part of the set and I loved every second.

This band never get old.  May they live as long as Master Yoda and forever be as musically talented at Max Rebo.  Sheer fun from beginning to end!

Darth Elvis
Darth Elvis
Darth Elvis

The evening ended with some spectacular Cosplay Karaoke, which I would’ve loved to have a go of!  No idea who the winner was, all the entrants were winners in my eyes!

Day one at SFW9 was truly stellar.  My only complaint was too much Welsh bashing from several presenters over the course of events.  In this day and age that’s a bit poor.

Area 51
Sings as well as drums!
Fantastic Kylo and Mera!
Mara Jade on the mic
GOTG

However Sci Fi Weekender is a success because of the people.  The camaraderie amongst attendees is the true strength, regardless of what VIP interview guests are there or not.  It’s a real pleasure to catch up with old faces – and meet some new ones – in a friendly, welcoming environment like this.

That’ll do for Part One.  Beam me up!

In Part 2: we lose a red shirt, and more pics.  Stay tuned!

Alex
Hi de hi!
Stormtrooper and Star Lord
Just a couple of Baseball Furies
Brilliant cosplay!

Sci Fi Weekender 2016 – part 2

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Phoenix

Sci Fi Weekender 17th – 20th March 2016

Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, Pwllheli

Day 2 at SFW, and again it’s all a blur.  I recall it was a lazy start to the day for me, breakfast and chilling in the caravan.  Kurt was feeling better, but Greeny was starting to suffer with the illness.  It would be mostly be another day of watching Star Trek, Big Bang Theory and Top Gear for those two.

Adam had got up early and made it to see a showing of a new independent film called Pandorica.  Classed as an action-horror, reports about the film were very enthusiastic.  The Q&A with Director and cast was my first event of the day – it was interesting although I’d not seen the film!  Definitely one to keep and eye out for: word of mouth was very positive.

Wheres Blessed?
Jokes
Rey and Leia
Papa Johns is just ahead of you…
Massive Wampa
Marvel gang

The highlight of the afternoon was, undoubtedly, an appearance by the incomparable Brian Blessed.  Larger than life and twice as loud, Blessed’s sci-fi credentials are suitably top notch.  A life long fan of science fiction, as well in starring in numerous genre pieces – you may have heard of Flash Gordon – his enthusiasm was both apparent and infectious.

Professor Elemental hosted the Q&A with Brian Blessed, who wisely let the great man get on and tell his tales!  A solid job from the Professor – a daunting task well executed.

Blessed’s talk ranged from his acting work to his many explorations and mountaineering adventures.  His recollections of the Flash Gordon movie, and it’s well deserved appreciation by audiences the world over, were affectionately told.  An unmissable audience with a real living legend.

Judges
Dr Strange and pals
Black Cat
Vinz Clortho and pals!
Chewie with friends

In the afternoon I took some photos and looked around the stalls again.  Unfortunately, this years SFW again clashed with MCM Memorabilia in Birmingham, so genre based merchandise was thin on the ground.  I picked up some cool Elvira cocktail glasses though!

A good feature this year was the retro gaming section, where numerous old consoles could be played for free.  This was very popular, and although I don’t play video games it meant I always knew where to find my crew if we split up.  They were always playing games…

Every year at SFW, the Cosplay final is something to behold.  There’s always a sense of excitement in the air, as the costumed competitors take the stage.  And every year, the audience and competitors are enthusiastic and good natured.  Everyone cheers for each other, and there’s a real sense of community.  It’s nice to witness all the attendees rooting for each other; even though there will always be favourites, there is no bitterness.

Wolverine
Rocket and Gamora
Urban Troopers
Tank Girl and friends
Aquaman

The costumes were exceptional, as you can see (hopefully) from the photos here.  Not everyone entered the competition, but there were so many great costumes whether they were entering or just dressing up for fun.  Massive respect to everyone.

I find it great fun spotting and naming the characters.  The variety and imagination on show is consistently astounding, not to mention the talent that goes into making the costumes.  So again, thanks to all the Cosplayers for letting me take your photos.  Too many of my pics didn’t work out.  I also missed far too may opportunities.  But I hope that the photos here capture some of the creativity I witnessed.

And I sincerely apologise for not dressing up!  I lost count of the number of people who chastised me (with good humour, of course) for not dressing as Tony Stark…

Mario and friends
Dungeons and Dragons
Captain America
Edward
My Little Pony ladies

Anyway, there can only be one winner of the Cosplay final, and that was the Robot Overlord fellow.  I can’t remember the character’s name, but I swear it was truly incredible!

Later on in the evening, I zoomed over to the Prog Rock area to catch some music.  I was very happy to catch the Focus set; the song “Hocus Pocus” was an obvious highlight.  I only saw a couple of songs by Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame) – though they were impressive – before heading back to the spaceport.

Nostromo crew
Mr Tumble!
Arrow and Canary
Zombies
Wonder Woman

For the rest of the evening, my compadre, Ste and myself had a few beers and hung around with various SFW attendees.  We saw some old pals and met a few new ones.  I took more photos – including the now traditional “no photos” social media-proof shades pics.  And we managed to stay up partying till after 2 in the morning!

Not such a good thing going home Sunday…

Still, another great time at Sci Fi Weekender.  And yes, Greeny and Kurt got better, thanks for asking.

If you were there, it was good to see you.  Hopefully we’ll see you next year.

And big thanks to Adam, who organised the whole thing for us!

The Sci Fi Weekender site is here.

The HRH Prog site is here.

PS: There are photos left unpublished, so there will be Bonus Scenes in a few weeks.  Be warned!

Party
Rebel pilots
Alien girl
Indy and friends
Oscar D2
Two Face

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Cosplay winner!

Sci Fi Weekender 2016 – part 1

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IMG_20160318_114228066Sci Fi Weekender 17th – 20th March 2016

Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, Pwllheli

Wow.  This year’s Sci Fi Weekender was a blur – it went faster than light speed.  All the usual geekery was in full swing, though I’ll be gosh darned if I can remember everything and what order it happened in.  Too much blue milk?

Never mind, I have numerous photos of the weekend to share; to help report on this cosmic adventure.  Except that didn’t go to plan this year.   My trusty Canon was on the blink, so I resorted to a little digital snapper and my phone.

Not ideal, but sometimes you have to compromise.

Thor and Loki
Merida
Freddy
Scream
Harley and Zatanna
Cool outfit!
General Zod

So what is Sci Fi Weekender?  For the unititiated, it’s a weekend of events and special guests, all held on site at the Hafan Y Mor holiday park in Pwllheli, North Wales.  Think Comic Con but at a holiday camp and with a party atmosphere.  All manner of interview panels, Q&As, games, and musical entertainment are part of the festivities.

Plus a prog rock festival – HRH Prog – was also being held on the same weekend.  Not a massive tie in with science fiction you may think (at least not without Hawkwind playing).  However it gave additional entertainment for those with musical interests.

Our weekend began with four of us – Adam, Greeny, Kurt and myself – driving from our corner of north east Wales to the north west.  On the way we popped into Cob records in Porthmadog to feed our vinyl addition.  Then we settled into our caravan home from home – complete with haul of supplies from the local ASDA – and planned our DVD watching schedule for the night.

Belle and Prince
Double trouble
Ant Man and She Hulk
Group pic
Amazing!

Unfortunately the DVD player wasn’t working, and without tickets for the Thursday evening SFW party, we were stuck.  Rather than watch TV, we went for a pint in the onsite pub.  We then popped in to see what the prog rock was all about.  We didn’t think we would get in, but it was no problem.  As a result we were able to see Third Quadrant (quite good) and the excellent Crazy World of Arthur Brown.  Arthur is over seventy years old and jumps around on stage like a nutter.  Highly entertaining and some great tunes.

Friday began with the bad news that Kurt was ill.  He’s only 16 so booze wasn’t the issue.  As a result, Kurt and his dad Greeny were pretty much out of the running for the day.  They watched TV and chilled.  Plus Ste, our remaining member, had burst the inflatable camp bed by leaving it too close to the fire.  He suffered a bad night’s sleep on the sofa as a result.

The rest of us headed over to the arena and started checking things out.  I took a few photos and looked round the stalls.  We caught a Cosplay panel with Tabitha from Artyfakes that was very interesting, with extremely impressive Space Marine costumes and hints and tips about the hobby.  I bottled asking my question though, which was “How do you go for a wee?”.

Star Trek
She Hulk
This pic should be gloomier
Belle
Doctor

I also watched an interview panel of comic book artists.  The panel consisted of 2000AD greats such as Glenn Fabry, William Simpson, Clint Langley and Simon Davis.  Hosted by Dez Skinn, the panel was informative and also amusing; it seems some of the assembled masters had been on the pop?  Either way, these guys were like rock stars to me when I was a young 2000AD fan, so it was pretty cool.

The vibe around the arena was good natured as always.  I took some cool photos (thanks everyone) and despite our numbers being depleted, we had a good afternoon.

After a delightful pizza from the onsite Papa John’s (it was great!); we were ready for the evening’s entertainment.  I’m afraid to say that the Imaginarium and magicians weren’t really my thing this year.  It’s difficult to dig the magic when you can’t see it up close.

Orc
Morticia and Gomez
Mario and pals
Jedi and Ewok
Welcome!

The highlight was the one and only Professor Elemental, steam punk hip hop pioneer.  His smooth raps mixed with groovy beats like a well tuned gin and tonic.   A pleasure to witness, as always.

At the end of the night, I teleported across the site to see the end of the set by Caravan.  Not only a very apt band to be playing, they were actually pretty good.  The Soft Machine were on last with a more jazz orientated approach.  All very impressive and I’m glad I got to see something different.

I’m ashamed to say that we all ended up crashing out early on Friday night.  Illness and lack of sleep took it’s toll.  I was last man standing, going to bed at 11.30pm.  Pathetic, I know.

In Part 2: Brian Blessed, the Cosplay final, more Prog Rock…

PLUS: will we be able to stay up late?

Stay tuned to this frequency…

The Sci Fi Weekender site is here.

You really should check out Professor Elemental.  His website is here, plus he’s on that Twitter and stuff too.