So Deadpool, Harley Quinn and the Psycho from Borderlands 2 are queuing at a cash machine ...
This was one of the many sights at the inaugural Cardiff Film & Comic Con, the first of what looks to be a long tradition of annual conventions in the Welsh capital. As I'm looking for more things to add to my Geek's Guide to Cardiff, this was a welcome addition.
I got earlybird tickets for both days, which gave me an extra 2 hours before the masses of comic fans, Whovians and pseudo-Jedis descended upon the con venue. It was 2 hours well spent, as the tickets for the free talks sold out within minutes, and it gave me ample time to paw through the vast selection of comics, autographs and geek merchandise.
The Talks
I went to a few talks over the weekend. Saturday's
Doctor Who panel was quite fun, with
John Leeson (the voice of K9) using his voice to get a few laughs from the crowd and
Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) proudly declaring, "did you see me regenerate? No. I never did. I'm still The Doctor. I have been for thirty years!".
The Hobbit panel featured
Adam Brown,
Mark Hadlow and
John Callen (Ori, Dori and Oin) talking about how to walk like a dwarf and the pranks that Peter Jackson used to play on them (sending them jerseys with "Little Bastards" emblazoned on the front), which was immense fun.
The Star Wars talk on the second day ended the con on a slight down note. The pane was made up of
David Prowse (Darth Vader!)
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett),
Paul Blake (Greedo) and two others who clearly didn't want to be there. One of the panel members answered every question pointed at her with "Yes", "No" and "I have nothing to add". You could tell that she had been roped into doing the talk against her will, but it put a slight dampener on the final panel.
The best talks I've saved for last, and what talks they were! Saturday's final panel was
Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uther Pendragon in Merlin) who completely captivated the audience from start to finish.
He said that he'd love to do a Buffy movie, but only if
Joss Whedon was involved. He also said that he'd love to do a Shakespeare adaptation, like Whedon did with
Much Ado About Nothing. That I'd love to see.
He came back the next day for a
Merlin panel with
Alexander Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin) and, despite them only meeting one another for the first time that day, joked with one another and had a fantastic time answering questions from the fans.
Vlahos said that he received some abuse on Twitter when he was announced as replacing
Asa Butterfield as Mordred. Anthony looked out at the crowd and said "which one of you bastards was it? Own up!" which got a lot of laughs. By far my favourite talks of the con.
A funny little incident happened when it came to
David Hasselhoff's talk (I didn't go to that one, I just overheard a conversation from two other con-goers). His talks were the only ones to charge, and he was asking £20 per person to hear him speak. Not one ticket was sold, and so the organisers had to make his talks free since no one was going to show up. Silly Hoff.
The Cosplay
What kind of convention would it be if it didn't have a bit of cosplay? There were some pretty impressive outfits around, from a number of Joker costumes to
Matt Smith and
David Tennant's versions of The Doctor (who couldn't take five steps without being asked to stop for photos, they were that good).
There were also a number of people dressed as
Deadpool (who is fast becoming one of my favourite Marvel characters) and a whole host of
steampunk outfits. No matter what your fandom, there was a cosplayer there who you'd recognise.
Not strictly cosplay, but there was a full size Dalek that roamed around the con floor and chatted with the con goers with a surprisingly Welsh accent. When asked why he wasn't exterminating people, he replied, "My mother brought me up right".
The Swag
I picked up a lot of comics over the two days, including some new indie gems like
Day and Night by
James Moran (who wrote
Cockneys vs. Zombies) and
Patrick Walsh. I also had a custom sketch of Gambit vs. Deadpool drawn for me by Patrick Walsh (which is awesome).
I also had my photo taken on the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, but because there was such a big queue of people waiting, I sat down, there was a quick "3,2,1" and that was it. In that half a second my face couldn't decide which expression it wanted to convey, so I sort of look crazy. I may show you all, one day.
Cardiff Film & Comic Con was my first real con experience, and I loved it. A great experience all round, and I'm looking forward to the next convention in March 2014. It was heartening to see so many Cardiff based geeks, and also to see so many people flock to the city from elsewhere. Given that people were still queuing to get in at 3 in the afternoon, I'd say it was a definite success. I've got the con bug now, and I want to attend more. Luckily Cardiff's first horror convention,
Scardiff, is at the end of October.
About the authorJamie Gibbs is the bearded, bespectacled geek who runs Mithril Wisdom and drinks too much coffee, usually at the same time.
You can follow him on his
Google+ or
Twitter profiles for a daily dose of fanboy discourse.
He came back the next day for a Merlin panel with Alexander Vlahos (Mordred in Merlin) and, despite them only meeting one another for the first time that day, joked with one another and had a fantastic time answering questions from the fans.
What kind of convention would it be if it didn't have a bit of cosplay? There were some pretty impressive outfits around, from a number of Joker costumes to Matt Smith and David Tennant's versions of The Doctor (who couldn't take five steps without being asked to stop for photos, they were that good).
