LFCC London Film and Comic Convention 2015

Just back from LFCC2015, one of the biggest UK comiccons, with some absolutely amazing guests like Michael J. Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Jonathan Pryce and me. I spent nearly the entire time behind a table though, so didn't meet any of the Back to the Future cast or other celebs, except for a very quick chat with Sean Gunn (Gilmore Girls, Guardians of the Galaxy), who was astonishingly courteous to me considering I hadn't really slept for a couple of days and was beginning to look and smell like I'd died.

I drove down with Marvel/DC cover artist John Watson and my daughter Chloe. John will no doubt write an LFCC blog post full of blatant untruths about me walking like a giant old man and being unable to draw, you can read it here. The bit about my shoes falling about is true though, I bought them for £5, they lasted about 8 minutes.

We stayed in a hotel a few stations east of the Kensington Olympia, a lovely family run place within walking distance of Stamford Brook tube – The Brook Hotel,  highly recommended for the weary traveller, much better than many larger hotels I've stayed in recently, on the last day when we didn't have time for breakfast, they gave us a carrier bag with fruit, water and juice cartons to take with us. You don't get that with Ramada.

LFCC was three full days, the Friday might not have started until 1pm but it went on until 8pm, even Sunday started at the obscenely early hour of 9am. It was absolutely packed every single day, although we were on the second floor which was quieter than the main bottom floor, sharing the level with YALC (Young Authors Literary Convention) and a Video Gaming area. A few metres from my table they were giving away free cans of Monster, so I imbibed a year's supply of caffeine and taurine in 3 short days and probably won't be able to sleep until next Wednesday.

I didn't do any panels or talks, but had a great time chatting to people, promoting membership of the Jack Kirby Museum, doing quick sketches and selling copies of my books and prints. Having made the mistake of offering to draw anything, one group of six girls asked for a sketch of all six of them, which is a challenge in a few minutes even for someone of my massive artistic ability, but they seemed pleased with the result, if you try hard you can even tell who is supposed to be who.

I had a couple of posters up advertising the Kirby Museum and explaining about membership and how to donate, so had some great chats about Jack Kirby with people. Mauricet came over wearing a Jack Kirby Museum T-shirt and showed me some lovely prints he's done for Kirby characters Kamandi, Etrigan and New Gods.

More frustratingly, a lot of people I talked to had never heard of Jack Kirby, but that's one reason I was there, so I enjoyed explaining to people who had spent the last year making a Captain America costume that it wasn't Stan Lee who created it. If you want to know more about Jack Kirby, visit the Jack KirbyMuseum website, but only after you finish reading this blog post.

I didn't get much chance to shop for anything, but the man behind Rocket Chips came over to talk to me and I bought a bag of Sweet Chilli chips from him, they are pretty amazing.

I also bought a Star Labs mug from the Flash TV show and a couple of t-shirts for my kids after we'd packed up and were walking out of the venue. I didn't see a single comic up close, although they were there in the distance, I do wonder sometimes why it's called a comic convention.

As usual Cosplay was a big part of the event, with some great costumes passing my table. One final, logical highlight as we walked out was meeting Spock Vegas, a Leonard Nimoy impersonator who looked amazing, partly because he was about eight feet tall, but mainly because he remained in character at all times. It was almost like meeting Leonard Nimoy, fantastic. He is much better in person than in any photo.

Thanks to the organisers for all the support, food and organisering and to everyone who came and talked to me, bought things and asked for sketches.

My next con is the excellent NICE Comic Convention 19th & 20th September 2015 at Bedford Corn Exchange - Tickets on sale now. Start sending your pre-con sketch requests now.