Wales ComicCon 2012 in Glyndwr Uni
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Posts
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Held today – report here:
Some issues about getting in as it seems it was very very popular however once in it seems everyone had a decent time!
What has struck me is the number coming from ‘far and wide’ to attend, yet not alot promoted locally for it. Such an event surely must do wonders for the local economy on what is quite a quiet Sunday!
Did you go , if so, what did you think?
Had a great day. It did say on the website that if you arrive before 11 to expect a big queue. I arrived at 9.45 and was very near the front. They let the “early bird” pre-bookers in at 10, and the rest at 11. By the time we got let in the queue was massive.
The chap outside with the Knight Rider car was doing it for free, let everyone who asked sit in it and have their picture taken which I thought was really nice of him.
It was very poorly advertised locally and to be honest, the only reason I knew of it is through a t-shirt company via twitter called Genki Gear who’s t-shirts I like. Even then didn’t realise the scale of it until I got there. The fella on the door said this is the 5th year they’ve held this in Wrexham and it gets bigger every time. Hope they manage to keep it here!
All things being equal, they did a good job. A bigger venue would have helped though.
My daughter is a huge Marvel fan, and when she told me about this event I could hardly refuse, especially with it being right on the doorstep.
Man, am I glad she asked me! It was an absolutely fantastic day out. We had the early-bird tickets (10am Entry) so we got there at about 9.40am, and there was plenty of free car parking.
We got in about 10.10am and I instantly made my way to a hero of mine, Robert LLewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, How do they do it?, Carpool) and had a nice chat with him. I bought his book (News from Gardenia) and he signed it for me along with a photo of him as his Red Dwarf character, Kryten.
My daughter dragged me off to meet Warwick Davis (Harry Potter, Willow, Life’s too short, Merlin…) and what an absolute gent he turned out to be. Not only did he autograph pictures for my daughter and her friend, he posed for photo’s – which are supposed to be chargeable – and totally made my daughter’s day. She hasn’t shut up about him since!
There were plenty of celebs there as you will see if you check out the event website, and plenty of other sci-fi and geek related things. I was impressed to see some of the big-hitters from Game of Thrones there, along with American stars and a few from cult tv-shows. There were also lots of writers and illustrators there, mixed in with the stalls and board-game demo’s.
Even though we weren’t affected, we did notice the queue when we went to a different building for a Q&A session with one of the celebs, and we couldn’t believe people were still waiting to get in 5 hours after the event had opened, but no one was really moaning – I think the weather staying dry had a lot to do with that.
Just to round off a great day, I was waiting for the kids by the door at the end and who should come down the stairs but Anthony Head (Buffy, Little Britain, The Inbetweeners…) and asked how I was! We got chatting about “teenagers” and had a laugh before he had to go. I was buzzing!
This was my first comicon, but definitely won’t be the last! I think they will need to expand to a bigger building next time, or if they don’t, they should make it a 2 day event. Mercury Promotions did a great job in my opinion. They obviously weren’t expecting such a large turnout but I think they’ll learn for next time.
There is a poll on their website about the venue and there is an option for Chester. I really think we should try and keep this in Wrexham as Chester already seems to get enough decent events.
A great day out!
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