Wales Comic Con Dec 2017 Report

Wales Comic Con Dec 2017 Report

Wales Comic Con returned this past weekend for their second instalment in 2017. This was my fourth time attending this convention, and the second time as press. As always it was a joy to attend. Wales have gone from strength to strength over the last two years. The management and crew learning from previous events and always striving to improve.

Due to some outside issues (damn that day job) I was only able to attend the Sunday this time round. I was a bit worried I wouldn’t fit everything I wanted to do in. 8 autographs, 1 photo op and what I was sure was going to be the most in demand panel of the day, the DC Universe Panel. I was concerned as I’d seen several people complaining on the Facebook group about queues and crowding at the end of Saturday.

As I sit here a week later watching the snow pile up outside I have to say that all things considered we got very lucky with the weather for this convention.

I had nothing to worry about. Sunday was an absolute dream. We arrived at about 9:30, and I had a bit of a to-do with my car, causing a panic in the car park which was witnessed by a certain guest who pulled in and parked near me. Great start! Once I got my car sorted we went and picked up our press passes and an event guide and made our plan of attack for the day. I had been asked by a friend who exhibits at the event (the brilliant Scribbelicious) if I would pick up a small gift she had for Corin Nemec and give it to him on her behalf when I got my autograph.

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Our first port of call was the vendor marquee to grab that, and say hi to my friend before heading into the main autograph hall.

Autographs and silliness

We got into the main hall and I have to say I was surprised by the amount of space. Despite having the biggest line up of any Wales Comic Con to date, the main signing hall was remarkably relaxed. Wales run a Virtual Queue system for the more in demand guests. You collect a ticket and come back when your number is called. The only guests I saw with VQs on Sunday were Matt Ryan (Constantine) and Sean Pertwee (Gotham, Dog Soldiers). Everyone else I managed to get to with the absolute minimum of queue time.

First on my list was Jed Brophy (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Shannara). Last time he was at Wales I’d gone to see him to get an autograph and we started chatting about New Zealand and movies and assorted other things. It wasn’t until I got home after the weekend and was sorting out my haul that I realised he’d written a quote but hadn’t actually signed his name. I sent him a tweet and he said that next time he came back we’d sort something out. I wandered over to his (queue-free) table and started to explain. “Ah, I was wondering if you’d turn up!” he said. I handed over the picture and he finished off the autograph for me. He asked if I was going to go to the Middle Earth panel and I said I would try.

Next up was Corin Nemec (Stargate SG-1, Supernatural). I met Corin the last time he was at Wales, and got an autograph, but since then my glorious Men of Science Fiction book has arrived. As he is in it, and I’m collecting the signatures of the guys featured, I had to go see him again.

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We were behind one other person in the queue and ended up getting involved in a conversation about Care Bears (someone had given one to Corin the day before). My assistant for the weekend, Sophie, happens to have a Care Bear tattoo, so she and Corin had a Care Bear Stare-off for a moment. Once it was my turn I handed over the gift from my friend. Corin opened it, stared for a second and then looked up, clutching his heart and said “she gets me”

After signing my book he asked for Jude’s twitter handle so that he could tweet a pic and thank her. What a sweetie!

Men of Science Fiction.

Corin wasn’t the only guest at the con who features in the Men of Science Fiction book. So after grabbing a Virtual Queue ticket for Matt Ryan we went up to see Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13).

He was deep in conversation so I ducked to the table next to him and grabbed the lovely Chase Coleman (The Originals) for an autograph. There were posters up with the hashtag #WeWantOllieBack and I told him that I did too, and had to be the one to break the news to him that they were filming the series finale already. He looked pretty bummed till I mentioned the rumours of the Hope Mikaelson spin off show. So we agreed to amend the hashtag to #WeWantOllieBackOnTheHopeSpinOff… too wordy?

He drew me a rather…uh…special werewolf on my autograph and then we jumped back to Eddie’s table.

Eddie was fun, and engaging, and (unlike many others) offering selfies at his table for free if you got an autograph. We chatted about the MOSF shoot, as he and the photographer flew out to the Mojave desert. I had to giggle when he described the plane they flew in as having been wound up with a rubber band.

He also picked my fave page of his section of the book to sign, which was awesome!

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We did a lap round the main hall, heading for Matt Ryan’s table. I spotted that Tahmoh Penikett didn’t have a queue so made a pit-stop there first after grabbing a VQ ticket for Sean Pertwee.

Tahmoh is one big guy. But so sweet! I realised when I got round to Tahmoh that many of the guests were up on their feet rather than sitting behind desks. Some were even out in front of their tables. Tahmoh and I chatted about Dollhouse, one of my fave shows, and the fact Joss Whedon shows didn’t have the best success with the FOX network.

Matt Ryan Time

Well, what can I say about this guy? He’s one of my favourite con guests to meet. After a few very nervous initial meetings things were a lot more relaxed this time. This probably had a lot to do with the fact that Matt recognised Sophie and me and was in a very fun mood. After much messing about and him asking about my car troubles. Yeah, Matt was the guest that pulled into the car park while I was flailing like an idiot. I handed over the script from the play he did earlier this year. He looked at it, looked at me and asked what I wanted him to do with it. All potential smut filled suggestions dismissed from my brain I said “sign it obviously” so he did and then came round the table for a selfie.

I told him I hadn’t paid for one and that he’d made assumptions. After calling me a cheeky bar-steward (all with his arm still round me ready for the pic) we got the selfie. Sophie got her autograph and a selfie too and then I said I’d be seeing him for a photo op a little later. “Great. We’ll do something fun.” was his reply. Sophie piped up with “you can wear my ewok hat.” I refused so Matt promptly said HE would wear the hat. We left his table giggling.

Taking stock

So let’s see, that’s 6 autographs done and it was only just after 11am by this point! We dropped off the MOSF book and my autograph journal at the car and grabbed Sophie’s hat. Suitably lightened we joined the queue for the photo op near some Assassin’s Creed cosplayer friends of mine. I then got a message from someone I know via twitter who was a little further up the queue. Never having met before in person I bounded up there to say hello. This was her first convention and she was there mostly for Matt. She was very excited which was really cool to see. Matt has such a great effect on people!

The photo studio was running brilliantly as always at Wales. As this was my only photo op of the weekend I hoped it would be smooth sailing and it was. Dancing and singing in the queue and chatting to friends as we made our way to the front made me remember some of the best things about conventions. The people I was queuing with I wouldn’t know if it wasn’t for this event! Matt was still in a great mood, catching a fit of the giggles at one point and being unable to keep a straight face for a picture for a few moments.

I got to the front and held up the hat. Matt immediately grabbed it and put it on, slung an arm round me and I burst out laughing. As did everyone else left in the room. Matt gave me back the hat after the picture and I ran out to the distribution area to get my picture back.

Well, it did not disappoint.

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In absolute hysterics we left the photo op area and headed back towards the main hall. I still needed to get autographs from Sean Pertwee and Laura Vandervoort so that was where we went. I grabbed a virtual ticket for Sean and then went to see Laura. She was lovely. We talked about Bitten and Smallville and she told me about the project she is currently working on. She’s been in South Africa filming the second season of a show called Ice with Ray Winston. One to add to the list to check out for sure.

Sean Pertwee was in his photo op and then it was going to be time for the DC Panel. We decided to look around the vendors areas before heading to queue up for the panel since Sean wasn’t around to get his autograph.

DC Universe Panel

The panel comprised Laura Vandervoort (Smallville and Supergirl), Matt Ryan (Constantine, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow) and Sean Pertwee (Gotham). By the time we arrived at the line it was already stretching FAR down one corridor. We joined it , hoping to get some good material to tweet even if we couldn’t get the best pictures.

Obviously the con gods were smiling on us as we managed 3rd row anyway! And what a view we had swoons

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If you want to check out what we learned in the panel then you can check out the twitter hashtag #DCPanel which is where we posted all the good bits!

The highlight was Sean Pertwee saying he was excited to play Alfred cos he is a Brit and he couldn’t think of any other British characters in the sort of Superhero genre. I may have forgotten to engage my filter because I shouted out, loud enough for everyone to hear, that he was sitting next to Constantine. Everyone laughed, Sean looked mortified and I decided I should probably apologise to the man!

By the time we came out the Middle Earth Panel was under way and we didn’t want to wander in late so sadly we had to miss out. Next time!

Lunch and Apologies!

Once the panel was over we grabbed some lunch (all hail the curry van, man that was good) and a few shots of some cosplayers. My fave had to be this brilliant Ruby Rose. Sophie and I are both huge RWBY fans, so it was great seeing this cosplay.

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Once lunch was over we headed to find Sean Pertwee to get my final autograph of the day.

Sean’s queue had subsided quite a bit, just as well considering I’d lost my virtual queue ticket. Prep fail. Sean was very chatty with all the attendees in the queue, which was great. When I got to the front I apologised for being the one with the big mouth. He said it was really bad because he and Matt are friends and he loved Constantine. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. I got my Dog Soldiers DVD insert signed, and I hoped for my favourite quote but it’s a little long. I did get “SAUSAGES!” which made me giggle an awful lot.

Shopping!

Having achieved everything I’d set out to do; 8 autographs, a photo op and live tweeting a panel, there wasn’t much more to do. I decided to show Matt our amazing photo op and to say goodbye. We went back to his table and joined the end of the queue. Matt loved the photo and insisted I tweet it, which I promised I would. I also asked if he would mind recording a little message for a friend of mine. He knows this friend. She went to the play with us, and she’d been unable to attend the con as planned. He said of course and promptly put Sophie’s hat BACK ON for the purpose.

We said goodbye to Matt, leaving with him having promised to bring a box of hats for photo ops next time. We did a final lap of the vendors and got some last minute goodies.

I wish I had been able to attend the after party, as I barely had a chance to talk to any of my friends who crew at Wales Comic Con this time around. Next time though, we’re doing the whole weekend and we are doing it right.

Final Thoughts

Obviously I can’t comment on the issues that were raised about the Saturday, but the Sunday of Wales Comic Con Dec 2017 was an absolute joy. The one thing I have noticed, especially with as huge a line-up as they had for this event, is that the layout of the venue is somewhat constricting. It’s very sensible to have the biggest draw guests (in this case The Walking Dead) in their own area. This has worked well in previous years I have attended for the Buffy group. But the main signing hall still has a tricky layout, with most of the central space given over to vendors, and guests around the outer wall.

The obvious solution would be to move the remainder of the vendors out of the main signing hall, turning the entire space over to guests. However in December, sticking all the vendors in a marquee outside seems brutal. Perhaps there are other areas of the University that could be used by the convention. The downside there is that there is a lot of ground to cover already. I experienced this in April when I had photo ops at one of end the campus and then had a panel I needed to get to ALLLLL the way on the other side.

I’m sure that Jaimie and his stellar crew are taking on all comments. If there is anything they can do to improve what is already an excellent event I’ve no doubt they will.. We’re already looking forward to the 10th Anniversary in April. We hope to see some of you there.

If you want to check out more pictures from the event then you can find our full gallery here.

About author(s)

Clare Hemsworth

Hey, I'm Clare, aka Ciara or C. My current fandoms are RWBY and The Last Kingdom along with a bunch of other stuff I tend to let build up and then binge! I'm a keen, albeit amateur, cosplayer and love attending cons in various cosplays. I'm also the resident comic book girl around these parts, especially small press comics, so if you've got an indie book you want reviewed, I'm your gal! When I'm not doing the fangirl thing I am a keen long-distance hiker, having completed Te Araroa in New Zealand and The Pacific Crest Trail on the West Coast of the US.

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