The second part of Clare’s report from Wales Comic Con 2016
Thanks for coming back for part 2 guys and girls, sorry it’s taken so long but I’ve been working and attending other conventions (reports to come) but I’m back now so here is part 2 of my report from Wales Comic Con. (Part 1 can be found here if you missed it.)
So Part 1 left off at the end of the day time events of Saturday so we will dive right in to the Saturday evening After Party.
After Party
Billy Boyd (Pippin from Lord of the Rings) has a band, that band is called Beecake, Beecake rock! (If you’re in the Supernatural fandom you probably know about Rob Benedict’s band Louden Swain. Beecake have a similar vibe, really good stuff, totally recommend them).
They played the after party, a great mix of songs from all 3 of their albums to entertain the hippy commune as Billy dubbed us. This was because the venue for the party was quite small so to get a good view people were sitting on the floor, leaning against walls and perched on pool tables.
As well as their own original stuff, Billy also sang “All Shall Fade” from Return of the King and the beautiful “The Last Goodbye” from the end of the final Hobbit movie. Pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house after that. You can see the lovely Kim’s video below, apologies for any sobbing/sniffing you can hear, that was us!
Other AP highlights included Michael Socha marching up to the bar and ordering jaegerbombs, and Jesse Mclure from Storage Hunters taking selfies at the side of the stage with Royd Tolkien.
After the gig, Kim and I went back to crash at the hotel as both of us were exhausted and we still had a whole other day to get through!
Sunday
Kim was awake at 7am on the Sunday to do her Vampire Willow makeup. Luckily my Hufflepuff Head Girl cosplay is minimum effort so I think I got out of bed at 8:30!
Our first port of call when the doors opened at 10am was photo collection to get our Matt pics back and we were not disappointed.
My BFF was on staff at this event as PA for Amber Benson from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She asked if I could pick up some autographs for her so next we went to see Amber for an autograph (and to get the money from my friend). My bff introduced me to Amber and she geeked out over the fact I was in Hufflepuff robes, apparently her circle of friends is mostly Slytherin. I told her that I had read (and loved) one of her short stories in an anthology while I was hiking last year and she said that had made her day. I said I’d been trying to find a copy of it over here to get her to sign but hadn’t been able to, at which point she offered to send me a copy. I nearly died on the spot. I love getting the chance to talk to guests at conventions about their lesser known projects, and to big those projects up if I can. So consider this a plug, pick up 21st Century Dead, edited by Christopher Golden, turn to the story titled “Anti-Parallelogram” and enjoy.
After Amber we went to see Billy Boyd to get autographs for me, Kim and my friend, with a quick stop at Miriam Margolyes for me. I’m a fan of hers (from before Harry Potter) and told her how much I loved her as the Nurse in Romeo + Juliet and as Professor Sprout (my head of house as a Hufflepuff of course).
We got to Billy’s table and his PA is a good friend, she jumped up to hug me across the table and Billy looked most put out so I asked if he wanted a hug too and he said yes. Billy gives good hugs! I got autographs for me and my friend as we are both huge Rings fans, went to each of the movies together several times, so it was great to meet him (and snag a selfie!)
Credit: Clare Hemsworth
After that we ran to the lecture hall for the Middle Earth panel with Billy, Royd Tolkien (JRR Tolkien’s Great Grandson) and Mark Atkin (Richard Armitage’s stunt double for The Hobbit movies). The panel was hilarious, they played off each other brilliantly and it’s always good hearing all the little stories from filming such a massive series of movies. Also – cheese.
Once the panel was over we went back to the main area for a bit of a mooch before Kim went to get her James Marsters pic (again) and I went to queue up for Jason Momoa’s autograph for my friend. Jason was extremely busy and since he was in a time crunch (had to leave at 2pm) he wasn’t very interactive by the time I got there, I literally got the signature and that was it. It’s a shame as I am a fan and would have liked more than a couple of seconds in front of him. As this was literally my only gripe of the weekend I can let it slide though. On the whole, Wales Comic Con is the most relaxed, friendly and well organised event I’ve been to in a long time!
I went back to give my friend her autographs after this and then went to the photo studio to pick up some goodies from another friend who was on the crew. As I was leaving Amber was coming in for her photo studio and she invited me to hang out, I had nothing else going on (and Kim was queueing for a photo with Amber anyway) so I accepted and ended up paying for a photo op with her. She was absolutely the sweetest and a definite highlight of the weekend for me.
While Kim had her photo op with Billy Boyd I went to the Buffy panel again as I couldn’t get enough of Amber and James. So glad I did as it was great fun and I live tweeted it for FANdemonium Network! Massive highlights were James and Amber giving us all tiny snippets of their singing from the Buffy musical episode, Once More With Feeling.
James just busted out with this! pic.twitter.com/pVb15x6pXA
— FANdemoniumNetwork ⠀ (@FANdemoniumNet) April 24, 2016
And then Amber gave us I'm Under Your Spell!!! pic.twitter.com/FqvFC9G9a5
— FANdemoniumNetwork ⠀ (@FANdemoniumNet) April 24, 2016
I fought my way out of the very busy hall and went to meet Kim as we had promised to go see Mark Ryan again and I wanted an autograph from Royd Tolkien. Spent my last £10 of the weekend on his autograph and had a great chat, he was amazed by Kim’s Vampire Willow cosplay and by the fact that I did my university dissertation on his great-grandfather’s books.
Our last port of call for the weekend was photo distribution to grab our last pics and say goodbye to friends on staff before we left the convention.
Wales Comic Con has since announced a winter event, taking place on November 4-5th 2016 at the same venue, Glyndwr University in Wrexham. I plan to attend since so far they have a great line up of Smallville and Buffy guests, so look out for my winter report later in the year!
