Friday, May 19, 2006

ComicCon Bristol 2006

Ok I don't really know what the convention was called but I like my name for it best.

Anyways, the lovely Elf asked me to join her in Bristol for the comic convention. I happily obliged as seeing how I don't have a life something aside from the ordinary is always very welcome. Now I haven't actually collected or even read a traditional comic in years, but the formative years of my life were heavily steeped in the wonderful world of comic books. So I looked forward to a blast from the past! And also performed the role of 'Geek Shield' for Elf. She's cute as a button, and you cant help but wanna put her in your pocket. Unfortunately for her this also means that she is a Geek Electromagnet. Not just your ordinary magnet... an electromagnet... or if there's a neodymium magnet out there stronger... That's Elf... Geeks flock to her like Nerds to C++. Its almost a phenomenon. So I performed the role of dissuader... easily done as most Geeks (myself included here of course) immediately assume a Girl with a dood is taken... especially hot girls.

We shared a lift up with 2 mates of Elf's whom I will fondly dub Crackers and Big Red. These two are totally sound guys and closet fanboys. Big Red was going on a press pass and managed to blag the rest of us in for free! YAY! We got to the convention 45 mins early... which was a bit poo as that meant I didn't have to get up at 630am. arg.

So we basically just walked in... and had the place to ourselves. Not a huge venue really, I would have thought that the one of 2 big conventions in England would have had a larger representation. Dark Horse wasn't even there. But most of what was there was good. It had a decent line up from Tokyo Pop anime and of course boxes and boxes and tables and tables of die-hard classic comics. It was pretty much an old school Con with a peppering of Indy.

Elf and I had pretty much seen everything we wanted to see by the time the doors opened to let in the unwashed masses. Within an hour the temperature climbed 5 degrees and the smell got... thicker. Not a horribly unpleasant smell... but sort of a geek collective smell, mixed with unwashed pillow smell.

Elf and I got bored. Big Red was chasing artists and writers dragging Crackers everywhere. We decided to see who could find the biggest geek of them all. This ended up being reclassified (in my mind at least) into none Cosplay and Cosplay. Here's the biggest geek I could find. There were a few others that were serious Simpsons Androids Dungeon Look-alikes but this dood managed Geek with an uncompromising determination.



After that the Cosplays started showing up. This is when things got both interesting and weirdly surreal. Some people are well... I have no words. Pictures will speak for me...

Yes this is ash from Evil Dead... and he was very excited to be there.

These two were just... well... plasticy... She ended up staying inside for half and hour and then spending the rest of the day outside on a bench. I assume its because all that PVC made her a human oven and sweat factory.

I'm slightly confused by Tennis Boy with anime hair and his entourage. This wasn't helped by the fact that I wasn't sure if Tennis Boy was a boy... or the sex of his entourage... it was creepy.

This guy, fondly monikered '17stone Spiderman', stomped his way around the entire place. And when I say stomped.. I mean it! He didn't walk.. he stomped... like a 6 year old boy gleefully pounding his younger sisters painstakingly modeled Sand Castle with adjoining pony ranch. We could actually feel the floor vibrate with his passing. His costume was basically Spiderman PJ's... with shag carpet glued to the back. The spider logo made of the shag carpet looked like Pixel Art. HUGE squares stuck together that resembled more an alien from the original Space Invaders than the spidey logo.

I'm sorry the pics are blurry and in general crap... we were trying to be sneaky about the shots... Geeks are sensitive to bright light and sudden movement... it was like stalking the elusive Green Banded Mountain Lemur of East Rajikistan. Only we weren't all that worried about being eaten and these people are definitely not on any endangered species list.

We arrived at 9:15am... and left at 6pm. We had a few food breaks in between, which proved both difficult to find and when found... wholly crap. MMmmmmm dodgey Shrimp cocktail packaged sandwiches.

We finished the day with a pint at a bar and returned to exeter shattered. I bought 4 anime comics and Elf bought some new titles. All in all a good day out. The best part was seeing Crackers and Big Red fulfill dreams of meeting Artists they admired and grinning for Britain.

cheers all!

p

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