On Sunday 9th March I was lucky enough to attend the first showmasters Film and Comic Con in the Newcastle. After a few teething problems on the Saturday the Comic Con was in full swing on the Sunday.
Fans from all of the country made their way to the Metro Radio Arena to see some of their favourite stars of TV, Films and Comics including John Rhys Davis (Lord of the Rings, Sliders), Carl Weathers (Rocky, Predator), Chris Judge (Stargate Sg-1), Paul McGann and many more. Unluckily for me our video recording kit decided not to work (meaning no cool Spoiler TV microphone) so we had to use our mobile phones (yes very professional).
Even with those technical issues my team of Wolverine and Simon (from Doctor Who: Audio Adventures) set out to try and chat to some of the guests with as much battery life as we could muster on our phones. First on my agenda was a personal favourite of mine called Hannah Spearritt who was in a UK show called Primeval. You can watch me embarrass myself in the youtube below.
Next up Simon chatted with Sophie Aldred and Kai Own from Doctor Who and Torchwood. We spoke about of memories of the shows and the future return to Torchwood. Again apologies for the quality of the audio.
Finally before our phones died and we went for a wander around the Con we managed to speak to two of the Games of Thrones cast Josef Altin (Pypar) and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne) about how Games of Thrones has had an impact on their careers and what the future has instore.
At that point we decided it was time to walk around the convention. This is where the magic of conventions come alive, walking around, talking to cosplayers and fans of the shows and movies. To get into the swing of the event I had dressed as the tenth Doctor and Scott had dressed as Wolverine. This is where the conventions really do come alive. Everybody at the event was in good spirits and having fun. Taking photographs with all of their favourite characters and no one had a bad word to say about anything. This to me is the key to a good convention. The fans and the visitors and how they interact. As you can see from the photos below there were cosplayers from Supernatural (Castiels), Sherlock, The Walking Dead, Marvel and many more.
This convention also gave opportunities to independent sellers to showcase some of their artwork and designs linked to the "geek"community. Ranging from portraits to badges to weapons, anything you could think of buying was available to fans. I could have easily spent 100's at the convention on amazing toys and collectables and still would want to buy more.For Showmasters first event in Newcastle I would say it has been a big success. Yes there may have been problems with tickets and getting people in on the Saturday but from what I could see from the Sunday this has the possibility for being a big event in the North East of England and I look forward to seeing it's return next year.
I will hopefully be at the more established London Film and Comic Con on the 11th July where I will hopefully be interviewing more of the guests and meeting more cosplayers and getting their opinion on their favourite TV and Movies. Some of the guests include Stan Lee, Summer Glau, Giancarlo Esposito and many more.
A Big thank you to Larry at Scene42BSeen photography for the following photographs.You can see more (254 of them) on his facebook page here
