They say never meet your heroes, you try telling that to the estimated 100,000 fans who will attend London Film & ComicCon over a single weekend. Or me, as my 5am alarm goes off and I begin my daytrip down to Olympia from Sheffield.
A few years ago the thought of me going to a ComicCon would have been met with cries of ‘No chance, nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd’. While meet ‘n’ greets and autograph hunting have been around since the 1960s over the last decade or so fan culture has become embedded in popular entertainment and society. We become obsessed with TV shows and film franchises to the extent that they consume our evenings and water cooler talk. The likes of Game of Thrones and the Infinity Saga by Marvel Studios have become so all-encompassing that FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) takes hold. We become more intrinsically involved because, aside from the shows and their stories, there are the theories, the real-life filming locations, the celebrities and the merchandise. The resurrection of cinema coupled with streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have meant that 21st century fantasies have now joined long-standing sagas like Dr Who, Star Wars and Star Trek. This weekend they all come together under one gigantic roof.
Due to years of cajoling and simply to fit in I’ve decided to put on my black-rimmed glasses and a light blue checkered holiday shirt. No? Do I have to tell you I’m going as Will from The Inbetweeners? The cosplay on show is a lot more blatant with many going as their favourite incarnation of Dr Who (Jodie Whittaker’s coat looks popular across genders), The Joker and Harley Quinn with anime and sci-fi being big draws. The most impressive costumes look stolen from the silver screen with Chewbaccas, Ewoks, Darth Vader and his Imperial comrades, Wonder Women, Power Rangers, Ghostbusters, a couple of slimmed down Thanos’ and a single, foreboding Predator complete with vocal effects. As a mark of a show’s effect on its audience, those coming as Daenerys seem notably fewer than last year (awkward).
To dress up at a stag do or even a kid’s birthday party can feel begrudgingly obliging yet here you feel in the minority if you don’t. My effort is typically lacklustre which is in stark contrast to the vast minority who are brimming with excitement in the queue that winds round the gigantic building from the Kensington Olympia train station. There are bemused locals who have to share the route with costumed Whovians, Khaleesis and superheroes. For me, and the thousands of other attendees, this might be one of the few days a year when we don’t feel weird for liking the things we like as we’re surrounded by like-minded individuals.
For all the fervour, fans are well behaved. There is no over-zealous fawning, no queue jumping, no hysterical running and screaming. They pay attention to queuing lines made out on the ground from tape and wait patiently for their batch or ticket number to be called. The real stars of the show are the crew who make this shebang work. While fans spend hours waiting to pose next to one of their heroes there are staff who work tirelessly to make it happen as close to the schedule as possible. For the most popular photo areas, such as A, B, C and D featuring the likes of Christina Ricci, Jason Momoa and notable actors from Game of Thrones, batch numbers are bellowed out.
An electronic display would be ideal; without one chaos descends when Momoa runs late and his scheduled photo area is moved without any tangible announcement. Though summer has abated for the day it is still warm, water is scarce (expensive too) and sweat is plentiful. Plastic and paper souvenir photo holders are used as makeshift fans as if this is an airport lounge and flights are being delayed. Things understandably become a little desperate in the late afternoon during the PM slots for fans who missed their AM slot and those who left their booking late. They’ve paid their money but time is running out to grab their photo and a bit of that celebrity with it. Only a handful of red and blue crew members know that Momoa is behind schedule and, due to the increasing crowd, few can see if the queue is moving or not. One such hero is a Scottish, bearded man who candidly bellows batch announcements atop a chair to project his voice across the simmering pool of thousands of estrogen-addled women that surrounds him. Like a gameshow host he shouts, “Batches 1 to 20, come on down” and hundreds of women scream as they know they’ll get to meet Momoa in a matter of minutes.
Despite the demand, the queues filter out quickly as a slick conveyor belt of ticket checking, bag dumping, photo taking and retrieval means that hundreds of fans can be seen in half an hour. My stress of being double booked between Gemma Whelan and Blake Harrison is quickly diminished when I figure out I can zip through Harrison’s slot before Whelan’s late running shoot has effectively even begun. It also helps that both actors are as lovely as imagined even though they have to smile for hours on end with absolute strangers. Indeed, for the most part the actors are bona fide pleasant with the odd exception being a former Dr Who who looks like he might throw someone off a roof and a bustling William Shatner who told me to ‘MOVE OUT OF THE WAY’. Though there are signs forbidding it, some actors oblige fans when they ask for a quick photo and an autograph. Franco Nero relents but the photos are without a smile. However, he does smile for my friend Jessica when HE asks HER to take his photo in front of his stand (a particular highlight).
This is a convention first and foremost where comic artists, authors, artists, cosplayers and film-makers can meet the people who make them make their living. There are wrestlers from the 1980’s who look like they could still handle themselves, film-makers, voice artists and stuntmen stepping out into the open as well as established actors and film stars. For them this is a chance to keep their name in the public interest whereas for others it’s a chance to see how big an impact their creation is having or continues to have.
In my tight circle of friends I might be the only one who can quote Back to the Future line by line yet there are fans queuing to get an the autograph with the film’s writer, Bob Gale, who know the film even more intimately than me. While I can play it cool, others are vibrating with excitement as they hold a poster they have cherished since childhood that has already been signed by the films leads; Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd. After queuing for over ten minutes for the second time (even celebrities need lunch breaks) I finally meet Gale and despite clearly suffering from jetlag he is as gracious as I imagine. After slipping the assistant my required £20 he writes out my favourite quote onto the first issue of the comic book series which is based on the show. For those wondering, ‘If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything’.
The atmosphere is celebratory, bereft of the commercial interests that pervade the industry. From a fans perspective, they are more than happy to shell out the £25 entry fee if it means being in the same space as the creative souls that entertain them. If it means asking that one question they have always wanted to ask of their favourite character actor they will gladly pay upwards of £75 for an autograph. This is the only place I’m able to find out why there will be no Back to the Future 4 (because you can’t imagine it without Michael J Fox) and how big a risk it was firing Eric Schultz. That information alone is well worth the 5am alarm.
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