London Super Comic Con 2017 Report

Superheroes Hit North London

♦ Last weekend was the fifth London Super Comic Con, which switched venues from Excel in Docklands, where it has been for the past four years, to the Business Design Centre in Islington. Tripwire’s editor-in-chief JOEL MEADOWS went along to check out the latest show…

For the first year of London Super Comic Con, four years ago, they brought comics legend Stan Lee over, who hadn’t been to the UK in decades. This was a very impressive move, as it cemented their intentions to bring the US comic con experience over to blighty. Over the past four years, LSCC has stuck to this promise, offering a range of very decent comic guests to their visitors including Neal Adams, Paul Levitz and Bill Sienkiewicz. 2017 is the first year that the show has been held in the Business Design Centre in trendy Islington in north London rather than the cavernous Excel out in Docklands. The BDC is a more welcoming venue than Excel and I thought it was an improvement over Excel. Plus the organisers brought over Marvel modern legend Brian Michael Bendis, a writer who had never visited the UK before. Artist’s Alley was located in an air-conditioned part of the hall and it had a good mix of artists like Chris Weston, Lee Garbett, Frazer Irving, Leonardo Manco and Warwick Johnson Cadwell plus a whole host of indie artists. There were also creators of the calibre of Jae Lee, Dave Gibbons and Tyler Kirkham in the main hall over the weekend. Also, publishers like Valiant, Rebellion and Humanoids were also represented as were both Forbidden Planets.

But for some reason the chemistry that they have managed to create in the past was lacking. The hall wasn’t as full as it should have been and the lack of air conditioning in the main hall made it feel very uncomfortable on one of the hottest weekends this summer in London. There were problems with the trains with certain stations like Euston and King’s Cross not running this weekend so that obviously had a knock-on effect on attendance. Also it was a sunny bank holiday weekend and many people probably went away rather than stayed in London.

Bendis was good value, offering writing masterclasses, signing for quite some time and appearing on panels and you had some great creators in both the hall and the artists alley. But if you were to take him away, it wouldn’t have had much buzz to it at all.

It is a real shame as London deserves a really good old school comic show and for the past four years, LSCC have been delivering that. Hopefully they can take another look at what has occurred this year and create a new show next year that plays to the considerable strengths they have shown since they began the show. I am a Londoner and I want an old-school London comics show to continue and I want it to be as well-attended and essential to the UK comics scene as the first four LSCCs.

Here’s a selection of photos I took while I was at the show.

London Super Comic Con 2017 www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk