I went to the first Cardiff International Comic Expo for a few hours on Saturday..
My son is a big fan of Manga and wanted to go, so I had to be the wallet carrying senior – In my younger days I used to love a good comic, of course they are called graphic novels nowadays;), I was an avid reader of Deadline magazine of old, particularity Milk and Cheese by Evan Dorkin and other great stuff such as Hewligan’s Haircut which the artist went on to other things 😉 but I have not picked up a proper comic for years, so may have to ask a few people to lend me some…
Anyway – If you you are a geek in Cardiff then you needed to be at this convention (I think Iam too old to be a proper geek nowadays), the Cardiff event was small but perfectly formed, next year they said they will be having two days, with more strange people and more artists.
After the rush of the main floor with various artists showing off their skills, and lots of suppliers selling merchandise and books, luckily I only got stung by buying a Genki T-shirt for my son and not tons of manga books that my he had his eye on.
There were a lot of people dressed up for the occasion – but knowing some of these lot it was their normal day where, there was a very fetching young lady dressed as storm from X-men, a few zombies, a few Ramona Flowers and quite a lot of Japanese characters, Cosplay style – which to be honest I was not sure if they were Male or Female 😉
The highlight was members of the 501 UK GARRISON bothering people in the queue and people on buses going past the Mercure Holland House Hotel where the convention was held, unfortunately my Son would not take a photo of me with Lord Vadar , what’s wrong with teenagers today, why being embarrassed with their parents and a Sith lord.
The various panels they had were very interesting – and we will go to more next year – We saw Matthew Savage who is a concept/storyboard artist who has worked on Dr Who, Torchwood, The Dark Knight, Prince of Persia, The Wolf Man, Kick-Ass and the forthcoming X-Men film – a very talented concept artist – who was straight up about the industry but was very positive.
As my son is interested in being an animator after A levels, we also sat in on the Skillset Media Academy Wales panel, where various people from Welsh education institutions talked up their courses, the guy from Swansea Metropolitan University Al Kang got a great cheers as he showed off some of his past work – including Ed, Ed and Eddy!
The chaps from Glamorgan uni Atrium were very passionate about their course and they had a row of their students to cheer them on, which helped 😉
in all very positive for the creative education system Wales – now
Next year I am going to take more photos of the people dressed up but felt a bit odd taking shots – but I suppose that’s why these people do it to be center of attention in their Sailor outfits, various tails and panda faces, oh and Dalek doing their part for Help the Heros
