Waylander’s LSCC 2016 Con report with LOADS of Pictures

[Revol]

I'll share these here too. Here's the artwork I picked up at LSCC, and some random photos too

 

Here's what I brought home....

 

Juanjo Guarnido, I got a bit worried this wouldn't be ready by Sunday afternoon, as I had to leave the con early to catch my flight home, but once I told Juanjo I was in a hurry he said he would do it there and then for me, he's a gent

 

The actual Harley that Elias Chatzoudis did for me love it!

 

My pre-con commission from Alex Maleev, I was blown away when I saw it. Although there was a hairy couple of minutes when Alex couldnt remember what my commission was, or even if he had it with him

 

My other pre-con commission from Gary Frank, I love it! Super nice guy too.

 

I picked this Bolland Joker out of his sketchbook, it was the only profile drawing he had done of The Joker in the sketchbook, so I had to have it Brian is a really sweet guy as well.

 

Had to get a baby Hellboy from Duncan Fegredo, he also did a lovely remarque sketch on my blank MPH cover.

 

NSFW a Howard Chaykin sexy dame. Howard was hilarious, and I could tell he loves to hold court. I could have listened to him all day.

 

 

 

I bought a comic page from him too, I didn't have the cash to hand, so I asked him if he could hold on to it for me until I went to an ATM. He obliged and told me to "hurry back with my money you little f**ker"

 

I spotted this sweet Glenn Fabry comic page too last minute on Saturday. Always wanted an original Fabry piece

 

I would have loved a Steve Dillon sketch, but the queue for him was always large and moving slowly. Mike Zeck is a super nice guy, really enjoyed meeting him too. I didn't make it to the Fox unfortunately, but I will definitely be back next year, I really enjoyed myself

 

some Cosplay goodness:

 

[THE LAUGHING M4N]

Ah so it was you who had my sketch Poor Elias was so embarrassed! He was running around stalls looking for a Harley blank to buy and was speaking to my friend, as I was finishing serving a customer, I mentioned I had stock and then when I looked up his face was priceless! Here he was about to buy a blank from me to replace my own sketch

 

But all's well that ends well and it was an amusing story.

 

Garry, I promise I'll buy something next time your at the mart and make sure I visit your booth and Nick's next year!

[Revol]

Ah so it was you who had my sketch Poor Elias was so embarrassed! He was running around stalls looking for a Harley blank to buy and was speaking to my friend, as I was finishing serving a customer, I mentioned I had stock and then when I looked up his face was priceless! Here he was about to buy a blank from me to replace my own sketch

 

But all's well that ends well and it was an amusing story.

 

Garry, I promise I'll buy something next time your at the mart and make sure I visit your booth and Nick's next year!

 

awww the poor guy! In retrospect I should have said it to him when he presented your sketch to me that I didn't ask for a sketch on a blank cover, but I just assumed that maybe that's what he used for all of his sketches. He looked so relieved when I handed it over anyway

[gaz2810i]

I'm pleased to say I haven't made it into any photos from the con yet!

 

Glad to hear so many of you enjoyed the weekend

[piper]

You were too busy coordinating the show!

[Blokie]

My first ever pre-con commission, from JK Woodward. 12x18 painted:

 

[Bird]

My first ever pre-con commission, from JK Woodward. 12x18 painted:

 

 

This is awesome!

 

JK Woodward is a great artist and his paintings are not only groovy but don't break the bank. I used to get commissions from him but he moved after Hurricane Sandy decimated his living quarters.

 

Great pickup!

[piper]

 

Now that I'm mostly recovered from my very brief trip across the pond, I thought I would take a couple of minutes to share some thoughts on the convention. I also promise to post some (in focus) photos of old comic books and cosplay girls.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

The idea to attend this Con all stemmed from a discussion I had with some of the UK Boardies last October over beer and burgers in SOHO while visiting with my wife last summer. While I was intrigued by the idea, I thought it was impractical and uber expensive to fly over to London what was essentially a long weekend. Fast forward a few months with some encouragement from my wife, I took the plunge. I'm very glad that I did!

 

I arrived around mid day Friday at the hotel feeling pretty jet lagged. The public transit directions were spot on. All told it took approximately 2 1/4 hours from Heathrow to get to the Convention Hotel (including customs and baggage pick-up).

 

The Convention Centre site is along the Thames but is miles from Central London on the East End of the City. It's a great facility with good public transit access and parking, but you won't see St Paul's, Trafalgar Square etc.

 

 

 

 

[piper]

What does one do when then are knackered (Anglicism No. 1) but know they have to stay up? Well, you help set-up the wounded soldier, Flaming Telepath's booth.

 

Set-up was well underway by the time I arrived:

 

 

 

 

 

[piper]

Flaming Telepath (Nick) gave me a few jobs suited to my unique skill set: namely sorting books in alpha numeric order in the long boxes and pulling books for the wall display.

 

Fortunately for Nick, he had many sets of hands to help get his booth organized in short order. This meant that only a few short hours later, we were in the Pub called "The Fox" kiddy corner to the convention centre. It comes with no surprise that I spent a fair amount of time in the Pub over the weekend.

 

Quick aside...

 

There were a few dealers floating around looking for books to buy, but generally speaking, most booths were still being set-up, so I left my wall book search to the following day.

[piper]

For some reason, I didn't take many photos inside the pub... I think Waylander posted some inside the pub earlier in the thread. I seem to recall some odd stacking of Beer Bottles...

 

That said, I thought it was a pretty good space adjacent to the convention centre. I concur with the UK boardies who said that the food there is utter !

 

One more thought regarding the Pub, the beer selection was disappointing. I come across the Atlantic and my choices on tap are Heineken, Kronenburg, Guinness, Strongbow and some other non descript lagers.

 

This left me with no other choice but to drink Mexican Beer (Sol) like the majority of the UK Boardies in attendance. I'm not proud of this, but I was able to locate a couple of decent pints later on in my trip.

 

Those lads can drink and were more than happy to ply me with more beer. I managed to make it back to my hotel room in one piece and none the worse the wear the following morning.

 

 

[piper]

The first thing I saw while entering the convention hall, were these smiling faces:

 

 

From left to right: Mark (blokey), Michelle (FT's wife), and Chris (Bane).

 

When not looking around the show, I spent a great of time assisting at the Comicana Booth. It was a great way for me to meet some UK Collectors in attendance at the show, whinge (Anglicism No.2 - that means complain) about Nick's grading in jest, and try to angle him for discounts.

 

The Comicana team were great hosts and a pleasure to hang out with over the weekend.

 

Quick aside...

 

In my opinion, Nick had by far the best, reliable and most consistent grading at the Con.

 

 

 

 

[piper]

This seems like a perfectly good time to talk about the show as a whole...

 

It was mentioned by many of the UK Boardies that this show was primarily about Comic Books and Original Art. That is obviously outside our norm here in North America, where we have wrestlers, aging TV/Movie Stars (Lou Ferigno), Bill Shatner, actors from Game of Thrones etc. If we are lucky, we may get a few writers/artists, but this is certainly not the focus of the show.

 

While this resulted in lower attendance figures then one would see at some of the bigger shows in North America (last year's show had 20k?), I found it to be a much more pleasant experience. I was able to have lengthy conversations (e.g. Matt Nelson, guys from Comic Link, Mike Zeck etc.) that would never happen at a much larger show.

 

Because the show, I found the list of writers, artists, and dealers to be much better than I see at a typical regional show.

 

I found that the floor layout was spacious and easy to navigate. The Cosplayers while very much a part of the show were off to one side. This was very much a plus for the dealers.

 

There were a lot of young people in attendance, both in and out of costume.

 

 

 

 

[piper]

Now some observations about the Exhibitors and the UK Collector's market:

 

- I didn't see any Batman Adventure 12's and very few Hulk 181's for sale.

- NM 98 were plentiful in all grades

- Many wall books were clearly not for sale as they were listed at nose bleed prices

- I'm used to seeing more modern variants and random Deadpool books

- People came with lists looking to complete runs in any grade and were not deterred by paying close to guide prices.

- Odds and Sods (Anglicism No. 3) like Battlestar Galactica were being purchased.

- There seemed to be little in the way of haggling for discounts

- There was no frantic discounting by the dealers on Sunday afternoon

- Original Art is a big part of the show. There were many big name pages (e.g. Kirby) for sale.

 

(I saw a really cool splash page for Strange Tales 89. I can only imagine what the cost of that book would be)

 

- CGC is starting to make a presence in the UK market but many were turned off by owning a book in a slab.

- Lots of people queued up (Anglicism No. 4) for Commissions.

[piper]

I think it's time for some more photos while I collect my thoughts...

 

 

Random Convention Shot

 

 

Galactus and his Heralds

 

 

 

[piper]

 

Ms. Martian and Impulse

 

[piper]

Someone from the Fifth Element?

 

 

[piper]

The only Dr Who related character I saw the entire weekend...

 

[piper]

 

[piper]

Many Harley Quinns and Deadpools in attendance...