The Sprout

Cardiff Comic Con

Posted by Sambow from Cardiff - Published on 11/03/2011 at 14:41
5 comments » - Tagged as Art, Comedy, Festivals

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What: The Cardiff International Comic Expo
Where: The Mercure Holland House Hotel, Cardiff
When: 26th February 2011

As an anime/manga fan the Cardiff International Comic Expo was by far my number one event of the year. The “nerd” in me was incredibly satisfied.

For those of you who don’t know, the Comic Con was basically a convention hosting everything from Marvel comics to Manga - including various artists selling their original work. Forbidden Planet fans would notice a lot of familiar stuff there, like the graphic novels and plushies. In general: a convention for lovers of comics and other such fandom.

My sister and I immediately perked up as we saw the really long line of people waiting to get into the Mercure Holland House hotel, where the expo was being held. It got us really buzzing when we saw cosplayers, people who dress up as a character from a game or anime/manga series. Naturally, we brought along our Pikachu hat which got us a lot of attention throughout the day.

Everything really began to get exciting when the Stormtroopers appeared. Were we expecting them? Hell no. I swear I saw one girl throw herself at one as we all pulled out our cameras in fear they would leave. Oh, of course they didn’t. No, the Stormtroopers happened to notice two girls in proper anime fan attire, one casually wearing a Pikachu hat. Thus began the stealing of the hat. I could not walk past a stormtrooper without one taking it off and placing it neatly on the top of its gun. About fifty people took a picture of me that day helplessly reaching for my Pokemon hat. Despite what my struggles to get my headwear back looked like the whole situation was hilarious.

And then, of course, there appeared Darth Vader. Again, excitement bubbled through the crowd as even before we got into the Expo’s main room our fandom was being fed by people dressed up as Star Wars characters. We hesitantly asked for pictures, you know, cautious of being impaled by a lightsaber.

And then we got in.
After, of course, my hat was stolen by a stormtrooper and placed on top of a tree. We were practically jumping up and down by this point. They gave us a FREE doctor who bag and then ushered us through to heaven. To. Heaven. The place was CRAMMED with fandom goodness including a corner I so fittingly named “Comic Alley” which had a whole side of the room dedicated to every comic in existence. All from 50p. I couldn’t resist that: I was literally like a child in a candy store; I swear my sister and I salivated over the pure awesomeness we beheld. And we’d only just arrived.

Making our way around we came across a young manga artist who was as peppy and friendly as ever. We bought some incredible pictures of her work, signed and smiley-ed accordingly. But that wasn’t the last time we saw her, we kept coming back - in love with her work. She even did a personalised drawing, a “Chibi” Nicole, a cute manga version of my sister.

We made our way then to the mangas. And, golly, was there a lot of them. Everything from Naruto to The Day I Became a Butterfly. And 15% off as well. Again, we were in a candy store. The staff there were especially nice, and experts at whatever you asked them. If there’s one person who knew about manga it would be the guy who was selling them at this Expo.

And then the cosplayers. The people who like to express their fandom in an open and very attention drawing way. Two words: Candy. Store.

We squealed and broke down like the fan girls we were whenever someone dressed as a character we knew walked by. This was why we brought our camera. In normal circumstances walking up to a random stranger and asking for a picture and a hug would be considered strange, peculiar even. Not here! Hugs galore! Pictures aplenty!

Oh how we loved it.

When in an event such as this you know you’re surrounded by people who share a mutual interest, everyone was friendly and it seemed as if you had known each other for years. We got free hugs and pictures with almost everyone, and I even got asked for a picture! (Thanks to the hat, naturally).
I even Caramalledansed with the lot of ‘em.

Surely this event could not have been any more amazing?
Surely there’s nothing else remotely awesome about a convention with a load of comic-loving-cosplayers?

Wrong. There was the Wall Comic.

What’s that!? I hear you cry. Well, it’s what it says on the tin my friends, a comic... ON THE WALL.
The basic gist was that someone would start with a picture, text optional, and put it on the wall and then everyone who wanted to join in could add a picture to carry it on. A character known as “Dogzilla” was born and the story escalated from there. Nicole and I joined in of course: I added a Pikachu to the mix. He got picked up a few times after that which was rewarding to see. It was really funny to see how the story changed and morphed to every individual’s personal liking and it was well worth getting involved with that one.

Alas, this day of pure awesome awesomeness had to end eventually and after arriving at ten in the morning and trekking around until half four we were ultimately pooped, for lack of a better word. My sister had bags full of, well, everything she could buy and we had seventy pictures worth of greatness on our camera to take away with us. The day was a success. A wonderful success.

Overall the day was incredibly fun, everyone there was really nice and great fun and I’m so glad I went. I would recommend the next Expo to anyone who’s interested in anime/manga, comic books, graphic novels and Doctor Who and even to those who aren’t because it’s a brilliant event and it’s loads of fun!

More on the Cardiff Comic Expo:

Cardiff Comic Expo

The Comic Book Writer

Interview With A Fantasy Writer