Showmasters London Film & Comic Con 2018

I tend to go to Showmasters summer London Film & Comic Con every year. Although style-wise they may not match up to MCM Comic Con, guestwise they blow them out of the water, and that has always been the case.

This year, I have to say has been my most successful LFCC yet! Usually I’m not able to meet a certain guest, or get an autograph, but this year I managed to do and see everything I wanted to – even on a budget!

My journey began at 4.30am from Worcester to London and ended at 10.30pm, so it was a LONG day, but an incredible one. We arrived at the venue at 8.10 and had 50 minutes to wait, but it was good to get there early because of the way they do their autograph tickets. As soon as the show opens, you run up to the autograph area and have to find the booths where your favourite people are signing. Please note, there is no plan of this prior to the show, so its a case of finding them! Then you take a raffle-style ticket with a number on. You have to keep checking what number they are signing up to at that moment, but all Diamond Passes get priority and annoyingly they usually take up most of the day. I got the ones I wanted quite quickly actually, those were; Jason Momoa, Tom Welling, Jack O’Halloran, Ray Fisher and Zachary Levi.

While we were waiting for the autographs, we decided to look at some of the stalls. Now compared to SDCC the stalls don’t look great, but they always have some great gems hidden away. I had pretty much spent all of my money in my mind as soon as I walked the floor, but I had to be careful!

First autograph of the day was Jack O’Halloran, AKA Non from Superman The Movie. He was very sweet to everyone that met with him. He first signed my autograph, but struggled with my name – Tasmin. It is a rare one, so I’ll let him off. It took him two attempts to spell but he got it eventually!

We then asked for a picture with him, and he said “of course, get yourselves back here!”. I was going to ask my cousin to take him, but the lady with him (perhaps his wife?) asked the volunteer to take the photo. It was so great to meet a Superman legend, and his autograph now holds a place in my ever-growing collection.

Next up was Ray Fisher, AKA Cyborg from Justice League. They were very strict about photographs, but luckily my cousin can be quite sneaky… So we managed to get a few! He was so lovely, and really talkative which some guests tend not to be!

I asked him to sign my Justice League Day comic, which features all of the cast. As he signed over Cyborg he said “this guys my favourite”. I replied with “he needs his own solo film” and he agreed. I asked if anything was in the pipeline, but he said that nothing has been confirmed and they don’t really tell you anything until it has been. So unfortunately, he knew as much as I did… unless he was leading me on. I hope to get all of the Justice League to sign this comic one day, that is my goal!

Once we had gotten that and carefully put the comic back into its protective bag, it was time for Zachary Levi, AKA Shazam! He was so great with fans, he had everyone laughing – including myself. Again they were strict about photos being taken in that area, but luckily as we drew closer in the queue they began to livestream from his Instagram page. So we got it all saved on camera, which I was so, so happy about. Here’s a snippet!

He said he liked my shirt, asked where I had traveled from and said he liked our sauce (Worcester…). Then he asked what time we left to be here and when I told him he did the whole ‘praise-hands’ thing. He was so talkative to everyone, we were with him for around 10 minutes in total and I thank him for that. Usually it’s a case of in and out but he really took time with each person. Here is the autograph I got!

We had a bit of time left before out next autograph and photo session, so it was time to see the comic artists! I had brought five comics with me to get signed by one of of my favourite current Superman artists. As we wandered over to him, he was drawing a commission for someone – it was beautiful! I wish I could have gotten one myself, but by the time I got there he was fully booked for the day. Yep, it was Jorge Jimenez, what do you expect! He didn’t mind being interrupted, and happily signed all of my comics.

Here are all of the ones I picked to get signed;

As I waited for the signature to dry before I put them back in their protective bags, I asked if we could get a quick picture. He said “of course” and jumped up from his seat with no hesitation! Sometimes people don’t get up and you kinda have to lean awkwardly over the table, but not in this case!

We had a few hours spare so we had another look around the stalls and started to buy things. First off, I found a stall that were selling Superman comics for £1.00 each, so I delved right in, got my CLZ Comic app up and starting picking out some that I needed. I ended up walking away with 30 comic books in total – whoops!

There were a few Superman goodies that I wanted to get, but were a little bit out of my price range but man, were they beautiful. But I did find a stall that was willing to give me an offer – three Superman figurines for £90.00. It was the colour version and the black and white version of the Chris Uminga DC Artists Alley Superman. The coloured one is one of 3,000 and the black and white is 1 of 500!

Here’s a better look at the two.

The third piece was the Gallery Justice League Superman. I had been eyeing up this and the other two for a while, the price she originally wanted was £125, so it wasn’t a bad haggle!

Although I was hunting for autographs and photos at the con, I also bumped into a few readers and followers of me and the blog! I didn’t get photos with all of them, but Kibla asked for a selfie, so I obliged!

One of them also wanted to go and see Tom Welling but the ticket number he had was unrealistic. I offered him mine as I had spent far too much already. I can hear you saying it…. HES SUPERMAN! But, although I am a Superman fan I haven’t actually seen Smallville (yet), so I was willing to give it a miss until I have that connection. He was every grateful and in exchange gave me this incredible print from Jorge Jimenez. I was just glad to help someone out, but this was such a kind gesture!

It was time for the final part of my con. Months ago I had booked a photo opp with one of the guests – the one I was most excited to see… JASON MOMOA! I was batch 17 and they started with the diamond passes, so it was quite a wait for me. But it was so worth it! I met a few fellow Momoa fans while I was waiting, they had batches ahead of me so we were all very excited! As he entered the photoshoot area he walked directly past us! It happened quite quickly so I struggle to get my phone ready so I videoed what I could! As he walked past he touched my arm and said hey. I promise I am not the person screaming ‘oh my god’ in the video, it was one of the girls I was stood with!

Then it was time go in, he had rock music blaring as he took the pictures along with a huge fan to keep him cool. Such a cool guy! He was running quite late and his agent was hurrying people along, so unfortunately we didn’t get long with him. As I walked up to him, I was so nervous, I wanted to do one of those quirky pictures, but I was too nervous to ask! So I settled for a handshake, half a hug and this picture. He also said that he loved my hair, I had to stop myself blurting out ‘I love you!’. I’m joking, it’s always good to get a compliment, but when its off Jason Momoa… wow!

Before then every time I had gone to check  what number autograph he was on, it was always up to 100. My ticket was 194, but after the photo sessions they opened it up to everyone. By the time he got back to that area, he had 10  minutes left for signing as he had to leave at 6pm. I was in the queue, and ready to pay my money and get my Justice League comic signed… unfortunately they stopped him signing around 6 people in front of me, so I didn’t get the signature. But… luckily I knew it would be very difficult to get his autograph on the day, so I pre-ordered one. I asked if they could get him to sign the comic and then I pick it up onsite to get it signed by Ray Fisher too, but they rejected it. It was too much stress for them to allow that on the day, so I sent in one of my Aquaman Funko Pops to get signed. I should receive it back in a few weeks!

I got a little carried away trying to see everything else, that I didn’t take many shots of Cosplayers! I know, I’m sorry guys. But I did get these few!

Toothless – How To Train Your Dragon

Lego Aquaman

The Villains of Star Wars

LFCC was possibly one of my most successful cons of all – in terms of getting the autographs and pictures that I wanted. So thank you Showmasters for that and also for making it possible to meet my idols in such a great environment. I will most definitely be back for the next one! But can you please get Jason Momoa again so I can finally get that signature on my comic!?