Friday 28 June 2013

Bristol Comic Expo 2013.


On Saturday 11th May my Father and I went to the Bristol comic convention. I really did enjoy it. Here's what happened:

I woke up at around half past six and got dressed into my batgirl costume before doing my make up so I looked like this.


We then left the house at around half seven. We then drove down the motorway to arrive at the hall at around nine thirty. We then queued for half an hour until it opened at ten.

When we arrived in the hall we started to walk around looking at the tables set up and occasionally stopping to talk to people that my Dad knew. We were making slow progress around the room when we bumped into my Dads friends. We were introduced as I had not met them before and they volunteered to go around the hall with us. We walked around and I brought a keyring as my dad brought some comics. Then we went across to the hotel to have a look at the stalls they had there. Then my Dad and I stopped to have lunch.

After lunch we met back up with the pair of them for half an hour they had to go to a signing. My Dad and I made our way back to the main hall and looked around again as we found an area that we had not been to yet. I then saw two Harley Quinn and Batman cosplayers and we got a photo together.



I then went over to one of the stalls and brought something that I had seen earlier before going to my Dads other friends table. Me and one of them then had a lengthy chat about X-men and such things.

We then decided to head over to the hotel as my Dad did not want to miss this talk about his favorite comic. When we got there however we discovered that it was running half an hour later then people had originally thought. So we sat down with some of my Dads friends whom I had met throughout the day and chatted until it was time for the talk,

We sat down at the talk where they basically just discussed their favourite things about the comic. Before we said goodbye and went to car and started to head home. They did have other talks but none of them featured costumes.

During the convention we saw quite a few different costumes including characters like: Zattana, Spiderman and Wonderwoman. Some cosplays were defiantly better than others though there were plenty of good tries. Where my own cosplay is concerned I am very happy with the reaction that it received. Quite a few people told me how much they liked my costume and one person even asked for a photo.

As an overall event I am quite impressed with the way it was run apart from a few minor problems. For instance I as a wheelchair user found the hall to be quite crowded which could be quite stressful. Another problem that I had was the fact that the lift was not working in the hotel this however was not the organizers fault as it was just a technical fault. My only other problem that I had personally is that their was a lot of foul language and I know that they could not have stopped people using said words in the daily conversation but they could have at least asked people to have more appropriate stall names, which is not good as there were younger children around. My favorite stall had to be the geeky vintage stall as I loved the dresses that they had made, not to mention the bags and pillows. I do not have a least favorite stall simply because of the diversity between them. My Dad usually goes to this particular comic convention and he told me that it was actually pretty quiet which just shows how poplar conventions are even though they are not very well known throughout the general public. I liked the general layout of the convention as the stalls gave you plenty of room to walk around, plus as they weren't just set in rows it meant that you could just walk freely around the hall at a steady pace without having to rush to much.

I met many people whilst at the convention some of whom were freelance artists. Their names were Owen Watts and his girlfriend Jazz, Conor boyle and Kev Crossley. Owen and Jazz draw and run a comic called the psychedelic journal of time travel. Conor has recently published his own book called Pirates of the lost world, whist Kev draws for 2000AD.We also met Mike Carrol author of the quantum prophecy. Talking to these people was both interesting and informative, I learnt some useful tips about comics and writing,

I would like to think I will be attending more comic conventions, and I certainly would jump at any further opportunities to go again. I have enjoyed visiting conventions more as I have matured, an example of this is how I now love comics, enjoy drawing and writing.

If I do go to another contention I would certainly like to cosplay again. As to who it would be, it would most likely be another comic character perhaps someone from marvel like a member of the X-Men. My abilities will only be enhanced by my gold award as I will be learning more about machine sewing. I defiantly look forward to cosplaying again.

I really enjoyed cosplaying at the convention, we saw some great costumes. It was a really fun day to just be nerdy with some nice people. I had a great time and I cant wait to go again.

4 comments:

  1. This is a great review Izzy it sounds like a good Comic fair, I have been to BICS a few times in Birmingham but never been to Bristol.
    Did you meet any Artists there?
    Comic fairs have such a mixture of people at them that there can be some elements that aren't so child friendly I have had to steer my daughter away from comics and artwork that is of an adult nature, and the language can be a bit too much as well. More and more young people are going to these events now especially with the huge interest in cosplay. I know an artist that you have probably met at comic cons Al Davison, he is in a wheel chair too and he also finds it hard to get around the conventions sometimes especially when they are busy.
    Will you be going to more comic fairs?
    Who would you cosplay as next time if you did?

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your lovely comments :) here are the final answers:

      I met many people whilst at the convention some of whom were freelance artists. Their names were Owen Watts and his girlfriend Jazz, Conor boyle and Kev Crossley. Owen and Jazz draw and run a comic called the psychedelic journal of time travel. Conor has recently published his own book called Pirates of the lost world, whist Kev draws for 2000AD.We also met Mike Carrol author of the quantum prophecy. Talking to these people was both interesting and informative, I learnt some useful tips about comics and writing,

      I would like to think I will be attending more comic conventions, and I certainly would jump at any further opportunities to go again. I have enjoyed visiting conventions more as I have matured, an example of this is how I now love comics, enjoy drawing and writing.

      If I do go to another contention I would certainly like to cosplay again. As to who it would be, it would most likely be another comic character perhaps someone from marvel like a member of the X-Men. My abilities will only be enhanced by my gold award as I will be learning more about machine sewing. I defiantly look forward to cosplaying again.

      Delete
  2. Comment for Izzy
    I loved your step by step account of how to make the costume. I felt that your costume looked very professional.
    I found your blog interesting and colourful and well laid out.

    Annette Pateman

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