Comic-Con Comes To Tonbridge And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth!

Today was a monumental day for geekdom in Tonbridge. My town held its first Comic-Con.

And it turned out to be perfect for me. Not only was it a 10-minute stroll from our front door, but there were none of the queues or ram-packed crowds I had been rather anxious about.

Within minutes of walking in, I was standing in front of Hannah Spearritt asking her to sign my Primeval RPG book. The poor woman was utterly bewildered, knowing nothing about the book (or game's) existence.

Although Colin 'Sixth Doctor' Baker, Louise 'Leela' Jameson, and Terry 'Davros' Molloy were there, as well as Farscape's Virginia Hey, it was Hannah's signature I really wanted to get.

I was expecting huge queues and having to wait for up to half an hour to see any of the famous faces, but they were all sitting at tables along one side of the sports hall, largely ignored, several looking despondently at their phones.

In the space of no time at all I went from a middle-aged man to a mumbling, red-faced, teenager as Hannah tried to engage me in conversation about the book I was asking her to sign, and Rachel was doing her best to chip in and support me.

So proud of Rachel, she really entered into the spirit of things even though it's not her cup of tea...

A picture from the event's Facebook page, giving an 'aerial' view of the early crowd

After seeing Hannah, we started to wander around the hall. There were plenty of photo-props - like the Iron Throne (from Games Of Thrones) and the iconic 'dead inside' doors from The Walking Dead - that you could strike a pose with. And I love that sort of thing!

Again, I'd pictured fenced off areas with huge crowds fighting to sit in the throne or pose with the doors, but it was all very casual and easy to interact with.

Just before we bumped into Simon and his wife, Gemma, we had a nice conversation with comic book artist Lee Townsend, from whom I purchased a trio of signed prints (The Flash, Rocket & Groot, and Spider-Man).

There were a lot of craft stools at the show and Rachel purchased three comic book art baubles for the Christmas tree, from Mazzi Makes.

The only thing I thought was missing was traders selling actual comics (it is called a 'Comic' Con, after all). There was a plethora of action figures, Funko, posters etc but no dedicated comic book sellers.

I must confess I was looking forward to leafing through some long boxes of vintage comics and maybe picking up a bargain or two. I'd even thought of compiling a list of issues I was on the hunt for; glad I didn't bother!

I was pleasantly surprised by the proportion of the visitors in cosplay, before we even got to the sports centre, we spotted a Princess Leia having sandwiches in the pedestrian area outside the hall, as well as a number of Japanese video game characters I didn't know.

Then when walking home there was a Princess Fiona (from Shrek) and The 10th Doctor waiting for a replacement bus service outside the train station!

It might seem odd to say we only spent an hour there, but we managed to see and do everything we wanted. Had there been huge crowds and long queues we would have done pretty much the same things, it just would have taken longer.

While I've been to wargames' shows at the Angel Centre that were busier, Tonbridge Comic-Con was a fun, pleasant, friendly little event.

I really hope it was a success for the organisers and that they are able to build on this in years to come (I know they were quite active on Facebook in recent weeks, but Rachel was adamant that - barring an announcement back in February - there's been no local media coverage of the day).

Of course, if it gets too popular I might not enjoy it quite so much, but anything that spreads the geek love is a winner in my book.

In one corner of the room was a small area set aside for talks

I was going for an 'atmosphere' picture, but noticed afterwards, on the left hand side,
Colin 'Sixth Doctor' Baker and Louise 'Leela' Jameson making a break for it...

Davros is not happy that I keep touching his levers!

The delectable Hannah Spearritt signed my copy of the Primeval roleplaying game, making me a very happy geek.