This weekend Swindon Steam saw the return of The Swindon Film & Comic Con, organised by Luke Kaye, Mark Penicud and their team of volunteers who put on yet another fantastic event. Mike Buss was there to checkout the event.
This was my first ever Comic Con, I’ve seen people dressing up as Storm Troopers before and I’ve heard of Cos Play, but this was my first ever Comic Con, and I’m now a convert. The shear effort that the fans of Science Fiction, Comics, TV & Film take in dressing up in costume is amazing, from spending hundreds of £s on filmset quality costume to hand made costumes out of scraps of material and up-cycling household stuff like hoover pipes.
Talking to some of the costume designers at the show, it really showed how much dedication they put into design and build, even using recent technology such as 3D Printers.
Cos Play was once seen as a rather geeky thing to do, but now it’s very cool. There is a huge following on social media, especially twitter and Instagram where some of the most popular Cos Players even turning it into a full time job, modelling and turning up to Comic Cons all over the world.
One thing I continued to get about Swindon Comic Con from both visitors and the celebrity guests was they loved the venue, saying it was the most unique venue about for such an event, and even though I’ve never been to one of these events, I have to agree, Comic Cons around the UK, and the world for that matter are often in big arenas like the Birmingham NEC, but at Steam there was the backdrop of the history of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the steam engines of the GWR with Storm Troopers, Jedi, Cybermen, Daleks and Space Marines wondering past.
Over 70 celebrities from the world of film, tv and comics attended the event, including one of my favourite Dr. Who’s Sylvester McCoy who during his Q&A on stage was worth paying for just in itself, then there was Jet & Saracen from the original Gladiator TV series, one of my favourite WWF Wrestlers of the good old days Bushwacker Luke who in his 60s said when asked in his Q&A that he still wrestles.
For some of the celebrities Swindon Comic Con was their first Comic Con and for some like Barrie Holland who was in Return Of The Jedi who was famous for his line in the Imperial Bunker to Han Solo “You rebel scum”.
Other highlights were some of the cast of Red Dwarf, including Chris Barrie and some of the main cast of Allo Allo including Guy Siner. I love like most people I guess, movies like Star Wars and TV shows like Red Dwarf, but it was so interesting listening to things that happened behind the scenes, movie secrets and things to look out for when watching these movies and TV shows again.
I’ve now got at least 9 movies and TV shows to watch again to look out for movie hiccups and people that you wouldn’t notice in the backgrounds when you watch them normally. Swindon Comic Con is an awesome event, that hopefully we will see part 3 in 2018.
By Mike Buss
