Newcastle Comic-Con: The first Great Geek event in the North-East

This weekend saw Comic Con arrive in Newcastle at The Metro Arena with tickets from as little as £8 per day, per adult. The North-East of England is slowly growing it's dominance in terms of Geek Culture, however up until now, event wise, it was pretty poor. Although the city holds two impressive comic/popular culture stores, Forbidden Planet and Travelling Man, this comic-con was the first to really offer something to the popular culture table: And take it from me it was epic!

Fiends, Jedi's, Hero's and villains all made their way to the stadium. I, however, chose to go for a more subtle look, a power ranger, pre-morphed... I thought that was a nice enough little quirk for losing my Comic-Con virginity...

Hitting capacity by lunch time, the convention hosted a great range of popular culture icons such as James Marsters, (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Torchwood,), Eve Myles, (Torchwood) along many other well known faces. It wasn't any surprise to find that James' tables was bustling and busy for the entirety of both days, however due to good organisation of time slots for autographs and photographs I got to meet one of my personal idols and got quite a nice little snap shot- if the light hadn't blinded me making me look like I'm eating a jar of chilli peppers...

It should said that James Marsters was one of the most down to earth and nicest guys I have ever met, and in is question and answer panel discussion on the Saturday I attended; his passion for his job, old team mates, Joss Whedon and his family were highly apparent. He was kind and witty and gave a great deal of information on what it was like to be Spike or William The Bloody. He spoke of Whedon's agenda on the show of morality and how vampirism was not meant to be a sexual thing, and evil was not to be praised. He explained that we were extremely close to getting a Spike spin-off, how talented and kind Charisma Carpenter was when he finally got the chance to get to know her, whilst filming Supernatural and giving hilarious stories about his time on Torchwood.


There're various other panels on during the weekend from a Game of Thrones panel consisting of Ben Crompton, James Cosmo and Mark Stanley. Not to mention Q and A panels for inducible icons such as Eve Myles (Torchwood), Gareth David Lloyd, (Torchwood), Kristianna Loken, (Terminator 3), Robert Maschio, (Scrubs). A second group panel consisted of original Star Wars cast members Jeremy Bullock, Pam Rose and David Prowse. Pam Rose was genuinely hilarious!

The stalls and shops offered around the convention were wonderful and far more varied than expected. From retro gaming stalls to figurine and collectable stores there truly was something for everyone. And I even seen a few Kingdom Hearts goodies which are normally borderline impossible to find! At reasonable prices you could snap up an original Sega Drive Mortal Kombat game for £10, a PS1 for £15 and a Kingdom Key necklace for £6. There were bargains aplenty. I managed to purchase an original Buffy Comic for only £2.25. The prices were way more reasonable than I originally anticipated.

Finally the auction must be mentioned. For me this was my first Comic-Con, however not for lack of trying, and no one had ever told me about the auction that runs during the event- that might be why everything on there was a steal! Signed posters were auctioned off for mere pounds. A Star Trek: Deep Space Nine script signed by the cast sold for only £45! A Game of Thrones Signed photo selling for only £75, considering it was signed by 17 cast members that is amazing! And finally, the auction that I won, and in my opinion the best lot up for auction that day. A Power Rangers Super MegaForce Mega Zord, Signed by the Power Rangers whom attended the Might Morphin' Power Con earlier in February. Containing a special collectors sleeve signed by iconic rangers such as Mighty Morphin's Adam and Rocky, Zeo's Tanya, Time Force's Wes, Lost Galaxy's Maya and of course Bulk and Skull £50 was an absolute bargain considering. So if any of you guys are attending a Comic-Con make sure to hunt for the auction table!

Overall the weekend was absolutely amazing and offered an incredible range of popular culture celebrities and icons especially considering how new Geek Culture is to Newcastle. This was my first ever Comic-Con however it most certainly will not be my last. I met the kindest people over the weekend and purchased some amazing products and of course, met my idol James Masters. The weekend for me, and even those not as geeky as I, was absolutely incredible. I would advise anyone to attend a Comic-Con and most certainly look into attending Newcastle's Comic-Con in 2016.