The Butt Ugly Weblog

London Comic and Film Con

You know, as an old Star Trek fan, it was fun to see both Nana Visitor and Patrick Stewart on the same day. And, as a recent Heroes-convert, seeing Hayden Panettiere (the cheerleader) and half of Jack Coleman's head (her dad) was also fun. And Kenny Baker was there, too. And a bunch of people who had one line in the "Star Wars". However, what wasn't fun was that you had to stand tens of meters away while being harassed by overzealous staff members, and the only way to get close would be to pay an extra 15£ for an autograph.

These big cons (I've only been to two so far, so it's not exactly a large sample) seem to me mostly concentrated around memorabilia - autographs, pictures, action figures, toys, coins, plaques, replicas, scale models, comics, film cells, and well, anything that you can put a price tag on. And while there were a couple of people who tried to bring some atmosphere into the halls (I loved the guy in the Alien suit hugging the Predator) it was mostly an underlit, overpriced, gigantically nerdy mall. I felt like a moneybag on legs, and ended up buying nothing. Fandom is big money these days.

And to speak about stereotypes: For some reason I kept bumping at people's bellies all the time.

I don't know. I just... made me kinda sad, that's all. A bit of a letdown.