Comic Con Liverpool 2024 (May) - A Detailed Review

 Guests met and discussed in this review (with the franchise(s) I most associate them with personally) :-

• Elijah Wood (Frodo from "Lord Of The Rings")

• Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from "Lord Of The Rings")

• Dominic Monaghan (Merry from "Lord Of The Rings")

• Billy Boyd (Pippin from "Lord Of The Rings")

• Orlando Bloom (Legolas from "Lord Of The Rings" and Will Turner from "Pirates Of The Caribbean")

• John Cleese (Basil Fawlty from "Fawlty Towers")

• Katey Sagal (Gemma Teller Morrow from "Sons Of Anarchy")

• Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel")

• Plus the late, great Bernard Hill

 

Two quick notes before we get started...

1) If this is your first time on "Shangel's Reviews", check the tabs at the top of the website for a comprehensive list of all Comic Cons I’ve attended and reviewed, as well as the guests met at that event. There’s also a list of all the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” episodes I’ve reviewed in thorough detail so far. Will I ever finish them? If I can find the time.

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With that being said, let’s dive in…

 

 

Last week I wrote my first review in 5 years. Back in the day, these reviews did really well. The most read Comic Con reviews in Britain to my knowledge. My Buffy/Angel episode reviews were pulling in 20,000-150,000 reads, while my con reviews were pulling in 5,000-100,000 reads. As of now, 3 days after releasing the review for "Cross Roads 8", it has received 8,000 reads, which puts it on track to be around 40,000 within the first month of release if it follows the same trend as previous reviews did. After 5 years away, it is incredibly humbling to know that people still care and are interested. Back in the day, so many people at cons would come up to me and say they didn't know about cons before my reviews or only chose to attend because of my positive reviews. I'm hoping to do the same for the next generation of con attendees: inform and encourage.

 

This is my first review of a Monopoly Events Comic Con. The very first Monopoly Con I ever attended was Comic Con Liverpool way back in March 2020 (which also had Elijah Wood on the line-up ironically) and to say they've grown since then would be an understatement. Monopoly are, by far, the fastest growing Comic Con outfit in the U.K...possibly in Europe; I'd need to do more research. They've gone from the ECL Exhibition Centre to also include the ACC Convention Centre, to now also include the M&S Bank Arena that - I believe - was projected to see 50,000 attendees across both days of this event. Impressive growth. I do fully expect CCL to become the largest Comic Con in Europe over the next few years because Monopoly are clearly on a mission.

Back in 2020, the dreaded year of 'Rona, Monopoly ran a few events. Now their calendar is stacked! Comic Con Liverpool, Comic Con Manchester, Comic Con Wales, For The Love Of Horror, For The Love Of Fantasy, Comic Con Midlands...that's just the ones I'm attending this year! There is also Comic Con Scotland, Comic Con Northern Ireland, Comic Con Scotland North East, Comic Con Yorkshire, Comic Con North East, various Comic Con Mania events, For The Love Of Wrestling, and very likely more I'm forgetting. Monopoly are truly living up to their name.

 

(site map for the event)

To preface this review, as always, I'm only going to talk about my personal experience. I'm aware that on Saturday some of the autograph queues were problematic, but I wasn't there on Saturday. Just Sunday. I've always found it unfair to comment on things I didn't personally witness and that remains true for this review as well. There's a reason this wily con veteran typically avoids big cons on a Saturday now, folks!

Myself and my Wife, Susie, travelled up from Gloucestershire to Liverpool on Saturday, ready to soak up the Comic Con goodness on Sunday. My Wife is Scouse so we always try to blend Comic Con and family time together during the four CCL's we've attended thus far. The drive from home to Liverpool is about three hours. The journey was pleasantly, unexpectedly uninterrupted by traffic and we arrived at the planned time for the first time during a drive to 'Pool.

A few of the guests I was planning to meet sadly cancelled over the months leading up to the event, specifically Elizabeth Olsen, Tony Todd, Richard Coyle, and Bernard Hill...more on Bernard later...but there was still a lot of guests to meet. My personal hit-list was a photo with all four Hobbits together, Orlando Bloom (a U.K. first, I believe), Katey Sagal, a photo with Elijah by himself, and to see the always-interesting Charisma Carpenter and John Cleese yet again. I also had a photo booked with Bernard Hill, but he cancelled a couple of days before the event started.

Monopoly entry ticket prices are typically a bit higher than other events in the U.K., but the entry ticket does contain a lot of extras that most/all other events don't have. For instance, Liverpool had a lot of prop photo opportunities: Baby ('67 Impala) from Supernatural, Jurassic Park displays, Scoops Ahoy display, live music, live wrestling...you name it, it was there. The green building on the site map (the recently added M&S Bank Arena) actually felt like a Comic Con and a music festival had a bizarre, beautiful love-child as you had live music on one side, live wrestling on the other, and a bunch of vehicles, props, and a full-size X-Wing between the two. Monopoly also typically have higher prices for autographs/photos compared to other British events.

(official event poster)

I've done a fair few Monopoly cons at this point (I believe this was my 10th) and they've always been really well organised, most things have started bang-on time, and there has always been a lot to see. However, this was their biggest event to date and I was curious to see if the infrastructure they've created could handle the rapid growth. I've been attending cons for 15 years and I've seen rapid growth before (not this many events this swiftly though) and typically the events struggle for a little while before the organisation catches up to the demand. Would CCL be the same? Let's find out.

We arrived at the venue at 08:15am, ready for doors to open at 09:00am...oh, wait...we could just go in now? at 08:15? Awesome! I don't know why they were letting people in early, but it was very much appreciated as it gave us an extra 45 mins to peruse the merchandise stands. The merch size and variety at CCL is very, very solid. I can't think of an event that had more - possibly some of the older LFCCs? The layout does lend itself to large traffic as well. Any busy con will have congested sections, but the aisleways were pretty wide and there was a lot of room left available for the autograph tables. I believe the most overlooked aspect of a large con is often utilising the space available to its maximum efficiency and Monopoly did this. No event is perfect. Some guests will be unexpectedly busy and things won't work out exactly as planned, but I didn't have any issues walking around the con all day, even at peak times.

The plan for the day was pretty simple on paper for attendees with our experience :-

• Elijah Wood photo at 10:00am in ECL Photo A

• A photo with all four filthy little Hobbitses at 10:30am in ECL Photo A

• Orlando Bloom photo at 11:40am in the Convention Centre (Room 11)

• John Cleese photo at 1:00pm in ECL Photo A

• Charisma Carpenter photo at 2:55pm in ECL Photo C

• Katey Sagal photo at 3:35pm in ECL Photo C

• The rest of the time would be dedicated to merchandise hunting, prop photos, exploring, and catching up with old friends

 

One thing that MUST be said is that Monopoly's photo schedules are awesome. Every guest gets two photo sessions during the day. I don't hide the fact that my main reason for attending cons is the guests and I have a tendency to over-book myself...I recall a "Wales Comic Con" in 2016, where I had TWENTY SIX studio photos in one day, which I think is a record for any attendee at a U.K. con? It is to my knowledge anyway! The fact that each guest has two photo sessions allows a lot more flexibility in planning your day. It's the reason why the schedule above looks like a dream: I avoided the clash sessions.

 

I first met Elijah Wood in Liverpool back in their March 2020 event. It was a bizarre time. Covid had just struck England. I believe there were around 200 cases announced at this point. Masks had started to pop up at cons. Guests started to get, understandably, a little twitchier around physical contact. While myself and my Wife (then Fiancée) did get a photo with Elijah at that event, it wasn't my favourite photo because of the twitchiness around physical contact....and because it was back in the days of a Monopoly Events logo backdrop, which isn't my personal preference. No matter, it was time to correct it today! Elijah was very friendly, very engaging, and seemed genuinely enthusiastic to meet the fans. I will say this about all the LOTR actors: they all seem to adore the franchise, the fans, and each other. Nobody seems jaded or sick of talking about it. It is a very welcoming fandom, which isn't always the case at Comic Cons (**cough** Vampire Diaries **cough**). I don't mean all of you Vampire Diaries fans, I just mean there is a small, vocal minority that are batshit crazy.

 

I'll get into it more later, but Bernard Hill passed away the morning of my day at CCL. I don't know what time Elijah, Sean, Dom, and Billy found out. I don't know if it was before or after the 10:30am group photo. I first heard the news myself at 11:15am from a friend that is close to the LOTR actors, but was asked to keep it to myself as Sean was going to announce it during the LOTR panel at 4:45pm. News actually broke online before then. My guess is that they already knew by 10:30. Which makes their behaviour during the group photo all the more admirable. The LOTR cast are close. Super close. If they did know they'd just lost a dear friend, they didn't show it. They were incredibly fun, engaging, and interactive during the group pics. Just delightful. I can't help but feel particularly devastated that I was supposed to meet Bernard on the day of his passing. When Bernard cancelled on the Friday morning, it sucked, but he'd already been announced for Comic Con Wales in Newport in August, so I figured I'd just meet him there instead. Sadly, I never will now. Guys, a piece of advice...meet the guests when you can. I've had a few instances now of "I'll meet them at the next con" and then never got the opportunity to do so.

 

Two photos down, four to go!

 

For headliners like Orlando, you get to choose a timeslot for the photo. I chose 11:40am as it fit into my schedule perfectly. This was the only part of the day that was frustrating. I'm not sure of the reason (starting late, taking time at the autograph sessions, overselling, a combo of all?), but the 11:40am photo session didn't start until 12:30pm. Thankfully, this didn't affect me, but it would have if it was delayed much longer as I had a John Cleese photo at 1:00pm in another building. After getting to the front of the queue and meeting Orlando, all was forgiven. What a nice man! No air of ego, very friendly and engaging. There were a lot of ladies swooning in the queue! Orlando Swoon is his new name. There was one part of the Orlando queue that was amusing. There was a lady that was very visibly queue-jumping. She was on her phone and when the queue would shuffle forwards a bit, she'd somehow end up 5-10 places further forwards every time. It became a game with my little section of the queue: how far could she go? It turns out pretty far...until she met her match! Someone Cosplaying as Daphne from "Scooby Doo" was having none of it. There was no passing her.

Gentle readers, there are two very important lessons to remember at cons. 1) No queue jumping. 2) Wear anti-perspirant. It's the best ways to show respect to your fellow attendees. Why anti-perspirant? Cons get warm. Lots of people. Confined spaces. I remember vividly. LFCC. 2014. July. Hottest weekend of the year. Anthony Head's photo queue. A man in a tanktop lifted his arm up to stretch. His armpit was nose-height of the girl next to him. She cried. Literally burst into tears at the stench of his Itty Bitty Pitty Committee. Don't be that person.

One very, very brisk walk back to the ECL later, it was time for John Cleese's photo! I first met John about 7 years ago in London. He is exactly as you'd expect: hilarious, sarcastic, very dry sense of humour. A great guy. Also, still impressively mobile for 84 years old.

 

It was finally time for a rest. We grabbed some food. Had a bit of a chill. Then finished perusing the merch stalls in the ECL. Then it was time for the last two photos of the day: "Queen C", Charisma Carpenter, and Katey Sagal. Charisma is always fun. She's actually very Cordelia-esque in a lot of ways (the good ways). I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen Charisma and spent some time with her....Six? Seven? Katey was new. I can't believe she's 70 first and foremost. She looks phenomenal. Katey was also great fun. I hate repeating the words "friendly and engaging", but all of the guests were! I've been doing cons long enough that I've had some duds over the years. People that are clearly there for just the money and don't give a shite about the fans. The douche-waffles, the moose-knuckles....but all the guests at CCL were fantastic.

 

It was now 4:00pm. I was out on my feet. Susie was out on her feet. But there was still work to be done: the M&S Bank Arena. Time for prop photos!

 

It was a great end to a pretty brilliant day. Kudos to Monopoly. While there were some teething issues in the growth, it was significantly more hit than miss. I think overall they rose to the occasion and as I said at the start of this review, I fully expect Comic Con Liverpool to be the largest event in Europe within the next 3-5 years. They've got the funds, they've got the drive, they've got the ability, and now they're getting the reputation for being able to pull off massive events successfully. I'm really interested to see where the U.K. con scene goes over the next 5 years. 

 

At the conclusion of the 4:45pm LOTR panel, the Hobbitses announced Benard Hill's death and spoke very highly of him. I'm gutted I'll never get to meet him and may he rest in peace.

 

(video credit to a.cotts on Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@a.cotts/video/7365602757509664032)

 

It was time to say goodbye to the family and drive back to Gloucestershire! We arrived back around 10:30pm. That was a bloody long day! Worth it though. From a Monopoly standpoint, I'll see you at Comic Con Midlands in June, Comic Con Manchester in July, Comic Con Wales and For The Love Of Sci-Fi in August, For The Love Of Horror in October, and Comic Con Liverpool again in November...I really need a new car, a new back, and new feet. Anyone willing to gift?

 

FINAL SCORE: 8/10