Em-Con 2024 - A Detailed Review

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

• Tom Rosenthal (Marcus from "Plebs" and Jonny from "Friday Night Dinner")

• Kris Marshall (Nick from "My Family")

• Sir Tony Robinson (Baldrick from "Black Adder" and "Time Team")

• Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush from "Doctor Who")

• Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Mike Cooper from "Ghosts")

• Dean Lennox Kelly (Pekka Rollins from "Shadow & Bone" & William Shakespeare from "Doctor Who")

• Dylan Llewellyn (James from "Derry Girls")

• Lucy Griffiths (Nora from "True Blood")

• Bronson Webb (Will from "Game Of Thrones" and Nott from "Harry Potter")

• Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink from "Doctor Who") 

 

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 some of the 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…

 

 

Em-Con is without a doubt one of the best Comic Cons in the United Kingdom. It is very likely the best Comic Con that you might not have heard of before if you only follow the really big U.K. companies like Monopoly Events, Showmasters, MCM, etc. Prices are very cheap compared to others and the queue sizes are perfectly manageable, even with it being a fairly busy event. Some price examples from this year are:

 

Kris Marshall's first ever Comic Con: £25

Sir Tony Robinson: £30

Tom Rosenthal's first ever Comic Con: £25

Kiell Smith-Bynoe's first ever Comic Con: £25

Compare those prices with what some other companies are charging and there is a very poignant difference.

 

I'm an old school Em-Con attendee, with my first one taking place in 2016. I've been to nearly every one ever since. The event has always been fantastic, but something about this year's event was extra special and I'm not even sure what it was! I just couldn't stop smiling all day. It was the happiest I'd felt at a Comic Con in a long time. Part of it was that it felt like a throwback Comic Con. Before the days of crazy queues and cash-grabs. Before it became a proper business. Back when the guests were there to give back to the fans. Another reason was that there were lots of first-time signers, rare guests, and an almost-exclusively British line-up.

But upon reflection the main reason why is that the Em-Con team are truly world-class. There is a family feel to the event. It's not corporate. It's very much a Nottingham Con, ran by a Nottingham-based organiser, using a lot of the same crew that have been doing it since the beginning. You can feel how much this team enjoys working together and the passion they have for the event, and it most definitely bleeds out into the crowd. Every crew member I spoke to was in high spirits and went out of their way to make sure the attendees had the best experience possible. I saw multiple instances of bringing guests back to the photo sessions if an attendee was late and missed their slot (typically at cons if you miss the session that's on you and you've lost the money, which is understandable as schedules have to be kept tight). Every crew member was a credit to themselves and the company.

 

Finally, one of the worst things about Comic Cons is that you're on your feet all day and there is rarely any seats available. The beauty of the Motorpoint Arena as a Comic Con venue is that there are seats everywhere! You will never struggle to sit down at this event. It is a breath of fresh air.

 

My personal schedule for this event was as follows :-

 

• Get 2x Kiell Smith-Bynoe autographs: one for myself and one for my sister, Tash.
• 9x studio photos.
• Go and chat to some old friends.

The schedule fell in such a way that I had one photo at 11:30am (Lucy Griffiths) and eight photos between 1:00pm and 4:00pm, which would typically start the anxiety sweats as that's a lot of photos to get done in a short space of time. I've never missed a photo at a Comic Con before (15 years of attending, over 200 events total) and I didn't intend to start now!

Myself, my Wife (Susie), and my friend Dom all departed Gloucester at 08:00am. It's around a two-hour drive and everything went about as perfectly as it could. The weather was dreary and the rain consistently splashed my car windscreen, but our spirits remained high. We arrived in Nottingham - a beautiful, friendly city - just after 10:00am and as we were early entry ticket holders, we went straight into the venue. It was wonderful to see the Motorpoint Arena again. I've had a lot of good memories here. In fact, mine and Susie's first date was in Nottingham after Em-Con 2018!

The attendance this year looked solid. It was busy, but not so busy that you wished to break everyone's kneecaps around you. As it was 10:30am by this point I thought it prudent to get the autographs done first before the regular entry attendees got into the venue and started making the queues longer, so we headed up to the concourse to meet Kiell Smith-Bynoe. This is the art print that I was getting signed, created by the incredible Grant Perkins...

 

Many years ago, after attending numerous conventions, I devised a system whereby to categorise my experiences with guests and their level of interaction in order to compare the quality of my experiences across conventions and time. I have O.C.D., shut up. The following three types were found :-

·       The Responder: This type of guest is often polite and friendly. If you ask them a question, they’ll happily answer. If you comment on something, they’ll respond or smile gratefully. However, they won’t carry the conversation forward, you have to. These are the most common type of guest, and this is what you expect when meeting someone at a convention. This is a great category to be a part of.

·       The Groucho/Big Guest: There are two aspects to this category. Firstly, you have the groucho. The groucho is there for monetary purposes or is generally just having a bad day, or is a bit of an ass. If you meet enough people, one of them is bound to be an ass! The grouchos aren’t interested in conversations above a few words. They’ll say ‘hi’ (sometimes they don’t bother with that), sign, say ‘bye’ (sometimes), and you’re on your merry way. Of course, in certain situations this is relevant and expected, which brings me to the second part of this category, the ‘big guest’. Some guests are going to be insanely popular. Such as Stan Lee at LFCC ‘14, who had an entire building to himself basically. When you get a huge queue like that, the guest can’t take a lot of time with everyone. If they did, many people would go home disappointed at not getting to meet them at all. Therefore, the convention company and the guest want to get through as many people as possible. You cannot have a huge guest and expect to get above 30 seconds with them, which is perfectly fair.

·       The Conversationalist: This is easily my favourite type of guest. They’ll answer your questions with a smile, ask you questions in return, and are happy to chat for an extended period of time (extended = above 2-3 minutes), regardless of where the conversation leads or how long you’ve been talking. Obviously, there has to be some cut-off point if there is a queue behind you, but you leave the experience feeling euphoric and like you gained a lot more than just the autograph you queued for.

Historically on my reviews, I’d write down everything that was said at the autograph table. I’m not going to do that anymore as I feel it’s personal between myself and them. What I will do is give a few little notes and the category. 

Kiell Smith-Bynoe: Both good and bad here in that originally the autograph and personalisation looked a bit shite as the silver pen was running out quite spectacularly. The positive part is that Kiell noticed this and requested another pen so that he could go over it again. While waiting for another pen, myself and Susie got quite a bit of time to chat to Kiell and he was delightful to talk to. I appreciate the fact he made an effort to make the autograph a better quality as well. Guest Type = Responder.

 

After this it was time for the first photo of the day: Lucy Griffiths, A.K.A. Nora from "True Blood". Both Susie and myself are big "True Blood" fans so this was delightful. Lucy couldn't have been any kinder or more engaging! One of the nicest guests I've ever met. Really goes above and beyond to interact with people and get to know them.

 

We found ourselves with an hour to kill before my hectic eight-photos-in-three-hours portion of the day began, so we decided to get some lunch in the Encore Bar & Grill that is within the Motorpoint Arena itself. This was the only sour point of the day because the system they use isn't a system. You order the food then they bring it out when ready by shouting your name and hoping the correct person receives it. Due to this archaic system we waited 40 mins for basic food as someone else clearly nabbed ours. By the time it was sorted I had to rush off for photos and leave Susie and Dom to eat lunch happily while I skipped it. Hangry!

 

 

There's not a great deal to say about the 1pm to 4pm section of the day other than a few brief notes.

 

• The photo area crew were all fantastic, but a particular shout-out to the two gentlemen organising the queues for Photo A and Photo B. If anyone knows their names, please let me know. They were both excellent. Easy to talk to, sorted the queues flawlessly, and helped out during my clashes.
• Tom Rosenthal has quickly become one of my favourite guests ever. Occasionally at Comic Cons there have been costume shoots, where an actor dresses in a particular costume for a photo opportunity, such as Colin Baker dressing in the 6th Doctor's costume. These costume sessions are always announced in advance and come with an extra cost above the usual photo cost. Tom is the first guest I've ever known to organise costume shoots off of his own back, no extra charge, bring the costumes himself, and give people the opportunity to have a photo taken with him as Marcus from "Plebs" or Jonny from "Friday Night Dinner". I don't even think the Em-Con crew knew about it until Saturday morning. Mercifully, the photo that was supposed to be taking place in Photo A at that time - Annette Badland - didn't take place as Annette sadly cancelled, so they used both queues for Tom: a Jonny queue and a Marcus queue. I don't know many guests that would offer 2 different costumes for one photo session, change halfway through, and have the care and consideration for the fans to bring two different costumes from home! What a legend.
  

• Every photo I had started on time. This is absolutely essential when you've got a lot of photos to cram in. When an event is disorganised your anxiety levels are significantly higher.
• Every single guest was awesome and engaging. No duds in the bunch...which is rare if you have 9 in a day. Usually someone barely acknowledges your presence or has the aura of clearly being there for money. Not at Em-Con! Everyone was lovely. It really helped restore my faith in Cons.
• The photo quality was excellent as well. All the photos turned out great.
• One thing to note with Em-Con is that the photos aren't instant print. They get printed around 20 minutes later and there is a collection area.

 

 

 

After the photo sessions were concluded it was 4:15pm. Finally a bit of time to merch hunt! My friend Becca had a photo with Ross Marquand, but had to rush away for her train before the photo was printed, so I offered to collect it for her, which gave us around an hour to peruse the stalls. The variety was decent. There were clearly some locals as well as I'd never seen some of the stalls before! I purchased a particularly beautiful Bret Hart print, while Susie purchased some hand-carved crystals.

 

 

Once the merch was completed the cherry on the cake of the day was that Susie got to pet a Sausage Dog, which is basically her dream pet. One of the crew members brought her in and she was gorgeous. Susie's ovaries exploded, we collected Becca's print, and headed back to Gloucester in much nicer weather than it was during the journey to Nottingham. On the way to the car we saw Samuel Anderson outside from quite far away and I got a wave and a smile of recognition after meeting him at Wrexham earlier this year, which was really nice. A beautiful bow on an excellent day.

 

Em-Con was fantastic. One of the best Cons I've attended in recent memory. Thank you so much to everyone I spoke to, interacted with, kept me company in queues, took pictures with....it was a brilliant day! Can't wait for Em-Con 2025! Lee, you rock. Congratulations on a spectacular event.

 

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10