Comic Con Midlands 2024 - A Detailed Review

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

• Ella Purnell (Lucy from "Fallout")

• Lucy Lawless (Xena from "Xena: Warrior Princess")

• Thor Bjornsson (The Mountain from "Game Of Thrones")

• Jeff Ward (Deke from "Agents Of SHIELD")

• Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie from "Loki")    

 

Two quick notes before we get started...

 

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With that being said, let’s dive in…

 

 

Let's get the elephant out of the room straight away: for many years I was part of the volunteer team that worked for "Wales Comic Con" at the International Centre in Telford. To go to a convention here where I couldn't just walk in the back door and roam as I pleased was weird. It felt like looking around your old house after someone else had moved in. Alas, I decided to go to Monopoly's first outing at Telford for a number of reasons, chiefly among them is that the lineup was decent. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am a convention attendee that mainly goes for the guests. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing friends and merchandise hunting, and seeing the incredible Cosplays, and taking pictures at the prop displays, but I wouldn't go to all the hassle of travelling and spending money if it wasn't for the guests.

 

I've been doing cons a long time now. Over 15 years in fact. The amount of guests I need to meet at events now is dwindling. My average con day used to be 12ish guests. Now it is usually 4-6. However, as soon as Thor was announced, I was in. "Game Of Thrones" is arguably my favourite television show in history ("Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off "Angel" are also in the discussion). The Mountain is portrayed by three different actors: Conan Stevens in season 1, Ian Whyte in season 2, and Thor from season 4 to season 7. I'd met Conan, I'd met Ian, but Thor had evaded me until this event. After I'd bought tickets, Ella Purnell was announced - Lucy from "Fallout". "Fallout" is one of my favourite video games series in history and the recent television series was equally amazing, so I just had to meet Ella! Then Jeff Ward was announced; Deke is one of my favourite characters from "Agents of SHIELD", another of my favourite television shows. Throw in Lucy Lawless (Xena!) and Sophia Di Martino, and you've got yourself a pretty stellar lineup. A lineup that also included the likes of Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, and Alyssa Milano.

Another reason I decided to go is because Monopoly do put on a great event. Their prices are typically higher than the average in the U.K., but the entry ticket does include more things than any other convention I can think of (the only one that comes close is the brilliant Em-Con). The amount of prop photo opportunities is ridiculous. I believe there were around 20 different props at "Comic Con Midlands", plus a large gaming area, free panels, etc.

 

The plan was a simple one: meet my friend Patrick (who was driving us to the event), drive to Telford, get in the venue for about 11:30am, ready for the first photo at 1:20pm. Why 11:30am? Well, gentle readers, this old con veteran tries to avoid queues these days. With early entry going in at 10:00am and general entry going in at 11:00am, my theory was that by 11:30am, the queue would be gone and we could just walk in the door. This turned out to be the case. We got to Telford at 11:50am and walked straight in. Everything was contained to the three massive halls. Hall 3 (the slightly smaller one) was panels, photos, and  the gaming area, while Halls 1 & 2 were for the guests, merchandise stalls, and prop displays. Nice simple layout, easy to find everything. Unlike previous Monopoly events that I've attended, Monopoly were using a virtual queuing system for autographs for the more popular guests like Lucy Lawless. This was a great idea and is a tried-and-tested system that has been used by Showmasters, MCM, and Wales Comic Con for a long time. It saves crazy long queues congesting the place and it means that people can continue to enjoy their day, while having the piece of mind that their place in the queue is still assured. For those unfamiliar with virtual queuing, it is a simple process. You get given a piece of paper with a number on it; you return to the autograph table any time AFTER your number has been called.

 

My hit-list was to meet my Wifey, Susie, who was travelling down from her native Liverpool as she'd just seen Taylor Swift, get 5 photos, peruse the merchandise, and take some prop photos. A very relaxed con day by my own standards. After looking around the merchandise stalls for an hour - and buying a Holy water bottle from "Supernatural" to go with my salt burn and Dead Man's blood - it was time to start the photos! First up was Thor Bjornsson in photo area A. Thor is 6 foot 9 and about three feet wide, so I felt like a cub stood next to him, but he was friendly and engaging. Next it was time for Jeff Ward and Sophia Di Martino one after the other in photo area B. While in queue for Jeff, Susie arrived. She looked everywhere but at me. Saw through me. Saw around me. Ladies and gents, I wear a black bandana to every con. I'm not easy to miss. No matter. Eventually the Taylor Swift-glazed eyes found me and we spent the rest of the con together: one day before our 1st wedding anniversary.

Jeff was awesome. Really fun. Sophia was lovely too. The biggest queue of the day, by far, was Lucy Lawless' first photo queue. One of the awesome things Monopoly do is offer 2 photo sessions for each guest. You can choose to go to whichever you want. This is a really cool feature for scheduling your day as it gives you the flexibility of trying to avoid clashes. Mine and Susie's plan was to go to the 2nd Lucy photo session because the first clashed with Sophia and Ella Purnell. But that would mean hovering around for another hour and a half after we would otherwise be finished, so we lived in hope that if we were close to the front of Ella Purnell's queue, we might just catch the end of Lucy's first photo session. Thankfully, we were #1 and #2 in Ella's photo queue - her 2nd photo session of the day and presumably most people went to the first one - barring diamond pass holders. Ella had a "no touching" policy in place for the photo, but that didn't bother us at all. She wasn't the first and won't be the last to request this. It was her first ever Comic Con and she was likely overwhelmed by the experience a little bit. However, she was really talkative and engaging during the photo session. Myself and Susie then sprinted over to the end of Lucy's photo session. It closed at 3:05pm. It was 3:07pm. The gentleman in charge of scanning the tickets for photo area A (sorry I don't know your name) let us sneak in to the back of the queue anyway, which was very kind and very, very appreciated as it saved us 90 mins of our day.

 

Lucy was the best guest of the day! She was talkative and high engaging with every single person in her queue! Pulling people into hugs constantly, making sure everyone had a small conversation with her, and left the experience feeling euphoric. Lucy was legitimately one of the most amazing and interactive "headliners" of a convention that I've ever seen. She knows her role there. Cons are an interesting place. Particularly for people who headlined massive cult shows like Xena. People grow up idolising these characters. It means so much to people to meet them. Sometimes - thankfully it's quite rare - you meet a guest and they ruin the experience by being completely disinterested and clearly just there for money. You can never see them in the same light again when you watch the shows or movies that they're a part of...or the opposite is true. If they exceed your expectations, you're a fan for life. There are some guests I've met at Comic Cons that are so cool, so friendly, and so fun that I've remained friends with them afterwards. There are some where I support every project they're a part of. Lucy was the latter. She could clearly see her role and responsibilities, and she made sure everyone left feeling happy. What a woman!

 

At the conclusion of the photos, it was time for one last peruse of the merchandise before taking some prop photos with Susie.

 

We ended up leaving around 4:15pm, heading back to Gloucester in much sunnier conditions than when we arrived in Telford. Overall the event was really good. It is clearly still in its infancy and has plenty of room to grow, but the venue is perfect for Comic Cons and Monopoly have the drive, the passion, and the determination to make all of their events as big as possible, so I've no doubt that it will be a sell-out, can't-miss Comic Con over the coming few years.

 

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10