To truly get an accurate impression of Kapow Comiccon you need to imagine a well crafted maze of paraphernalia, populated with some recognisable artists, writers and celebrities and decorated with a sprinkling of hot women, either in superhero costume or wearing tight t-shirts depicting company logos or said merchandise. Add to this a schedule of events and a competitive queuing system operated on an circular balcony above the main maze. Then on a preordained signal, for example the moment when the queue to get into the building becomes hysterical with excitement, let the geeks in! What you then end up with is a packed hall full of people in varying stages of mania and body odour trying to get from one location to another as quickly as possible without missing anything! From above it looked like a really strange version of Where’s Wally with everyone on the balcony either trying to spot missing friends or queuing and passing the time trying to count how many Jane Goldman-haired girls there were, spot the girl in the Black Cat costume with the massive rack or the guy dressed as Bane with the shoulders you could use as a park bench... And I was one of those geeks...
Kapow, it has to be said, was awesome. Yes, it had all of the teething problems a brand new convention tends to have: the difficulty of gauging capacity + likely ticket sales - weather + confirmed appearances - confirmed non-appearances = venue, which ultimately leads to the conclusion that it could have been in a bigger venue and still sold out. This might have brought in some more big name appearances but it’s so hard to gauge in advance. The difficult queuing system should have worked perfectly well, but suffered from being populated by the manic and hysterical, acting like they were queuing for the lifeboats on the Titanic rather than a panel on Skins and Misfits... along the lack of raised stages in the panels and screenings which made it difficult for many to see who the disembodied voices were and the lack of onsite food venues. A few of the coffee stands seemed to twig that they could be making a killing selling caffeine and doughnuts and opened on Sunday - they were probably very happy with the results...
But the things that worked, worked well... The panels were varied and covered comics, film and TV without being too biased towards any one; the stalls were populated by genuinely lovely people who had obviously been pre-exposed to geeks and knew exactly what to expect - including the babes at the London Rockin’ Rollers roller derby stand who dealt with the oogling with grace and knee pads - the independent publishers and artists were enthusiastic and diverse... Everyone was interesting and interested, even we geeks, who on the whole smelt a lot less than I remember UKCAC smelling.
IGN deserve specific praise as their arena provided the essence of all the panels in a far more intimate venue; the interviews with Joe Cornish and the cast of Attack The Block was brilliant despite them all seeming flabbergasted that it was actually happening! Their enthusiasm was infectious and has changed the film from something I wasn’t sure about into something I definitely want to see - even if Adam Buxton might have been the inspiration for the aliens, being stout and hairy... (yes, that was me heckling Joe...). The Misfits appearance was equally entertaining but felt much more like a taster for their event in Gallery Hall, which despite being shared with Skins series five actress Dakota Blue Richards (Franky) was totally owned by Misfits actors Iwan Rheon (Simon), Lauren Socha (Kelly), and the series Executive Producer Petra Fried. The news that Robert Sheehan (Nathan), is leaving the series was a shock to the audience but I can’t help but think it’s going to make series 3 even more watchable - yes, he will be missed, but this is a show with such a phenomenal script and stunning visual style that I can’t help but think that not only will they pull off losing such a favourite character, but that by the end of the first episode we’ll have forgotten that he’s gone!
Other high points are of course the preview footage of Thor, featuring Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) on a panel, including 20 minutes of new unseen footage. As you can imagine the panel was packed and people were queuing for about two hours to get in. I and Frankie (husband, better half and on the day - birthday boy!), only just got into the auditorium by the skin of our teeth and it was so worth it! The film looks spectacular from sets to costume, and the intensity of Hemsworth’s performance really steals every scene. The thing that did surprise and delight is the humour - it is genuinely funny and not at the expense of the story. This really will be a film to see.
Finally, the secret screening on Sunday afternoon was Super, an 18 certificate gritty, violent, realistic superhero comedy - that I didn’t see... By Sunday afternoon my energy was waning, the venue was very warm with varying degrees of air con and the queue for the film was INSANE... I opted for an hour an a half eating lunch in the park with my current proof of choice - Love You More by Lisa Gardner (ISBN 9781409101062), out 21st July. The sunshine was glorious, geek spotting a fun sport and the proof is one of the best crime romps I’ve read for years. I think I may have made the better choice as most of the Cheesemints went to see Super and on the whole were entertained but not blown away by this extremely violent Juno meets Kick-Ass movie.
Kapow certainly had some punch and I can see next year’s event being bigger, bolder and probably at a different venue. Whilst the Business Design Centre provided an intimate venue, don’t we all want something big enough to blow us away? Don’t we all want to be overwhelmed by the incredible choices available? Don’t we all want Cheesemint to have a booth and some panel time? Don’t we? C’mon you know we do!
So, you read it here first - Cheesemint for Kapow 2012! Get to it...
