Fans queuing and running at the opening on Saturday morning represents the most emblematic scene of this second successful LONDON SUPER COMICS CONVENTION edition. Just like at big concerts where people fight for the first row, the fans ran excitedly to their idols. Many idols indeed attended the LSCC, so much so that the show is quickly becoming the Gotha of the comic conventions: more than 50 creators, illustrators and writers met in two days their warm followers, despite the chilly and yet magical weather that enveloped London.

The first impressive quality  entering the magnificent Excel Center was the incredibly efficient organization system. Like the previous edition, the Comicon surprised for the perfect management of lines, order, accreditations and online tickets – and online were even raffled off some original sketches of the LSCC artists.

The large open space was divided, in a very functional and useful way, in large areas dedicated to publishing houses, indie projects, dealers and featured creators: following the way you could see side by side George Perez, Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, David Finch, Herb Trimpe, Kevin Maguire, Esad Ribic, JK Woodward and other important names of the comics world, like the smiling J. Scott Campbell next to the legendary  Brian Bolland – busy with a constant queue for the whole time. This is just a sample of what you could find within a few meters, and what kind of artists attended the show.

If last year the superguest Stan Lee was meant to be the comics History representative, the this year honor must be surely divided among the above mentioned Herb Trimpe, always equipped of historic covers prints (does a certain Wolverine ring a bell?) as well as good anecdotes, Roy Thomas, guest of the praiseworthy PS Artbooks I already mentioned last year [link], and the amazing Neal Adams, an authentic “money-machine”: at his stand you could buy from expensive original drawings to a number of wonderful prints, sketchbooks, books and statues, and even a picture with him for “only” £20.

The longest line was surely the one for Dan Slott – together with Adi Granov -, the loved/hated writer of Spiderman, even if only to take the opportunity to buy his special edition with an exclusively cover drawn for the LSCC, and get it signed by the author. Besides Spiderman, there were other special LSCC editions: the ones published by Markosia and Zenescope and a wonderful “british” Witchblade with exclusive cover drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz (brilliant as always) and published by Silvestri’s Top Cow which has attended the convention for the first time.

Talking about publishers, 2000 AD – Rebellion absolutely deserves a special mention: not only launched it such artists as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, but it has still been issuing  high quality stories, most of them published in its two traditional magazines 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Magazine. As testimonials at the stand there were the funny “bad boys” Boo Cook, Simon Davis, Rufus Dyglo and others – whom we will hear more and more about – drawing sketches for everyone on cute sketchbooks that were especially created for the occasion. We do hope to read more books of this extraordinary publisher in Italy soon.

There were other British artists who started off in the famous Judge Dredd’s publishing house at the London Comicon:  the talented Chris Weston, incredibly good at drawing fast and yet minutely, and the friendly Gary Erskine, who told us about his interesting project Roller Grrrls [web] and a likely sequel to the amazing City of Silence, created years ago together with Warren Ellis.

How not to mention Neil Edwards, Glen Fabry, the great Mark Buckingham and the writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, all British authors who have had success in the US?

The above list of names concerned only the British guests, but many others attended the show like the top artists of the Marvel’s, DC’s and Dark Horse’s main series, all warmly welcomed by the fans who were happy to get priceless sketches or autographs on issues and books. Among others, the most popular were the fabulous Gary Frank and Yildiray Cinar, for those who appreciate the Legion, and the amazing Jeremie Bastien.

Another rather interesting section was that dedicated to the independent publishers since it has always  found out big talents in the UK. More and more popular is SPANDEX, a self-produced series by Martin Eden and dedicated to the first all gay group of superheroes (the volume is already considered as one of the best book of 2012). Also remarkable the Sloth Comics that proudly told us about the editorial efforts put in the production of Moebius’s book Madwoman of the Sacred Heart. It is outstanding how hard they work and how much enthusiasm those guys put in spreading the Comic.

Last but not the least, the Italians, a significant number this year. DOUbLE SHOt has reserved them a special, where they speak about the London Convention, themselves as artists and their private life. Indeed it is a pleasure to introduce the interviews of Gabriele Dell’Otto, Simone Bianchi, Matteo Scalera, Marco Turini and Marco Santucci and I would like to thank them all again for their time and friendliness. Of course it must be added the team captain Emanuela Lupacchino that we have already met last year, but this time she was so kind to be an interviewed as much as an interviewer.

The polite guys of the staff invited us to exit the show with a look on their face that seemed sad but looked like an “arrivederci” at the same time. Outside some snowflakes started falling down. On the last train to London we left the Excel Center behind not without a big smile on, bigger than the one we had last year.

Filippo Conte
(traduzione Sara Cipolletti)