For the last four or five Julys (save one where I was dying from Glandular Fever – excuse my unfortunate timing), I’ve gotten up at ridiculous o’clock to trek down to Earl’s Court for Collectormania’s Film & Comic Convention. Usually I have a few days to get excited about it and plan how I will spend my money, but this year I was spontaneously invited along by friends from Scotland, as we contemplated their travels in London the previous night. I jumped at the chance and sure enough, 7am on Sunday morning I woke up, bleary-eyed and – after a lot of faffing around – managed to finally get to Earl’s Court.

I’m pretty sure that in previous years, the convention had taken place in the first building, but this year I wandered in, paid £16 and found that I was actually bearing witness to Roll Brittania – Europe’s first roller derby tournament. Can you say “oops”? I have never moved so fast, and the least said about that the better.

A comic book to convert non-believers!

I was directed to Earl’s Court 2 (why, then, was it advertised as Earl’s Court, when it’s the second one?) and joined a queue of eager comic book fans. My friends had, by now, been inside for about an hour and a half, having nabbed early bird tickets. I must have been rained on for about forty minutes before we were let inside, and to this very day I don’t know why we were refused entry for so long.

Compared to the other comic cons, I’m sure it was much much smaller, with less stalls. Or perhaps the fact I had been and seen it all before meant that the novelty was now wearing thin? I’m not the biggest comic book fan – I am shamefully uneducated about comics – but I love the films and I love the variety of people and things that you see there. You wouldn’t be able to find as much cult-related thingymajigs (meant in the nicest way) in one place anywhere else. I love the community spirit that somehow evolves out of a shared love of what can only be described as ‘the unusual’ – whilst perusing through Batman’s A Death In The Family, which had been recommended by one of my friends, a man next to me exclaimed in American, “Oh my Gahhhd! That is a MUST! It’s amazing! And then when you’ve finished that you have to read Under The Hood, you can’t do it any other way.” I nodded politely and pretended I knew everything about Batman as he rambled on about some other storyline that was “awesome”. Thankfully my friend chimed in and they evidently had a good old natter about Bruce Wayne.

The Firefly cast feel unappreciated again

Unfortunately, as I had expected, there was no Firefly merchandise. Gutting. I would have thought by now that toy companies would have picked up on this and produced figurines, as has been done for every other sci-fi/comic/cult franchise.
There was, however, a fairly good variety of comic illustrators, and I had my very own Batman drawn for me (which seems expensive at £10 a go, but I am quietly hoping it’s worth more in it’s autumn years), and loads of canvas prints and photos and photo prints, and autographs – which I feel slightly contemptuous towards.. £15 to meet someone semi-famous for 10 seconds, and have their scribble on a picture of themselves seems a little steep to me.

Another thing I noticed was the abundance of youngsters. With Twilight being released in December last year, this was the first convention since, and boy does it show. You could barely move without Twilight-something or Robert Pattinson being shoved in your face (to be fair I didn’t mind, as the little girl inside me fell a little in love with him – but how annoying would that be to hardcore comic book fans who have loved this stuff for years?)

Heath Ledger's creepy Joker featured heavily at the convention this year

Still, despite ridiculous prices and occasionally rude stall-holders, I guess it was worth the fiver I spent on getting in. And 2 canvas prints. And ‘A Death In The Family’ (which is, no word of a lie, bloody fantastic, and I am now officially converted to the ways of The Batman). And a drawing of Heath Ledger’s Joker. And a Coraline DVD… Aforementioned Scottish friend spent in the region of £200-300, and I’m pretty sure he’s chuffed with his Comic Con stash too.

Bring on next year! But please, please, please someone make some Firefly merchandise.