Sebastian Chow

There were many stands at London Super Comic Con 2016 this year but one stand I spent quite a bit of time at was the very welcoming art stand run by Paul Kercal and some of his student helpers.

From what I can tell there are various bits of tech and software coming together to help form this stand:

• Promethean hardware: Imagine a flat screen TV that acts as a giant touchscreen monitor, has multi-touch functionality and a whiteboard style marker as a drawing stylus. This was running windows and Art Rage software. This was great fun to use and reminds me of use a big whiteboard with markers (incidentally my current work place has whiteboard paint on the walls which is great for doodling while making coffee in the kitchen). I used this screen twice doing a couple of sketches, one I even managed to colour. 

London Super Comic Con 2016 whizzed its way around the calendar and housed itself in back in the Excel where, incidentally, there was a baby exhibition, a classic car exhibition and a franchise exhibition on at the same time. So making my way between heavily pregnant women, businessmen and car enthusiasts I hurried my way through the crowd to make it to LSCC.


LSCC has definitely improved over the years. Each year seems to see an increase in attendees. Not even the gloomy weather and slight rain could dampen the spirit of cosplayers and comic book fans. I think there were more cosplayers this year than ever, and LSCC was prepared with several panel events and stands dedicated to cosplaying.

However I was there for different reasons. I attended panels on publishing your own comic, sequential storytelling and inking (discussed by Scott Williams). All three of these were enjoyable but I particularly enjoyed the inking panel with Mr. Williams who related his experiences of working with other creators like Jim Lee.





I met various comic creators and Comic Con is always a great place to get feedback, advice as well as network with other creators for future projects. In addition, there was an impressive list of artists and writers from all over the globe including all round nice guy, David Finch, who I interviewed back in LSCC 2013 (as a very obvious novice to doing interviews).

I bought some comics, some art supplies and even spent some time at a very interesting and fun stand (more to come on that). I will make blog posts on each of these aspects in a bit more detail but for now enjoy a few snaps taken throughout the con.

LSCC 2013 saw a marked improvement on last years event with a better layout of tables, more creators attending and more exhibitions and stands set up.

Many cosplayers turned up with some impressive costumes, many of which have found their way to YouTube. Personal favourites included the Tim Burton Batman costume.

Highlights of the event were some of the panels scheduled. David Finch, Neal Adams, Brian Bolland and Gary Franks sat on the panel for "Batman through the Ages" which started out with Neal Adams sharing his singing voice. Many great questions were asked including whether Robin's character added or detracted to the Caped Crusade, to which the general consensus was that Robin should have stayed in the circus.

I managed to get a quick portfolio review with Zenescope's Anthony Spay. I had a very limited portfolio to share but it was good to get some feedback from working professionals in the business. Portfolios should consist of a variety of sequential pages displaying different scenarios, characters etc. Anthony confirmed much of what I thought were my weaknesses (some anatomy issues, background, stiffness on final pages and a lack of content).

I managed to get some interviews with different creators including Grant Perkins who delivered a great sketch of Spiderman (to be posted on the blog soon) as well as David Finch who had queues of fans waiting to get books signed and con sketches completed.

Below is the interview of David Finch who was super nice despite having fans around him constantly and having a long list of sketches to complete in a short time. Check out the interview with David below (note the work that David will be doing with Comic Experience soon in the future).

Cons are a great source of inspiration especially when try to get your stories off the page and into production of some kind. Many teams/creators have achieved this and it's always good to discuss how different creators have overcome some of the obstacles of the creative process.

Onward with my creator owned story Clandestine!

Here are some general photos of the event including some of the cosplayers. Enjoy!