Shropshire Star

MCM Comic Con: 8,500 fans descend on Telford International Centre - video and pictures

It isn't often that Time Lords, superheroes, Jedi and Disney Princesses all come together under one roof. But that's exactly what happened in Telford this weekend when the annual MCM Comic Con came to town.

Published

About 8,500 film, gaming and comic book fans descended on Telford International Centre for the event, which they say is the first major convention in the calendar.

The show attracted big name stars like Tom Hopper, Star of Black Sails Fady Elsayed and Greg Austin from BBC's Class, Ian McElhinney from Game of Thrones and Sean Kelly from Storage Hunters.

Also signing copies of his autobiography was fifth Doctor Who, Peter Davison.

He said: "I do a few of these conventions. This is the first one of the year and they seem to warm up as they go on.

"But everyone here is very nice, I've not been to this one before.

"They're all very complimentary which gives you a nice ego boost.

"You have to keep your feet on the ground otherwise you'll leave thinking you're the greatest actor ever and no one else could ever play the part."

No stranger to Telford was Chris Barrie. The actor plays Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf.

He said: "It has been busy most of the day.

"There have been a few people dressed up as early Rimmer, a Flibble, which is Rimmer in quarantine and a few solo H's.

"It is obviously nice to see and it is a reflection of the devotion to the show."

Series 11 of the show was broadcast last year and Chris said it is introducing a whole new generation of people to his character.

He said: "It has been like doing a brand new series, they are really fun characters and now we have people coming up who are younger than me, which isn't difficult, but people in their 20s and 30s who are interested in the show.

"I've been coming to this show for about three or four years but Telford in general, my dad was in the army and he was based in Donnington in the early 70s, so when I was about 12.

"Places like Oakengates in Telford, also Stafford and Wolverhampton, they were our local area."

And the show was full of cosplayers, fans who make elaborate costumes of their favourite characters.

Among them was Laura Wootton, 31, from Stafford.

Normally working in Customer Service, on Saturday (FEB 11) she was Dr Arnim Zola, the bad guy from Captain America.

She had travelled to the convention with her husband Dean, where they had met up with friends from all over the country.

She said: "This is our first convention of the year, we go all over the region but we don't go much further than Wales.

"It is local, it is really friendly, it is a great convention to come and try out a new costume.

"All the people who we are with we met at conventions, through Cosplay and now we meet up all the time, they came to my wedding.

"It is a social exercise. It is easy to start talking to people because you already know what they are into because of what they are wearing."

Dressed as Nintendo favourites Mario and Luigi were 11-year-old Dylan McFarland from Shrewsbury and his Dad, Peter Kijek, 39.

Peter lives in Cardiff as a new customer sales assistant for Sky and Dylan goes to the Sundorne School.

Peter, a regular at conventions, particularly at the one in Cardiff, said his costume was probably the most simple he has ever put together.

But the duo were there for Dylan's first convention.

He said he was delighted to be able to share the experience with his son.

Peter said: "He likes computer games and Anime.

"A couple of years ago me and my fiancee got engaged at a convention."

Friends Hannah Carruthers, 23, who was dressed as Valentine's Day Harley Quinn and Mad Hatter Megan Chowdhury, 14 had travelled up from Straford-upon-Avon for Megan's first show, along with Matt Gwilliam, 26, from Marston Green.

They all met through their love of cosplay.

Hannah said: "I have been doing it for just over a year.

"This convention has a really nice atmosphere. There are quite a few people we know here."

Down from Stourbridge were Sam Jones, 43, and Lana Gullick, 17.

The mother and daughter were dressed as Wonderwoman and Harley Quinn.

Lana said she is a big cosplayer but has just got her mum to try it out.

Sam spent about a week hand-making her costume.

She said: "It has been good fun.

"Now I've done one I think I'll definitely come again."

Hayley Smith, 25, is a sales assistant at Dorothy Perkins, she had travelled all the way from Bishop's Stortford to come to the convention.

Dressed as Disney Princes Aurora, she had come with 23-year-old boyfriend Chris Thirtle, who works at music store PMT in Oxford.

He was dressed as Jedi Kyle Katarn.

The pair got together when they met at the London convention.

Hayley said they have never been to Telford before but they were impressed with the show.

She said putting together her costumes can take months, but the pair do different themes depending on their interests, which include Star Wars and Parks and Recreation.

Mike Lloyd, 46, a clinical psychologist from Chester was dressed as the armoured Batman from Batman vs Superman.

He was with friend Lucy Brennan, 25, who makes jewellery and had put together a Pokemon themed outfit.

Mike said his costume had been made by a friend and had taken about three months.

Lucy said: "The conventions are really friendly, you get accepted.

"You feel a bit free, you can just walk up to someone and say 'Wow, I like your costume'."

And an entire gang of cosplayers came to the event from Bridgnorth.

Kate Sharplin, 26, who works as a cook was dressed as Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, Emily Perks, 34, a shop assistant was 1940s pin-up Captain America, Paul Legg, 34, a factory worker appeared as X-Men's Magneto and 43-year-old self-employed Neil Price was Thor.

They were joined by friends Danny Dobson, 24, a shop assistant from Newtown who was dressed as Arsenal and Alice Dawson, 24, who was Avenger Hawkeye.

The group all met through Emily and she helped to get them into cosplay.

Kate said: "We've been here a few hours and we've had a fantastic day."

Regional event manager for MCM is Danny Aindow. he said the event has been really successful.

He said: "We're trying to make more event so it isn't just people coming along and buying stuff, we've got things like meet and greets.

"But it is always a really friendly show."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.