Portsmouth Comic Con Still Supported By The Comics Industry
The Guildhall Trust and its Event Partners, Tripwire Magazine and GoGeek Events CIC have been overwhelmed with support following last week’s decision to move Portsmouth Comic Con – International Festival of Comics 2020 due to the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic.
To ensure
the welfare of guests, exhibitors, staff, volunteers, sponsors and suppliers
and to maintain the high standard of the Con, it was decided to move this
year’s event to the new dates of Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th
August, and hopefully give us all something to look forward to beyond this
uncertain time.
Following a call out to the comic, film, TV, cosplay, geek and pop culture
communities to spread the word, the organisers are delighted with the response
and can now confirm that the vast majority of guests and content that were set
to feature will all go ahead in August as planned.
Sequential Saturday’s ‘Celebration of Female superheroes’ and Sunday’s ‘World
of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ themes go ahead with very few changes and there
will still be a whole host of panels, exhibitions, cosplay parades, steampunk, VR
and interactive fun to enjoy.
While a small number of guests are no longer able to attend due to prior
commitments, it is confirmed that key guests including Adam Hughes, Brian
Froud, Marguerite Sauvage, P. Craig Russell and Troy Alders have all
confirmed their commitment to attend and Portsmouth Comic Con is delighted to
announce some new names to the line-up including Andy Fanton and Jacob
Phillips.
Based right here in Portsmouth, Andy Fanton
is a writer and cartoonist who has worked for The Beano,
Dandy, Viz and Private Eye. Andy currently
writes Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids
every week, as well as drawing Bad Grandad.
Joining his father, Sean
Phillips, with a place on the Artists Alley sponsored by Catawiki, is Jacob
Phillips. At the age of 11 Jacob wrote, drew and printed his own comic
book, Roboy, which he sold at Cons from his dad’s
table. From school, Jacob studied Illustration with Animation at
Manchester School of Art and began working professionally
as a freelance Illustrator, which he has continued to do since. Jacob has
worked with BBC, Wellcome Trust, Arrow Video, Kino Lorber and many
more. Jacob has coloured books Criminal, My Heroes have always
been Junkies and Pulp, and is now working on new
image title, That Texas Blood.
Portsmouth Comic Con is also delighted to announce the return of Con crowd favourite, Marc Silk. Marc’s voice is instantly recognisable around the world for his work on films, TV shows, games and cartoons, most notably as the voices of Johnny Bravo and Scooby Doo.
And also joining a select group of guests from the screen will be Britain’s smallest man, Michael Henbury (Sunday only). Michael’s first acting role was in 1982 as an Ewok on Star Wars – Return of the Jedi before going on to appear in Labyrinth, Willow and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 where he played Gringotts Goblin. Ticket holders for the original May dates need not do anything as existing tickets are automatically transferred for the new dates. Those unable to attend in August are asked to contact their point of purchase by 17th April 2020.
Please keep an eye on the website www.portsmouthcomiccon.com and social channels for further event updates and for lots of comic-related articles and activities to keep you entertained if you are at home!
