Wales Comic Con 2012

I don't know if you followed my Facebook status updates today. I attended the Wales Comic Con this year, at Glyndwr University, Mold Road, Wrexham.

The convention was way oversubscribed. The queue was backed up off the premises and halfway up Crispin Lane. Queuing time was two hours at its most congested.

I did, however, eventually get in. I had little chance to speak to many of the guests - but I did wish Robert Llewellyn and the guys the best with Red Dwarf X - made his day - and I chatted a while with the actor John Billingsley, who played Phlox in the last Star Trek series.

Now he was pretty cool. He didn't think many people would have heard of him, and he always gets hired - kind of like Brad Dourif - to play psychos and perverts in small bit parts, one-shots - but he was a recurring role in Enterprise for four seasons, and he was a damned good character in that.

I said how I love the medics in Star Trek - Bones, Crusher, Bashir and of course Phlox - and how he brought a kudos and gravitas to the role, balanced with comic relief. He'd not heard many come out with praise for that role, so he seemed pretty shocked and pleased.

I caught a glimpse of the actress Virginia Hey, who played the blue plant girl in the early Farscape, and I never got close to her to talk. You would not believe the crowds there. And although there were a lot more personalities there - caught a glimpse of Chris Barrie, lost in the crowds - there was not much chance to do much more than mill about with the attendees, buy stuff from the dealer stalls and just take pot luck you'd bump into someone. I was lucky. An hour and a half in, and I got a chance to make Robert Llewellyn's and John Billingsley's (and John's wife Boni's) day with just a few kind words. Not bad for only an hour and a half.

Lots of cosplay, too, good and bad. A Spiderman, some Harley Quinns, a very small Hulk, a Hawkeye, a Wonder Woman ... and a Rorschach.

And a Thor.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.