Comic Con Liverpool

Comic Con Liverpool is a fan convention held twice a year in the city of Liverpool, United Kingdom attracting 44,000+ attendees across two large venues situated along the Liverpool waterfront, that celebrates films, popular culture, cult television, video gaming, anime, cosplay and comic books which is organised by UK Events company Monopoly Events.

Comic Con Liverpool
An Iron Man cosplayer in full costume at Comic Con Liverpool in March 2020
StatusActive
GenreMultigenre, covering popular culture elements including sci-fi, horror, fantasy, mainstream, wrestling and more
VenueExhibition Centre Liverpool
Location(s)Liverpool, England
Inaugurated10–11 March 2018
Most recent1–2 April 2023
Next event21–22 October 2023
Attendance44,000k+ (April 2023 event)
Organised byMonopoly Events
Websitewww.comicconventionliverpool.co.uk

History and organisation

Comic Con Liverpool began its annual run of events in 2018 after the Movie Comic Media (MCM) Expo Group ceased their own annual comic convention event in Liverpool after hosting it since 2015. Monopoly Events CEO Andy Kleek was approached by Exhibition Centre Liverpool who wanted to continue hosting an annual event for the people of the city and its surrounding areas.

Monopoly Events is a Manchester-based event organization company that specializes in events held in the North West of England and Scotland. Along with the Liverpool event, they are also responsible for organizing Comic Con Scotland, For the Love of Wrestling, For the Love of Sci-Fi, For the Love of Horror, For the Love of Wrestling, Comic Con Manchester, For the Love of MMA, Comic Con Wales, Comic Con Northern Ireland and Comic Con Scotland North East with new events, Comic Con Northeast and Comic Con Yorkshire joining the fold in 2023 and plans for further expansion across the UK in 2024.

Originally a three-day event, Monopoly Events reduced it to run over two consecutive days. The convention includes celebrity guest appearances from various film, television, video gaming, anime and comic book series including The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, Cobra Kai, My Hero Academia, Overwatch, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Red Dwarf, Stranger Things, The Lord of the Rings, Glee, Wednesday, Red Dead Redemption 2 and many others.

The convention is run between 3 exhibition halls and an atrium which are opened out to become one large space, and as of the 2020 event, another mezzanine area, and 3 large auditoriums. In 2021 the event expanded again to include the adjoining ACC Liverpool. The main exhibition hall features a large dealers zone selling movie, comic, and science fiction related memorabilia, artwork, and collectibles as well as various film props and sets (something for which the Monopoly Events is famous for, making their event experiences very different from others like them within the UK), vehicles from different franchises, a four-screen LED which projects guest talk panels live from the auditoriums, celebrity guest professional photoshoots and autograph sessions, cosplay events, and other displays.[1][2][3]

In 2018 at the very first Comic Con Liverpool hosted by Monopoly Events in March 2018, actor Verne Troyer made his last comic con appearance before his death just over a month later.[4]

Future plans for Comic Con Liverpool include expansion out across all three venues within the M&S Bank Arena, incorporating a festival-style atmosphere, and increasing capacity dramatically.

Venue

Comic Con Liverpool is held exclusively at Exhibition Centre Liverpool within the King's Docks, part of Liverpool's famous port area. As of November 2021, the event expanded into the adjoined ACC Liverpool due to the sheer growth of the event as a whole. Situated in the newly extended area were more guests, props and sets, and a children's activities area which included fairground attractions. At the same time organizers, Monopoly Events announced that they would begin hosting two events a year instead of one as per the previous years, one in May and another in November of each year due to overwhelming popularity. In 2023 these dates were altered to April and October.

Show features

Celebrity guests

As with many other fan convention events, celebrity guests from past and present popular media are regularly invited to Comic Con Liverpool and are an extremely popular part of the event, posing for professional photographs with fans and providing autographs as well as giving fans the chance to meet them and chat in person. Monopoly Events is well known for bringing first-time guests to the UK, as well as guests that are from older cult film and television shows of past decades such as the 1980s and 1990s. Sometimes the celebrities involved will use their appearances to raise awareness and funds for a charity or cause important to them, while others use the opportunity to promote upcoming projects such as new films or television shows.

Celebrity panels

Most, if not all, of the celebrity guests at Comic Con Liverpool appear on stage at some point throughout the course of the event, answering both host and fan questions alike. In previous years the stage was set up in the main exhibition hall where the other event features also took place, however, at the 2020 event, to cope with increased demand for seats, the panels were moved into three auditoriums with tiered seating for more comfort and to provide a more intimate experience for fans. The panels were streamed live from the auditoriums into the main exhibition halls onto four large LED screens hung above the center of the hall for other attendees to see.

Photographs

Comic Con Liverpool includes a double professional photoshoot area where fans can have their photo taken with their favourite guest or guests before collecting them at the exit of the area.

Autographs

The event also includes an autograph area where celebrity guests from film and TV sign items for the public and spend a few minutes chatting with their fans.

Cosplay

A large part of the event is devoted to the cosplay hobby where members of the public are allowed, and encouraged, to take part in dressing up as characters from popular genres such as film and television. Cosplaying has become one of the most popular parts of many fan conventions around the world and can be used as a platform to showcase the costumer's latest handywork, to show devotion to their favourite characters or engage in role-play with other cosplayers in the same series, as well as to meet new people with mutual interests as themselves. The Comic Con Liverpool event, like all of the Monopoly Events shows, hosts a cosplay competition every year with both adult and child participation encouraged and prizes given for the best costumes.

Prop and set exhibits

Monopoly Events is famous for providing a vast array of props and set builds for its visitors to enjoy, with Comic Con Liverpool being no exception, visitors can find exhibits such as a full-sized X-wing fighter from Star Wars, the Tardis from Doctor Who, the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future, a full-sized Peterbilt Truck from Transformers, a talking Falkor head from The NeverEnding Story film which guests could sit atop of and have a photograph taken as well as the Swamp of Sadness from the same film and Del Boy's flat from the cult British television show Only Fools and Horses and much more.

New props and sets which have been introduced since the November 2022 event include the Mystic Grill from The Vampire Diaries, the Cobra Kai dojo from Cobra Kai as well as the Myagi-Do dojo, the Fiat Cinquecento from The Inbetweeners and more, many of these being used with celebrities in photoshoots.

Retro gaming area and other attractions

Comic Con Liverpool has a large area dedicated to retro gaming consoles for visitors to play, in 2020 the event moved this feature into a larger area upstairs and included tournaments and big-screen battles and races between gamers. In May 2022 new areas were created, offering the public opportunities to play tabletop board games, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer and more. April 2023 saw the introduction of eSports at the event, offering tournaments, live streaming and more.

Trader zone

Within the main ECL exhibition hall, there is a vast trader zone that contains 100s of dealers selling film and television, comic and science fiction-related memorabilia, comics, games, artwork, toys, and collectibles. As of April 2023, a smaller "Artists and Makers" zone was added to the event in the ACC Liverpool foyer area, featuring arts and crafts for sale in a smaller area by independent artists and small businesses specialising in small handmade items.

Artists alley

The event has a large Artists Alley section which is situated inside the ECL Liverpool, where the public can meet published comic book artists and authors, and buy pieces of their work.

Location, dates and notable guests
Dates Location Notable guests
10–11 March 2018Exhibition Centre LiverpoolDirk Benedict (first UK convention appearance), Lou Ferrigno, Verne Troyer (last ever convention appearance), Adam 'Edge' Copeland, Gail Kim, Manu Bennett, Paul McGann, Sophie Aldred, Ian McNeice (first UK convention appearance), Hattie Hayridge, Jorgito Vargas Jr. (first UK convention appearance), Jeremy Bulloch, Joonas Suotamo (first UK convention appearance), Spencer Wilding, Dave Taylor (first UK convention appearance), Nigel Parkinson
8–10 March 2019Exhibition Centre LiverpoolTeri Hatcher (first UK convention appearance), Dean Cain, wrestler Sting (first UK convention appearance), Peter Facinelli, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, Burt Young (first UK convention appearance), Eric Roberts (first UK convention appearance), John Challis, Spencer Wilding, Jeff East, Azim Rizk (first UK convention appearance), Blake Foster, Jeff Parazzo, Zoë Robins (first UK convention appearance), Tracy Lynn Cruz (first UK convention appearance), Steve Cardenas, Selwyn Ward, Jason Faunt, Nico Greetham (first UK convention appearance), Michael Copon, Ciara Hanna (first UK convention appearance), Kevin Duhaney, Jason Narvy, Paul Schrier
6–8 March 2020Exhibition Centre LiverpoolElijah Wood, David Harbour, Lori Petty (first UK convention appearance), Ryan Hurst, Melissa Joan Hart (first UK convention appearance), Jenna Leigh Green (first UK convention appearance), Beth Broderick (first UK convention appearance), Frank Welker (first UK convention appearance), Peter Cullen (first UK convention appearance), Sophie McShera, Jamie Marche (first UK convention appearance), J. Michael Tatum, Brandon McInnis, Monica Rial, Jen Cohn (first UK convention appearance), Lucie Pohl, Doug Cockle, Chris Klein (first UK convention appearance), Shannon Elizabeth (first UK convention appearance), Chris Owen (first UK convention appearance), Thomas Ian Nicholas (first UK convention appearance), Sam J. Jones, Brian Blessed, Karyn Parsons, Ross Bagley (first ever convention appearance), Noah Hathaway, Tami Stronach (first UK convention appearance), Jason David Frank (last UK convention appearance), Sophie McShera (first ever convention appearance), Erika Eleniak, Bob Gale, Stanislav Ianevski, Josh Herdman, John Challis, Sue Holderness, Philip Pope (first ever convention appearance)
13–14 November 2021Exhibition Centre LiverpoolDaniel Gillies, Michael Malarkey, Charles Michael Davis, Zach Roerig, Sara Canning, Phoebe Tonkin, Kayla Ewell, Summer Fontana, Tom Hopper, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Dominic Purcell, Bonnie Wright, Michael Cudlitz, Steven Ogg, Chandler Riggs, Alec Utgoff, Tommy Flanagan, Kim Coates, Ron Perlman, Ryan Hurst, Mark Boone Jr., Jerome Flynn, Clive Russell, Henry Ian Cusick, Alan Ritchson, Ed Westwick, Ron Thomas, Sean Kanan, Darryl Vidal, Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, David Schaal, David Koechner, Kate Flannery, Tim Rose, Silas Carson, Paul Blake, Gwyneth Strong, Tessa Peake-Jones, Philip Pope, Vas Blackwood, Steve Cardenas, Carlos Ferro, Jeannie Bolet, Luci Christian, Alexis Tipton, Brittney Karbowski, Diane Youdale,
21–22 May 2022Exhibition Centre LiverpoolCandice King, Michael Trevino, Michael Malarkey, David Anders, Steven Krueger, Danielle Rose Russell, Summer Fontana, Peyton List, Martin Kove, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Courtney Henggeler, Vanessa Rubio, Joe Seo, Jesse Kove, Robin Lord Taylor, Sean Pertwee, Drew Powell, Michael Rooker, Peter Weller, Nolan North, Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Nadia Hilker, Ross Marquand, Seth Gilliam, Dan Fogler, Laura Vandervoort, Sam Jones III, Matthew Morrison, Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Max Adler, Josh Sussman, David Bradley, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Eddie McClintock, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Ricky Whittle, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff, Randal Kleiser, Joey Cramer, Andy Secombe, Tia Ballard, Clifford Chapin, Kristen McGuire, Felecia Angelle, Carolina Ravassa, Mark Lester
19–20 November 2022Exhibition Centre LiverpoolIan Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Arielle Kebbel, Nathaniel Buzolic, Sebastian Roche, Riley Voelkel, Luke Evans, Katheryn Winnick, Charlie Hunnam, Ryan Hurst, Emilo Rivera, Taryn Manning, Gaten Matarazzo, Tom Wlaschiha, Raphael Luce, Gwydion Lashlee-Walton, Trey Best, Grant Goodman, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Hannah Kepple, Annalisa Cochrane, Paul Walter Hauser, Paul Anderson, Chad Michael Murray, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Lucas Grabeel, Giancarlo Esposito, Sam Witwer, Christian Navarro, James Marsters, Joey Pantoliano, Robert Davi, Bonnie Piesse, Emily Neves, Dawn M. Bennett, Jenny Yokobori, Amber Lee-Connors, Mara Wilson
1–2 April 2023Exhibition Centre LiverpoolMatt Smith, Paddy Considine, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Joseph Morgan, Persia White, David Harbour, Matthew Modine, Jamie Campbell Bower, Grace Van Dien, Alec Utgoff, Cameron Bright, Christopher Heyerdahl, Taylor Lautner, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Victor Dorobantu, Jason Patric, Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander, Mark Williams, Michelle Gomez, Josh Dallas, Alex Hogh Andersen, Peter Serafinowicz, Richard Harmon, Steven Ogg, Roger Clark, Rob Wiethoff, Benjamin Byron Davis, Alex McKenna, GW Bailey, Lance Kinsey, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Zachary Gordon

See also

References
  1. Unsworth, Martin (9 March 2020). "Review: Comic Con Liverpool 2020". Starburst Magazine. Starburst Magazine Limited. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. Walters, James (10 March 2020). "Review: Liverpool Comic Con 2020". Purple Revolver. purplerevolver.com. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  3. Hemmings, Bethany (13 March 2018). "Review: Liverpool Comic Con: 'Outside of Conventions, I don't usually get the opportunity to share interests with people- that's why Comic Cons are so important'". Viva Magazine. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  4. Jones, Caroline (21 April 2018). "Verne Troyer, who played Mini-Me in Austin Powers, has died at the age of 49". Liverpool Echo. Reach plc. Retrieved 30 March 2020.

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