Review / Panel Recording s: Meanwhile Worthing Comic Con 2018, Assembly Hall (Saturday 11th August 2018)
Organised by Simon Birks of Blue Fox Comics, this wonderful small comics/creatives convention held in the picturesque city of Worthing on the Sussex Coast was made distinctive by the over-riding sense of positivism by everyone involved: from the organisation team, to the volunteers, to the invited Special Guests, to the vendors (who did rather well financially, by all accounts, despite the ‘quality if not quantity’ numbers through the doors) – everyone was on such a feel-good high.
Maybe it was the bracing sea air. Maybe it was the fact that, despite all of the warnings, the rain – for the most part – held off and it was a sparkling late summer’s Saturday. Maybe it was the high quality of the guests in attendance (including TANK GIRL’s Warwick Johnson- Cadwell and Alan Martin, Russell Mark Olson, the chaps from A Place To Hang Your Cape, The Phoenix comic‘s Karen Rubins, the ever delightful Sarah Millman, and many others). Maybe it was the idea of holding a solid comics convention for fans in the South Coast that didn’t involve traipsing into that there London… It could have been anything. Hell, it could even have been the high standard of Q&A panels that were put on, hosted by yours truly. Who knows?
Whatever the recipe, Simon and his team have absolutely got it right for, what we in the trade like to call, a ‘reet proper con’ – this is the first time that Simon has organised something in Worthing and he’s already looking into bringing the show back next year. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to their next event which will be the second year of Meanwhile Comic Con to be held in Chichester on the 29th September. if it was anything like last year – and, indeed, this event in Worthing – it should be an absolute blast.
I also managed to record a number of the panels that I participated in throughout the course of the day – these have been made available on our Patreon page already but not we’ve got them here for you to enjoy: