The first Dublin Comic Con had a success worthy of a superhero this weekend in Swords in north Dublin.
The convention was sold out both on Saturday and Sunday with about 5,000 people attending. “Unfortunately we had to turn away a good few hundred or more,” said Karl Walsh, one of the organisers.
"There's been a few great panels and a lot of workshops on – there's someone on stage at the moment making one of the punters into a zombie. The Aliens set has been a big hit . . . Everybody seems to be having a good time."
Retro computer games
On Saturday, people dressed as various characters from comics and film played retro computer games at a stand specialising in games of yore. On the other side of the room, giant HD televisions hosted new two-player fighting battles with far more complicated controls, moves and outcomes. Beside the video game zone, youngsters concentrating over Scrabble boards and rolled dice for Monopoly.
The obligatory Star Wars stand was near that, with action figures, toy lightsabres and collector's items for sale.
At other stands, comic book artists sketched, and there were comics for sale, minor celebrities signing autographs, and movie memorabilia from Aliens, Ted, Star Wars and more. Irish comics were available too. One selling well is called The Dead Beats, aboutzombies who start a jazz band.
On the other side of the hall, a man sat while a mould was made of his head. A crowd of 20 watched and learned from the experts. The latex, paint and moulds were on sale.
Johnny Murphy is a model maker and was working on a bust of the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. On display was his brilliant model of Heath Ledger's Joker from the Dark Knight. "I always kind did it since I was a kid," said Murphy of making models, "then I want to college in IADT in Dún Laoghaire and have been big into it since then. I make a lot of commission pieces for collectors throughout the world."
What does the think of the event? “I think it’s deadly, very good. There are so many different things going on . . .”
At the back of the hall, a costume competition took place throughout the day, with people queuing up to have their costumes applauded. One young woman spent two months building a replica Iron Man suit out of cardboard.
The Irish Star Trek fanclub sought to recruit new fans, and beside them was Tog, the Dublin hackerspace looking for creative people. They were teaching people how to solder and build LED products.
An autograph stand sold signatures from Sara Cox (€15) to Tom Cruise (€60–€100).
The crossovers are interesting. Plenty of things that don’t seem relevant to comics were present, such as Skin City’s tattoo stand, or posters for an upcoming Paramore gig, or a wrestling ring outside where you paid a few euro to be flung about by wrestlers.
March of the zombies
In the sun, a zombie game played out in a field, with superheroes dressed as zombies walking slowly after the contestants.
A brilliantly modified DeLorean car drew large crowds, as did a replica of the car KITT from Knightrider.
“I’m Harley Quinn,” Beatrice from Drogheda said, referencing her costume of the DC Comic’s superhero, complete with bright-blue contact lenses. “It’s really fun,” she said, “we meet up with loads of friends here”.
Her partner in crime, Adam, was dressed as Gray Fullbuster, a character from Fairy Tale.
“I don’t know what it is, but when the nerds get together, it’s just one big friendly community, no matter what happens.”
