A Final Round-Up Of This Year's Kapow! Comic Convention

During the weekend, I was lucky enough to see brand new footage from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Total Recall and The Amazing Spider-Man. Being able to attend the first ever Cup O' Joe panel was a real treat, as was the one for the Avengers Vs. X-Men event. Not only were they interesting and generally extremely enjoyable, but a damn good laugh. For example, Joe Quesada's tale of a fan submission that was drawn in crayon and featured the Silver Surfer vs. Jesus Christ and had appearances from Planet of the Apes characters. Not to mention Mark Millar's recollection of a comic he wrote about Aunt May's first sexual experience and a free one which saw Peter Parker accosted by a paedophile.

The Nick Frost panel was hilarious. Looking back over his career and future plans, he kept the audience entertained with some hilarious stories and wisecracks. During the 45 minute Q&A session, he looked back at everything from Spaced to Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Paul and working with Steven Speilberg and Peter Jackson on The Adventures of Tintin. Looking towards the future, he praised director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) and discussed how exactly they made him and the rest of the actors appear to be dwarves. He also promised that he'll be playing a very different type of character (the "anti-divvy") in his next collaboration with Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright for At World's End. This was one of the funniest things I've ever sat through, and he finished by thanking the audience and came across as a genuinely nice guy.

Talking of nice guys, I can't praise Mark Millar, Joe Quesada and Scott Snyder enough. As you can see from the images below, I was lucky enough to get signings from the three of them, and they each took the time to talk to myself and everyone else who got the chance to meet them. Despite being some of the biggest stars of the comic book industry, there were no egos involved, and they all took the time to sign extra items for fans and pose for photos. In comparison to the likes of the San Diego Comic Con, Kapow! is a much smaller and intimate affair and the fact it's on a smaller scale really helped to ensure that everyone could meet the creators they wanted and share a few words with them too.