Dufus & Shirt...

...Water Good Dog !!!

 

Shirt had attended London Film & Comic Con – Spring 2022 and London Film & Comic Con 2022 alone, but due to Dufus being ‘down South’ due to driving his girlfriend down to her family in Kent on the Saturday to catch a plane on Sunday, meant that he and Shirt could attend the Sunday of the event together. The big DW draws on the Sunday were five of the stars of the recent BBC Centenary Special, ‘The Power of the Doctor’ – Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Katy Manning, and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth/Tenth Doctors, Jodie Whittaker & David Tennant. However, Shirt was more excited about meeting Craige Els, who played loveable canine Lupari officer, Karvanista.

Unsurprisingly Dufus left late, and so it was nearer 7pm than the promised 3pm that he arrived at Shirt’s. Having had a brief rest from driving, they made their way to Chalky and Tigger’s, stopping for a bite to eat on the way. The evening was spent in catching up, in playing the ‘Back to the Future – Dice Through Time’ game, and planning Shirt’s birthday visit to a convention in nearby Epsom.

 

The next morning all seemed to be going well, as Dufus and Shirt left for the station ON TIME. However, on reaching the station it seemed all trains were delayed or mainly cancelled, due to mythical over-running engineering works.  (Shirt had checked if there had been any such works that could have affected their journey and found none). Having spoken briefly to the member of station staff, they decided to catch a bus to nearby New Malden which apparently had more trains running. This proved to be the correct plan, as a bus came soon after they got to the stop, and a train pulled into the London-bound platform a few minutes after they reached it.

On their journey into Clapham Junction, Shirt worried about whether they would miss their connection, and all was going well until the train was kept at a signal just outside first Raynes Park then Wimbledon, meaning that they pulled into Clapham Junction just as the Overground train pulled out. They made their way to the Overground platform, finding that they had a 13 minute wait. Shirt took the opportunity to go in search for an ATM, having googled that there was one between Platforms 12 & 13. However, this proved to have been removed, and Shirt arrived only a minute prior to the service departing, causing Dufus some worry about whether he would miss it.

 

On the short journey to Olympia, they chatted about a new Sherlock Holmes play combining Holmes with ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was on at a theatre a few minutes away from the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street. Exiting the station, they got their tickets scanned, and joined the ever-moving snaking queue, the venue doors having opened just over half-an-hour before.

In the queue, they began playing ‘Doctor Cosplay I-Spy’, spotting several 13s, a couple of 10s, at least one 14, a 4, a 6, a 7, an 11, and a 12. Ten minutes later, Shirt was having his bag checked (Dufus had cunningly given all his property to Shirt to put in his bag), and they both entered the convention hall, which was the smaller of the two halls, usually used just for queuing. Once inside, and passing the comics area, they spotted a 3. Making their way to the far wall, they managed to get into a surprisingly spacious lift up to the main signing area. Having wandered all the way round to check who was signing where, and picking up virtual queuing tickets for Jodie, they decided to join queues for the two new series guest stars that they wanted.

The first was Craige Els, who seemed surprisingly popular, meaning that Dufus and Shirt needed to wait five minutes before they were allowed to join his queue. Shirt was first, getting his large ‘Flux’ print signed by Craige, along with his character name. It was then time for him to get a quick table photo with Craige, taken by Dufus, before handing over one of the provided photos of Karvanista (there was also photos of the Chief Sea Devil also played by Craige) to be signed. Shirt then returned the favour by taking a photo of Dufus with Craige.

 

 

Gathering up their items, they moved a few places up, to join the queue for Joplin Sibtain, who (as Chook Sibtain) appeared as Tarak in ‘The Waters of Mars’ (being taken over by ‘The Flood’). However, it turned out that they would have a long wait as the person in front of them was clearly a dealer having around thirty copies of a photo of Joplin from the recently released ‘Andor’ to all be signed with character name. On reaching the front, Shirt pulled his ‘Specials’ poster from its tube, getting Joplin to sign his name and character. It was then time for another photo, and this time having taken one of Shirt, Dufus managed to get one of himself and Joplin despite not getting an autograph.

 

 

It was agreed that they were go back downstairs to get a few comicbook guests’ signatures. However, the first item of business was getting their photos taken on a background advertising the forthcoming Disney+ ‘Willow’ series. The main reason they did this was to be given a very impressive A3 art print.

 

    

 

Walking over to the comic-book area, they began by Shirt getting Alistair Lock to sign four CD covers for music from the Large Endings’ audios. He then purchased a preview comic for ‘Hancock – The Lad Himself’, a graphic novel biography of Tony Hancock currently due to be published in Easter 2023, which came with a free ‘Hancock’ pin. Dufus also picked up a couple of free B7 Media’s ‘Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 Audio Adventures’ signed boxsets.

Moving one table to the left, they queued behind a fan who had just got Lee Sullivan to sign a ‘Fireball XL5’ graphic novel. He was discussing Lee’s artwork in ‘Liberation of the Daleks’, a MDW comic strip featuring the first adventure of TPOTD’s Fourteenth Doctor. Lee admitted that he had only just submitted the artwork for Part Two, and that he needs to start working on the remaining eleven parts. The fan didn’t seem to pick up that a queue was building up behind him, continuing to stand chatting, even when Lee took Shirt’s MDW #584 from him to demonstrate a point. However, the insight into writing the strip was very interested, so neither Dufus or Shirt complained. Finally the fan moved off, and first Shirt then Dufus got Lee to sign the panel of ‘LotD’ that features his credit. Unfortunately, this was also the panel where the colourist’s adding of a shadow in the wrong place behind the Doctor on the TARDIS spoiled the perspective, making it look like the TARDIS was smaller than the Doctor.

Shirt then realised that the next guest that he thought that he wanted was DW cover artist JAKe, not Titan range editor Jake Devine, so put his ‘Missy’ Graphic Novel back in his bag.  Dufus then had a chat with Target Book artist Jeff Cummins, telling him that he intended to go looking for a Target book to buy and get signed by Jeff.

It was then time to go round the stalls, (adding a 5 to the tally) with only minimal purchases being made, all by Shirt, namely a US exclusive Thirteenth Doctor figure and a Fugitive Doctor postcard from Spirit Sinema. However, on reaching the Gerry Anderson stall being run by Jamie Anderson (none of whose unsigned LE CDs Shirt could find prior to them leaving his home), Shirt noticed another familiar face – Richard James (Officer Hubble Orrin in ‘Space Precinct’), who co-hosts the Gerry Anderson Podcast with Jamie. However, Shirt remembered reading his name more recently, being announced as Doctor Watson in the upcoming ‘A Sherlock Carol’. Shirt therefore asked Richard for a photo, speaking enthusiastically about Large Endings’ ‘Space Precinct’ audios read by him. Photo taken by Dufus, and Richard was shaking Shirt warmly by the hand.

 

 

It was decided to get some air (and lunch), so they exited the venue, catching a train to Shepherd’s Bush and Westfield Shopping Centre. Over pizzas, they made the decision not to return to the event or purchase photoshoots with Ms. Whittaker. Instead they visited a few shops in Westfield and W12, failing to find a copy of the new ‘DW Quiz Book’, before catching the District Line to Notting Hill, where Dufus picked up to LE CDs. Back at Wimbledon, it seemed that trains were still being delayed and cancelled, so they caught the next train to New Malden, and back on the bus to pick up Dufus’ car from the station car park.

Back at Shirt’s, Dufus had a brief relax (during which they discovered that both B7 boxsets contained a wrong CD, but one that Shirt did not have) before what would turn out to be a nightmare drive home, stuck on the M25 at snail’s pace for hour, then road closures on the A1, so that his sat-nav took him on a very long detour. However, plans were still being made for the next event he and Shirt would attend together.

 

 

[PL]