Shirt...

...Whelan and Dealin'

After the warm-up of London Film & Comic Con – Spring, Shirt was ready for the main event. Announced for the Saturday was Eleventh/Twelfth Doctor companion, Jenna Coleman. Shirt had previously got an autograph from Jenna in his precious ‘Companions’ book, but decided to book a photo with her. Also present on Saturday were to be Gemma Whelan and Seventh Doctor audio companion, Jessica Martin, meaning that Shirt booked for this day. A week before the event, Alex Kingston was announced, meaning that Shirt booked a photo with her also, but she was a late cancellation the day before.

Given that he did not want autographs from any of the very popular guests (baulking at £95 for a Christopher Eccleston scribble) and therefore having no need to get low-numbered VQ tickets, Shirt decided that he did not need to queue before the doors opened. He therefore arrived at around 10.45am, to find a gigantic queue along the side of Olympia. He joined the queue which kept moving slowly, and it was still almost 45 minutes before he found himself in the actual event hall.

Shirt made his way to the main signing area, confirming that Gemma Whelan was an open queue, but currently slightly too long for him to consider joining it. He also noted that no posed photographs were allowed, and fretted over whether he should buy a photo studio with her (using his Alex Kingston refund), as it clashed with the one for Jenna that he had already booked. Shirt then identified where the Photo Areas were, before wandering around the Comics Area to get an idea of who was signing where.

By this point, it was approaching the end of the first photo session with Jenna Coleman, which was for Batches 1-7 (and Shirt was Batch 16). However, on arriving at the Photo Area to check if he could be seen earlier, it seemed that Jenna was making good time, and anyone who had a booked photo with her was being ushered inside. Shirt therefore stowed his bag on the table, and a few minutes later was standing next to Jenna. Due to an incident earlier in the session, Jenna was avoiding physical contact with all male attendees, but Shirt was perfectly happy with her pointing pose. After a few minutes wait, he was handed his photo and made his way out of the Photo Area.

Shirt next made for the sales desk downstairs to book a photo with Gemma Whelan. The queue was moving very slowly, and Shirt suddenly had a brainwave, booking the photo online whilst standing in the queue. Having done so, he left the queue and made his way to the Second Stage where there was a free talk by ‘Back to the Future’ co-writer, Bob Gale. Bob spoke enthusiastically about the upcoming ‘BTTF’ musical for which he and Robert Zemeckis have co-written the book, why there will never be a ‘BTTF 4’, the ‘BTTF’ reference in ‘Avengers: Endgame’, and the challenges of replacing Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox a month into production. Shirt came away more enthused about the musical than he had been before.

Shirt then made his way back to the Comics Area, getting his ‘A Cold Day in Hell’ graphic novel (collecting multiple Seventh Doctor MDW strips) signed by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior who were there promoting their new ‘To The Death’ comic series. He then managed to get it signed by some of the other contributors - Kev Hopgood, Martin Griffiths, Mike Collins and David A. Roach (who inked the cover). Swapping books, Shirt pulled out his copy of ‘The Women Who Lived’ which he had previously got signed at Naughty Asteroid by its authors and three of the female artists involved. Present were three of the other artists. First, he got Rachael Smith to sign it, and then Sonia Leong. The third artist that he wanted – Emma Vieceli – was at a panel, so he would have to come back for her.

Shirt then moved to the desk for Jessica Martin, who was there as an artist, and was charging for autographs, getting her to sign his Free Comic Book Day 2019– Doctor Who (NA exclusive cover) comic and his ‘Companions’ book (The seventieth signature !)

It was time for a brief stop for lunch, and on his return to the Comics Area, Emma Vieceli was now at her table. Another signature in ‘TWWL’, and Shirt was moving on to get James Peaty to sign the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor instalments of ‘The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor’.

Shirt then decided to return to the main signing area, finally joining Gemma Whelan’s queue. Gemma seemed in fine form, insisting on cradling the very young baby of one of the attendees, whilst signing every form of ‘Games of Thrones’ memorabilia imaginable. After around twenty minutes, Shirt was at the front of the queue, paid for his autograph, and put down the Large Endings’ boxset ‘The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes’ in which Gemma appears as Mary Watson. Ms. Whelan seemed to be relieved to be signing something non-GOT, and listened politely as Shirt raved about her performance in ‘Upstart Crow’.

It was time to browse the stalls, but Shirt found little that he wanted to buy, save a ‘Sherlock’ notebook that looked like the 221b door. He also found a What Shop stall full of exclusive merchandise, none of which he wanted to buy. He then went to see if Bob Gale was at his signing table (he wasn’t), before making his way back to the Comics Area where Richard Dinnick was just about to start signing. Having got Richard’s signature on ‘The Many Lives of Doctor Who’, Shirt made his way to the Photo Areas, to check on the progress of Gemma Whelan photos. It seemed that the joint shoot of her and Alfie Allen was still in full swing, despite having supposed to have finished ten minutes before. Shirt therefore remained in the throng for a further twenty minutes until finally they moved onto Gemma’s solo shoots, and eventually called Batch 3 which was Shirt’s batch.

Photo effectively taken with Gemma, and Shirt was being ushered out of the photo studio with his photo in his hand.

This brought events to a close for Shirt, who made his way to the nearest exit, stopping briefly to purchase two Mystery Boxes for £10. He strode out back to the Underground Station, catching a train within five minutes. Changing at Clapham Junction, Shirt made his way to his sister’s house where he was to be babysitting his two nephews. The evening was spent in watching television and scanning his two new photos. It had been a very successful day.

[PL]