Since the London Film and Comic Con opened its doors in Olympia twenty years ago, the Comic Zone has been an important part of the event, with comic guests over the years including Kevin Eastman, Marv Wolfman, Torunn Grønbekk, Dan SloC, Sara Pichelli, Stan Lee, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland and Claudia Christian among many others, with hundreds of comic veterans and creators ascending over the last two decades. A comic-specific zone, organised and curated by several industry experts over
that Hme, including Mike Conroy, Tim Pilcher and current working group joint-curators Tony Lee and Amy McGarry-Thickitt, the zone has weathered changes in the comic industry – but also the events industry, too.
“Back when LFCC started, comic cons were a rarity in the UK,” Tony Lee explained. “In the eighties and nineties there was UKCAC, the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention, which in itself was a successor to the British Comic Art Convention, which had run from the sixes; and when I started ascending as a professional in the early 2000s, it was the Bristol Comics Expo, replacing the Bristol Comics Festival that held the torch. But apart from that one weekend a year, events were few and far between.
However, as we progressed over the next two decades, more and more shows started up, to the point where you can now find two or three a week across the UK. And, as the events grew over the years, the comics side of the “comic cons” shrunk to the point where some of the bigger “comic cons” in the UK sometimes don’t even have a comic-based guest, or they’re nothing more than a secondary thought.”
Bringing in experts from various fields, Tony and his working group announced in early 2023 that they would be changing the Comic Zone at LFCC; in conjunction with Tony’s publishing company Hooded Man Media, LFCC would be helping present the winner of the yearly Caliburn Prize, a £2,500 grant for unpublished UK comic creators, provided by Caliburn Comics, as well as restarting the LFCC Symposium, a series of industry-veteran-led mini-lectures, given exclusively (and for free) to Artists
Alley exhibitors, while launching the LFCC Comics Hall of Fame Awards – the recipients for 2024 being Brian Bolland, Hunt Emerson, Dan Slott and Claudia Christian.
But it seems that wasn’t enough, and in late 2023, a new, bold idea was considered.
“At the winter show, the team spoke with the comic guests ascending, as well as respected creators like Dave Elliot, who’s been a mainstay since the UKCAC days,” Tony continued. “We were getting tired of being compared to pop culture conventions that did nothing for the comic industry, and the one thing that came back, time and time again was how we could look back to the UK’s comic festival and convention past to shape our future. And over that weekend, the London Comic Festival was created.”
From July 2024, the Comic Zone of the London Film and Comic Con will be rebranding, creating its own identity, becoming a singular festival event rather than a comic zone.
“Rebranding as the London Comic Festival takes us out of these comparison conversations and gives us an opportunity to expand in ways I could only dream of when I took over in 2017,” Tony said. “It’s something that’ll continue on, even after I step down as Festival Curator. The multiple-time Eisner Awards nominee Rian Hughes came on board to redesign us a logo worthy of a festival, and we’re looking to bring in more school-based educational panels, the Symposium for the Artists Alley will be returning – as well as the Artists Alley itself, we have more Hall of Fame announcements, the Caliburn Prize Award and much more, with other ideas still in discussion with a variety of companies and publishers. With new branding and promotions, this will be unlike any previous comic zone, and not just because of the name. We couldn’t have done this without Showmasters believing in our vision, however, so this rebranding owes everything to Jason and his team.”
With the London Comic Festival going with the mantra of “less is more,” expect a smaller guest list but of a higher calibre, with several original art dealers and publishers hoping to appear for the first time.