The dust has settled on London Super Comic-Con for another year. 2015 was a big year for the show, with London's ExCel convention centre heaving with comic-book fans for the weekend of the 14th-15th March. I had the pleasure of attending the show, with the only catch being that the amount of money I have to my name is small at the best of times. Consequentially, when walking round the convention centre and seeing all the awesome items on sale, it's fair to say I had to show a considerable amount of restraint. As a result, my LSCC haul doesn't quite reflect the variety of items on sale at the show, but still I'm so pleased with the stuff I walked away with that I wanted to share it with the good people of the Internet. Without further ado then, here's my budget comic-book haul: 1) Stray Bullets: Uber Alles Edition - £20
My most substantial purchase of the convention was the Stray Bullets: Uber Alles Edition, an omnibus of the first 41 issues of David Lapham's crime masterpiece. This series has been on my radar for some time now, having recently gained more attention with the new arc released by Lapham and Image Comics, Stray Bullets: Killers. Therefore, I was excited to see the omnibus on sale for better than half price at the stall of UK-based retailer A Place in Space. The retailer was also selling the first compendium of hit Image title Morning Glories at the same price and so my infamously indecisive nature kicked into high gear. Not only have I wanted to read both these books for a while, but also both were being sold at a price I was unlikely to find anywhere else. In the end, I couldn't handle the decison and left it in the hands of fate; I went to a panel for an hour, deciding I would get whatever was left afterwards. On my return, Morning Glories was nowhere to be seen, so I picked up Stray Bullets and I can't wait to start work on the 1000+ page monster of a comic-book.
2) Art by Sebastian von Buchwald - £5
Wandering aimlessly through artist alley, I stumbled upon the table of Sebastian von Buchwald and ended up walking away with two of his prints. I was really impressed by his artwork, with the first piece to catch my eye being an awesome Mario vs. Luigi piece. Part of a series von Buchwald does on his DeviantArt page, this Mario vs Luigi print sees the brothers fighting on Rainbow Road, with Mario's weapon of choice being FLUDD (the controversial item from Super Mario Sunshine) and Luigi's being the one and only Poltergust 3000 vacuum cleaner. You can bet that upon seeing it my inner Nintendo nerd cried out with joy, and I knew that I had to have it. I love this print a lot, have stuck it proudly on my wall and will be keeping an eye on von Buchwald's future projects - as should you! Taking advantage of his 2 for £5 deal, I also picked up von Buchwald's Batgirl print. While I'm not personally a huge fan of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl, this vibrant print just looked too good to pass up. You can check out some more of Sebastian's work (including more of his Mario vs. series) on his DeviantArt page here, and if you want to keep up-to-date with his projects you can follow him on Twitter @svonbuchwald.
3) A bunch of single issues...
Relatively late in the day at LSCC I see a comic fan kneeling on the floor under a table searching maniacally through longboxes, with a huge pile of comics sat next to him that he was continuously adding to. My snap judgement being that he was one rich comic book fan, I began to walk away - until I saw the sign; COMICS 20p EACH! It's fair to say that this blew my mind, and I quickly fell to the floor and began scavenging through the longboxes myself to try to find some bargains. It being late in the day, I can't help but kick myself that many great issues were probably long gone by the time I had got there, still though I managed to pick up a fair amount of issues for the ridiculously good value price of just 20p. That still blows my mind when I think about it. What a good deal.
The issues I'm most pleased to have found are Miracleman #1-8, which cost me a grand total of about £4.50. Miracleman is a series I've been interested in for a while, but avoided due to its hefty price tag. My awesome 20p comic seller had issues 2-8 hidden in his bargain boxes, and so after that all I needed to do was seek out a copy of the first issue somewhere else at the con - something I managed to do with relative ease, although I did have to pay about £2 for it. Still though, that's half the usual price and having been blown away by the four issues I've read since returning home, I really am pleased I managed to find these issues. I'm gutted I can't remember which stall was offering this fantastic deal, because I would love to have called them out here but alas, my memory is failing me.
Another highlight from the 20p box was the 80-page one-shot Multiple Warheads: Downfall, another series that I've been curious about for some time now. Meanwhile, at Forbidden Planet's stall I was able to pick up the first six issues of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's Powers Bureau for just £2.
4) A free issue of Starburst magazine
I've been contemplating the idea of picking up an issue of Starburst for months, and that's because I am one of the most indecisive people on the face of the Earth. Fortunately, deciding whether or not I want a free copy of the latest issue of Starburst, with no strings attached was a choice that even I found easy. For those of you who don't know, Starburst is a long-running British magazine about movies, comics, games, TV and books - aka everything awesome. Why am I making a point of highlighting them in this article? Because there are a lot of entertainment magazines in the UK, and a lot of them are real stinkers. I picked one up on a whim a few months ago when I was feeling spontaneous one day, and was really disappointed with how poorly written it was. But having read through my issue of Starburst over the course of this week I have to say I'm really pleasantly surprised by how good this magazine is. The articles are well-written and interesting, there aren't many adverts and I love the range of topics it covers. It's safe to say that I will be picking up Starburst again in the near future, and would recommend that you do too.
So that's my miniature haul from this year's LSCC. I'm sure it's not as impressive as some people's, but still I'm really pleased with what I walked away with. And my experience at this year's convention is proof that even on a budget, you can still walk away from LSCC with some cool stuff. The show will be returning to London next year, most likely in mid-march.