QR Entertainment: Dublin Comic Con 2018

Dublin Comic Con descended on the Dublin convention centre for its fifth year flooding the convention centre and surrounding areas of the city with stars of film, TV, games and comics along with fans of all ages and backgrounds donning costumes ranging from Walking dead’s Negan to Star wars’ Kylo Ren and anything and everything in between.

Last weekend Dublin Comic Con took over the Dublin Convention centre, flooding all four floors of the building with so much to see from all corners of film, TV and wider pop culture. The ground floor featured trade halls and cosplay village selling any type of pop culture memorabilia or treat you could think of, from replica swords to pocky to rare signed comics and cosplay props. The entrance hall became a surreal bustling scene filled with any character you can name from the Ghostbusters to Moana to the Goblin King from labyrinth. Further up the floors fans could meet stars of screen and famed comic writers as well as the quirky wasteland carnival where you buy caps and trade in a post-apocalyptic market. Indie Game developers, film screenings as well as numerous panels and Q & As across 4 rooms fill the remaining space. With a building fit to bursting and so much to see, one day is not enough to see everything and a weekend is barely enough time.

Ravenous fans could meet Dean Cain of Lois & Clark, John Romero – creator of Doom, Lochlyn Monroe of White Chicks, Scary movie & Riverdale, Michael Dorn of Star Trek fame and Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz who was an excellent replacement for the late cancellation of Karl Urban. This is only some of the special guests booked for the convention each of which had huge queues of fans all weekend and each of which hosted an hour long panel and Q & A which were all very interesting and insightful into the background to some of their more iconic roles. Nick Frost, Dean Cain & Lochlyn Monroe proved especially popular with their queues rarely running low and the large auditorium being packed out for their respective panels

A number of Independent Irish video game develops set up in a hall on the second floor to show off their developing games. From table top card game “Chomp” to action packed battle puzzler Blast Grrrrl and ingeniously simple platform puzzler Mr Greyscale this was an amazing corner of the show filled with interesting ideas and concepts for games which can only get more exciting and interesting. Speaking to some of the developers gave a glimpse into the burgeoning Irish independent game scene, which looks set to go from strength to strength based on the amazing games and ideas on show last weekend.

In amongst all the panels and guest Q & As one slot that caught my eye was a screening of a Star Wars fan film “Stormtroopers”. A 20 minute fan film depicting a brief skirmish between Imperial Stormtroopers and rebels, the film was shot on a beach in Waterford and caves in Cork. The film seeks to humanise the Stormtroopers who are typically only seen as the faceless grunts of star wars. This was one of the more interesting panels at the show and the Q & A after was very insightful. This could be seen as the epitome of what Dublin Comic Con aims to do, bringing the world of a mammoth pop culture franchise like Star Wars and allowing Irish filmmakers and actors to put their own spin on it.

Beyond the media guests, traders, screenings and panels the biggest feature of Comic Con was the cosplay scene. A huge amount of the fans in attendance were in cosplay from simple store bought costumes to intricate armour based costumes involving stilts and mechanical parts. The photos included here are only a small selection of the huge amount of amazing costumes on display. The cosplay performances on Saturday evening as cosplayers incorporate their costume into a

character based performance as well as the masquerade ball on Sunday provided a fantastic showcase for all these excellent costumes and all the work that went into them. The cosplayers also added to the brilliant atmosphere with those in costume all being willing to take photos with excited fans of various ages.

Stepping into the Convention centre was like stepping into another world for the weekend and with so much to offer it would take the whole weekend to see everything. With over 20,000 attendees across 6 floors and featuring 150 traders as well as numerous special guests, Comic Con was a hugely complex organisational challenge but one which I can easily say was an unadulterated success. A fantastic weekend for fans of any kind of pop culture of any age – everyone will find something of interest and everyone will come away counting down the days until the next show.

Check out the gallery below with a selection of photos from Dublin Comic Con weekend!

Dublin Comic Con took place from Friday August 10th to Sunday August 12th and is set to return for a spring edition from March 8th to March 10th

By Sean Hughes