Joey JoJo Junior Shabadoo

Absolutely incredible announcement. Side note: I once saw him supported by Joan Jett and Motorhead. My hearing was never the same. It's mostly Lemmy's fault.

Great guy, and I was hoping another opportunity would present itself after Doctor Sleep. Good stuff.

Lovely woman. Definitely worth meeting if you get the chance.

Lambert and Dallas. Wonderful news!

Amazing!

A really lovely guy and definitely worth meeting.

"Cool. Very cool." Loved his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3!

I'll say this, telling people in Birmingham that you got an 11:45 pm bus from Newcastle right after work and that you're on the bus home at 3:10 so you can be back at work the next day gets you some great looks. Last year a man in a full Starfleet uniform whose baby was also dressed up told me I was hardcore (and to quote George Takei, "That's trekking too!"). Sadly London is a tad more complicated, time consuming, and potentially expensive, but we'll just have to see...

I missed out on a couple of guests (the perils of a single day and needing to get a coach back home in the middle of the afternoon) and I'm sadly cursed to always have a couple of autographs go horribly wrong, but overall, great success. Patrick Stewart's talk was wonderful (Patrick: "I introduced America to double teabagging!" Shocked young woman next to me: "I'm sorry, what?!"), and I hope he is able to return after the release of the show, like he mentioned. Loved hearing how Picard would have sounded with a French accent. I particularly enjoyed chatting to Brent Spiner, Sonita Henry, and Michael Ensign. I generally don't expect more than a couple of seconds with guests due to the nature and requirements of the event, but managed to have nice little exchanges with them all (I sometimes think bringing something that relates to other work they've done helps with this - I'm still buzzing over how pleased Jason Isaacs was to see a copy of Black Hawk Down last year). Side note: I think Wilson Cruz would be the most fun on a night out. That guy's boisterous as hell and he really made me laugh

Nobody let him forget that he said he looks forward to coming back to talk to us after we've seen the show! What a guy. Loved the French accent.

Met him last year and he was a very nice guy. Good to see him back.

No disrespect intended, but it might be worth a look on his Wikipedia page. But celebrating that anniversary in some way would be nice.

I know; I've never felt like such a stereotype.

All of my guest experiences were fine, but most were (understandably) fairly brief. These ones really stood out: Emilie De Ravin was an absolute delight, and thanks to her hair billowing gently from a fan, also looked like something from a Wayne's World-esque vision. Trust the Aussie guest to be doing just fine in the heat while the rest of us melted. As everyone seems to agree, a truly gorgeous-looking signature. She chatted to me about Rian Johnson's first film Brick, and Michael Mann's Public Enemies. And she called me darlin', so yes, 10/10. Gina Torres is a very pleasant and kindly supernatural being of some sort who remains completely unaffected while the cruel and uncaring sands of time wear the rest of us mortal creatures down piece by piece. Good for her. Christina Ricci. Tied with Winona Ryder as my earliest crush. A brief encounter, but very nice, and such a key figure from my childhood thanks to various films. A few years ago Casper Van Dien signed my copy of Sleepy Hollow and said I should get the other actors on there, singling out Christina. I laughed at the very idea of it being possible. His wife even joined in. Johnny Rico from Buenos Aires, we should have never doubted you. Jason Momoa's queue took... a wee while and I'd been led to believe from people's past encounters that due to sheer numbers he might barely even have time to look up, so I was happy enough to get a "How you doing, man?" "I'm good, man, how are you?" exchange out of it. But my best interaction came later in the day when a voice behind me suddenly apologised in that 'clearly trying to cut through here' sort of way. I moved instinctively and turned, realising only then that the person I'd moved for was Momoa (or, to quote the awestruck European man a few feet away, "It vas de Aquaman!"). That put a smile on my face. Then a short while later he came back the other way and apologised again ("Sooorrrry, guys!"). I like that I was an obstacle a member of the Justice League had to repeatedly overcome. Clearly good manners on the big fella, and I've been winding up the gals at work, so good stuff there. Martin Sheen. Wow. What an absolutely wonderful man. I realised in his queue that my copy of Apocalypse Now had picked up some damage, which was disappointing and may haunt me forever, so I changed to a backup item, but my encounter with him was lovely. It looked like I was going to just scrape by as his last person of the day, but as he was signing he asked how many were left and said "Send them in, I declare". In the best possible way he really does carry himself with the air of an old school politician. Very respectful, humble, and pleasant, taking his time to ask people how they are and shaking hands. This one meant a lot. Charlie Sheen is the only person I've ever seen become as frustrated by silver Sharpies as myself (truly the least reliable of Sharpie, but when they work they can look great), which amused and pleased me. Truth be told, I wasn't sure what to expect from him, and having had a few items marred with awful, barely visible signatures in the past, it was nice that he seemed to care. He switched pens about four times. Felt a bit out of place standing there holding a Platoon DVD in a sea of people with Two and a Half Men photos (never really watched the show). One of my favourite quotes from the day: "Argh! These frickin' pens are s#*t, man! I'm sorry! Is it okay? Are ya sure?" Val Kilmer was an emotional one. So many films I've loved at different times of my life. My first ever big screen Batman, both as a childhood cinema outing and as an actual real life encounter. To see him in difficulty was upsetting, but he was making an effort and smiling, and it was an inspiration. I wish him the very best. And my copy of Heat looks great (gold Sharpie for the win, yo). Oh, and Robert Picardo loves the first two thirds of Hail Caesar, but then he thinks it gets weird. Pass it on. My last one was Robert Patrick. As I left he stopped me, switched to an icy T-1000 stare and told me to watch myself. Great to see someone having a bit of fun, and I now have the second film signed by him to put next to my copy of the original, signed by Michael Biehn. Edit: I'd like to add that this was my first time coming to the big summer con. I came down from Newcastle on my own and without a coat on an overnight bus after work on Saturday, I don't know London well at all, and barring a few missed guests it was a very successful outing. And I accidentally wound up right outside Buckingham Palace after the event, so that was fun.

I could only make it down from Newcastle for the Sunday, so I missed a few good ones like Zachary Quinto, Peter Serafinowicz, Alfie Allen, and Hayden Christensen as a result. I managed to catch most of the Sunday people who I wanted, but not everyone. I missed out on meeting Robert Carlyle (decent vq number but due to some other queues slowing me down he'd managed to move onto an enormous open queue which only ever seemed to grow), John Barrowman (forgot my copy of Zero Dark Thirty like an idiot), Carrie-Anne Moss, Bob Gale, Franco Nero, Tara Fitzgerald, Jenna Coleman, and Ian Somerhalder, whose queue was truly a beast (a shame, I was carting around a cherished uncut copy of The Rules of Attraction). One good thing is I managed to at least see almost all of those people, so it's better than not getting anywhere near them at all (fond childhood memories of seeing Terry Pratchett from a distance, so it counts for something). I think I managed about 22 people without any diamond passes to speed up the bigger names, so all in all, a pretty successful outing for a man who went from Newcastle to London and back without a coat. Hopefully the people I missed will return for other events someday!