Bank Holiday Monday saw the first Rhyl Comic Con take place at the Sunnyvale Holiday Park, OK not exactly in Rhyl, but only a stone’s throw away from the Foryd Bridge into Rhyl.
Although the “Comic Con” may not have had the big names that other conventions have the organisers put on the first Rhyl Comic Con that was themed around the love of comic books, films and TV with an emphasis on the comic books.
Over the years there have been Comic Con events popping up all over the country and they have grown in popularity, so it was inevitable that we would finally get one here in Rhyl, North Wales. The event opened its doors at 9:30 for those early birds that wanted to get in and check out the stalls and to meet a collection of hard working cosplayers that were at the event. At 10 am the doors opened up and more and more people flooded into the Chester Variety Club at Sunnyvale.
Hundreds of People Attend the 1st Rhyl Comic Con.
I have to say that the team that put together the first Rhyl Comic Con have done a brilliant job, hundreds of people arrived for the one-day event and everything ran very well. People were really enjoying the Rhyl Comic Con, I overheard some great comments from locals and holidaymakers attending the Comic Con at Sunnyvale, comments such as, “there are no big, names, but what a refreshing change to have something like this on“, “wow have you seen all the comics they have in there, brilliant“, “that was so funny! Stormtroopers and Predators on the beach, love it.”
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – The Hunt is on!
Talking of Predators on the beach, this has to be one of the weirdest things that I’ve seen in a long time, during the day, “The Hunt” took place on the dunes near by to the Sunnyvale Holiday Park as a crowd of adults and their kids followed Imperial Order 66 out of Sunnyvale, along the roadside, past The Bike Hub and down to the beach to find two Predators that were hiding in the dunes, suffice to say the kids were very excited to go on the hunt for Alien Predators, as the crowd got to the beach the kids split off to find the Predators, shortly after you could hear the kids shouting that they had found them and calling over the Sandtroopers etc to come and capture them!
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – Sandtrooper and Predator on Rhyl Beach
Rhyl Comic Con – A Well Attended Event
I caught up with Aaron Scantlebury, the general manager of Sunnyvale, after the Rhyl Comic Con and he told me, “Sunnyvale were delighted to host the first ever Rhyl Comic Con, lots of our locals and holidaymakers having a great family day out together in fantastic conditions. Couldn’t have dreamed it would have been so well attended, marvellous“.
Dead Snow German zombie (Daniel Hitchen “Hitch”), Catwoman (Tyler Turner)
This event goes to show that there is still room for events such as these to take place and in our lovely town where locals and holidaymakers show their support for events that people enjoy going to.
During the day kids and adults were having their photographs taking with many of the brilliant Cosplayers that were there, one in particular, that was very popular was Batman or as he is known to many BatGaz (Gaz Dale), Gaz told me today, “Rhyl Comic Con was a complete success. I spoke to a few traders and everyone was happy with how it went, also from the Facebook posts that I saw, it seems that the people also had a great time.”
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – Killer Croc (David Jones) and Batman (Gaz Dale)
He went on to say, “the entertainment was excellent, the Blues Brothers were fantastic, they are really nice guys too, the cosplayers were a great bunch and really did great given how hot it was. I am so very happy to have been a part of such an amazing event!“.
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – Jailhouse Blues Brothers
I have to agree with Gaz about The Blue Brothers aka Jailhouse Blues Brothers, these guys were fantastic on the stage, they even had a little boy who came on to the stage to join them during their performance and what a star he was, that was the moment that Blazing Minds went live on Facebook and Instagram to show off the act.
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – Martin Rose
Let’s also not forget about the stunning Martin Rose, who brought us a fantastic performance with his guitar, I’ve never seen anyone play the guitar the way that Martin does, suffice to say as soon as he started playing not only did he grab the attention of the people walking around the room, but also that of the traders, with many of them stopping what they were doing to look up at him performing on the stage.
It was great to see so many local traders at the event to show their support for an event that is a first for the town, this all goes to show that there is appreciation by people to show that no matter how small an event is when it first starts, people want to show that they are willing to give it a chance and to help it with being a success.
Rhyl Comic Con 2017 – Joe Matthews
Amidst the entertainment that the organisers had put on, the traders took over the main area which was the Chester Variety Club and flowed into the Galley Restaurant, this was the home to brilliant Rhyl and Chester Comic Shop, one of my favourite haunts. Also in the Galley was Joe Matthews, a comics publisher and creator of Funny Monster Comic, Joe was very popular throughout the day doing caricatures of people.
Keeping people even more entertained around the event was a roving magician, Alex D Fisher, who brought some mysticism to people as they waited to chat with traders etc during the day.
With all the positive feedback for the first Rhyl Comic Con, it looks very likely that the event will be returning next year, I for one will certainly be looking forward to attending the event and I hope many of you reading this will also be popping along.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
