1980 London convention

I've lost count of the number of comic conventions I've attended over the years but the second one I went to was the Marvel Comics Film and Fantasy Convention 1980. I think it took place in September of that year, and I forget the venue but it was somewhere in London. This was several years before I'd be invited to any as a guest of course.

Unlike previous UK cons which had been organized by various fans, the 1980 one was produced by Marvel UK. Although it did feature some comic-related events it also featured a healthy amount of film and TV related panels. In that respect it was a pioneer of the sort of shows that take place today, albeit on a much smaller scale. 

Here are a few pages from the A5 convention booklet. Above is the front cover by Paul Neary, using artwork that would also appear on the cover of that year's British Spider-Man Annual. 

As you can see from the list of staff, Colin Campbell was one of the event co-ordinators. Colin had run the previous year's convention in Birmingham.

The guest list included a good selection of people from comics and film/TV...

As it was a Marvel-financed show the booklet naturally used a couple of pages to promote its latest UK reprint comics...

Comic conventions back then usually had a venue with a cinema in order to show various SF movies. This event being no exception...

Here's the list of events over the two days...

Winners of the Starburst Awards received one of these trophies based on Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still...

I took a few photographs over that weekend but I only had a cheap camera back then with a poor flash so my apologies for the low quality of these shots. I've tried to improve them in Photoshop as best I can but they're still substandard... 

Cosplay wasn't the big thing it is today but a few people turned up in fancy dress such as this guy as Captain America. (Possibly a Marvel UK staff member?)

Blake's Seven actor Jaqueline Pearce with her Starburst Award (and also collecting one on behalf of someone else I believe)...

Actors Caroline Munro and Paul Darrow...

Me when I was 21! 

As it was 35 years ago I've forgotten most of what happened at the show. The main thing I recall is going for a lunchtime drink in a pub on the Portobello Road and meeting Lemmy from Motorhead, as one of my mates knew him. Sadly that pal died a few years ago, and I've long lost touch with some other friends from that time. I remember the convention didn't quite have the spark it deserved, mainly due to the venue, but we didn't care. We were young and we had a laugh, which in the end is what it's all about.