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Overwhelming Majority of Artists and Content Confirmed for new August Date of Portsmouth Comic Con

By John Freeman on March 26, 2020

Portsmouth’s Guildhall Trust and its event partners, Tripwire Magazine and GoGeek Events CIC, have been overwhelmed with support following last week’s decision to move Portsmouth Comic Con – International Festival of Comics 2020 due to the ongoing global Coronavirus Pandemic.

To ensure the welfare of guests, exhibitors, staff, volunteers, sponsors and suppliers and to maintain the high standard of the Con, it was decided to move this year’s event to the new dates of Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th August, and hopefully give us all something to look forward to beyond this uncertain time.

Following a call out to the comic, film, TV, cosplay, geek and pop culture communities to spread the word, the organisers are delighted with the response and can now confirm that the vast majority of guests and content that were set to feature will all go ahead in August as planned.

Sequential Saturday’s ‘Celebration of Female superheroes’ and Sunday’s ‘World of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ themes go ahead with very few changes and there will still be a whole host of panels, exhibitions, cosplay parades, steampunk, VR and interactive fun to enjoy.

While a small number of guests are no longer able to attend due to prior commitments, it is confirmed that key guests including Adam Hughes, Brian Froud, Marguerite Sauvage, P. Craig Russell and Troy Alders have all confirmed their commitment to attend and Portsmouth Comic Con is delighted to announce some new names to the line-up including Andy Fanton and Jacob Phillips.

Andy Fanton

Based in Portsmouth, Andy Fanton is a writer and cartoonist who has worked for Beano, The Dandy, VIZ and Private Eye. He currently writes “Minnie the Minx” and “The Bash Street Kids”, as well as drawing “Bad Grandad”.

Jacob Phillips

Joining his father, Sean Phillips, with a place on the Artists Alley sponsored by Catawiki, is Jacob Phillips. At the age of 11 Jacob wrote, drew and printed his own comic book, Roboy, which he sold at Cons from his dad’s table. From school, Jacob studied Illustration with Animation at Manchester School of Art and began working professionally as a freelance Illustrator, which he has continued to do since. Jacob has worked with BBC, Wellcome Trust, Arrow Video, Kino Lorber and many more.

Jacob has coloured books Criminal, My Heroes have always been Junkies and Pulp, and is now working on new image title, That Texas Blood.

Voice artist Marc Silk

Portsmouth Comic Con is also delighted to announce the return of Con crowd favourite, Marc Silk. Marc’s voice is instantly recognisable around the world for his work on films, TV shows such as Thunderbirds are Go, games and cartoons, most notably as the voices of Johnny Bravo and Scooby Doo.

And also joining a select group of guests from the screen will be Britain’s smallest man, Michael Henbury (Sunday only). Michael’s first acting role was in 1982 as an Ewok on Star Wars – Return of the Jedi before going on to appear in Labyrinth, Willow and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 where he played Gringott’s Goblin.

Ticket holders for the original May dates need not do anything as existing tickets are automatically transferred for the new dates. Those unable to attend in August are asked to contact their point of purchase by 17th April 2020.

• Keep an eye on the website www.portsmouthcomiccon.com and social channels for further event updates and for lots of comic-related articles and activities to keep you entertained if you are at home!

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.