Portsmouth Comic Con abandons hope for 2021 gathering, announces 2022 dates

By John Freeman on April 3, 2021

The team behind Portsmouth Comic Con – International Festival of Comics have announced the event will return in May 2022, after their plans for a 2021 event were thrown askew by the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the Government’s roadmap announcement in February, it was sadly made clear that Portsmouth Comic Con – International Festival of Comics could not go ahead as planned on Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd May 2021.

“We thank you for your patience and understanding since this announcement while we have worked with our partners, suppliers and sponsors to agree the way forward,” the organisers said in a statement.

“We had been looking at moving the event back to later in 2021 but given the continued uncertainty around International travel and whether we would be able to welcome our American guests and the availability of some of our key partners, we have had to conclude that we are unable to deliver the event we had promised this year.

“Therefore, Portsmouth Comic Con – International Festival of Comics with its special features of ‘She-Quential’ Female Superheroes (Saturday), ‘World of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ (Sunday) and stellar line-up of international guests is being rescheduled to the new dates of Saturday 7th – Sunday 8th May 2022.”

Ticket holders will be contacted by their point of ticket purchase. All tickets will be automatically transferred over to the new dates in 2022 and ticket holders do not need to do anything further.

“This is not the outcome we had hoped for,” say the team, “but we promise will be back bigger and stronger in 2022! The Guildhall Trust (the organisation behind Portsmouth Comic Con) with our Event Partners would like to thank you all for your wonderful support and we can’t wait to see you all next year!”

• Portsmouth Comic Con is online at portsmouthcomiccon.com

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.