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After a long break due to the Covid pandemic, Comic Cons were back. This was my first time at Wales Comic Con and after my initial thoughts of a positive experience, things were taking a slow downhill turn. After arriving and receiving my ‘Access Pass’ wristband, to help disabled attendees, all seemed well. 

Then as more attendees and Cosplayers entered the halls, social distancing, appeared to disintegrate. It appears that the organisers may have oversold the event. This became more apparent throughout the day. 

When buying the tickets online for both entrance and photo ops, it appeared you also had to buy autograph tickets, if one wished an autograph. So when they were sold out, you missed your chance. One assumes, by buying an autograph ticket, a). you are guaranteed an autograph, and b). there wouldn’t be much in the way of queuing. And boy, how wrong was I on that point. 

For autographs, one could pay at the desk, so the queues consisted of people who prepaid and those wanting to pay at the desk. And, for some guests, the queues were long. Well my ‘Access Pass’, meaning I couldn’t queue for long, should see me through okay, or so I thought.

Approaching the autograph queue for Sean Astin, which was already really long, I presented my ‘Access Pass’, but I was refused to join the access queue. I couldn’t understand why, as there was less than a handful in the access queue. I was told to come back later, this happened three times. 

On the third attempt I refused to come back later. I was told that as there was such a large number requiring an autograph, they were told to stop the queue and not allow anymore to join, even if they had an ‘Access Pass’. I argued that I had prepaid and had an ‘Access Pass’, which trumped those in the queue that haven’t paid and my pass trumped those queuing due to my disability. After a long discussion I was allowed to join the access queue.
The lack of acumen was apparent amongst the volunteers, they had their instructions and they stuck to them steadfast. There was no room for initiative or judgment on situations beyond the boundaries laid out. 

This year there wasn’t many celebrities that I wanted to meet. But, as a fan of the movie ‘ALIEN’, I had to meet Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright. After meeting Sigourney Weaver in 2015, it was a pleasure to meet two others from the movie. 

Even though I never had the chance to meet the others from the movie, I did manage to acquire the authenticated autographed Showmasters header  of John Hurt, when he was one of their guests. If ever I could get Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton, it would be great to complete the set.