Last spring, the only thing on Mark Millar's mind was ramping up for his first go at helping put on a convention with London's Kapow! Comic Con. And despite his dedication to cranking out creator-owned books from here on out, he's putting the show back on his plate for 2012.
CBR News has learned exclusively that Kapow! will return next year. The show will set up shop again in the London Business Design Centre, Islington on May 19 & 20 - just a year and a month after the last go round. Organized by Millar's partners Company Director Lucy Unwin and organizer Sarah Unwin, Kapow! 2011 boasted comic news in the form of Millar's own titles, movie programming from "Thor" to "Attack The Block" and a healthy showing from the UK comics community in Artist's Alley.
"The Kapow! Convention in London was genuinely the best con I've ever been to," Millar told CBR. "Everybody from John Romita Jr to Bryan Hitch to Jonathan Ross said they had an amazing time, sending Lucy and Sarah really lovely notes for all their hard work. It was like a wedding in a weird way. Guys I love that I hadn't seen in ages like Brian Bolland or Kev O'Neill with a lot of the newer guys I'm friendly with like Nick Spencer and Paul Cornell gave the whole thing a real family feeling. The location was brilliant, as it should have been as it cost us a fortune to hire. But it was worth it as it was so central and the atmosphere was really amazing. It was huge and the best line-up of A-list comic names I've ever seen in the UK. But also weirdly intimate as you could chat to Leinil Yu or Frank Quitely when you were buying a coffee in the cafe.
"The movie side of it was just insane too with guys like Duncan Jones and Neil Marshall and Danny Mcbride and so on all being with the two leads from Thor, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Plus all the Marvel guys and brilliant DC creators and the biggest UK telly people... and best of all nobody charging for autographs. We did an outright ban on people charging for signatures and the crowds seemed to love it."
The writer went on to explain that the show's turnout helped make the decision to continue to year two. "It honestly went about ten times better than we expected and now that we've established ourselves we've got everybody we want there for year two," he said. "This is going to be amazing. We laid the groundwork in year one, but the plans we have for year two are just spectacular. More details as we get closer to the event itself, but basically you need to book this weekend off work immediately."
Tickets for the show will go on sale in the coming weeks at www.kapowcomicconvention.com. As fans wait for the on sale date to make their decisions on 2012's show, they can catch up with last year's news at CBR's complete Kapow! coverage index.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for more news on the show and Millar's upcoming slate of Millarworld comics.