Birmingham Comic Con offers manga, TV and film attractions

MCM Birmingham Comic Con and Memorabilia, Britain's biggest collectors' event,  come to the NEC on 16-17th March, and the team behind it tell us they have an awesome line-up of film and TV guests waiting to meet fans, host panels and sign autographs.

Guests for their Comics Village area, with an emphasis on manga, include creators Josh Clarke, Kit Jo Yuki, Lily Mitchell, Lisa Cummins and Lyndon White; and indie publishers such as Subversive Comics, T Publications and Vimanika Comics UK.

Here's a selection of the special guests attending the shows:

• For Doctor Who fans there's Colin Baker, who starred as the sixth incarnation of The Doctor, Nicola Bryant, who played his companion Peri Brown and Sophie Aldred, who was The Doctor's companion Ace. Other Doctor Who guests include Frazer Hines, who played Jamie McCrimmon in no fewer than 117 episodes of the show; Terry Molloy, best known as the Daleks' villainous creator Davros, and stuntman Jimmy Vee, who has played a host of monsters and aliens in Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

• A trio of bold knights from Merlin will be at comic con: Alexander Vlahos (Mordred), Rupert Young (Sir Leon) and Eoin Macken (Sir Gwain).

• Potter Personalities - Chris Rankin, who plays Percy Weasley in six of the blockbuster Harry Potter films, Steffan Rhodri, who was Reg Cattermole in Deathly Hallows and Hugh Mitchell, who appears as Gryffindor student Colin Creevey in The Order Of The Phoenix. Steffan is also famous for playing Dave in hit comedy Gavin & Stacey, and recently won plaudits as the voice of Drippy in acclaimed videogame Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch.

• Primeval stars Andrew Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), also famous as an original member of S Club 7, and Lucy Brown, who played both Claudia Brown and Jenny Lewis.

• Bond girl and Avengers star Honor Blackman. Other Bond girls at Memorabilia include Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger), Lana Wood (Diamonds Are Forever) and Maryam d'Abo (The Living Daylights).

• Iconic glamour model Samantha Fox. As well as being the most popular pin-up girl of the '80s, Sam is a 30 million album-selling pop singer and actor.

• Gary Dourdan, best known for portraying Warrick Brown in eight seasons of the massively popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

• Canadian actor Connor Jessup, best known for his role as Ben Mason in the Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi series Falling Skies.

• Masters of Horror - best known by his stage name John Morghen, Giovanni Lombardo Radice achieved cult status with his roles in 1980's Italian splatter movies such as Cannibal Ferox, City Of The Living Dead and Cannibal Apocalypse. He'll be joined at Memorabilia by scream queen Madeline Smith (The Vampire Lovers, Frankenstein And The Monster from Hell) and Eileen Dietz (The Exorcist).

• Tickets for MCM Midlands Comic Con on 16- 17th March are available at www.midlandsmcmexpo.com/tickets And remember: KIDS GO FREE! *. Birmingham Comic Con visitors also get into Memorabilia free of charge

Website: www.www.midlandsmcmexpo.com
Twitter: @MCMExpo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mcmexpo
YouTube at www.youtube.com/mcmexpo

* The ‘Kids Go Free’ offer applies to General Entry tickets only. Children aged 10 years or younger gain free entry if accompanied by a full paying adult, to a maximum of two children per full paying adult.