Comic Expo is over, and for everyone attending from here at NCsoft Europe, it was an absolute blast - albeit a ‘full-on, extremely tiring, we’re still recovering from it’ sort of blast. For two days we met players, got sketches sketched, answered questions and demonstrated games - while giving away a whole bunch of goodies to everyone who came within grabbing distance.

If you were there, then we thank you for coming - in some cases from as far away as Denmark and Belgium! If you weren’t there, then sorry you missed out; hopefully we can entice you into turning up to the next event that NCsoft attends.

For now though, here’s a few images and commentary - just to give you an idea of what Comic Expo was all about. (Obvious warning: large images ahead.)

Our Guest of Honour at Comic Expo was of course ‘Robbie_Redhat’, also known as Rob Fay, the creative mind behind the winning story in our ‘A Day in the Double Life’ comic anthology - which was given out for free to all during the Expo.

Copies flew off the stand all weekend, and Rob was even seen signing a couple of them - although not for his photo partner (left), the ever-present Ghost Widow, who haunted the main Expo hall for most of the day on Saturday. Her ghostly features and menacing stare were enough to reduce most children to quivering wrecks, and quite a few adults, too… although not valiant board member ShadowHunta (seen right).

Divided into two stands, NCsoft’s presence at the Expo was on two fronts. First, the main downstairs stand - here seen from above:

Close-up and downstairs, the stand could not be missed: with a plasma screen at one end showing gameplay footage and pumping out in-game sound, four PCs demonstrating NCsoft games and a ever-present queue for the visiting artists on both afternoons.

You wanted swag? We gave you swag. An entire table’s worth of it in fact - including City of Heroes trial disks, bumper stickers, trading cards, comics and of course, if you’re by the seaside you’ll be wanting some Brighton rock.

Meanwhile upstairs, presided over by the cardboard stare of Auto Assault’s Jen, our eight-PC ‘gamezone’ was packed all weekend with players new and old.

Right next to the LAN area we had several helpful volunteers who gave us a hand demonstrating the City of Heroes CCG, on sale later this year. Everyone who played the game seemed to come away with a good impression, but the spotlight was definitely on the games.

All weekend the DJs from Evolution Radio were also found around the gamezone, broadcasting live for all to hear. On Sunday this culminated in a live interview with Bridger and myself, a recording of which should be online soon, but for now here’s a picture of DJ Gangrel and friend....

Meanwhile, back downstairs, the stand was being besieged by eager players wanting to get their characters sketched by an assortment of comic artists.

Over the weekend we played host to Andrew Wildman, Kev Crossley (seen sketching, left), Mark Buckingham, Doug Braithwaite, Jock and Liam Sharp, who all generously gave their time to sketch City of Heroes and City of Villains characters for visitors.

Everyone who got a sketch contributed £10 for the privilege to the charity Every Child, and overall we raised almost £650 for the charity - a huge achievement and one you should all be proud of.

Of course, you’re probably wondering what some of the sketches looked like - so here are three examples, by Andrew Wildman (of Tech Tower), Kev Crossley (of Huzzah - also star of ‘A Day in the Double Life’ and by Doug Braithwaite (showing Kat Anna). Click each image for a larger version:

And of course, no event would be complete without a party. On Saturday night select players were invited to a Brighton beachfront location to live it up, and with excellent musical support by the Evolution Radio crew, the party went on into the small hours, with everyone getting to know their ‘IRL’ persona over a few beverages. We could show you photos, but then we might be accused of blackmail.

Now it’s all over until next year’s events, which hopefully will be bigger and better. A huge thank you to everyone who attended, and hopefully we’ll see many more of you on the road in 2006!