London Comic Mart August 2026

So, on August 16th, I visited the almost-legendary London Comic Mart at the Royal National Hotel for the first time since the autumn of 2008.

Why so long?!

I don’t know. I hadn’t been to London at all since December 2018, when Steve and I had lunch with the late movie director Norman J Warren. Norman was a very nice guy, BTW. But as to the marts… this was something I did go to semi-regularly for a number of years… the habit just lapsed, I suppose.

I met Paul G at Euston around 1pm, All the trains were running a bit late on this particular day. In spite of rumours to the contrary, London seemed about the same as the last time I saw it. The mart venue itself was not greatly changed from 18 years ago—the outdoor seating area was corralled, and I believe that wasn’t the case in ’08 (do I remember wrongly?!), but otherwise no notable changes. I had not done anything the least bit comicsy for so long, I found the mart a little disorientating for a while.

Blurry shot of the first room of the mart. Sorry, screwed this up a bit.

Glad to say, most of the mart prices were not unpardonably steep and I picked up a copy of the recent facsimile of the 1978 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali treasury special for £12.50. Strange but true: I have never previously owned a copy of this book, which in spite of the absurd concept happens to carry one of Neal Adams’s best art jobs. This was a good score, I think.

Saw a few other people I know there, which was nice. Great to see Richard M again—Zoom chats aside, last time was the aforementioned 2008 mart. Hi, Richard. Also cool to see Giovanni, Angelos and Ed, who all said hi. I did become somewhat withdrawn at a later point, as Paul (being a famous celebrity, of course!!) was constantly besieged with swarms of people I mostly didn’t know. I mean, I’ve not done much socialising for the last thousand years (well, since COVID, certainly) (meeting up with Paul back in March notwithstanding), so I was easily overwhelmed.

Eventually, Paul suggested we retreat, and get a meal in the pub. (See selfie below.) Within five minutes, a group of comics folks was at the next table—but they left us alone!! 🙂 The meal was no great shakes, and extremely overpriced (£19.50 for decidedly average fish & chips), but it was a nice winding-down.

Here’s the obligatory selfie with Paul at the pub meal. I’d had very little sleep and was somewhat dehydrated, so wasn’t all that happy with this pic—I thought I looked even older than usual. But I’ve made peace with it. It’s OK. Not great but OK.

When heading home, the trains, of course, were still running late. I hope this isn’t the case next time.

I guess it’ll be easier and more normal next time! It’s been too long!