Kapow! thoughts

Flicking through the Guardian of my lunch hour, I spotted this preview of Kapow!, the Mark Millar fronted comics convention thing happening in London this weekend.
It's not quite as stereotypical as some coverage but it inadvertently highlights to me one of the reasons why I'm giving it a miss for this inaugural edition.

Don't get me wrong.
I would love Kapow! to become a UK version of the San Diego ComicCon, but preferably with less of a movie and TV focus.
But the guest list is too Millar-centric.
Nick Spencer aside (and his presence would have been tempting),  the non-British stars have worked with Millar. Leinil Yu and John Romita Jr. will be a draw for some, especially the latter, but I'm more of a writer guy.
Me, I would prefer some more foreign stars.
The original publicity highlighted the presence of Jonathan Ross and other Clint contributors. Clint, for the uninitiated is Millar's UK magazine.
Which would be all well and good but I deeply don't care for it. I enjoy Millar's non-creator owned work, especially the first two Ultimates series and Aztek but his Icon stuff (KickAss etc.) leaves me cold and that forms the back bone of Clint.

There's an impressive range of UK talent : Peter Milligan, Paul Cornell, Mark Gattiss, Bryan Hitch (again Millar connection)
But I kind of would prefer something less Anglo-centric.

Let's see how it goes next year.