Mark Millar Announces Kapow! Comic-Con, The London Equivalent of SDCC.

You know, lately I’ve been pretty down on Mark Millar. As one of my longtime favorite writers, I hold the dude to a certain set of standards. Perhaps unfairly.   Recently the dude hasn’t come anywhere near these standards. In place of the dude I used to love has come a plethora of sensationalist slop, and hardcore hyping of his own wares. Maybe the dude is spread so thin, on so many projects, that it makes sense that he’s cranking out scripts while he’s cranking out craps on the toilet. Pure speculation on my part.

But say what I will, there’s no denying that the dude loves comic books. And so with that in mind, I have to get behind him and be stoked at his announcement of the Kapow! Comic-Con in London. Now, I don’t live in the Old World. Firmly entrenched in the Newest of Englands. But the idea of taking the glitz and glamor of San Diego Comic-Con and stapling it into the heart of a different continent? Awesome. It’s about time you guys got some love over there. The shit is going down at the London Business Design Centre from April 9-10 in 2011. Oh, Centre! We really are in England!

Comics Alliance Drops Some Deets:

Name-checked in the video announcement — which also includes filmed endorsements from Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely and Leinil Francis Yu — as attendees are Andy Diggle, Jock, Steve Dillon, Duncan Fregredo, Kevin O’Niel, Adi Granov, Pat Mills, Paul Cornell, David Hine, Brendan McCarthy, Simon Furman, John Romita, Jr., David Lloyd, Olivier Coipel, Kieron Gillen, Bryan Hitch, John McCrea, among others. Representatives from the film industry are to be announced February 14.

Millar, a master of the hard sell, made a point of saying that Kapow! is ideally scheduled to take advantage of 2011 and 2012’s motion picture lineups, which are heavy with comic book and genre movies including Thor, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Dredd, a Star Trek sequel and a Spider-Man reboot. The convention will be held in April, giving promoters a chance to show their wares to a European audience about two months before Comic-Con in San Diego.

It’s exciting! I don’t know why, but I’m excited. I won’t get anywhere near it. Just the idea of spreading the virulent comic book convention strain to another continent! All run in horror as all of us comic book nerds come out of the wood work, spreading our dorkery and esoteric references!

Well done, Mr. Mark Millar.

Hit the jump for the announcement video.