With over 40000 visitors per edition, Dutch Comic Con grew out to be one of the biggest pop culture events in the Benelux over the last years. This year the 10th edition of the event wil take place in Utrecht and we were there for each and every one of them over the last 7 years. We will take you on a journey through the history of Dutch Comic Con with our own pictures and memories of one of our favorite events!

The very first edition of Dutch Comic Con took place March 28th and 29th of March in the Jaarbeurshallen in Utrecht. We discovered the comic con scene just months before, when we went to our first horror convention in Germany (Weekend of Horrors 2014 in Oberhausen). We were so excited that an event like this would be organized in The Netherlands. The guestlist was amazing and I remeber one guest announcement in particular... 

Carola: "I remember the moment that Michael Cudlitz was announced a guest for Dutch Comic Con very well... I was having a real bad day, nothing would go as I wanted. So by the end of the of day, I was hanging on the couch with my best grumpy face. I was watching a movie and checking facebook on my phone. Suddenly this big smile came up my face. I never imagined that this day could turn into a great one. I saw that Michael Cudlitz was announced and that made my day! Abraham and Carol are my favourite characters in "The Walking Dead". So, you can imagine my excitment!"

Liv: "And mine! Just the week before, Carola and I talked about possible guest announcements. I remember we were joking around about how great it would be to see a "Walking Dead" actor at Dutch Comic Con. Carola laughed and said: "Yes someone like Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) would be great!" We both laughed and all I could think was: "Dream on, Liv". But then the day of the guest announcement came. I remember my day wasn't going great either. I was tired of working all day and I was watching "Arrow" on my laptop. Then my phone buzzed and I got a facebook notification. It was from Dutch Comic Con and my heart rate went up. I openend my Facebook and my face must have looked like the smiling face of the Grinch. (Just search and watch: Grinch smile.flv on Youtube and you know what I mean). At that same moment Carola sent me a message and within seconds I was jumping up and down from excitement (in my mind ofcourse because hey I still had a busy day and in spite of the adrenaline rushing through my vains I was still tired..."

(Taken from our article about meeting Michael Cudlitz)

Left to right: Michael Cudlitz, Giancarlo Esposito, Costas Mandylor and Julian Glover

Michael Cudlitz is mostly known for his roles as Sgt. Abraham Ford in "The Walking Dead", Bull Randleman in "Band of Brothers"  and John Cooper in "Southland".

Giancarlo Esposito is known for his roles as the bad guy with the good guy smile. You might know him as Gus Fring in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul", Moff Gideon in "The Mandalorian", Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in "The Godfather of Harlem" and Sidney Glass in "Once Upon a Time" and Tom Neville in "Revolution".

Costas Mandylor is an Australian actor who is mostly known for his role as Mark Hoffman in the "Saw" franchise.

Julian Glover is a British classical actor, who has been playing in multiple movies and series over the last five decades. You might know him as Grandmaester Pycelle in "Game of Thrones", General Veers in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" or Walter Donovan in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

Left to right: Joseph Gatt, Mark Ryan, Osric Chau and Spencer Wilding.

Joseph Gatt  is an English actor and mostly known for his roles in "Dumbo", "The 100", "Star Trek Into Darkness" and "Thor". He also was the 'body behind' videogame character Kratos in "God of War".

Mark Ryan is mostly known for his voice-acting in multiple movies and his role as Mr. Gates in the television show "Black Sails".

Canadian actor Osric Chau is known for his roles as the young prophet Kevin Tran in "Supernatural", Vogel in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and as Ryan Choi in "The Flash".

Spencer Wilding is a Welsh special creature actor. One of his most noteable roles is the role of Darth Vader in "Rogue One: a Star Wars Story".

Left to right: Stanislav Yanevski, James Tolkan, Claudia Wells, Christopher Atkins and Marnix van den Broeke.

Stanislav Yanevski (Viktor Kruml in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), James Tolkan (Strickland in the "Back to the Future" franchise), Claudia Wells (Jennifer Parker in "Back to the Future"), Christopher Atkins (Richard Lestrange in "The Blue Lagoon") and Marnix van den Broeke (Dutch actor and stuntman). Furthermore there were guests like pop icon Samantha Fox, the horror and hardcore punkband The Misfits and author and theater producer Vivek Tiwary, as well as a lot of comic artists.

We had a lot of fun at this first edition of Dutch Comic Con in March 2015. We walked around in the merchandise area, looked at the props, did some guest meetings autographs, photo ops) and a lot more. Check out the picture below and our page for Dutch Comic Con 2015.

Just like in 2015 the guestlist was amazing and very diverse. There were some guests in particular that we were very excited about (but more about that later). Let us take you through the guestlist of Dutch Comic Con 2016!

Left to right: Billy Dee Williams, Seth Gilliam and Doug Jones.

Billy Dee Williams was one of the guests we were particularly excited about. He is mostly known for his role as Lando in the "Star Wars" franchise, but he also played Harvey Dent in the 1989 "Batman" movie. As Liv is fan of both "Star Wars" and "Batman", she was over the moon.

Another guest that made us jump for joy when he was announced was Seth Gilliam. Nowadays Seth is mostly known for his role as the badass Father Gabriel in "The Walking Dead", but he played many more great roles. Among these are roles in "The Wire" (Ellis Carver) and "Oz" (Clayton Hughes).

And then there is Doug Jones...whose face you may not recognize right away, but we're sure you  know some of the iconic characters he brought to life. What about Abe Sapien in the "Hellboy" franchise? Or Pale Man and Fauno in "Pan's Labyrinth"? The Amphibian Man in the wonderful "The Shape of Water" or Saru in "Star Trek: Discovery"?

Left to right: Ian Beattie, Ian McElhinney, Ian Whyte and Eugene Simon.

This edition had no less than four "Game of Thrones" guests, with Ian Beattie (Ser Meryn Trant),  Ian McElhinney (Ser Barristan Selmy), Ian Whyte (creature actor) and Eugene Simon (Lancel Lannister).

Left to right: Paul Blake, Peter Shinkoda, Tommy Walker, Tony Moore, Hilly Hindi and Hannah Hindi.

Paul Blake is mostly known for his role as Greedo in the "Star Wars" franchise. Peter Shinkoda  and Tommy Walker both played in "Daredevil" (among other things). Tony Moore is one of the creators of the "The Walking Dead" franchise. The popular Hindi sisters (known for their internet hit show "The Hillywood Show") also made an appearance on the main stage. Mark Ryan and Vivek Tiwary were also guests at this edition, just like a year before...

We were there for the weekend and we had a great time! We met Seth Gilliam, Billy Dee Williams, Ian Beattie and Eugene Simon as you can see in the picture below. There were a lot more props at this edition (one of them was a gigantic Hulk statue) and we wandered around the merchandise hall multiple times...

Left to right: Jason Isaacs, James Cosmo and Sibel Kekilli

Let's start things off with Jason Isaacs. Fellow Potterheads out there know exactly where this British actor is mostly known for...yes that's right Jason played the role of Lucius Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" franchise. Any Trekkies out there? Jason also played the role of Captain Gabriel Lorca in "Star Trek: Discovery". But that is just a small part of all the great roles this Liverpudlian..he also played in movies and series like: "Armageddon", Black Hawk Down", "The Patriot", "Sex Education" and many more.

James Cosmo MBE is a familiar face in TV and movie. He is perhaps best known for his role as Angus MacLeod in the movie "Highlander", but he also played in notable movies like: "Trainspotting" (as Renton's dad), "Troy" as Glaucus, "The Chronicles of Narnia" (as Father Christmas) and many more. In television Mr. Cosmo is mostly known for his role as Father Ashby in "Sons of Anarchy" and Jeor Mormont in "Game of Thrones". Speaking of "Game of Thrones", Sibel Kekilli was also a guest at this first winter edition of Dutch Comic Con. The German actress in known for her role as Shae in "Game of Thrones", but we recommend you watch more of her (if you haven't already). Especially two of her German movies: "Die Fremde" (a.k.a. "When We Leave") and "Gegen die Wand" (a.k.a. Head-On").

Left to right: Lee Arenberg, Samantha Ferris, Steven Williams.

Aaaarrrrrrr...the next guest is mostly known for his role as the pirate Pintel in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. But he also played the role of Grumpy in "Once Upon a Time". I am of course talking about Lee Arenberg. I have seen him in these roles, but for me Arenberg is the face of  Mike Moffitt from "Seinfeld". And then there were not one, but two "Supernatural guests: Samantha Ferris and Steven Williams. In "Supernatural" Ferris plays the role of retired huntress Ellen Harvelle. She had a main role in "The 4400" as Nina Jarvis. Samantha is a well known face in television and before she became an actress she worked for radio and a a TV reporter. Steven Williams played Rufus in "Supernatural". I started watching "Supernatural" later, so how come I was so excited about Steven Williams being at DCC? Well, I used to watch "21 Jump Street" (the series) when I was younger and Williams played the role of Captain Adam Fuller. At DCC I walked over to his table to give him a little present and told him I loved "21 Jump Street" and he thought I was talking about the movies (with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum). I told him that I was a fan of the series when it was on TV, but he couldn't believe I was old enough for that...hahaha. Besides these two roles I also know him as Mr. X from the "The X Files". Steven has got an impressive list of 147 acting credits on his name (up to this point).

Although we were only there for a day, we did a lot of things. We met James Cosmo, Sibel Kekilli, Steven Williams and Jason Isaacs. We also attended some panels, bought some merchandise, as always there were a lot of awesome Cosplayers and we had a lot of fun with the props.

That's it for the first part of this series. In the next part we continue our journey through the history of Dutch Comic Con. Are you curious about Heroes Dutch Comic Con? The next edition will take place in Utrecht in the weekend of March 26&27 and it will be the 10th edition. For tickets check out the website of Heroes Dutch Comic Con.