Heroes Dutch Comic Con Anniversary Editon- The road so far...2018

From left to right: Dwight Schultz & Katie Cassidy

Liv was very excited about the first name on this list, because she is an 80s kid and is a big fan of the TV shows of the 80s. One of the most iconic shows of this era was "The A-Team" and one of the main cast members was announced for this edition of Dutch Comic Con. In the article of 2017, we already talked about Dirk Benedict (he played Face) being a guest at the Spring edition of 2017. Now, a year later, another "member" of the A-Team was in Utrecht and he brought his "dog" Billy! We are of course talking about Dwight Schultz, who played the role of 'Howling Mad' Murdock. American actress Katie Cassidy is the second name on our list and we were both excited when she was announced. Katie is mostly known for her role as Laurel Lance/Black Canary/Black Siren in "Arrow" and the rest of the Arrow verse. Of course, you might also know her for her role as Juliet Sharp in "Gossip Girl", Ruby/Lilith in "Supernatural" or Trish Wellington in "Harper's Island".

From left to right: Emilie de Ravin & Mark Sheppard

We both love "Once Upon a Time" and the character of Belle is one of the fan favorites. Belle is played by Australian actress Emilie de Ravin and she was in Utrecht. Emilie is also known for her role as Claire in the TV show "Lost" and lots of other roles. Talking about fan favorites...we have another one for you! Ever heard of a little show called "Supernatural"? Fan favorite Mark Sheppard played the recurring role of Crowley/The King of Hell in this popular show. But that's certainly not all you know this man from. What to think of "Soldier of Fortune, Inc." (as C.J. Yates), "Firefly" (as Badger), "24" (as Ivan Erwich), "Battlestar Galactica" (as Romo Lampkin), "Leverage" (as Jim Sterling), "White Collar" (as Curtis Hagan), "Warehouse 13" (as Benedict Valda) and most recently "Doom Patrol" (as Willoughby Kipling)...

From left to right: Zach McGowan & Mark Ryan

Aaaaarrrrrrr... on to the Pirate part of the guest list! Dutch Comic Con hoisted the black sails for this edition and welcomed two actors from the STARZ TV show "Black Sails". Zach McGowan played the role of Captain Charles Vane in 28 episodes of the show. He also played the role of Roan In "The 100" and Anton Ivanov in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Mark Ryan plays the role of Gates in 8 episodes of "Black Sails" and grew out to be a welcome guest at Dutch Comic Con. He is also known for his role as Nasir in the 80s TV show "Robin of Sherwood" and his voice work in the "Transformers" franchise (among others...).

From left to right: Roel Reiné & Mark van Eeuwen

And then there were some Dutch movie- and television guests. Dutch director Roel Reiné made his way to the Jaarbeurs to promote his upcoming movie "Redbad" and he brought some other guests. Roel Reiné is also known under his alias John Rebel. In the States he is known for his specialization in directing direct to DVD sequels, like "Death Race 2", "Death Race 3: Inferno" and "Hard Target 2". He is also known for directing episodes of series like "Black Sails", "WU Assassins" and "Inhumans" as well as for movies like: "Admiral" (original title: Michiel de Ruyter") and "Dead in Tombstone". One of the guests Reiné brought was Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen, who plays the role of Wulf in "Redbad". He is also known for playing the role in Jack van Houten in the long-running Dutch soap series "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden". In the 2015 movie "Kidnapping Freddy Heineken", Mark played the role of Dutch criminal Frans Meijer.

From left to right: Britte Lagcher & Lisa Smit

Besides Mark van Eeuwen, Roel Reiné also brought two actresses from the movie. First up is Britte Lagcher, who plays the role of Sinde in "Redbad". Most recently she was one of the contestants in the 2021 edition of TV show "Expedition Robinson", where the contestants have to survive on a deserted island. Lisa Smit plays the role of Fenne in "Redbad". Dutch people might also know her from her role as Wendy van Buren in "Dokter Deen " and Pien in "Baantjer: Het Begin".

When we got in at 10 a.m. sharp, Liv immediately made her way towards the signing area to get her autograph from Dwight Schultz. Because it was this early, he really took his time to have a chat. Liv had read somewhere that Dwight really loves Dutch peanut butter, so she gave one to him as a present. Dwight started laughing and told her that she wasn't the only one who read that particular fact. He said he got a lot of jars the day before and joked "you should come and check in my hotel room". Later on that day, Liv also had a photo op with Dwight and both attended his panel.

After Dwight's panel, Liv had one of her impulsive actions. The quote below is taken from the overview article we wrote for this edition:

"When Dwight's panel was finished, we walked past the Photobooth. Before the convention I looked at the program and saw that Dwight's panel and Katie Cassidy's photo op were at the same time. At that point I forgot about getting the chance to do the photo op with Katie. Bit when we walked by the photobooth I noticed that Katie wasn't done yet. Without thinking I walked towards the selling point for the tickets and bought one. Carola had no idea what I was doing. Before she and I knew it I was brushing elbows with the Black Canary/Black Siren."

Carola and Liv also attended Katie's panel:

At one point, Carola and Liv split up. Carola went for her photo op with Emilie de Ravin, while Liv attended the "Black Sails" panel. At the photo op, there was quite a long queue (like we said "Once Upon a Time" is very popular in the Netherlands). On top of that Emilie was running late (she was still signing autographs), but she made up for that by being great at the photo op. It didn't feel rushed and Carola had a great time meeting Emilie.

We also attended Emilie de Ravin's panel, which was awesome. Emilie de Ravin is such a nice person and her panels are a blast. At one point we walked into the "Redbad" delegation and Liv asked for a photo with Mark Van Eeuwen (there was a time long ago Liv and Carola both watched "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden"). We also had a small chat with Roel Reiné and at the end of the chat he said that we should come and watch the "Redbad" panel in the Cozy Corner. Well, who are we to deny a request from the director himself ;)...

We also saw a very small part of the Mark Sheppard panel. Unfortunately, neither one of us was watching "Supernatural" at that moment, so we decided to walk around at the time of the panel. We were just in time to catch the last few minutes (and yes: Liv is still kicking herself now that she did watch "Supernatural").

The movie and television guests are an important part of the Comic Con experience, but there are a lot of other things to do and see! We love the whole experience, so we walked around a lot. While we were walking through the area with Cosplay groups, we spotted a very merry bunch of people near a blue public police call box. This must RING some bells, right? That blue box was the TARDIS (from "Doctor Who") and the merry bunch was a group of "Doctor Who" fans (or 'Whovians') that form the Cosplay/fan group Dutch TARDIS. We had a talk with them and scheduled an online interview . 

The Entertainment Hall is the place to be for big stands (like Fox or Disney). The newest movies and series are being promoted in this area and there is a lot to see and do. We took up Thanos' Infinity glove, posed at the "Griezelbus" (from "Gruesome School Trip" based on the books of Paul van Loon), where Paul van Loon himself was signing his books and we did so much more. We always have a great time in this area...

We were ready for an epic weekend and epic it was! Let's begin with the movie and TV guests and after that we will tell you what else we did! Spoiler alert: Carola got a tattoo at DCC! Keep on reading to find out what kind of a tattoo...

From left to right: Richard Dean Anderson & Gaten Matarazzo

The first guest is one of Liv's biggest heroes of the 80s and a long time ago, she even had a little crush on this hero haha. If you are an 80s child you have to know this guy...his character could make almost everything with a paperclip, some Duct-tape and a Swiss Army knife. That man is MacGyver and the man behind the character is Richard Dean Anderson. Loved that show! Years ago, we already met Richard at FACTS and it was so cool to find out that the man behind the character is a genuinely nice man. Anderson is also known for his roles as Jack O'Neill in the "Stargate" franchise and Nicodemus Legend/Ernest Pratt in "Legend". Talking about the 80s... six years ago there it was: a new Netflix show that was set in the80s and grew out to be one of the most popular shows of the last decades. "Stranger Things" made the 80s hot again and everyone loves the main characters. One of the most popular ones in Dustin Henderson and this role is played by American actor Gaten Matarazzo and he was at Dutch Comic Con!

From left to right: Lana Parrilla & Rebecca Mader

"Once Upon a Time" is a very popular show and in the Netherlands it has a vast and solid fanbase. For this edition Dutch Comic Con went out of their way and secured not one, but two of the most popular stars from the show. Their popularity, however, is not that obvious...because they play the villains. Lana Parrilla plays the role of the Evil Queen/Regina Miller in "Once Upon a Time", but you might know her from other projects. She played the role of Angie in the fifth season of "Spin City", Trina Decker in "Swingtown" and most recently Rita Castillo in the second season of "Why Women Kill". Rebecca Mader brought something wicked to Utrecht, because she played the role of Zelena/The Wicked Witch of the West in "Once Upon a Time". Rebecca also played the role of Charlotte Lewis in seasons 4,5 & 6 of "Lost", as well as Morgan Gordan in "All My Children" and Jocelyn in "The Devil Wears Prada".

From left to right: Jerome Flynn & Daniel Gillies

Whether you liked the last season or not, "Game of Thrones" is one of the best shows that ever hit the small screen and one of the most popular recurring characters is played by the wonderfull Jerome Flynn. He played the role of Bronn in 37 episodes of the show and became one of the fan favorites pretty fast. From 2012-2016 Flynn also played the role of Bennet Drake in "Ripper Street". From 1991-1995 he played the role of Paddy Garvey in "Soldier Soldier". It was from this show that Flynn also got famous as half of the band Robson & Jerome. They had some number one hits with covers of famous songs in the mid-90s (one of these being "Unchained Melody"). Canadian born New Zealand actor Daniel Gillies is mostly known for his magnificent role as Elijah Mikaelson in "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Originals". You might also know Daniel as Dr. Joel Goran in "Saving Hope" or more recently as Mark in "Virgin River". As we are both big fans of "The Originals", we were very excited when he was announced. This gave us the chance to meet Daniel for the second time that year (we already met him at Bloody Night Con earlier that year. Another guest for this edition was Charles Martinet, who is mostly known as the voice of our favorite Italian plumber Mario from the Nintendo franchise. Besides this he also does a lot of other voices in this and other franchises. Unfortunately, we were not able to catch him for a picture.

The fact that we were at Dutch Comic Con for the entire weekend gave us a little bit more time to get things done, but we are always running around like mad women. Let's first talk about the panels we visited. On Saturday Liv watched the Richard Dean Anderson panel, while Carola walked around in the merchandise area...There was something wrong with the light during this panel so the pictures are not that great. Luckily Liv also had a chance to catch Richard Dean Anderson's panel on Sunday, because Carola was otherwise occupied (more about that later on). The panel of Richard Dean Anderson was followed by Rebecca Mader's panel and Carola tried to join Liv, but it was so crowded that she had to stand...

On Saturday we also attended the panels of Lana Parrilla, Gaten Matarazzo, Jerome Flynn and a small part of the panel of Daniel Gillies.

On Sunday we both attended the "Once Upon a Time" panel with Lana Parrilla and Rebecca Mader. We aso attended the Jerome Flynn panel and Liv watched the Daniel Gillies panel.

What about autographs and photo ops? We both had a photo op with Lana Parrilla. Liv also had a photo op with Gaten Matarazzo and Jerome Flynn. We both had a selfie with Daniel Gillies and Liv also went for his autograph. When we were in line for Daniel Gillies, Carlo Boszhard walked by. Boszhard is a Dutch media personality and Liv took a selfie with him. Liv also had a Paul van Loon book signed.

This edition of Dutch Comic Con was bigger than ever and we had a great time walking around the various areas. Of course there was the FOX stand, where we took some awesome "The Walking Dead" and "The Simpsons" pictures. 

House of Wax Entertainment was also in the house. For this edition the walkthrough experience was for the true daredevil, because it was all about "The Walking Dead".

We already mentioned that Carola got a new tattoo at this edition of Dutch Comic Con. She got the idea in the week leading up to the event and got more obsessed by it day by day. Eventually she decided to make an appointment on Sunday. At the end of the day, she had an appointment with Tessa from Studio 44. In 2017 Carola and Sigmund went on a holiday to New York and Carola had a tattoo over there (a girl on a swing and two birds) and now she had one in the same style (a girl with an umbrella).

There was also a very extensive gaming area and the merchandise area was out of this world. Seriously, we could have enjoyed ourselves a whole week if we had the possibilty. Above all we had a loads of fun again and hopefully these pictures below will get a smile on your face too! We will also drop our overview vlog at the end.

With less than a week to go we have one more year to show you and that is 2019! Curious about earlier editions ... click the tiles below...

For more information about Heroes Dutch Comic Con you can visit their website!