Speaking of comic-cons, apparently someone in the UK is going around claiming they have one with Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, and Alan Moore as guests. The claims don’t hold up to much scrutiny, as the Forbidden Planet blog reports:

Strangely for an event with such a guest list I’m struggling to find a website for it it (as were most on the forum discussion), which seems odd as according to the article it starts on June 18th and runs through to the end of July. And I haven’t heard mention elsewhere about the 5 by 5 event, much less confirmation of venues or the impressive sounding guest list (and a whole range of comics pros on Dez’s forums, from publishers to artists to store owners knew nothing about it either), which is a bit odd this close to the start of it – if Stan Lee is coming surely he’s be all over the comics blogosphere about it? I mean Stan isn’t backwards about coming forwards about projects and events he’s involved with (I mean that in a nice way, its not a dig, we wouldn’t change him). And Alan Moore is not given to doing conventions and festivals like this normally so it would be out of character. Do any of our readers know of this festival or are even taking part in it? If so drop us a line, we’d love to hear more about it and if there is an actual site with details on it that people can check out with solid information about the events, guests, venues and dates.


Considering that at least one website already ran news of this bogus show as a San Diego spin-off, it would seem that communication, at the very least, has been quite messed up about this.

1 COMMENT

  1. Is this the Geek Chic thing I’ve been hearing about? I got a mail about that some time ago; apparently it should already be happening. I received a .ppt showing a calendar in which events started early this month. Check it out:

    http://www.decomicshop.nl/Geek_Chic_Festival.ppt

    Now at this link, they’re talking 2010, right?

    http://comicrelated.com/news/1630/comic-con-international-in-london

    But in the presentation it is clearly 2009. Since Des Taylor (creator of the upcoming The Trouble with Katie Rogers) spread the rumor according to comicrelated.com and the presentation shows his artwork (I think) and his book launch…

    …I think we can put 2 and 2 together.

  2. Oh, now I see that the pres mentions Geek Chic ’09 and then Comic-Con 2010. Well, the Londoners can tell us whether Geek Chic is happening and the organiser left his e-mail address on the final slide if anyone wants to know more about any Comic-Con 2010.

  3. OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

    It has been brought to my attention that a story has leaked through comicrelated.com in the USA regarding the plans for my company and the event planned for June and July, named The 5 By 5 Festival.
    Let me set the record straight
    1 – Starting from June 18th there will be a 6 week festival in East London as a celebration of films, music, art and fashion called The 5 By 5 Festival. The confirmed content will be announced to the public in due course.
    2 – I have plans to hold several major pop culture events across Europe and as soon as everything is finalised it will be announced
    3 – I have plans to use the O2 Arena for several events and when these are finalised they will be announced
    However, I really appreciate the level of interest, excitement, panic and hype already built around an incorrect news story.
    Please note that this is the first and only official press release issued about me, my company and our activities. Anything else you may have heard can be dismissed as hearsay and either laughed at and ridiculed, cursed or ignored depending on what mood you’re in.
    Keep your ears open and your eyes peeled as all will soon become clear. Trust me, when the time is right, my communication will be nothing less than 5 by 5.
    Liam Fisher
    Chief Executive Officer
    5 By 5 Media Ltd.

  4. “The confirmed content will be announced to the public in due course.”

    but it starts in like two weeks!

  5. Liam ,
    I saw an advert this morning on Newsarama forum saying that you need artists for your festival. It would have been better to publicise your event well in advance as there would be a hell of a lot of people wanting to contribute to something like this.
    Why are you waiting until now to tell the world about the event?
    I think the timing of this statement is late in the day but I still hope it happens as I live in East London.

  6. Hello all.

    I’d just like to say Liam Fisher, (for some bizarre reason,) is using my name to post this. To add to this, when clicking on my name on these replies, it links to my companies’ site.

    (I run a fairly well established clothing art and events company named Urban Species, and I have worked in licensing for some time. Among various things, I have had a Marvel license for years, and now have a DC contract as well as others to come.)

    I have clearly terminated any kind of working relationship with Liam Fisher, 5 by 5 inc. and pretty much anything he has anything to do with in every capacity whatsoever quite some time ago now. This is for very strong reasons on a business level. From a sensible legal point of view, I am not going to digress.

    I would appreciate very much that anyone reading this would not link the Urban Species brand in any way whatsoever to Liam Fisher and whichever entities he is connected too.

    I would also appreciate to be informed of any continued activity on his behalf on this website or any other!

    I have already sent him legal documents regarding this matter quite some time ago, and I do consider this act as libellous and will not stand for it.

    On a more positive note, I would happily urge anyone and everyone to visit my site and or store in the coming months as we’re in the middle of a huge revamp and have made some very fruitful acquisitions recently where we will be creating some very unique licensed products! We will also be holding events around the various licensed acquisitions to promote the Urban Species licensed goods, as well as the rich history of these iconic properties.

    Thank you for your time ad EXCELSIOR!

    The (real) Hashem Hirji

  7. “5 By 5 Media Ltd.”

    The nearest limited company I can find at companies house (the UK register of companies) is called

    “The 5 by 5 Media Ltd”, a company that has been in existance since…em.. last friday…

  8. Hi there guys!

    Sorry, I just want to make something crystal clear, in my (accidently double,) post earlier, the 1st paragraph stated:

    “Liam Fisher, (for some bizarre reason,) is using my name to post this. To add to this, when clicking on my name on these replies, it links to my companies’ site.”

    What I meant to say is:

    “Liam Fisher, (for some bizarre reason,) posted his ‘OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE,’ using my name, while signing his name at the bottom of the post/press release, (!?) Furthermore, when clicking on the illegal use of my name, it links straight to my company’s website.”

    I just want things to be very clear to the public here…

    Thanks for listening.

    From, (once again,) the REAL Hashem Hirji

  9. Wow, so my first post, in which I insinuated some book marketing ploy, was horribly naive. Right now we have major incompetence and evil intent left as possible explanations for this weird story.

    I will shut my mouth, since apparently I’m very bad at guessing. Meanwhile, I hope for any investors in this upcoming event that they know where their money went.

  10. “Oops – didn’t mean to cause a media shitstorm! I was told in good faith by Liam Fisher that he’d secured the rights to Comicon Europe. The interview I gave was supposed to be mainly about my new Graphic Novel, The Trouble With Katie Rogers, but I guess we strayed off subject!

    Anyways, it would be great if Comicon Europe did happen, and I’m sure it will someday.
    Ps. Maybe I should get Katie to do my PR from now on.

  11. Clearly this Liam Fisher person has little idea of how to stage or promote such a festival. is it a case that the guy has simply written down a list of names he would love to see at a festival and then – quite bizarely – told people that he’d actually arranged it?

    i hope he hasnt got too many people involved in this, as it seems clear from the replies already posted that its a festival only in name and nothing else.

    I hope people warn stan lee and others about this guy. apparently he had kevin smith coming down and i’ve heard that kevin smith knows NOTHING about this guy or the festival.

    I’ve checked out this Liam Fisher on myspace and its clear the guy is an egotistical dreamer who loves himself. if you wanna see for yourself, look at myspace.com/liamfisheruk.

    Its an entertianing read, if nothing else.

    if there is someone in the uk who can stage something like this properly, we’d love to see it.

  12. I do not want t get into the whole situation with Liam Fisher as I think by now it’s clear cut.

    I just want to say London has a large scale event and it has been building for the last 6 years.

    London MCM Expo! The recent event had a great comic area and a rare signing with Warren Ellis.

    Attendance was over 30,000.

    Do check us out and if your an artist, creator, publisher we would love to hear from you.

    Bryan
    MCM Expo

  13. Just to clear this up, this is the first and only time I have seen and posted on this blog. I have not in any way posted under a false name and whoever has decided to post my press release under the name Hash Hirji is a little silly to say the least.

    I’m sure there will be an IP trail of some sort to prove that.

    My press release says it all and I have nothing further to say on the matter

    Thanks for checking out my MySpace though

    Liam Fisher

  14. So what a suprise, there is no evidence of this festival actually happening. It was meant to start on Thursday, and theres no media coverage, no advertising and the press release is rather basic.

    Where is this happening Liam? i would love to come along, i dont mind eating my words if you actually have something going on, but is it just a con your trying to pulloff? Ive scowered events in each london and there is non for this festival?

  15. The 5 By 5 Festival has been delayed due to unforseen circumstances and will be starting in July rather than June

  16. Great, ill be looking forward to attending!

    So where is it happening Liam? when? who is appearing? how? how much will it cost for tickets?

    Are you really sure your not just sitting in a internet cafe somewhere imagining all of this?

  17. So as its almost July…anymore ideas Liam about Stan Lee attending your festival that no one knows of? Has anyone got anymore ideas about this? Seems like he’d done a runner…