oh!con logo

Sci-fi, fantasy, comics, games and all that stuff

Tickets and programme

This year's OH!CON will be held in An Lanntair and the Town Hall.

Tickets

Day tickets

You need a day ticket to get in to OH!CON. Day Tickets allow access to all talks, cosplay masquerades, drop-in activities and gaming at both venues.  Your day ticket comes with a wristband that allows you to enter and leave both venues throughout the day.

We've kept day ticket prices at the same price for the third year in a row. Day tickets cost:

  • Adult £8
  • Child £5
  • Family (2 adults + 2 children or 1 adult + 3 children) £20
  • Children aged 0 to 4-years-old: Free

IMPORTANT: Both venues have maximum capacities that we cannot exceed. At peak times, you may have to queue to enter one or other venue. 

Buy your tickets on the An Lanntair website (or in person at An Lanntair)

Early bird workshop tickets

You can join any of the OH!CON workshops for free on the day, but places are limited – once a workshop is full, that’s it. If there is a workshop that you really want to attend, you can buy an early bird workshop ticket – this will guarantee you a place at that workshop. Note: You must have a day ticket to enter the venues - early bird workshop tickets are only valid if you have a day ticket. 

Buy your tickets on the An Lanntair website (or in person at An Lanntair)

Before OH!CON

We also have a few things happening before the day:

Programme

Here's what's happening on the day. 

Workshops

Workshops are free to join on the day if spaces are available (first come, first served). Spaces are limited, so if you want to make sure of a place in advance, you can buy an early bird workshop ticket (£3) for the workshop you want to attend. Workshop tickets are only valid if you have a day ticket as well.

  • When: 10.30 to 11.20 (50 minutes)
  • Where: An Lanntair Community Room
  • Suitable for: kids, young adults and anyone (from 12 years up)

Learn how to write for games!

Games writer and author Thomas Welsh (Cloudpunk, Best Served Cold, and loads of others) talks about how he got into writing fantasy novels and games. He will discuss his creative process, and offer tips for kids, young adults, and anyone who might want to learn how to break into writing for games. The session will feature fun creative activities and plenty of time for questions and interaction!

Buy tickets for creativity and storytelling in games (An Lanntair box office)

About Thomas 

Thomas Welsh is a games writer and fantasy novelist. He was lead writer and narrative director on the award winning Cloudpunk, City of Ghosts, Nivalis, Best Served Cold and more. He has written for numerous game sites including Kotaku and has several short stories in print. Tom has presented a talk at The Games Developers conference in San Francisco, and he won the Creativity Award at the Scottish Game Awards in 2023 for Cloudpunk.

Find out about other OH!CON guests

  • When: 10.30am to 11am (30 minutes)
  • Where: An Lanntair Art Room
  • Suitable for: beginners,  6 years and older

Paint a figure and take it home with you! 

A fun and friendly introduction to miniature painting! Perfect for kids who are new to the hobby, this workshop will cover the basics of painting and let everyone take home their own painted figure. No experience needed.

Buy tickets for miniature figure painting for beginners (An Lanntair box office)

  • When: 11.30am to 12.20pm (50 minutes)
  • Where: An Lanntair Art Room
  • Suitable for: 7 to 9 year olds

A comic art workshop for 7 to 9 year olds

Join comic artist Edward Ross (author of Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, and more) and learn how to design your very own comic character. Then bring them to life in a hilarious and exciting comic story!

Buy tickets for comic art workshop (An Lanntair box office)

About Edward

Edward Ross is an Edinburgh-based comic artist who has been drawing comics since he was a kid. He’s the creator of Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film and Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming.

His latest book Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, helps young and aspiring comic creators bring their ideas to life with helpful advice and activities.

Find out about other OH!CON guests

  • When: 12:30pm to 1:20pm
  • Where: An Lanntair, Community room
  • Suitable for : 16 yrs+

A creative writing workshop for ages 16 years and up.

Join Andrew – who has written absolutely loads of best-selling books, comics and graphic novels –to discover the storytelling techniques used in truly great comics.  

Using examples from his own work and others, Andrew will show you how to tell your story, taking advantage of the things that comics can do that other media can’t. 

The workshop will give you an opportunity to put the techniques into practice, creating a page of your own comic (either writing it or drawing it, whichever you prefer).

Buy tickets (An Lanntair box office)

About Andrew

Andrew Donkin has sold over 10 million children’s books and graphic novels, worldwide. His graphic novel, Illegal (co-written with Eoin Colfer), was an international bestseller and has won or been nominated for over 40 book awards. Andrew has written for many global franchises, including Batman, Superman, Doctor Who, and Artemis Fowl. His non-fiction work includes biographies of Roald Dahl, William Shakespeare and Albert Einstein. He loves books, comics, and tea. Andrew lives near the river Thames in London with his family.

Find out about other OH!CON guests

  • When: 12.30pm to 1.20pm (50 minutes)
  • Where: An Lanntair Art Room
  • Suitable for: all ages

A plasticine model-making workshop for all ages 

Using plasticine, Jim Parkyn - character designer, model maker, sculptor, filmmaker, stop motion animator for Aardman Animations, BBC, and loads more - will help you to model your own monster!

Buy tickets for monster model making workshop"(An Lanntair box office)

About Jim

Jim is a Scotland-based artist with over 25 years in the animation industry, Jim has been involved in many best-loved animations for Aardman Animations, the BBC and many other clients.

As a sculptor, model maker and character designer Jim is the helping hand behind many classic characters including Wallace and Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, Creature Comforts and animated feature films and commercials.

When not making modelling clay magic in the studio he can be found in schools and universities, festivals and corporate team building sessions sharing a lifelong passion for plasticine with Screen Argyll and other partners across the world.

Find out about other OH!CON guests

When: 2.30pm to 3.20pm (50 minutes)

Where: An Lanntair Art Room

Suitable for: 10 to 14 year olds

Take your comics to the next level!

Love comics? Interested in making your own? Come meet comic artist Edward Ross, creator of Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, and learn a bunch of tips and tricks that will bring you comic book ideas to life!

Buy tickets for comic creators masterclass (An Lanntair box office)

About Edward

Edward Ross is an Edinburgh-based comic artist who has been drawing comics since he was a kid. He’s the creator of Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film and Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming. His latest book Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, helps young and aspiring comic creators bring their ideas to life with helpful advice and activities.

Find out about other OH!CON guests

  • When: 3.30 to 4.15pm (45 minutes)
  • Where: An Lanntair Art Room
  • Suitable for: painters who know the basics, aged 12 years+

A hands-on session for hobbyists with some painting experience. This workshop will focus on using drybrushing techniques to achieve metallic effects on miniatures.

Book tickets for advanced miniature painting (An Lanntair box office)

Talks

Talks are included in your day ticket. Seating is limited (first come, first served).

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (50 mins)

A panel talk on humour in sci-fi, fantasy, comics and games.

We have some super funny guests this year, so here's your chance to meet them and kick off OH!CON with a laugh. 

Join our guests, Jasper Fforde, Jim Parkyn, Rik Carranza and Andrew Donkin as they talk about what they find funny and how they use humour in their own work.

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (50 mins)

GR Jordan from Western Isles Archers explores the accuracy of Tinseltown's bow-wielding heroes and heroines. From Katniss Everdene to Legolas, from Merida to Hawkeye – which movies have pinpoint precision and which are just made up nonsense?

Where: Community Room, An Lanntair (50 mins)

Join Sean Conagahn as he takes you on his journey of creating a new table-top role-playing game.

In Sneaksie,you take on the role of a thief, rogue, brigand or other ne’er-do-well completing jobs for money and favour in the criminal underworld of a fantasy city.

Sean will talk about how he developed Sneaksie from initial idea to working prototype and finally, the finished game.

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (50 mins)

Games writer and author Thomas Welsh talks about how he wrote the bestselling game Cloudpunk. He will reveal how you can write for games or genre fiction without relying on guns and violence, while still telling engaging, emotional and resonant stories. A Q&A at the end will offer plenty of time for audience members to ask him about working in games, writing novels, and his creative process.

Where: Community Room, An Lanntair (50 mins)

Join TTRPG experts R. P. Davis (Kabouter Games) and Hereward Proops for a lighthearted exploration of what it takes to be a successful dungeon master.

Focusing primarily on fantasy-themed role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the talk will consider the critically important issues of running a game such as what to do when your players don’t go in the direction you want them to, when to ignore bad dice rolls, and whether Halflings wear shoes or not.

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (50 mins)

Jasper Fforde is one of the UK's best-selling fantasy and science fiction authors.

His writing has been described as a joyful blend of comedy-SF-thriller-crime-satire. He delights in humour and wordplay, tightly scripted plots and playful subversion of conventional, traditional genres.

His 17 published novels (so far!) span everything from police procedurals featuring nursery rhyme characters to post-apocalyptic dystopias where social hierarchy is based on the colours you can see, and  alternate history mysteries featuring literary detective Thursday Next.

We'll be chatting about all of these and more, and there'll be the opportunity for questions from the audience too!

Find out more at Jasper's website (seriously, check it out - it's proper extraordinary!)

Where: Community Room, An Lanntair (50 mins)

We're teleporting down to chat about Blake's 7, the landmark BBC sci-fi show from the late 70s. Debuting just after the UK launch of Star Wars, this tale of plucky rebels fighting against an evil galactic regime trod a darker, more cynical, and distinctly more British path.

We’ll be tackling the big questions: Was this Terry Nation’s finest achievement? Who were the standout characters? (We know, you know, but we’ll ask the question anyway.) Did the ropey special effects matter? How good was that ending? And were there actually ever 7 in the crew at any point during the series? 

If you watched it back in the day, join us to relive memories of the show. Or if you have never seen it, join us to find out why, nearly 50 years on, we think this is still one of the best sci-fi series the BBC ever produced.

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (30 mins)

July Woodford has a big interest in LARPing and starting up a LARPing group on the island! LARP stands for Live Action RolePlaying. Come join in on the talk to learn about all things fantasy and LARP! July will discuss how it works, how to get started and everything you need to know about it!

Where: Community Room, An Lanntair (50 mins)

What was it like to work with a Canadian author-artist to publish the first Gaelic graphic novel in Canada? Dr. Emily McEwan of Bradan Press takes us step by step through the process, giving insights into the unique challenges of small-scale publishing and creative work in Gaelic.

Where: Gallery, An Lanntair (60 mins)

Join OH!CAST for a special live episode celebrating a combined 175 years of comic book history! In honor of the 90th anniversary of DC and the 85th of Marvel, we're dedicating an entire hour to a live audience chat about all things comics.

This is your chance to share your passion! We'll be discussing your favourite stories, the characters who inspire you, and the creators and artists who brought them to life. Get ready to dive deep into the world of sequential art and celebrate your favourite heroes and villains with fellow fans.

Cosplay masquerades

  • 11:30am: Children (0-15yrs) and families
  • 3:30pm: Adults (16 yrs+)

The masquerades will take place in the An Lanntair auditorium. They are free to enter, but there are limited spaces so you must register at the OH!CON merch table at least 20 minutes before the start of the masquerade. Make sure to check out our cosplay guidelines.

Drop-in activities

There's a lot of other stuff happening around OH!CON - all included in your day ticket.

Town Hall

  • Video games
  • Tabletop games
  • VR games
  • Wargames
  • Soft archery
  • Soft axe throwing
  • NERF
  • Vendors and merch

An Lanntair

  • Make a scene with Plasticine
  • Lego
  • Create your own comic
  • Face painting and temporary tattoos
  • RPG sessions 
  • Props and costumes display
  • Lightsaber demos (1pm and 2:30pm)
  • Guest signing table - meet our fabulous guests
  • OH!CON merch and cosplay registration

Please note: all guests and activities are confirmed but may be subject to cancellation or alteration due to guests' sickness or professional obligations, equipment failure, venues changes, space-time continuum irregularities, alien invasion or other circumstances beyond our control.