MCM London is a big deal, it’s probably the largest comic con in the UK. The con runs out of the Excel in London, taking over two massive halls which I suspect are probably larger than four football pitches and, what’s more, it fills them! The scale is breath-taking, particularly from the point of view of a busy Saturday afternoon when there are an estimated 45,000 people wandering past your stall!
Friday was extremely busy, and we had completely underestimated the amount of stock we should have packed. Who would have thought that Amazon putting a Lord of the Rings show would have meant that the demand for our Gandalf lino print would go through the roof? Well, we should have thought of that but…... y’know. By Saturday morning we had already replaced framed pictures several times over and on Sunday we had started to spread our frames out on the stand to fill the gaps!
The other things that were in demand were Sandman and Good Omens, on account of Tom Sturridge and Michael Sheen both attending. We had intended to take some time and go and visit some celebrities to get things signed for us, however it was way too busy to leave our table! I joked that the only other places I’d seen of the event was the noodle bar and the toilet, it wasn’t far from the truth!
We saw some incredible cosplays over the event including some of our long-time visitors to the stand including “damaniacarola”, “It’s Kat Parker”, “Twisted Sisters Cosplay”, “Kisasa Cosplay”, “Once Upon an Ellie”, “bam.zoom”, “The Gentleman Geek”, “tjccosplays”, “By DeeBee”, “jenscosplays”, “luisseracosplay”, “thorsonofodin1989”, “send_pai” and way too many more to mention. We also met more lovely folk to add to our ever-expanding cosplay family including “wannesofarendelle” and “sagasbyselene” plus a whole bunch of people that I can’t identify using their Instagram!
To be honest, I’d like to write a lot more about this, but I can’t quite remember what happened, it was a whirlwind! Special thanks though to lovely Dawn Ludgate and Matt of Die Hard of The Dead for keeping us going throughout the event with food and cups of tea.
I’d highly recommend this event to both traders and visitors with a couple of caveats. Traders, it’s an expensive event to go to both in terms of table prices and hotel costs. Visitors, again it’s a little more expensive than most but the experience is next level. The only negative I’d say is that it is extremely crowded, especially on a Saturday, so if you suffer from anxiety you may want to consider it carefully, though I believe quiet places are available.
Overall, we had a great, though exhausting, experience. The only problem is that we have to do it all again in a couple of weeks at MCM Birmingham!
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