MCM Comic Con London can win the hard battle to retain its status in a growing European Comic Con scene if it focuses.
The event once deemed exclusive to ‘outcasts’ and ‘nerds’ has permanently entered the mainstream with more casual visitors walking along the crowded halls. The post-COVID shift of fandoms has both bolstered and hindered the Comic Convention industry, leaving it in a state of subtle confusion, which is the exact feeling I got walking out of my annual visit to MCM Comic Con London. On one hand, the convention did a good job at addressing the concerns of frequent goers and justifying the price of the ticket with an array of activities and panels for the every day visitors to enjoy. On the other hand, in its desire to cover all areas of entertainment, the event felt like it was lacking a central focus and therefore a purpose.
For those who have never been, MCM Comic Con London takes place twice a year – once at the end of May and once at the end of October. It is always housed by the ExCel London event center. It has a standard duration of three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Depending on the package and time of purchase, the prices of the tickets can vary. Even considering that, it is no secret MCM is the third most expensive European comic con behind the newest addition to the schedule San Diego Comic Con Malaga and Comic Con Stuttgart*. This is not necessarily a grievance as big cons are complex to manage, however it is important to acknowledge it in order to judge whether the product and its quality are on par with the demanding price tag.
The visible efforts from the organisers to better the product throughout the last two years, seem to indicate that despite its shortcomings, the answer is still yes: MCM is worth it.
As an annual participant since 2023, this was my first visit to the October edition. There are, of course, fundamental differences between the two – during May the outside is so busy, it practically functions as a whole separate area on its own, frequently referred to as ‘the grass’. While there were people outside during the winter too, it seemed it was more of a necessity for the cosplayers to have space for their photoshoots than utilisation of additional space. For casual visitors that is of no significance, however if you cosplay you might want to either think of a season appropriate cosplay or be prepared to try and find space for yourself inside the busy event center.
That being said, some of the biggest concerns of the last few years have been answered in an appropriate way.
For starters, it was amazing to see a con take such an open and firm stance against the use of AI in their artist alley. There were signs up and down the area affirming their mission to stand with human creatives. In a time where anxiety over AI seeps from left and right, it is nice to know that there are steps being taken to preserve the trust between the organizers, artists and consumers.
Secondly, crowd control has gotten significantly better. Yes, the distances one has to walk are still long from getting the pass to entering the building, but in comparison to previous years, the process has gotten much smoother, the signs much clearer and the staff much more helpful. Same with leaving, which while as hectic as ever, was also much faster than the years prior.
Additionally, the artist alley has been expanded to accommodate a larger variety of artists and has been granted wider corridors for buyers to move more freely up and down the rows, thanks to the drastic layout changes implemented earlier that year. I felt like even during the busiest time on Saturday I could still get from point A to point B with relative ease, a task that I deemed impossible under thirty minutes the year before.
The decision to fully separate the con on two levels is a cautious plus in my books. During previous iterations, the artist alley and the panel stages would be at the same hall, making the noise that would come from the main stage into a rather overwhelming sensatory nightmare. By moving the main stage upstairs, the only sounds that remain are the ones from the K-pop corner and the small stage, hence making the entire experience much more enjoyable.
However, I say cautious plus, because the writers’ corner was also moved upstairs dividing the ‘talent’ on both levels of the convention. It would benefit the future iterations of the event to put all celebrities – actors, voice actors and writers on the same level as to make sure the fans can easily manage to meet all of their faves without having to run from one end to the other of a very big event center. Further, more guidance in the forms of signs are needed to inform people the convention is now on two levels, the map and app are not enough.
The biggest plus is that there was a lot that one could do during the three days – from catching early screenings of movies to fan meetups, celebrity/author panels, cosplay contests, shopping and even wrestling, MCM truly made an attempt at offering the widest variety of activities imaginable to convince you that you are getting a bank for your buck.
But that is also precisely where my only real criticism of the event lies: Behind the flashiness of variety, MCM Comic Con London felt disjointed and therefore a bit empty. There were dedicated areas to cosplayers, to writers, to comics enjoyers, to K-Pop enjoyers and celebrity fans, but nothing truly united these parts.
In the case of MCM that is perplexing as the organizers are no stranger to the idea that every comics convention needs at least an anchor theme to guide it. They did it in 2023 with Our Flag Means Death and 2024 with Hazbin Hotel and Baldur’s Gate. So why not now? Why leave the con to its defenses?
We can’t be naive. The convention needs to make money and the organizers are banking on the consumer being such a fan of their interest that they will be willing to pick up a ticket for MCM as opposed to one of their many competitors. However, the fanatic culture that built these events to cult must-attend status is slowly being alienated and no longer attended to with the same care.
Big cons have largely begun appealing to the casual interest enjoyer, willing to try and sell them anything from Winx to Sylvanian Family, and Predator. The fans, in turn, are not sure MCM is the place for them anymore, partially because they are fundamentally at odds with the casual guests who have no regards for the ‘rules’ that built this culture and partially because the cost to benefit ratio is no longer justifiable to them when there is a whole schedule of cons throughout Europe to enjoy at a much cheaper price, providing a similar variety and celebrity faces.
That is where a theme helps and is needed. When you unite your con under the umbrella of a single topic, you give the fans an incentive to choose your convention and you bring them back into your halls, which in turn would feed further down into the rising number of casual interest enjoyers, who really only want to spend some money, see cosplayers that they’ve only seen online and in movies, and leave. As a comics convention, you cannot afford to abandon the fans, no matter how lucrative the casual coin is becoming because simply: those people will not return next year.
The reward of comic con as opposed to other events is that the more involved you are, the more you commit in any way – cosplay, art, freebies, the more connections you make. You get to talk to people who share a similar interest as yours in a setting that is free of judgement. We use these places to preserve the spark of real life communities. We built lifelong friendships and sometimes in the halls of the ExCel center is the only time we will see them all year.
MCM Comic Con London has not yet lost that spark, because the people who work there – all the talent, organizers and artists, still give it their all, united by the wish to preserve it. But if the con does not re-group and concentrate, the people will not be enough and what made this event so special will be lost. To me, that would be a great shame for MCM was the very first big comic con I ever attended. It is the event that made me fall in love with the hours of preparing gifts for no reason other than passion, the tiresome, long days of walking and the con sickness that inevitably follows after three days of non-stop interacting with people. I firmly believe that it is not too late.
The spark is there, you simply have to keep it from escaping.
Comparison made based on the Saturday general entry price of twenty European Comic Cons. SDCC Malaga (50 euros), CCStuttgart (47.45 euros), MCM London (37 pounds or approximately 42.50 euros). [Sources: MCMComicCon, Elpais, Eventim]
