MCM London Comic Con – the latest con I’ve attended outside of my home country.

They call me Mr. Worldwide!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’ve been to several different conventions in North America. But recently, I’ve been to cons outside of the continent. I went to Comic Con Portugal last year. And this year, I went to MCM London Comic Con in England!

For those who don’t know, MCM is one of the largest comic con conventions in the world. I didn’t realize just how big it actually is (but I’ll get to that later in this post). It was epic and huge. Even though I prefer Anime conventions over comic cons, I still had a short fun time at MCM.

In this post, I’ll go over my experience with MCM London Comic Con, give you an overall review and what to expect if you want to attend.

I have lots of photos from MCM London Comic Con, but I feel this video by Sevenblade – Cosplay Cinematics shows how awesome this convention is!

Where I’m coming from

To start, I wasn’t planning on attending MCM London Comic Con. But I happened to be in the city on the same weekend this convention was happening. So I figured, why not attend? Although the convention was 3 days long, I only attended on the Saturday. Depending on what you’re looking for, any of the days could work for you (read my post on whether Friday, Saturday or Sunday of a con you’d like the most, based on your preferences). But for me, I wanted to see the best cosplayers and get the most programming, so I chose to attend on Saturday.

So based on my experience, here’s the good and bad. Let’s start with the good stuff!

Pro: The cosplayers are amazing

Wow, just wow! Of all the conventions I’ve attended in my life, I’d have to say that MCM London Comic Con has some of the most amazing cosplayers at the convention. There were simply so many wonderful cosplays to see and take photos of. Honestly, I couldn’t keep up asking to take photos of all the awesome cosplays; there were simply too many of them! And not just from the popular series of 2022 such as Genshin Impact or League of Legends either.

The legacy fandoms such as Mortal Kombat or Sailor Moon got lots of cosplay love as well. I also seen some insanely crazy armor or life-sized cosplays too; I just couldn’t believe how many amazing cosplayers were at MCM London Comic Con.

If you’re looking for a convention to fill up your camera roll full of the best cosplays, then this convention you must attend!

Pro: Indoor and outdoor events – so many things to do!

A photo I took when I was watching the show on the main stage.

Maybe it’s just that I’m used to Canadian comic conventions. But I’ve gotten used to not having much to do at comic cons. In my experience at least with comic cons, it feels like you’re paying a LOT of money just to enter a big dealer’s room.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case with MCM London Comic Con. Well yes, there was an insanely large dealer’s room (a good thing), they also just as big of an ARTIST ALLEY on the opposite side. Wow!

MCM London Comic Con had a variety of activities and panels happening:

  • Outdoor concerts
  • K-Pop stuff
  • Cosplay Masquerade
  • Information panels
  • And of course, celebrity  stuff like autograph sessions

Even though I got to the convention at a decent time, I found myself rushing back and forth in order to be able to see everything in one day. That is something I hardly ever do at comic cons; I can get through most of them within an hour.

Pro: It’s a big time convention

Make no mistake about it; MCM London Comic Con is one of the largest conventions out there. And it certainly feels like it as well. Everything feels so high-production. The big sponsors and companies make their presence known at the con. One of my favourite games, Genshin impact, had its own big booth at the con. The booth was so popular; we didn’t get a chance to even make it through the line.

So if you love big, fancy conventions…then MCM is PERFECT for you.

Con: This convention ends way too early

One of my biggest gripes about comic cons is their early closing hours. Unlike Anime conventions that stay open super-late or in some cases, 24 hours (e.g. Anime Central), comic cons love to shut their doors before the sun goes down. And in the case of MCM London Comic Con, on the Saturday I went, the convention was closed at 7 p.m. That is far too early in my opinion.

While the early opening/early closing might appeal to older attendees or ones with kids, for young adults like me, a 7 p.m. closing time is not appealing. There was a paid after party offsite that you could get into. But it was sold out for me, so by the time 7 p.m. rolled around, I had nothing else to do for the rest of the day except go for dinner!

Con: It was PACKED

I hesitated to put this as a negative. Because really, all big cons suffer from busy and tight spaces. But in the case of MCM London Comic Con this year, it was very, very packed. Like shoulder-to-shoulder in terms of how crowded it was. I’m not sure if MCM was normally that busy, as the large crowds may have to do with attendees missing out in previous years because of the pandemic. But either way, just a ton of people at the con.

The busiest by far was the indoor hallway, where you had no choice of getting by; you had to follow the crowd and get through the building with them. On the other hand, there was lots of room to move around in the dealer and artist rooms, as well as the outdoor common area. So as long as you stayed out of the hallway for most of the con, it wasn’t too bad. But if you don’t like crowds or being jammed like sardines, then MCM London Comic Con may not be for you.

Overall

I had a great time at the con. 🙂

I have to say that MCM London Comic Con is the best comic con I’ve ever been to (so far). Compared to the ones I’ve attended in Canada and even the one in Portugal, MCM goes above and beyond. The price was fair and the convention had a LOT to offer. Other than the short hours, MCM London Comic Con is all you could ask for in a comic con.

So I gave it an 8.0/10.

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