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That Was The MCM London Comic Con 2018 That Was

This weekend saw the MCM London Comic Con 2018 run in London's ExCel Centre. The first MCM run by Reed Pop after their purchase last year, the previous owner and founder Brian Cooney was still on hand in his advisory capacity.

The Comics Village, my own point of focus, had received new attention, prominent placing and signing, and investment in bringing in international guests to join the favourites. You can see a walkthrough right here.

There was a mixed response from vendors I spoke to there, that often seemed down to individual placement. No one had a bad show, some people found it slow in places, but many others found it a very strong show – even their strongest –  with Bleeding Cool alumni Joe Glass, creator and publisher of The Pride, declaring it was the best show he had ever sold at – and that was only by Saturday night. The drinks were on him.

There were actual comic book panels this time, and all the panels were in rooms placed on the show floor rather than up and away from the action in previous years, increasing footfall on the show floor, but also avoiding audio leakage or poor visuals from previous shows. Ken Lashley's account of being spoiled on every Marvel movie and Star Wars due to creating visuals for Disney, was a highlight, including his despair and shock with the slideshow he had to sit through that ruined everything we have all just seen the last few months – and more from Avengers 4 to come.

While the Live Stage, open to passersby, had some of the strongest guests and aided the sense of community – such as when Tom Ellis serenaded the show. And Letitia Wright found her South London contingent in full attendance.

And it is that which has always made MCM strong, with one of the largest percentage of attending cosplayers I have ever seen. This weekend was no exception. The show estimated over 80,000 individual attendees, and it felt that at least half of those were in costume. Whatever changed Reed made, it still felt MCM in spirit, just with a new skin, and better branding.

As ever, the big news from any show is what is happening next, and Bleeding Cool was also able to report that October's show in London will see DC Comics bring Frank Miller and Jim Lee. We have also heard that Brian Azzarello, who will have a Suicide Squad book coming out then, will be joining them, as well as Andy Kubert and Klaus Janson to make a full Dark Knight 3 contingent.

Will that anger the old gods?

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