MCM London Comic Con – October 2016
This weekend saw the return of MCM Comic Con to London‘s Excel Centre, for 3 days of tv shows, comic books, and lots of cosplaying! The somewhat colder weather than the event in May didn’t stop people dressing up in a whole range of outfits, from the ever popular Harley Quinn, to the cast of The Walking Dead, to giant inflatable dinosaurs!
Once again the venue was split into 2 giant halls, filled with signing tables, displays of geekiness, and wallet draining merchandise. There are also various giant theatre spaces, which were home to a number of panels with the various guests over the weekend.
The Guests
Given the time of year, I had wondered who they might manage to bring as guests this time around, given, for the US at least, it’s prime filming season. However, there were a number of interesting people from current and older tv shows, along with people from the world of gaming to keep crowds happy. We had the chance to sit and chat in exclusive press interviews with a number of stars including:
- Voice acting legends Troy Baker & Nolan North from Uncharted 4.
- Michael Landes aka Hooten from Hooten & The Lady, and Jimmy Olsen from Lois & Clark.
- Emily Rose & Lucas Bryant From Syfy’s Haven.
- Agent Carter’s Daniel Sousa, aka Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse, Community).
- Violett Beane (Jessie Quick) from The Flash & Michael Rowe (Deadshot) from Arrow.
- Jamie Bamber from Battlestar Galactica.
- Red Dwarf’s Chris Barrie, Danny John Jules, and Hattie Hayridge.
You can find all the videos of these interviews in the YouTube playlist below, which also includes the entire panel for BBC Three’s CLASS, and the panel for Channel 4’s HUMANS.
The Comics
As usual there was an amazing display of talent in the Comic Village section of the Con. First new book to catch my eye was Flintlock from Birmingham based Time Bomb Comics by Steve Tanner. It’s a series of books set in interconnected 18th Century timeline, featuring highwaymen, pirates and other such 18th Century type stuff!
Next was Turncoat from TPub by Ryan O’Sullivan. Turncoat follows Duke… the world’s worst superhero assassin. He always needs a supervillain partner to help him on his hits, and he’s constantly fending off his (far more competent) ex-wife-and-rival-assassin, Sharon. Sick of only being sent contracts to take out d-list superhero losers, he decides he’ll show everyone he’s got what it takes by taking out the world’s number one superhero team – The Liberty Brigade. You know… once he figures out how…
Finally I stopped by our old friend Jeremy Biggs at Subversive Comics, who publish the brilliant Bearlands and Metal Made Flesh. Whilst chatting with Jeremy, I notice a familiar face staring back at me on the front of one of the books… “Erm… why is Bex’s face on the front of one of your comics?” i ask. Apparently our very own Bex Trista (from Geektown Radio and Trista Bytes) has been working with Jeremy and Subversive on developing a new book called Trista (girl has an ego the size of a planet i tell you…) ;) It’s only a small demo comic at the moment, but they are planning on developing it more, so I really look forward to seeing where it goes!
The Cosplay
As with any big comic book convention, the cosplayers were out in force! The movie Suicide Squad version seems to be winning the battle of the Harley Quinn’s at the moment, as I saw more of that variation of the costume than ever before. I did however bump into the Harleyest of Harley’s, Tori Seager (pictured above). I first encountered Tori in Birmingham where she had just ‘stolen’ a charity bucket and was being chased by a bunch of Mega City One Judges (she always returns it fuller than when she appropriates it). This time around she was with a Joker (I didn’t get his name… appropriately for the Joker), and was trying to make a guy in a very impressive Tim Burton era Batman cosplay to break character and laugh. You can see that exchange as part of the Comic Con clip video above.
Once again, I had a great time at MCM Comic Con. See you at MCM Comic Con Birmingham on the 19-20th November 2016!
