On Saturday 25th October, I attended MCM London Comic Con for my 12th year (skipping 2020, of course).

I cosplayed as Greg from Over The Garden Wall!

Over The Garden Wall is one of my favourite shows and is perfect to enjoy in Autumn. My costume is mostly made from secondhand clothing – the shirt is a men’s dress shirt from a charity shop and the Lucy & Yak dungarees were from Vinted. They were originally a light minty green colour but I dyed them to a darker olive green to match the show a little better. I made the teapot hat myself on Friday night. My friend Laura cosplayed Wirt!

I made Greg’s “Rock Fact” rock from air dry clay, grey acrylic paint and Sharpie paint pens. I carried this with me all day but didn’t really get a change to show him off.

Meeting Robert Baratheon – King of the Seven Kingdoms

One of the last minute guests announcements included Mark Addy – the actor who played Robert Baratheon in the first season of Game of Thrones. I brought my used paperback copy of A Game of Thrones will me to get signed by him. I went to his signing table first thing and there was no queue at all! He was very kind and was still happy to be asked to sign GoT merch for fans of the show (and books). I plan on collecting a few more cast signatures in this book at future events.

Books at the Writer’s Block

One of my favourite places to peruse at comic con is the Writer’s Block section. This area has grown massively since its inception a few years ago and provides a great opportunity for indie authors to get their books out into the hands of readers. I got to say hello to my friend L.L. MacRae at her author table, after not seeing her since last year’s October MCM! We actually met at MCM London many years ago (2018, if I’m remembering correctly) and have become good friends over time.

I also got to meet some new authors this year. I bought Ascendant by Michael R. Miller – a dragon rider series I have been looking to pick up for a while now. The next two books are from Talia Beckett (who writes under many pen names). I told her I loved epic fantasies so she recommended The Fire of Winter. She described The Initiate as Buffy meets Sister Act meets The Three Musketeers – an absolutely crazy combination of influences, so I had to give this short little read a try.

Nerdy Merchandise

I spent quite a bit of money this year in the artist alley and the corporate booths. My first shopping stop was the Official Bandai booth to pick up some Gundam goodies. I recently got into the Mobile Suit Gundam fandom earlier this year with the release of the latest series: Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuux. I bought these two cute con-exclusive clear coloured Haro kits and some pin badges. I also managed to get a figure of Machu in her flight suit from another trader at the con.

Turns out there were quite a few traders selling Gundam merch. I lucked out and managed to find the recently released Haro plushie from the Gundam 45th anniversary collaboration with Hatsune Miku. Such a cute plushie! I also picked up the much smaller keychain version for my backpack.

I bought these three medieval inspired fan art pieces from Eeth0k (check out their Instagram). I’ve been following them on Instagram and TikTok since I missed them at last year’s MCM October Comic Con. Their artwork is just gorgeous, here are a few pieces of my favourite movies/shows:

Before leaving the con I visited all the artist alley tables again to try and find Fire Emblem: Three Houses merch. After 30 minutes of searching I managed to find an artist selling a few keychains of the main characters! Hopefully with the release of the next Fire Emblem game coming to the Switch 2 next year more fan art will be available at cons.

Overcrowding (a rant)

I’ve been coming to MCM London Comic Con for many years now, way back when it was still MCM Expo and before it had been sold to ReedPop. The con has grown from being in just a few hangers in the Excel Exhibition Centre to now taking over the entire site for two weekends a year. MCM are overselling tickets and to its own detriment. It’s unsafe. Queues and crowds were common a few years ago but it never felt like you couldn’t get from one end of the hall to the other, now it’s as if you can’t get from one end of the aisle to another.

We actually weren’t able to see all the venders at the show this year because there was just walls of people fully blocking the way. It was claustrophobic and there were several times when we were physically pushed and shoved by the sheer volume of people trying to move through the halls. I’ve been many times when the con has been sold out and it didn’t feel unsafe or like you were being swarmed. I think this time the event wasn’t even sold out!

I don’t know what the crowds were like at the end of the show this year as we left at 5pm. Last year we left at closing and people were injured while trying to leave. Several people were crushed by the crowds, many suffered physical injuries and panic attacks. Attendees used to be able to leave via several exits but now they insist on shoving thousands of people through the incredibly tiny West Entrance.

It’s very disappointing to see the show runners treating their attendee’s safety with such disregard. ReedPop’s acquisition of the con has (for the most part) improved the experience of attendees with regards to its scheduling, activities and guests. Hopefully all the complaints they’ll receive this year about the overcrowding will cause them to rethink how many tickets they sell. Even if they reduced capacity by a few hundred per day, the overall experience for attendees would greatly improve.

That being said, I did have a good day overall. I am planning on attending MCM London Comic Con again in May 2026. See you there!