MCM London Comic Con

History and organization

The MCM (Movie Comic Media) Expo Group are organisers of the London, Birmingham, the Midlands, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Belfast, Manchester, Scotland, Liverpool, Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Belgium and Hannover MCM Comic Cons. It was founded in early 2001 by Paul Miley (ScifiShows) and Bryan Cooney (Wolf Events), both well known organisers within the fan convention entertainment industry.

The convention is held twice each year, usually on the last full weekend of May and October. There have occasionally been exceptions to this; May 2009 being one of them.

The event started as a single day and has now expanded to run across three days attracting attendance and involvement from industry luminaries such as: Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Manga Entertainment UK, All the Anime, NEO Magazine and Marvel Comics, amongst others.

Exhibit Hall

The MCM London Comic Con features a large floor-space for dealer stands and exhibitors which include media companies such as film studios and TV stations. There is also a theatre space that includes a large stage with projection monitors on either side and seating for approximately 1000.

Guests

Guests from popular media are commonly invited to the show. They take part for a variety of reasons. Often, this is to promote their latest product or production whether it be movie, TV or print. Sometimes it can be to raise awareness and funds for a charity or cause important to them. It is common to see television and film personalities selling autographs and interacting with their fans both in person and on stage during Question and Answer sessions. Along with panels, seminars and workshops with comic book professionals, there are previews of upcoming television and feature films, portfolio review sessions with video game companies.

Autographs

The event also includes an autograph area where big names in movies and TV will sit and sign items for the public.

Cosplay

Ticket holders are allowed, and in many cases encouraged, to take part in cosplay. Cosplaying has become one of the most popular parts of the show. This can be to show off the costumer's latest work, just to show devotion to their favourite characters or engage in role-play with other cosplayers in the same series, as well as just meet new people with mutual interests. The show is also home to the EuroCosplay championships which takes place every October with one of the UK qualifying entries being decided at the May event.

Comic Village

Comic Village is an area of the show that is co-ordinated by Gary "Wheels" Howe, a member of the MCM Expo Group. This area hosts approximately 200 tables, where amateur as well as professional artists/writers/publishers sell their comics as well as prints. This area also has a signing area where big names in the comic industry come and sign for members of the public, previous guests have included Gail Simone, Kevin Eastman, Frazer Irving, Antony Johnston, Karen Gillan and many more.

MCM Fringe Festival

In 2010, MCM Fringe Festival was re-vamped and given a new logo. The main purpose of Fringe is to allow cosplayers to organise photoshoots, meet-ups, picnics and get togethers. Organisers are more easily able to create their own event within the Expo and broadcast it. At the same time, the rest of the Expo Attendees can search the website and decide to go to it. Photoshoots will be more successful and likely to get more people from the same anime or game to take part. Previous events have included picnics, dances and video gaming tournaments.

Eagle Awards for Comics

The Eagle Awards were founded in 1977 and are the longest running fan voted awards for the comic industry. They were held at the MCM London Comic Con each May until 2012, since when the Eagle Awards no longer run.

VidfestUK

VidfestUK is an area of the expo dedicated to online visual media, such as animations, vlogs and various web series. Notable guests include YouTube partners such as TomSka and MrWeebl.

MyM magazine

MyM's stand hosts celebrity signings, which are available to anyone who purchases a copy of the magazine at the event. Past signings have included voice actors Mark Meer (Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard), Courtenay Taylor (Resident Evil: Damnation, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), D. C. Douglas (Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Transformers: Rescue Bots) and Adam Howden (Anders in Dragon Age II, Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles and Pipin in Final Fantasy XIV).

Location and dates

|- | Expo 27 || October 2016 || ExCeL London || 133,156 || Melissa Rauch, Kunal Nayyar, Jesse Eisenberg, |}

MCM BUZZ

MCM BUZZ is a website in association with MCM, bringing all the latest in media related news from movies, comics, interviews with celebrities and a live podcast.