What were you doing at 10am on Sunday morning? Enjoying some breakfast? Still in bed? I was getting attacked by a zombie. That was just one of the things that I found myself doing at MCM Comic Con in London this past weekend.
Taking place at the ExCel centre in London, MCM Comic Con is filled with things to do. Panels, stalls, signings, photoshoots, activities and so much more. There is so much to see and do that it’s impossible to do it all. In amidst all of this is one very common sight: Cosplayers.
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| There were several con-goers dressed as The Arrow, but only one sported the new costume |
Some of the better costumes that I saw included, but weren’t limited to: a group of people as Stormtroopers leading a chained Princess Leia along, recreating her captivity march from A New Hope; one of the Skylanders (I don’t know which) in a costume that looked fantastic; LEGO Batman; and Once Upon a Time’s Hook, worn by SpoilerTV’s very own CJ. CJ bore an uncanny resemblance to Colin O'Donoghue’s Killian Jones, a fact that dozens of people commented on, leading to an innumerable amount of people asking for pictures with him. Walking round the con with him on Sunday was a great challenge, because every five paces, someone new would ask for a selfie.
But what did I get up to? I arrived shortly before the 9am opening time on Saturday morning, collected my press badge and waited eagerly for the doors to open. A big cheer arose from the middle of the venue when entry to the orange carpet was allowed. After a quick look around, I attempted to meet with CJ, but phone signal is a challenge in the ExCel and so we were unable to meet… for now.
At 10am, I headed up to the press room and joined in my first roundtable interview for the day: RJ Mitte of Breaking Bad. Now, when I say roundtable, the room was set up more like that of a press conference. The interview lasted just ten minutes, but it was good fun. I’ll have a write-up of that posted on the site later in the week.
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| Shortly after the floor opened on Saturday morning |
From there, I headed to my next interview, this time with Arrow’s Cynthia Addai Robinson and The Flash’s Candice Patton. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually get to attend because the room that I was directed to wasn’t in use, and after waiting for around about half an hour (having been told that the room was currently in use and to wait), I returned to the main floor to find them being interviewed as part of MCM Buzz. So that was a disappointment.
I had another quick look around, before attending my first panel of the day - one I was eagerly anticipating: The Walking Dead, with Ross Marquand (Aaron) and EP, director and make-up specialist Greg Nicotero. The crowd of people awaiting entry to the Platinum Stage (where the panel took place) was incredible. A panel for CBBC’s Eve was still going on as they allowed TWD fans in, and the flood of people that took over the space was something to see.
We got to see a teaser promo for the show as well as a new sneak peek from this past Sunday’s episode. However, the two best things to come out of that panel were: 1. Greg revealing that Ross can do a Christopher Walken impression, and a good one - Ross couldn’t get out of doing it once it was mentioned. 2. Greg telling the audience that virtually every day, Andrew Lincoln leaves him a voice message that consists of about a minute of him singing, and about 30 seconds of him saying how great shooting went that day.
I left that panel and after a bit of lunch, proceeded to walk around the main floor, as I had yet to really do so. It was at this point that CJ and I managed to arrange to meet a little before 2pm, where CJ would have a Disney photoshoot event. We had a brief encounter, before he joined in with the rest of the Disney cosplayers to be part of a huge photo.
While this was going on, I headed back to the main floor and continued to look around. There were so many great things on show. T-shirts, POP figures, a CeX stand, a Doctor Who stand, a Star Wars stand featuring a replica carbonite Han, temporary tattoos, comic books, figurines from Walking Dead, Star Wars, Doctor Who and so much more. Over the course of more than an hour I walked around the entirety of the floor, at least glancing at every single stand. It was incredible seeing how much there was on sale. If it was comic book/TV/film related, chances are, there was a stall selling something about it. All this commerce got to me, and I decided that I needed to add to my POP collection of two (Flash and Reverse Flash) by purchasing the Oliver Queen and Deathstroke POPs.
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| EXTERMINATE! |
With no more roundtables scheduled for the day, and no more panels that I was particularly interested in, I headed for home. It had been a good first day at MCM Comic Con, and I eagerly anticipated the second.
One of the best booths in attendance over the weekend was the FOX UK area, which had activities for two of their shows. On one side, for American Horror Story’s fifth season, Hotel, there was a replica hotel desk with a box of open drawers with ‘room keys’. You would go up to the desk, ring the bell and pick a drawer and with it, a key. If you picked the right key, you could win a season box set (for Freak Show, I think it was). I only saw one person win, though I’m sure there were many others.
On the other side was a Walking Dead area, with a small openly fenced off area containing three people dressed as zombies. They looked brilliant - so much like the ones from the earlier days of the show. There was even an escaped ‘walker’ roaming around the booth outside the fenced off area, who did a good job of scaring one passer-by who wasn’t paying any attention to the booth.
From here, I spent the rest of the day walking around with CJ and his Two Geeky Guys partners-in-crime Markus and Simon. Much of the morning consisted of walking around just outside the main venue, filming various different cosplayers for the post-con video that Two Geeky Guys always do. A large screen in the outside area showed various different trailers on repeat, including the Batman vs. Superman, Suicide Squad and The Secret Life of Pets trailers, along with various DVD trailers such as Terminator Genisys and Jurassic World. They also showed a UK promo for The Flash which I’m particularly fond of. No Star Wars trailer, which was slightly disappointing, though had they been showing it, I doubt I’d have left the area for the rest of the day.
After about two hours of filming, CJ went off to boost his already large ego by posing for several different photos for the site Food and Cosplay (see one of the photos here), while I went off for some lunch. Afterwards, I rejoined CJ and took a walk inside the con, looking for various people to film. It was during this time that CJ managed to score a five minute interview for later in the day with Hillywood (a YouTube account who have parodied various shows, including Walking Dead and Supernatural), who were in attendance signing autographs.
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| My brand new Flash shirt goes nicely with my lovely Flash poster (feat. my Avengers poster) |
With about an hour to go until the MCM 48 Hour Film Challenge, in which Two Geeky Guys had an entry, we headed outside where CJ and Markus filmed the latest Mark vs. CJ, a monthly thing that they do on their channel for their POP in a Box unboxing videos. This month’s edition featured them having to find someone in a specific cosplay in the quickest time - Markus had to find a Deadpool, and CJ a Harley Quinn. It was hysterical to see them both running around searching for cosplay characters whom we’d seen all over the place all day, that were now nowhere to be seen.
Towards the end of this fun, I went back to the main floor and bought myself a Flash t-shirt, before rejoining the guys and heading back up to Platinum Stage for the Film Race. Two Geeky Guys came fifth, a placement that disappointed and stunned us all, with even a few of the other audience members (whom I believe were also contenders) suggesting they were robbed. Maybe there was just too much CJ - Markus stated that their original specification said “less acting from CJ”, and that didn’t happen at all.
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| Some Star Wars cosplay at the end of Sunday |
This was my first Comic Con anywhere, and it was a great experience. I didn’t quite get to do everything I had hoped, or interviewed all those I had expected to, but it was still an absolute blast. Even aside from the interviews or the panels or the stalls or meeting CJ for the first time, just seeing the sheer number of people that attend this is incredible. It’s difficult not to marvel at the spectacle of the beast that is MCM Comic Con. The next one in London is in May, and I’m already excited to go back.
Did you attend MCM Comic Con this weekend? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!
.JPG)
