The first thing you see when you get out of Custom House tube station is thousands of cosplayers. Every single one of them has put in time, effort, money and mental bandwidth into costuming characters they love, or at least like the designs of. As you walk towards the Excel, you will see ornate prop designs and complex costumes, ranging from simple clothes to intricate sets of armour. You will see people of all ages, ranging from children to older folks, of all sorts of different ethnicities and gender identities. This is what you see as you enter MCM London Comic Con, held for three days straight, twice a year, once in May and again in October.
MCM London Comic Con was founded by Paul Miley and Bryan Cooney in 2001, and has been held annually since then. Its highest reported attendance was in May 2016, which allegedly brought in 133,156 people. Originally standing for Movies, Comics and Media, it’s the biggest convention held in London, and debatably in the entire U.K. Purchased by ReedPop in 2017, it hasn’t reported attendance numbers since, but I would argue it has probably gone far higher, especially with Anime’s explosive boom in popularity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve been five times, starting in 2023, and most recently from 24th-26th October 2025. Hosted in The Excel, deep in the London Docklands area, it’s a bit of a trek away from the central city, but has a myriad of accommodation options nearby for large events. For the last couple of conventions, it has been merged and partnered with EGX, another large scale convention, focusing on games, hosted by ReedPop.
A glimpse of just outside The Excel during MCM.
The convention itself is split into two halls, North and South. The layout is always slightly different each year, but this October was particularly unusual, with an expansion to the space leading to the movement of major sections. This year, the North Hall contained dozens of shop stalls, live gaming related-spaces, the Creator Stage and Writer’s Block, and the Queue Hall where everyone enters. The Creator Stage focuses specifically on demonstrations of talent from content creators and local talents, and it’s a wonderful way for indie creators to promote themselves.
The South Hall contained the Photo-Ops, Autographs, Artist Alley and Meet and Greet sections. This year, the Main Stage, Capital Stage, Writer’s Block Stage, and Cosplay Central all were moved to the ICC at the far side of the convention, occupying either the basement floor (Capital and Main Stages) or the third floor (Writer’s Block and Cosplay Central). By moving the stages to the ICC, they’ve attempted to divert the flow of foot traffic somewhat, and limit crowding, and it’s actually mostly worked. This October was the least over-crowded I’ve felt, on Friday and Sunday at least, whilst Saturday was still crowded, but at least getting into panels and events was well organised and streamlined.
A huge point of focus this year was gaming. A huge number of the guests were video game voice actors and professionals, including cast members from Mass Effect, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Detroit: Become Human and God of War. Thus, many of the panels revolved around this, including the brilliant Echoes of Midgar panel I attended, which focused on the development of Final Fantasy 7 Remake & Rebirth. There were also a number of guests from television series, including the casts of Rick & Morty, Ghosts and of course, The Boys, which was a huge draw for this year’s October convention. Some of the guest queues had hundreds of people in them, including Troy Baker, Christopher Judge, Karl Urban and Jon Bernthal.
This is one way MCM absolutely excels – they have the actual photo-ops process down to a fine art, and it moves at an efficient pace in order to ensure everyone with a booked ticket gets the chance to meet their celebrity of choice. Autographs take longer, mainly because the guests will often take the time to chat and take pictures with fans, but in my opinion that only makes it more worth it. I’ve gotten both autographs and photo-ops before, and I’ve always personally felt like I’ve gotten value for my money.
There were a number of literary guests as well, who partake in signings and panels, such as TJ Klune, Keith Rosson and Sunyi Dean. These creators rarely charge for autographs if you bring the books yourself. Additionally, there are signings throughout the artist alley for comics professionals known and unknown. One interesting and exciting stall was a preview for The Thing With Feathers, an upcoming feature film with artwork from Lucy Sullivan. The director of the film, Dylan Southern, was in attendance, handing out free zines and previewing the film, and it was great to speak to him.
Pictured: Myself and Dylan Southern.
A huge part of MCM’s appeal is the exclusive previews and demos you can access. This year, that includes previews of upcoming Hasbro toy releases, the new LEGO Batman game, the upcoming Predator: Badlands, Little Nightmares 3, and the new Digimon game. Queuing for these can often take some time, so I didn’t manage to check out all of them, but what I did check out was pretty awesome. It’s great that these areas are free to access, and it’s always fun to see people check out something new for the first time. Another reason MCM gains a lot of traction is the impressive amount of shops they have inside the convention setting. There are thousands of ways to spend hundreds of pounds at MCM, whether it be on prints in the Artist Alley, Handmade T-Shirts, replica weapons, or signed and rare memorabilia. Many of these are independent local companies, and it’s great to see them promoted and elevated to a place like this. They are often reflective of what is currently popular; This time, there was a lot of K-Pop Demon Hunters, Delicious in Dungeon, Demon Slayer and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Admittedly, there are some issues with price gouging, but mainly only on rare memorabilia, and I’ve mostly been able to avoid being scammed or ripped off.
Now, possibly the biggest thing that individualises MCM from other major conventions is the scale of the cosplay community that attends it. In a minimal estimate, I would say around seventy-five thousand people in cosplay grace the Excel’s at least. MCM London, alongside its sister event in Birmingham, are seen as vital to attend if you are a cosplayer based in the United Kingdom, with some even coming from overseas just for the event. The entire outside area of the Excel, colloquially known as ‘the green’, is covered in cosplayers on all three days, who host fandom-themed meet-ups. These are officially acknowledged by MCM, who have carved out a system to get in and out of the Excel with relative ease, but are organised strictly by fans, mainly through Instagram pages and Discord servers. This year, I attended the Final Fantasy meet, hosted by a group called the Kweh Collective, getting a glimpse into how they operate and how they are run. It was a wonderful environment, getting to bond with fellow fans of the franchise, and glimpsing the world of cosplay.
Courtesy of @kwehcollective on Instagram
Cosplayers all over the convention are stopped to get asked for photos, both with and of them, and take photoshoots with professional photographers. Cosplayers flood local hotels and pubs afterwards for after-parties, mainly the nearby Novotel and local pub The Fox. It’s fun, vibrant and surreal to see, leading to brilliant moments such as Yoda doing shots with Gandalf, or Supergirl shaking hands with Melina, Blade of Miquella. You do get some consistent issues at MCM, mainly by those who conflate cosplay with consent, and objectify or sexually harass cosplayers. MCM has made an effort to crack down against this, actively advertising against it and increasing security within the convention hall, but well-known ‘con-creeps’ still linger – which is especially a problem when you consider how young many cosplayers are, including many who are children. The on-site staff, known as stewards, do their best to prevent this, but it goes under-punished, often due to simply not being noticed. It’s difficult to spot every time, because of the immense crowding, and thus often goes ignored. That doesn’t mean it’s not an issue, but it’s one that admittedly MCM is trying to tackle. I think they know it causes problems, and they’re trying their best to solve it. I spoke with one cosplayer, MissCofi, who has attended MCM for nearly ten years, on how the convention approaches and interacts with the cosplay community. She had this to say:
I think with the rise of MegaCon (another major London based convention) and other more cosplay focused cons, MCM is definitely trying to carve more of a space out for cosplayers specifically. I think the creator lounge came first, and then moving Cosplay Central. Moving it upstairs to its own place is actually, contrary to popular belief, an attempt to show that they do find cosplayers an important part of the culture. It’s a double-edged sword, however, because the con starts to feel more divided, between cosplayers and non-cosplayers.
It’s definitely something I noticed as well, whilst accompanying MissCofi throughout the convention during our talk. There’s a relatively firm divide between cosplayers and those in casual dress, which I think furthers some of the poor behaviours that can arise towards cosplayers. However, that’s not something entirely within MCM’s control: They’re trying to emphasise one element, which is important to a lot of people and takes up a lot of the convention, without alienating others. Unfortunately, by appealing to both, you end up appeasing none, and I hope that the divide between cosplayers and the local community gets better, not worse, but there will undoubtedly have to be difficult decisions made.
Courtesy of @miss.cofi_cosplay on Instagram
Unfortunately, in my few years attending MCM, the amount of comics-related guests has gone down. This year, the entire comics focused section of the Artist Alley was in effect, one singular row, or at best, two. Major guests this October included Chip Zdarsky, Steve McNiven, Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Kevin Maguire, but it was a poor showing in terms of comic books. Even Traveling Man, who usually have a stall selling comics for deals, were nowhere to be found, and Forbidden Planet’s stall only had a minimal selection of comics this year. The map and promotional material was illustrated by the wonderful Kamilla Krol, who did an excellent job, and I was happy to see folks go up to her and ask for their maps to be signed. However, a number of artists I spoke to around the alley all expressed the same concern: MCM is London’s biggest convention. If comics are pushed out of it, there will be no major space for comics in London. It won’t be the simple matter of starting another convention, because it would take years for it to reach a fraction of the size and reach MCM already has.
By removing comics from MCM, or making them a less noticeable or prioritised element, you are both actively damaging the careers of regulars who currently attend there, as well as failing attendees who may want to get into comics or meet comic professionals. I try not to partake in rumours when I can, and I doubt this is some sort of malicious conspiracy to kill the U.K comics scene, but it’s been a noticeable shift and difference in recent years, and many artists are feeling disenchanted as a result, not to mention feeling further financial pressure. Many of the artists excluded or unprioritised were women or people of color, adding to a palpable lack of representation or diversity in an industry already often sorely lacking on that front. The artist alley is absolutely massive, taking up a quarter of the entire South Hall. Surely there is more space for comics professionals in there? There is no shortage of brilliant talent in the U.K that could be invited or promoted. Whilst events like the Lakes International Comics Art Festival and Thought Bubble Comic Convention pick up some of the slack, it’s important that comics remain a major presence at MCM.
Pictured: Myself and Chip Zdarsky.
MCM is unlike any other convention I’ve been to. It’s absolutely massive, with a scale that’s hard to process until you see it in person, and whilst it may not be as big as SDCC or NYCC, it’s probably the biggest convention in the United Kingdom. Countless people, so much to do, and it can be exhausting. It can also be utterly euphoric, and you can leave MCM feeling like you’ve just accomplished something incredible. I’ve made friends, had excellent experiences, attended wonderful panels, purchased beautiful pieces of artwork, conducted some of my favorite interviews of my career, and made memories I’ll keep for life. There’s been difficulties too; days I’ve finished exhausted beyond words, overwhelmed and run down. I’ve been shoved around in queues and walked till my legs couldn’t anymore. However, MCM is a deeply important space to so many of the local fandom communities. It’s central to the U.K cosplay community, vital to its expansive video game fandom. It’s historically an important space for local comics, and should ideally keep a place for them as best as they can. It’s part of the centre of U.K nerd culture, especially in the south, and for that alone, it’s utterly vital. There may be flaws, but many of them can be tackled and worked on with effort, and at its best, MCM is an experience beyond words.
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