MCM Comic Con London Oct 2018: Convention Report
The biggest nerd event comes back to London again for the last time this year. There is a lot to love about Comic Con and I mentioned a lot of those reasons in my first report on Comic Con in May which was my first time at Comic Con. I jumped at the chance to go again and I think I enjoyed it even more the second time around.
There are a few articles coming up about what I did and who I was talking to over that weekend so I think I’ll trying and summarize on what I did over those three days. Starting with day one, I did go to a press conference or two but it seems like that it was the quietest day of the three. I spent a lot of time at the Streamers Connected stage during that afternoon talking to growing Twitch streamers like Letitia Lemon and Chris Bob. I recommend checking out their content if you haven’t already. While I was backstage, Veronica Taylor (who played Ash Ketchum in Pokemon) joined a stream of Mario Kart that Streamers Connected did. I was lucky to spend a fair amount of time talking to her over the course of the weekend. Admittedly, she may not be the best gamer in the world but she is really sweet. Other than that, Comic Con still has the things I loved about it from the last time such as the food, video game stalls, comic village and multiple panels to check out. There are so many high quality goods to buy if you’re a fan of movies, TV, anime and video games. It’s probably more of a challenge to not buy something at Comic Con than the other way around.
The second day increased the crowds. I don’t think I could even begin to estimate the number but there was a lot of attendees for Critical Role in particular. Personally, I don’t watch it. Not because it’s bad but because I have a lot of things to watch over the next four months which keep me busy enough as it is. That said, I am a massive fan of the talented voice actors involved. Most of them were there (such as Matt Mercer, Sam Riegel) with the exception of Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham which is understandable since they recently had a child but selfishly, I wish they could’ve been there. This was the first time that Critical Role has come to this part of the world and it showed as the amount of people wanting to see them was truly unbelievable. When I saw the queues, it was like people were going to see Queen or something. You could literally hear the fans cheering from the opposite side of the stage when their panel started. The popularity of Critical Role was really underestimated and it showed since they had to cancel all press as a lot of fans wanted to see them. If I’m honest, I would’ve loved to have talked to the cast in a press conference so I was disappointed in that regard but I’m always happy to see loyal and passionate fans being treated so well.
The one thing that I definitely rushed to try was the Kingdom Hearts 3 demo. Although, that wasn’t as popular as Critical Role was, it was a massive hit and I spent my entire morning queuing to play it. I’d been waiting for thirteen years to play Kingdom Hearts 3 so finally being able to do so (even if it was for twenty minutes) was one of the best things about Comic Con. I couldn’t stop grinning while I was playing it because the game is gorgeous. The two worlds I got to experience in the demo was Olympus and Toy Story. It was mostly just fighting bosses and heartless but the combat was as flashy and exciting as I thought it would be. I can’t wait to play that when it comes out even though I have a feeling I won’t be leaving my house until I finish it once I have it in my hands. As an added incentive, after playing the demo, you got free a sea-salt ice cream bar which is something that any Kingdom Hearts fan wants to try including me and it was so worth it! I’ve been wanting to try one of those since 2006 so I got to enjoy a lot when it came to Kingdom Hearts for the price of nothing.
The last day was the calmest day for me as I played the Kingdom Hearts 3 demo again. I didn’t finish it on my first go and I wanted more ice cream as well. I also went to the Critical Role panel purely out of curiosity and I was able to see it, which was miraculous given the queue was probably 25 feet long and not everyone could fit into that space! They actually had to move them from a smaller stage to the main one because of the amount of fans. Although, being outside of it and being a part of that crowd are entirely different things. I’ve said it more than once but it was such a great energy and really infectious being among that churning sea of fans. It genuinely moved me to see so much love for something that I remember being viewed as too nerdy even among some nerds and now Dungeons and Dragons has a massive resurgence in popularity because of Critical Role. Again, I don’t watch it nor do I play D&D but I respect what Critical Role has done for it.
There is still a lot for me to cover but they are all things that I will be writing about in the coming week or two. I always feel like calling MCM Comic Con ‘The Greatest Show’ which is fitting seeing as how I’ve seen The Greatest Showman being played there throughout this year. It’s something I always miss as soon as it’s over and this is no exception. I can’t wait to be back there in 2019 if I get given the chance.
