Review: Milton Keynes Mega Comic Con 2024

This past weekend I attended the inaugural Milton Keynes Mega Comic Con put on by Striking Events. They have been growing in stature over the last couple of years with a wide selection of conventions, especially in the southeastern area. I have been following their growth on Instagram, so when a convention in my home town was announced of course I was very excited, the anticipation of having a home town convention again after all these years provided me with some anticipation. And ultimately, I can say that this was a very successful debut and I wish all involved continued success and growth.

The event took place in the Marshal Arena, on the site of Stadium MK in Bletchley. So while it isn’t in Central Milton Keynes it is still a very accessible area with good road and rail links. For those wanting to make a day of visiting the convention, there are numerous shops, eateries and a cinema complex well within a 10-minute walk from the venue. I was happy to pay my online £14 entry fee in support of a new local convention. I was expecting closer to £10 for a convention of this size, but I also don’t know anything about organizing a con. Perhaps an early entry fee and time would provide two price points and also cut down on foot traffic at certain times. The Marshal Arena was a perfect venue for a debut con of this size. Small but mighty is how I would best describe it. This may prove a problem in the future if they intend to grow the event, as there were a couple of times when foot traffic down certain aisles came to a complete standstill. There was a previous convention in the same venue where they had the aisles orientated the other way around. How much space this would create I can’t say.

There was a good portion of space dedicated to display areas and I suppose these could be shifted around with any potential growth to include more vendors. The good thing about the display areas is that they weren’t overly priced and they were all for a good cause. £2 to sit on a replica of Elliott’s bike from ET complete with the friendly alien in the basket is a very good experience for any young fan. The array of cinematic cars on display was impressive. Two bat mobiles, the A-Team van, The Delorean and Lightning McQueen! There was something for everyone! And that seemed to be the theme for the whole event, there was something for everyone.

The diversity in what the vendors had to offer was a high point of the day. I can happily say Funko Pops were not the dominant force! Vintage action figures at all price ranges were widely available, I was able to get a 90’s loose Wolverine figure. There were two Star Wars vendors, one catering to newer figures and the other being more vintage. Pokemon cards had a big presence, as did Lego mini-figs. There was even a vendor with a big sale on manga books who also had a range of custom mini-figs centred on manga characters, which I thought was a nice detail. One vendor I enjoyed looking at although I didn’t buy anything was carrying a range of Gerry Anderson-based merchandise, including Japanese imports.

Moving onto a more personal point of view, there were only two comics vendors. Including Nerdly’s very own Unreality Store as featured in Sales to Astonish: Comic Market Report. I didn’t know it was him till I slipped a flyer into my purchases, otherwise I would have made more conversation. He had a good selection of key issues all competitively-priced in my opinion. While he didn’t have a large selection of comics, I found everything well-priced and I was able to pick up some good issues. He also pointed me in the direction of other places he is selling, because of my t-shirt he mentioned he had some Daredevil comics coming online soon. On the subject of Daredevil, I got very lucky with the other comics vendor, Top Banana Collectables. Again he didn’t have a large selection of comics. He had perhaps two short boxes each of DC, Marvel and Indies of mixed age all at £3 each. Then at the end, he had two short boxes of just Daredevil comics ranging from the low 20s up till the end of the original series. Whilst the older issues are out of my current price range as I am on a budget I was able to fill some gaps in my collection higher up the issues.

All in all, I would call this first Milton Keynes Mega Comic Con a success. Personally, I will always call for more comics and was surprised to not see any trade paperbacks or hard covers. It was family-friendly, and in a great venue, of course it always helps when the sun is shining. I found most of the items on sale to be well-priced compared to other conventions. The event is already scheduled to return on the same weekend next year so I am hoping it can go from strength to strength.