LONDON MCM.

Three days standing behind a stall selling comics.
Is selling comics becoming a young man's game ?
Will my poor old legs survive ?
Will they then be able to drive us all back up North afterwards ?

Will I stop opening blog postings with a load of questions ?
We are regulars at the MCM events now, and have almost become part of the furniture. People expect to see us and head straight for the latest issue of Stephenson's Robot or WesterNoir when they do.
There are also an almost constant number of new customers and this year they had the opportunity to pick up our first collected edition of WesterNoir.
After a couple of let downs by AirBnB we ended up in a Travelodge in Woolwich Arsenal, which made things a little more expensive. Each morning we took the DLR and then walked over the Thames by way of a bridge that was at the top of a very tall flight of stairs. I've never seen the like but it did provide a nice view.

Now the thing about MCM events is that whilst they attract a huge number of people, most of those are dressed in elaborate costumes and come to parade around, meet friends and generally have a great time. They are not really there to buy comics.

Some of the costumes really are great though and you can't help but get swept away by it all.
Despite this the Comic Village gets bigger and bigger, which is the other concern. Will the punters have spent all of their cash on the great selection of comics on offer before they even get to our table ?
I was going to ask this young lady...

...but didn't want to upset her further. She looked like she was having a pretty rough day as it was.
Friday is the quieter of the three days, but each year there seem to be more people there than the year before and so we did find ourselves being fairly busy and we did sell more comics than we expected to.
I managed to pick up Skies On Fire issue 3, which is a great independent comic. I don't tend to recommend books but this one is fabulous and I bought it first thing to make sure they didn't sell out before I got to them.
Saturday was crazy busy, Yes we had quiet spells but when it picked it up did so in style. We sold a healthy number of books despite the great competition for the customer's cash and were very happy, We decided to celebrate by having our evening meal in the O2, and took the cable car to get to it, which you use your Oyster card on and is really cheap.

Steve Tanner joined us and helped calm Colin down, who isn't keen on heights.
Sunday was half way between Friday and Saturday with regards sales and number of people passing by. So it all added up to a very productive three days.
I love the way the Cosplayers all appreciate each other's efforts and this was typified by Superman and Wonder Woman helping out a poor Dinosaur in distress.

But it's the age old dilemma. If the Dinosaur then goes on to do some despicable act, are the two super heroes somehow responsible ?
In this case the Dinosaur in question got into a light sabre duel with another dinosaur and it didn't end well for the poor thing.

Yep.. Jedi Dinosaurs.
And we saw it first Mr Lucas... or should that be Disney.
Three really enjoyable days saw us have one of our best ever Cons.
Can't wait for next year.
I'll leave you with my favourite Cosplay.
I really enjoyed the comics that Neil Gaiman did and Mark Buckingham illustrated (if memory serves)... so here she is ...

...Death.

Looking forward to the next London MCM in May, hope to see you all there again.