MCM Comic Con London 2023 Highlights

At the end of May I was lucky enough to get a pass for MCM Comic Con in London and I spent a day and a half checking out as much as I could – exploring the stalls, watching live demonstrations and screenings and checking out a few panels.

The biggest highlight for me over the weekend was Sunday’s Pokémon morning. They screened the first Pokémon movie, followed by a panel and Q&A with 4 of the main voice actors from the movie and original series. It was so fun to be able to watch the film up on the big screen surrounded by Pokémon fans and then to be able to hear the cast talk about their experiences voicing the beloved characters just made it even better. They even answered some of the audience questions in character, which I absolutely loved, and it took me right back to my childhood years (I can’t believe it first aired 25 years ago!). This was the first time the 4 of them had ever been interviewed together like this, which made for a fantastic experience.

There was a lot of Pokémon inspired art about the festival too – some of which I’ll share in a dedicated artist post – which was great to see and I even picked up a piece myself from Rorobun to commemorate the day. This piece in particular had been in demand by Veronica Taylor (Ash’s VA) herself, which made it a pretty special piece. There were also giant Pokemon cards from Manga Market, Patrick’s Art Room were sharing their terrariums, and Bespokemon also had some interesting figures too.

I feel like there was a lot more emphasis on tabletop games this year, with many stalls, like Tabletop Dominion, selling cards, board games, and beautiful looking dice. There were also a few separated areas specifically for playing, with a roped off area for the One Piece game and a whole floor for learning and playing a few different card games on one of the upper levels.

There was cosplay everywhere as per usual, with hundreds of different franchises represented, but I feel like Chainsaw Man and Genshin Impact were probably the most popular looks. I was dressed as Ash on the Sunday (of course) and I managed to find a beautifully dressed Leafeon (@clara.g.0205) to capture! There were a couple of cosplay shows, but they were either extremely busy or impossible to see for the crowds, so I didn’t attend this time round. However, there were some very cool stands showcasing costumes, accessories and crafting. I saw some beautifully intricate leather designs at Cosmic Workshop, a huge selection of wigs at Coscraft and some fabulous Star Wars armour at Imperial Outlanders.

The show floor was full of figures and collectibles, including Popmart blind boxes, and this year we even had ichibankuji prizes and a selection of gacha machines available too. There were a few fashion stalls, including some very cute designs from Leikya, but Irregular Choice caught a lot of attention with their selection of shoes and accessories decorated with comic book and animated characters. SCK favourites ARTBOX were back with a huge selection of kawaii goodies and there were also a number of manga publishers and sellers too. The Pop Asia stage seemed to always have a huge crowd around it for the dancers, singers and sumo wrestlers and the manga drawing and origami workshops were super popular too.

I spent most of my time in Artist Alley checking out the artwork and deciding what I wanted to bring home with me. Alongside the piece from Rorobun, I also picked up some gorgeous anime pieces from Velvet KT and Juwei and a stunning Star Wars watercolour from Tony Moy. The amount of talented artists featured is high, so I’ll definitely be sharing some more with you in my art post.

While I didn’t think there was quite as much on offer as there was back in October, I had a fun weekend and I can’t wait for my next visit to MCM Comic Con!

(MCM Comic Con provided SCK with a press pass for the event but all words, photographs and opinions are my own.)