It has been two weeks since London MCM Comic Con so before the con blues set in fully I’d like to share about my time there and why it’s something I look forward to.

This past con will have been my 4th and I really wish I had been going longer because the atmosphere is amazing, I guess I’m pretty thankful for having an actual job now that allows me to do things I love. The dream is, and always will be, to go to San Diego Comic-Con or NY Comic-Con but until then London is the big event.

Going to comic con is a full weekend affair for us (my cousin and I). We’ve done the Saturday only stint and while we had great fun it really sapped us since we travelled on the over-night bus service. It just makes sense to attend for the full weekend so we can plan what panels we want to see, roam the halls and just take it all in at a leisurely pace. With the improvements in queuing and layout at May’s event we were really looking forward to our October trip. I of course left cosplay plans to last minute and decided to keep it simple with my good old Hufflepuff uniform – although if I hadn’t been so lazy I would have returned in my Choji cosplay from May (it was a matter of wig styling). Here’s what that would have looked like:

(also happens to be my profile pic on practically everything)

I have to say this con was probably the best so far. Entrance/queuing and re-entry was a breeze and the layout was great – I barely got walked into or stepped on the entire time thanks to the wider aisles. There were some really good panels too – we sat in on The Walking Dead’s panel (and then caught Ross Marquand and Greg Nicotero hanging out with the zombies at the Fox stand) and also the Game of Thrones panel, both of which were really funny and pretty interesting while giving no clues as to what might be happening in the shows. Not even the tiniest hint. Oh and not to forget a chance to view the pilot episode of Mr.Robot concluding in free hoodies thanks to Amazon Prime.

October’s Comic Con was so well organised this year that the Euro-Cosplay finals actually ran pretty smoothly. I’m kinda glad they managed to work out all the kinks because the cosplayers put in a lot of time and hard work into their outfits and skits and it takes so much guts to get up on a stage in front of all those people. I must say this is a huge draw for me: I love seeing cosplayers and recognising my favourite characters from shows and video games, it not only brings them to life but its great to see so many others with the same enthusiasm and passion for these characters. It’s also a pretty freeing experience. I don’t know about anyone else who cosplays but the last few times that I’ve made an effort to I actually had this overwhelming feeling of “fitting in” – it just felt so normal. I have never once felt normal in my entire life, I’m always sort-of the odd one out and don’t get me wrong I kinda like it that way, but it’s a really nice feeling to walk through a place and be able to be 100% geek and not worry about randomly spouting quotes from anime or a movie thinking you’re the only one that gets the joke (and laughs alone at it) – because it’s a good bet that half the people there ‘get it’ too. I pretty much enter Comic Con thinking “these are my people”.

I also tend to leave the con with rather a lot more luggage than I came with. Budgets start off with good intentions then totally get thrown to the wind on the Sunday when you pass the Gundam Mad stall for the third time and think “I could fit a small one in my case”. Which I totally did. Thank goodness for expanding suitcases. To be fair though I kept mostly to my list this time and a lot of what I got was cool artsy things and comic books from some of my favourite stalls in the comic village. Great tip – if you visit the stalls on the Friday you’re more likely to get your hands on any goody-bags some of the artists sell since they only tend to make a small number and they will have the good sweets out (sweets also run out fast). Also try to return to the comic village a few times over the weekend, a few of the stall holders are joint-ventures and they really like when you return to make sure you meet everyone involved, it shows that you really appreciate what they do.

The most important thing about going to any con is pretty much – enjoy yourself. I always promise to take lots of pictures before I go and people get dissapointed that when I come back I haven’t taken that many and my only real reason is just that I was far too busy having fun.

And now I sit and count the days til I can go again.

I also go through the things that came home with me and reminisce.

Here are some of those things.

(see, it’s mostly art . . . it kinda fit in my case . . . it’s not like I bought a giant alpaca . . . . soon though . . . soon)