A bit of backstory: Manchester MCM is a con I was beginning to get sick of. The last few times I've been now left me feeling more stressed than happy. All the stalls and attractions were starting to feel a bit samey.
This year change my opinion though. MCM as a company has recently been taken over by an American company so I was a little scared of the changes they would make, especially after the shut down two of my favourite versions of the con (Liverpool and Telford).
The Venue: Manchester's venue for comic con has always felt a bit cramped. Despite my feet reminding me how far I had walked up and down the hall, due to the amount of people the large hall and feel a lot smaller than it actually is.
For the most part, MCM is a glorified nerd market more than anything. The main hall is almost entirely vendor stalls selling any kind of pop culture you can think of, sprinkled with the odd food stall and strange out of place stand which normally includes charities and this time a university for some reason... There is a large seating area that, despite its large crowds is one of the only places I've seen at a con where for the most part you can find a seat without having to settle on the floor, so that's always nice. Then we have a secondary hall which I don't tend to spend much time in. It's for guests, gaming and kids. For the most part, Manchester doesn't really tend to get guests I'm interested in so I'm normally only in this hall to walk through to the main stage where I enjoy watching the cosplay shows.
The Events: Looking at the event list there was defiantly a different feel to the usual. normally it's just, panels based on the guest but from their titles, they seemed more focused on themes. Sadly though, as much as said event timetables were signed throughout the con there was a lack of printed plans and for the most part, we forgot about them in favour of exploring the main hall.
We did at least catch the new cosplay competition for the Uk championships and really enjoyed the facts about the cosplayers and costumes and having reference pictures displayed when they were on stage was very helpful. It was nice to know what they were aiming for and how good they looked in comparison even if you weren't aware of the series.
The Loot: What's a con without spending far too much money on things you probably don't need?
This is a part of what I brought from the con. As you can see it's mainly indie comics which is where I love to spend most of my cash at a con. I have quite a few now so I plan on trying to do a few more detailed blogs about series I like :)
Overall: This felt better than last year's Manchester. I had been worried with the new company but it was still a great weekend.
Despite having gone to Manchester every year for a while now this is actually the first time I've blogged about it... So, here's a post about Liverpool comic con if you're looking for more cons in the north-west UK.