London MCM as a punter

MCM events have become more and more expensive over the last year or so.

We've found ourselves nudged out of what was Comics Village, and is now Artists Alley, as we are seen as Publishers.

This has meant we are being asked to pay about twice as much for a Booth as we used to be asked for a couple of tables. 

Added to this everything has gone up in price and it's just not cost effective.

So, no Time Bomb table or Booth, but I thought I'd go as a punter and experience the event from the other side of the table.

I got a normal entry ticket for Sunday, the quieter day, and queued with those looking to get into the event at 12.01. I arrived at about 11.30am and was in by about 12.05pm, so not too bad really.

I found Artists Alley easy enough, event though they'd moved it the North Hall.

Wandering the aisles I didn't find a lot of comics on sale, each aisle seemed to have at most 3 tables with them, surrounded by artists selling, mostly manga, art. 

Chatting to my fellow comic creators the feeling was, yes, the event felt busy enough but people weren't interested in comics with few stopping at their stalls even.

I bought a few comics, chatted for a will with Titan's Conan comic writer Jim Zubb, and got him to do me a Conan sketch, and then went for some food.

Whilst sat at a table thinking about whether or not to just go home after eating my lunch, I'd been there for a couple of hours by then, I was approached by one of the Con helpers asking if I'd be willing to do a survey, give my feedback on the event and how to improve it.

"Sure." I said.

The survey consisted of 48 Questions, like 'What would you like to see more of at MCM?' with 5 options ... More Guests, More Artists, More Merchandise, More Games and I forget the last one but what it wasn't was More Comics. In the entire 48 Question Survey Comics were not mentioned once.

I guess things change and the event has evolved into what it is today but it feels a bit of a Con to say it's a ComicCon... ah.. unless the clue is actually in the name.

I can't see Time Bomb every selling at a future MCM, which is a shame as we enjoyed meeting the people walking passed our table/booth and chatting about our comics.

MCM - we won't be there this weekend.

We've decided not to attend the MCM event this weekend, it's just become too expensive. We struggle to make enough cash to pay for the booth and when you look back at the event and realise you've worked hard for 3 days and walk away with very little it just doesn't seem worth it..

We'll see if we can get into Artist Alley next year but if we can't then it's unlikely that we'll be going back, which his a real shame as we do enjoy the event.

London MCM next weekend

Steve and I will be manning the Time Bomb booth at London's MCM event next weekend. 

Please come by for a chat if you're in the arena / area.

I've now recovered enough from MCM to write a brief report

Yep. It was very tiring.

Once again Steve and I manned the booth for the 3 days.

and long days they were, maybe this comics lark is for younger people.

There was a lot to see at the Convention was pretty busy throughout, I did wander to the other hall at one point but was quickly scared back to the safety of our booth.

Friday saw a lot more interest in Quantum, with people actually seeking it out, which was great. I think Friday is the day comic people go to the event as it's never quite as busy as the other days. This was certainly true of the past but this year Sunday seemed to be about the same as Sunday.

As with every event there were some great cosplays going around.

My favourites were...

Asterix and Obelix (I love home made costumes) and...

a really excellent HIM, the King Of Darkness (or His Infernal Majesty), again home made but really well done.

A great, if very tiring Con, looking forward to the next one in May 2024.

London MCM

This weekend Time Bomb Comics will be at the MCM event in the Excel Centre, London.

Do pop over and say 'Hi!' if you're at the Con, we have our usual booth.

MCM was fabulous

It was a big step for us at Time Bomb Comics.

We decided to move from a number of tables scattered around Comics Village, or Artists Alley as it's now called, to a Booth. This meant paying a lot more upfront and hoping that we'd have the sales to compensate.

It just felt the right time and a good way to celebrate our Quantum bi-monthly comic.

We had a great corner spot and did our best to make use of the walls we had, and learned what we want to do for future Cons. The Panini Guys next to us put us to shame with their cut-out Spiderman etc. Next time guys :o)

Friday is usually a slow day but we found ourselves being really busy. Lots of customers asking for the promised WesterNoir Book Two (I'm so glad it's available otherwise I think there may have been trouble :o). Lots of customers talking about Quantum and actually picking up comics that contained more stories about the characters in Quantum, or the universe the stories are set in (as is the case with WesterNoir). 

We chatted to a lot of people and sold a good number of comics. It was also great to catch up with our creator friends, all of whom were very interested in whether or not we could make the booth work.

Saturday followed, as it always does, and as always it felt twice as busy as Friday.

I think it must be my age but
the JLA are looking younger and younger.

We were very encouraged that the Quantum comic had been picked up in stores by people of all ages. A few people tried to buy the sample copies that we had to show people, and some even resorted to pleading...

but I'll not name names David Baillie so you'll be OK.

Steve and I even hit the stage to talk about Quantum and there were actually people in the audience listening and even a question at the end, which was nice.

Come close of the event on Saturday we were feeling really tired. We had been on our feet pretty constantly and it's when you stop that it really hits you. It was a great day though so we felt that a nice meal in good company (with some alcohol to help sooth aching muscles) was called for, even deserved. 

And then it was Sunday, traditionally a slower day. It did seem quieter and we did actually have some quiet spells but at the end of the day we found that we'd actually done better than we had on Friday.

At one point I was entrusted with Steve's Coat of many colours but thankfully didn't break into song.

A really great event.

Very tiring but very rewarding.

Did the Booth work out financially?

Yes, it did.

 

Convention Season is starting...

I'll be at the Time Bomb Comics stands at both the MCM event in London on the 26th to the 28th May...

and also the Portsmouth Comics Convention the 3rd and 4th of June. 

Can't wait.

Wow. London MCM.

What an incredible weekend.

All three days of the Con were very busy, very enjoyable and well sold to a lot of new Customers, as well as returning ones.

I took the post apocalyptic headpiece made by Drone to draw attention to my table, and it certainly worked. 

As you can see, I even had a few copies of Robot Shorts available, only 6 issues sadly, and they all sold. I'm not sure I have any more.

WesterNoir was top seller as always, with some interesting new customers coming along for the ride...

Yes, I am sorry that's WesterNoir Book 2 isn't out yet but I promise it will be at the same Con next year.

The three days were pretty much the same, lots of interest in comics, Saturday was the busiest day but both Friday and Sunday were busier than they have been in the past.

It was great to catch up with fellow creators, some of whom I haven't seen since before the Pandemic.

I know of a number of people who sold out over the three days, include Jed McPherson, who had the table next me, as I bought his last comic (Transmissions). 

All in all a very tiring but very successful three days.

I just need to recover now...

London MCM

I'm all packed up and ready for an early start tomorrow so I can set up the table before 10am.

I'll be at C19 in the Comic Village, do pop by and say hello if you're in the area, should be a good one.

Got a super-sub space at the London MCM at the end of next month.

I applied to the London MCM event taking place at the end of May a good while back and sadly didn't make the cut. This is the second time this has happened and like last time I managed to get a table as someone has dropped out.

I won't be at the one later in the year however as I'll be at the Nottingham Comic Con and as these things go it looks unlikely that I'll be at any of the future events so please pop over and say 'Hi' at the event, it may be my last.

London MCM was great.

It was really good to be back at a large convention, behind the table, chatting with people as they stopped at the table.

I learned that a lot of punters missed the Cons as much as the creators.

It felt as safe as it could in current times. They checked your Covid Pass before you could get in (and repeated it each day) and they had even placed dividing walls around pairs of tables to reduce the risk of anything spreading. 

There is always a risk but I really feel that Reedpop did all that they could.

We had two great days and sold a record number of books for London MCM. We met up with friends for food, drink and chat afterwards and made new friends amongst the creators who we were paired up with.

I'm already looking forward to the next one.

London MCM

Colin and I are at this weekend's fist major Comic Con London MCM.

It'll be great to get back out there and try to sell some comics so I can make room in my storage locker for printing some more :)

Please do pop by the table and say hello if you're at the event.

Third Comic Con of the Year

We've been accepted for a table at the London MCM in May.
Let's hope things have settled down with regards COVID-19 by then, although sadly I doubt it.

My last Convention of the year.

Tomorrow I'll be at the London MCM at the Excel centre.
Do pop by the stall and say 'Hi' if you're in the area.

London MCM

The last Con of a very busy May was the London MCM.

Last May's event hadn't been great. We'd had one table, which was stuck in the middle of a row of mostly artists selling prints and we were effectively invisible when approaching from one side due to the wall of prints that the table next to us had put up dividing the tables.

Still, I'm not one to complain and we took this in our stride.

Some Cons are better than others.

This time around we had two tables again and Jemma and I were joined by Colin and Scott.

We were hoping that this May's MCM would be better than the last.

In short, it was.
It certainly got off to a fun start when, on arriving, I found this on my table..

Gary Erskine is a constant at the MCMs and always fun.
Friday was it's usual very slow affair, and really isn't worth a day off work.

Saturday made up for it though and Sunday was almost as solid, so overall we did pretty well.

MCM is under new management and there have been a number of improvements over recent Cons. 

This time around the Stewards were much better organised and attentive.

I liked the way the professional comic creators were placed around the Comic Village so the punters looking for them had to wander a little, and maybe notice something of interest that hasn't had any involvement from Stan Lee.

Yep.

MCM is still a huge corporate monster of a Con.

It still attracts more people looking to spend £70 on 2 seconds and a signed photo from some extra in some Star Wars movie or other.

It still has loads of Cosplayers who just aren't interested in the source of the character that they are dressed as.

But, because it's so big there are still plenty of plenty coming around the Comic Village to see what's on offer.

I think it's trying to raise the profile of Comics and it's not doing a bad job.

The rest is down to us to produce quality comics, engage with browsers and look to build a reader base.

Can't really ask for much more than that.

London MCM.

It's been a busy couple of months, what with Conventions and Kickstarter.

Since my last post I've been to two Conventions, wildly different in appearance and connect but both going to.

London MCM was, it has to be said, a little down on last year. It just didn't seem to be as busy and whilst I'm trying not to, I'm wondering if the concerns about what state the country will be in post Brexit are causing people to be a little more cautious with their spending habits.

Everything seems bigger at the MCM in London...

There was the usual display of costumes and I always respect the time and effort that goes into the Cosplays, regardless of how effective they turn out to be.
The Green Soldiers from Toy Story as impressive...

as this version of the Powerpuff Girls...

was disturbing.
Sales were tough, maybe because we had only a single table and were tucked behind an artist with one of those table displays that effectively blocks ours if you were approaching from the left or maybe because we had nothing new out.
Regardless it was a tough 3 days for Jemma and myself but we soldiered on and did ok in the end.
It did hit me that everyone is looking younger these days, a sign of getting old I guess, even Judge Death was looking like he was too young to leave school...

All in all we had a good time chilling with our friends and chatting to returning customers, but it was a long tiring 3 days and I was glad when it had finished so I could put my tired feet up and have a good rest.
I didn't forget my hammer on the way out though.

Meanwhile at the London MCM Con...

The post about our attendance at the next London MCM was a mistake on my part.
Accent UK will be at the London MCM event as always.
Next weekend though we will have tables at both Thought Bubble and Glasgow MCM events. The A-team will be at the Glasgow MCM and Colin, Gary and Martin Flink (on his first UK appearance) will be at Thought Bubble.
And then the week after I will be representing Accent UK a the Meanwhile event, you can find details about this new event here.

London MCM - Ouch.

Well, we've failed to get a table at the MCM in London this October.
It'll be the first we've missed for a very long time and a shame but we just didn't manage to get our order in in time. The tables had gone in 5 minutes.
It's great that there is so much creativity out there, with so much interest in selling work at Conventions and I sure it'll be a great event.
Let's hope we're luckier next year.

We are at the Glasgow MCM in a couple of weeks though, so not all bad.

MCM London... lots to think about.

It was another busy weekend for Independent Comic creators across the land as they descended on London for the first of this year's London MCM events.

We were fortunate to get two tables, as we have too much stock to squeeze onto one, and as always I was stunned by the quality of work on offer to those people who would wander through the Comic Village, whether it be on a mission to get to a particular publisher / creator or wondering what on earth the Comic Village was all about.

For us the MCM events are where we shift most of our comics these days. Diamond Distribution are proving more and more difficult to navigate and it's almost impossible dealing with stores direct, apart from those in your local area.

There has actually been a lot of talk on the web at the moment about events, and MCM events in particular. Jon Lock over at Afterlife-inc.com and Joe Glass over at Bleedingcool.com both talk about the diminishing market that we are experiencing.

Yep, making your own comics is tough.
Getting them into people's hands is even tougher.

We have also experienced a dip in sales this year. Last year for us was our best ever, by some way, and this year we are back to 2015 figures.

Why is this ?
Is it a slump due to the uncertain times we live in ?
Is it due to the large areas of space that effected footfall flow over the three days ?
Is it because some Independent publishers had too many tables ?

Modok probably knows the answer,
but isn't telling.

We had decent sales over the weekend. We expected to do about two thirds of last year and that is pretty much how we did.
The MCM events are not like Thought Bubble. At Thought Bubble it's all about returning customers. People who turn up every year and know what they want to pick up.
MCM we've found is always about new customers. Sure we get those who return, and sometimes in a happily large number, but this is very patchy and unpredictable. I don't think many, if any, of the people who go to the MCM events are pure comic fans. A good percentage are interested of course, but most are there for the spectacle and to spend money on 'stuff', whether that's comics, t-shirts or a signature from their favourite member of Firefly (yep ... she was there).

So, all the potential customers are people who are wandering through the Comic Village looking to pick up something that catches their eye, peaks their interest.

To me it's a matter of your product and simple mathematics.

• If your books don't interest them then they won't buy them.
• The more competition there is the less of your books you'll sell.
• The more competition there is the more these potential new customers will be spent up by the time they reach you.

What annoyed me more than anything this year was the lack of ethics of some of the other publishers. I walked past one publisher (who had a good number of stalls) to be told that the writer was better than Alan Moore ... I was told (when asked what comics I read) that there was WesterNoir in their books. Basically they were lying. Telling you what they needed you to hear, so that if you weren't that knowledgeable about comics in general you;d be convinced that this was what you were looking for. Whatever it was you were looking for. And from the count of comics sold, they were pretty successful at it.

The bottom line is that the more books these guys sold, the less money the customers had for any other books.

Steve Tanner, of TimeBomb comics, sold boxes of his new Flintlock books because he's hit on something that appeals to the people who wander past his stall. He doesn't have to pretend his writing is better than Alan Moore. The characters and the artwork, and what Steve says about them, are sufficient.
Unlike the aforementioned publisher, Steve can be honest because his books are good enough to interest people on their own merit.

The Minion was impressed by the Independent Publisher who seemed to
have studied the Trump rule book... and refused to talk to me...
I got a photo with him anyway.

Jon Lock in his article (link above) talks about the price being a possible driving force. He suggests we all get together and agree a standard price. Sorry Jon, that's probably illegal as we live in a free market and competition is what it's all about. That said, our books are typically cheaper than Steve's but he probably sold more of his over the weekend than we did of ours.
Not because of the price, but because his concept / product is more attractive to the MCM customer.

As to Fan Art ... I'm not a big fan (excuse the pun). It's also something that is illegal as the people producing it have not paid the owning company for the right to do so. I'm fine with artists selling their own paintings of elves and werewolves, but Wolverine ? Sorry. That's illegal. There's always a danger than one day Disney will turn up and shut the whole show down due to copyright infringement. Hopefully they'd do it in an imaginative way though ... get someone Cosplaying Kingpin to bring the Desist papers.

So, I think a good Comic Village will be one where :

• There's a healthy mix of genres of independent comics.
• Publishers / creators are honest.
• There's a healthy proportion of comics /  artists selling their own work.
• There is no Fan art.
• There's a good number of artists drawing portraits 
• The prices vary as much as the publishers want them to.

The customers will then decide what they want to buy and will do so.

I used to love watching Monkey as a kid,
he's aged really well I think ...
I guess immortality does that for you.

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.