The MCM Expo: Comics, Costumes and Geeky Highjinks
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 6:39PM 
As the autumn sun began its lazy ascent over London, the geek-orientated denizens of the UK capital began their journey towards the ExCel Centre for the second of the 2011 MCM Expos. My first glimpse of the eager hordes was an innocuous Green Lantern t-shirt on the Jubilee Line but it didn’t take long before I was part of an exodus of people in costumes ranging from Star Trek to Pokemon to Street Fighter and everything in between.
MCM is the biggest and arguably most diverse of the major London conventions. Attractions include gaming (the big cheese this year being the new Batman: Arkham Asylum), film, manga, memorabilia and collectables, and, of course, comics. Sweet, sweet comics. It was the comics and the people who make them that Liberation Frequency had come for and we weren’t disappointed.
Top of my list of people to hunt down and harass into an interview (er, I mean engage in a professional and polite manner) were Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Batgirl) and Rufus Dayglo (Tank Girl). We managed to track Simone down later in the day and found her surrounded by a flock of enthusiastic, costumed fans. After she had posed for many a picture, signed everything in sight (including Bane’s chest) and chatted amiably with the whole crew, we were able to pull her aside for a little chat of our own. Check out the video podcast for that one but I can say that Simone was incredibly gracious and generous with her time. It was a pleasure talking to her and I hope to do so again the next time she’s in the UK.
Sadly we weren’t able to get any time with Dayglo on camera as, like Simone, he was very popular with the fans and despite lurking about conspicuously we weren’t able to muscle our way up to his stand. I did have a chat with him in the morning though as he was setting up his stand and he told me about his upcoming project - Solid Gold Death Mask. This will be Dayglo’s solo work and it sounds absolutely brilliant. As I understand it the comic will be released for free online. Hopefully Liberation Frequency will be able to grab an interview with Rufus at some later date to get more details on this project.
During the course of the day we were also able to have a little pow wow with various other independent comics creators including Kate Brown (Fish + Chocolate), Edward Ross (Filmish), Joseph Remesar (Three Tales) and Daniel J. Wild (My Name is Chipmunk).
Finally, we were also able to spend a few moments with those crazy cats from over at Geek Syndicate, Dave and Barry. As many of you may know, their very popular and long-running podcast is coming to a close and they were in fact recording the last episode today. So it was a bittersweet moment for all but they promised that it’s not the end, just time for a mysterious new beginning.
No doubt tomorrow will bring more adventures and excitement at the MCM Expo as those hardy souls who feel they can handle another full day of pure, unadulterated geek madness head back to the ExCel Centre. Keep an eye out for our video podcast that should be up in the next couple of days!
Peace out!
Reader Comments (1)
Really cool stuff and costumes huh.. :) Hmm, I think I'd better check out something like this this year. :)
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Lisa | National Labor Relation Act