My first time at Comic-Con | my experience, tips and advice for newbies (like me)

Posted June 7, 2023 by Emma in Bookish Post, Discussion Post / 1 Comment

Happy Wednesday my bookish friends. Today I am excited to be writing and sharing my experience of going to my first ever comic con. MCM Comic-Con invited me as press to their ExCel London Comic Con. I was honored and so excited to go. My first ever press trip as a blogger.

This year MCM Comic-Con added a brand new Literary content for all bookworms. As a fan of young adult books there were so many amazing panels and meet some of my favourite and new to me authors. I also met up with some lovely book bloggers and bookstagrammers.

On the Day

I’m not always a confident traveller into London, even though I’m 40 mins away I admit. Ever since covid, all big events make me quite anxious, but rest assured whilst it was overwheleming at times, the experience was amazing. I think the most stressful past was getting home when there was 2 massive underground lines closed, typical.

I saw two YA panels – New Writers on the Block featuring authors….Ayaan Muhamed (You Think You Know Me), Anne Perry (Publishing Director), Ravena Guron (This Book Kills) and Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (The Principle of Moments – out in January).

and also my favourite panel YA Romantasy talking all things romance in YA, steamy bathroom scenes and more. This panel featured Twin Crowns/Cursed Crowns author, Katharine Webber, Brianna Bourne author of The Half-Life of Love and Annelise Avery author of The Immortal Games.

I then returned a little bit later to the signing of Laura Steven, Rosie Talbot, Laura Sebastian and Kat Delacorte.

Authors are from left to right – Ayaan Muhamed (You Think You Know Me), Anne Perry (Publishing Director), Ravena Guron (This Book Kills) and Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (The Principle of Moments).
Authors are from left to right – Annelise Avery (The Immortal Games), Brianna Bourne (The Half-Life of Love) and Katherine Webber (Twin Crowns & Cursed Crowns).

Tips and Advice

Use the MCM Comic-Con app – it’s a lifesaver! What made my experience more organised was their app. I set up my own panel and signing schedule so I could get notifications when they were on. They had a digital map if you didn’t want to use the brochure and lots of help tips on there.

Get the Priority Ticket – if you can do it, get the priority ticket you get in 2 hours earlier which means it’s a lot quieter which is what I enjoyed the most. After I came out of one of the panels it was crazy busy. Quite overwhelming.

Bring water and wear comfortable clothes and shoes – you will be on your feet all day. All you want to do is see everything and the floor isn’t the most comfortable for lunches, so make sure you feel comfortable in yourself.

Take 5 mins as much as you need – sit down, take it all in. I had to do this, I was starting to get a headache and I knew I needed too. It helps a lot. MCM has a lot of chill areas and with a book section there was plenty of quiet spaces.

Lastly enjoy it – I was buzzing from the experience and I wish I took more time to see more of, sometimes there isn’t enough. But stay until you think is enough too and don’t overdo it. Below is my collection of newly signed books and all of these authors were amazing and so kind. I love the bookish community.

MCM Comic-Con in London returns in October so if you around check it out. I’ll leave the link here.

Thank you to SwitchedOn/ MCM Comic-Con for inviting on this press trip!

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