MCM 2015 OR HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

Posted by On October 19, 2014

ireland_gateway
MCM have just announced the date for their 2015 convention set to take place in the RDS in Dublin and it has made a bit of a move. This year’s convention took place in April but next year is going to be August 29th to 30th which moves it into the middle of Ireland’s comic convention calendar. Take a look at last years list:

ArcadeCon 2014 – July 10th and 11th
Dublin Comic Con 2014 – August 9th and 10th
DICE 2014 – September 27th and 28th

I already had feeling that we were headed towards saturation but this is going to exacerbate the situation. Attending this year’s MCM event, I felt Irish comics were in no the emphasis with small press being tucked into their own corner. Creators that included names like John McCrea, Simon Bisley and Glenn Fabry were treated the same. From the feedback I received, small press didn’t do well out of it and most will not be attending the next one. With no panels or other forms of interaction with named guests, I was pretty much done about halfway through day one. The only benefit of the con, for me, was that I got to interact and catch up with Irish creators. I think the retailers did well out of it reinforcing the money making machine image I had been given beforehand.

This move to August looks like a pretty cynical move to tap into customers others have built up through several years of hard work. Of all the cons I have attended, DCC looks like the one that has the most to lose. It is the closest in terms of guests but DCC tend to treat their comic guests a bit better (Stephen Mooney and PJ Holden were sitting next to Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy this year). The feeling of cynicism is not helped by the fact that MCM Belfast 2014 fell on the weekend that the proposed 2D festival was to have happened.

Unless they change their emphasis in 2015, I won’t be attending (I can see the Irish guys at other cons).

Update: I have been reliably informed that comic book legend John McCrea had to purchase his own table at MCM Dublin and was not an invited guest.