by Jolene Mathews
2018 marks 7 years of the MEFCC and it’s grown year on year: why do you think it is so successful?
Well, when we started out and all it was because we were geeks and we wanted Comic Con, and you know what, there are other people like us, and it’s the same thing around the world, a geek is a geek no matter where you are. The MEFCC brought something to the region that had never really been thought of. The wonderful thing about the Comic Con is that it’s not just for the uber-geeks, yes we have the wonderful artists and awesome celebrities, but there’s more to the convention than that. What really helps us grow is word of mouth, and people sharing their experiences at the con with friends. The convention is another world; it’s (your) an escape where (you) people can be themselves. I love seeing con-goers faces; they’re so happy. There’s a lot of love at the show.
What is the most difficult aspect of organising the Convention? How do you get around those difficulties?
Despite how long we’ve been doing this, people still don’t fully understand the event. It can be quite challenging to explain to our investors why our event is so popular, because it’s hard to describe the appeal of comics and pop culture.
Pleasing everyone is very difficult too, mainly because everyone at the event is a fan of something or another, so everyone expects their fandom to be prioritised. For example, everybody has a different opinion of which celebrity should come to the convention, but sometimes they’re just not available due to their schedules. We try to be as current as we can, with the guests and content in the show, but we might never please every single con-goer. We have to meet ever-growing expectations year after year, and every year sets a new benchmark for the next year, and that can be quite difficult to meet these expectations.
How many different teams are involved in the whole process?
Oh gosh, there’s a team for technical drawings, and we have an in-house designer. We have the operations team, who bring everything together and do all the setup. There’s the sales team, they have both the easiest and most difficult job, because there’s some exhibition sponsors who break down the doors screaming, “We wanna be part of the show!”, and there’s others that need to be begged and nagged to realise this is where they want to be at. We have a larger team including myself, the project manager and the show director that oversees everything, we have the digital and social team, part of marketing, but they also work with a couple of external agencies, because we need the additional resources and manpower to get the word across. Then we’ve also got a team to work to make sure all the schedules are met, the signings, the events, and to try reduce overlapping of important shows. (There are) quite a number of people, we’ve grown from a handful of people from when we’ve started, (so few that) we really shouldn’t have been able to pull it off, but the support we’ve got from people who’ve worked with us for free just out passion really helped too, we’re very grateful.
Is it possible to see everything happening there in 3 days?
I actually don’t think so. Depending on what you love and what you really want to see, you need to make a plan. We hand out event guides at the venue, and there are some online, with timings of celebrity signing sessions, workshops, main stage performances, contests, and many other shows. Besides there’s all the merchandise stalls and the artists alley. You really need a game plan and stick to it!
What are the different ways that new, young artists can showcase their work at MEFCC and be discovered?
What we want them to do is we want the winner to grace the cover of (the event guide), and we’ll use it elsewhere too. It’s quite a thing of pride, especially for a young adult, and for a lot of students who are having trouble figuring out where their talents lie, having an opportunity for them to show their art and to win really helps them out. It’s always been that way with Comic Con, we first had the idea in 2010, and since then we saw that there were so many talented children in our home, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to shine.
The film and comic book industry has had a history of portraying negative stereotypes of Non-Westerners, but now we’ve got Marvel’s first Muslim superhero Ms. Marvel, and also their incredibly successful movie Black Panther, featuring a predominantly black cast. Do you believe hosting MEFCC every year can bring a more positive view of UAE’s comic culture to other countries?
Oh, definitely, we’ve already seen it you know. Ever since we started in 2012, we’ve seen artists and celebrities attending again and again because they loved it! We get emails from people around the world telling us how they’ve heard about the convention from others who enjoyed Comic Con here in Dubai, and they’ve been told they can’t miss it. Last year, we had a very well-known Italian artist Claudio Castellini visit the convention, and then the following year we got so many calls from Italian artists who want to attend because of he told everyone back home how well he was treated in Dubai, and how amazing the convention was. Art transcends boundaries; the convention has been making quite a difference for the Middle East. There are still people who won’t come to the Middle East, but the idea that we host Comic Con, and now there are many more pop culture events all around the region, shows the world that we really are some of the most passionate fans of sci-fi and film, and that helps other countries see us in a better light.
How is the Super Fan Challenge influencing the con-going community?
We’d be nothing without our fans, so we continuously try to give back. We have so many people invested in the community; my Facebook page is filled with (enthusiastic people explaining why they love Comic Con) them. We want to keep the buzz about the convention going even after we the show is over. Building a community is very important to us!
We’ve got the legendary Alodia Gosiengfiao judging this year’s cosplay competition, what would you like to say about our local cosplayers?
They’re amazing, they’re just as good as any other cosplayer anywhere in the world. I remember in 2012 when we had our first cosplay contest, one of our regional cosplayers Vega, he did Devil Jin Kazama from Tekken, complete with wings that would rise up when he pulled on some invisible string. I can see the passion and love for the characters in their costumes and even their mannerisms, it just blows my mind! I just want to give them more opportunities to shine, and hopefully we can bring the World Cosplay Competition next year. If we can make that happen, it would let our cosplayers work at a whole new level.
It’s great that other brands are seeing this and supporting it; Huawei’s helped us make another category just for Marvel characters to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and plus we also have a separate kids’ category in the Cosplay Contest cause they’re really the most adorable cosplays ever.
What will the Esports Arena bring to UAE’s pro-gaming scene?
We’ve got another event called Games Con, and throughout both events, we’re trying to develop the scene and support our pro-gamers. Even without us, some have gone and made some cool teams already. We want to bring some international flavour to our pro-gaming community. Gaming is a massive part of pop culture, and it’s much more mainstream now. Even I’m a gamer myself, and I can see, now more than ever, many people, young and old, have aspirations to be professional. We’re hoping that the eSports can be the first step to encourage them. For the first time we have a League of Legends tournament, and when we transition to Games Con at the end of the year, we want to keep adding to our videogame tournaments and successfully develop it every year.
Which celebrity or artist would you like to invite next year?
Oh my Lord, there are so many people we want to visit. We’ve looked a A-List celebrities, but it’s so difficult to get them because they’re so busy! We’re lucky to get anyone who can free their schedule for us; they’re always in demand. For example, Karl Urban was supposed to come last year, but he got busy and could only make it this year. And some people criticise us for our choices; they’d be like, “Oh, but Gaku Space isn’t important, he’s only a voice actor!” No! He’s also super busy, and Overwatch is one of the most popular FPS games there are, and freakin’ Genji is also one of the most played characters in there, whether you like him or hate playing against him! We have our reasons behind our lineup choices. I could easily give you a list of 50 names, and I’d love to have them in a future convention. I’d love to have Bryan Cranston, or even Ben Affleck. There’s a fanbase for everyone, even if I don’t know a guest, I’d see a huge response from the community in appreciation for including them. We try bringing people from singers and anime artists too one year.
Will you be attending this year’s convention?
I can’t stay away even if I wanted to, it’s like my baby, I have to make sure it does well. I’m an active part of the team, so I still want to go around and see that the con-goers are happy.
This may be difficult: Marvel or DC?
I have to say I’m a Marvel guy. I grew up with DC comics in the 80s, and they’ve been a huge part of my life since, but I love Marvel’s TV shows and movies, so I think it’s still skewing towards Marvel, but my nostalgia for The Justice League and Hulk.