So out of the ashes of Universal Fan Con, something very wonderful and beautiful happened over the weekend: Wicomicon, a pop up one day show that was held at a space near downtown Baltimore, and organized by, among others, Keith Chow of Hard Noc Media, Karama Horne of The Blerd Gurl, Uraeus, of Black Heroes Matter, André Robinson of Carbon-Fibre Media, Chuck Collins of the Bounce! comic, Elijah Kelley of the Be A Boss App, and Patrick Michael Strange of New Release Wednesday.  I know I’m missing some people – let me know anyone who should be added.

Not only did the Wicomicon folks pull this off in barely a week, they got many of the high level guests originally planned for UFC to come out, including Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker and cast members from The Magicians and Killjoys.

Wicomicon was followed on Sunday by Famcom, a live streaming of panels that were intended for UFC.

From the looks of things, Wicomicon was an amazing event that showed the passion of the fan community. I know writing a story from tweets is lazy, but they are the only way to reflect what happened and how people are feeling.  Greg Pak had one of the best takes:

 

 

 

 

Infinity War did not make me cry, but I found myself welling with emotion at the joy and sense of community that everyone was tweeting about all weekend. The blerd community was dealt a horrible blow by the betrayal of UFC, but the power of coming together overcame that dark cloud to create the celebration that everyone had hoped for in the first place.

 

https://twitter.com/BHMatter/status/990687279290175492

 

The response was so awesome that in the fog of con love, people are already talking about next year.

https://twitter.com/BHMatter/status/990452630697758721

I recall a similar situation back in the 90s here in NYC, when the Great Eastern convention planned for the Coliseum was cancelled a few days out. A few locals including Michael Carbonaro and Vince Zurzullo came through with a one day con in the basement of a church that survives to this day as Carbonaro’s Big Apple Con.

But the effort expended to pull off Wicomicon was part of the magic of the weekend. Will there be another Wicomicon, run by people who care about the community, not just scamming it? We reached out to Keith Chow and he replied:

The outpouring of love for WICOMICON went above and beyond our wildest dreams, and we’ve been humbled by the response! The team is still recovering from the weekend. We’ll be figuring out what the future looks like over the next few days.

I suspect that the energy generated by this event will lead to some kind of continuation but give the organizers some time for much needed rest. And thank them. They showed what real fandom is about.

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