Conventions

The comics scene in Nigeria has been thriving since the 1980s, but has yet to burst into the mainstream. There are tastes of what may soon emerge as youth in Nigeria fully embrace the internet—check out this sci-fi short on YouTube here, which includes an animated spaceship—but comics are still an emerging industry. On Friday, the third annual Lagos Comic Con will launch in the commercial capital of 20 million people. I corresponded with comics creator and co-founder Ayodele Elegba about the event, where we wrote about attractions, popular comics, Ebola, and cosplay.

by Zachary Clemente This past weekend, the 20th annual Small Press Expo (SPX) brought an explosion of independent and small press comics to the Marriott...

  by Zachary Clemente On Sunday of the 20th annual Small Press Expo (SPX), The Beat grabbed a strange, backless hotel couch surrounded by vacated folding...

The convention season never stops, and West Coasters will be enjoying the sights and sounds of the Long Beach Comic Con on September 27-28th at...

Following yesterday's post on Salt Lake Comic Con's attendance this weekend—widely reported as somewhere between 120,000-130,000—in which I examined some doubts about this number that have been expressed to me, I received a press release on the numbers, and some clarification from Bryan Brandenberg, Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of the show. He told me, "We feel real good about our numbers. The capacity for the Salt Palace is 150,000 not 82,000. We not only were in the Convention Center, but our film festival was at the Gateway two blocks away and our gaming tournaments were offsite as well. Besides ticket sales, we gave away over 15,000 tickets to schools, military, first responders and charities and we counted free kids."

The third Salt Lake City Con was held this weekend, and it was by all measures a success, becoming the largest convention in Utah,...

It's the crazy fall season for comics and graphic novels, as the Baltimore Comic-Con blends into the Small Press Expo and then barnstorming cartoonists...

By Kyle Pinion For those unaware, I'm a part of the Dragon Con Comics & Pop Arts Programming Staff. Our job to pull together panels...

According to a forwarded email, ReedPOP, the event company that throws New York Comic Con, C2E2, PAX and many other popular fan events, has...

ollowing the hilarity of Fart Party and the hilarity tinged with self-examination of Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait, cartoonist Julia Wertz proved herself one of the sharpest observers out there. However she's been in hiatus from making new comics for the last two years, while getting a new reputation as an urban explorer. (If you want creepy, follow Wertz on Instagram.)

Summer 2014 behind us it's time to move on to 2015 planning, as Wizard World has confirmed two more dates for 2015, adding Louisville, KY and Reno, NV to its 2015 and bringing the total number of planned shows to 24. Tickets are now in sale for the first seven events of 2015, which will feature such nerdlebrities as Stephen Amell ("Arrow"), Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Tyler Posey ("Teen Wolf"), William Shatner ("Star Trek"),The Bella Twins and Michael Rooker. Get em while they're hot! Here's the complete 2015 schedule -- new events are noted with an *. Still no return to New York City.

by Lawrence Brenner -- Cosplay is one of the most visual and important aspects of conventions especially in the last ten years. It is one of the greatest and creative expressions of fandom, displaying a multitude of art forms combined. In addition, many cosplayers are employed in multiple capacities by companies to help in the promotion of their products, services, etc. Cosplayers themselves are also a new form of retailer for and at conventions (and con goers) who sell various products based on their likenesses as various characters and interpretations of from different properties, and this includes props and commissions. In fact, many cosplayers and photographers/videographers go to conventions to photograph and videograph different cosplayers and be the subjects of photos and videos.