Last weekend, over 40,000 people attended the 5th annual Indiana Comic Con at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, and they were not disappointed.
“There was just so much to do,” Indiana Comic Con frequenter Casey Carson said.
This year, Indiana Comic Con spanned over 400,000 square feet of the Indiana Convention Center. The main hall, named the Exhibitor Hall, was home to 150 booths filled with comics, cosplay, toys, artwork, video games and more.
The immersion began as soon as you walked in. As attendees entered the Exhibitor Hall they were greeted by an enormous semi-truck, styled by a fan as Optimus Prime from the Transformer series.
“There was such a variety of art and merchandise that could be purchased,” Carson said. “It gives us (attendees) a chance to meet and interact with some local, and not so local, artists.”
Aside from the abundance of exhibition booths, attendees had the chance to pay and meet some of their favorite celebrities and voice-actors from their favorite television shows and movies. Some of the celebrities at Comic Con this weekend were David Harbour from “Stranger Things”, Oliver & James Phelps from the “Harry Potter” series, Steve Cardenas’ from the “Power Rangers” series, Veronica Taylor from “Pokemon”, Rodger Bumpass from “Spongebob” and more.
“My favorite part of the event was getting to meet the Phelps twins,” first time attendee Kayla Fish said.
“My favorite thing that I bought was Steve Cardenas’ autograph.” Carson said. “He was one of my idols as a child, and it was amazing to get to meet him and shake his hand.”
If you didn’t want to pay the extra fees to meet your favorite person, attendees had a chance to catch their favorites during scheduled panels throughout the weekend. The people attending the panels could get in line and ask a question to one of the attending celebrities or voice actors.
Some of the popular celebrity panels were the Jess Harnell Q&A, the Matthew Lewis Q&A, and Voice Acting: Everything You Want to Know, hosted by voice actors Jess Harnell, Veronica Taylor, Nolan North, Rodger Bumpass, Charlie Adler and Carlos Alazraqui.
“I liked how the hosts were so expressive in their answers,” Carson said. “They were quick to throw out the voices they used which was awesome to hear live.”
Comic Con attendees could also take part in a variety of other activities. Aside from the celebrity panels, there were a variety of other entertaining panels that guests could attend, such as Improv 101, Tea Time with Draco Malfoy, and Villains Who Suck. Since Sunday was Easter this year, guests could even get pictures with the Easter bunny at different times of the day.
The final, but certainly far from last, hall that guests could explore was the Gaming Hall. There, attendees could buy different games, or even bring their own, and play them with others, whether total strangers they just met at Indiana Comic Con or friends they’ve known for a lifetime.
Also inside the game room, Indy Lightsaber Academy was teaching guests how to use lightsabers from Star Wars, and even held tournaments throughout the event. In the back of the hall, Global Archery hosted games of archery tag that anyone could join.
This year, Indiana Comic Con had something for everyone who attended the event. Whether guests had attended the event years prior, or this was their first year at the annual event, Indiana Comic Con made sure that pop-culture, cosplay and comic book fans had something epic to do to hold them over until next year’s event.
“I liked the ease of the event,” Fish said. “Nothing was difficult to access as far as parking, tickets, food, and merchandise. It was very well organized.”
“I’ll definitely be attending cons in the future,” Carson said.
The 6th annual Indiana Comic Con returns to Indianapolis on Friday, August 30, 2019.
For more information, and for updates on next year’s event, be sure to visit their website, or check out the official Indiana Comic Con Facebook page.
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