Hundreds of residents from Sudbury and other parts of the North escaped to the coolness of the Sudbury Arena Saturday to enjoy seeing hundreds of other people in costume. Despite the crowds, the floor of the arena was a significantly cooler place to be when compared to the afternoon temperatures outside on Elgin Street Saturday.
This was was the 10th anniversary of the Sudbury Graphic-Con, an event which first began in 2013 but was put aside for a couple of years because of the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizer Neil Stephen, who is president of the volunteer board of directors for Graphic-Con, explained what the event was about.
"It's a celebration of our geek culture, right. So we've started 2013 as just a nod for the role that literature and comic books have on popular culture. And then it's grown over the years to include everything from pop culture to film and television series, and a gaming conventions and so on so forth."
He said the event has its roots in the popularity of graphic novels and it also allows people to explore fantasy characters and act out in the roles of many of those characters.
"Essentially yes. So, it links back to the fact that this started as a committee with the Greater Sudbury Public Library. So it was a celebration of graphic novels, the graphics that you would see in your favourite comic books, and then it continued to grow from there," Stephen said.
The arena was packed was fans seeking souvenirs, books, CDs, posters and costume pieces for future events. Just as many of the spectators were in costume as those who were not.
"So we've got a lot of vendors here, we've got artists available, as well as the games room, lots of entertaining things, and including a lot of panels, some of them pure entertainment, some of them educational, and some of them rather informative," said Stephen.
He added that he was pleased with the turnout of fans and cosplay characters who have continued to contribute to the success of the event over the years.
