Calling all heroes! Calling all Villains! Calling all pop culture fans!
The C3 is coming! What’s C3 you ask? The “Cheyenne Comic Con”. It’s the annual convention celebration of comics, games and pop culture being held in Cheyenne the weekend of May 12-14th at the Frontier Park Exhibition Hall. www.cheyennecomiccon.com
For the uninitiated, the first recorded comic book convention took place in 1964 in New York City. Known as the “Tri-State Con” a.k.a. the “New York Comicon,” it was held July 24, 1964. This one-day convention organized by 16-year-old Bernie Bubnis and fellow enthusiast Ron Fradkin, Reports were of over 100 attendees.
In recent years, there has been a phenomenon of comic cons all over the country and around the world. These conventions bring in millions of people collectively and attendees spend literally billions of dollars annually. The granddaddy of all cons is the San Diego Comic-Con that can attract nearly 170 thousand people to the event. Now, almost every weekend in America, there’s “a con”.
Comic con attendees often dress up as their favorite comic book hero, villain, video game character or movie character. Whatever’s hot in pop culture, you can be sure someone out there is working on a costume. These costume clad fans are called Cosplayers, which is short for Costume Player. There are even television shows like SyFy’s Cosplay Melee that tap in on this desire to become the character they love. But you don’t have to be in costume to enjoy the 3C convention.
Along with the costumes, there are dozens of events and enough celebrity appearances to satisfy any fan. In fact, one of the biggest reasons people attend comic cons is to meet your heroes first hand. This year’s guest list includes actors and artists alike. Featured this year are Margot Kidder, a.k.a. Lois Lane from the Superman movies. Along with Mrs Kidder are Billy Dee William, Lou Ferrigno, Doug Jones, Mitch Pileggi, Dee Wallace, Adrian Paul and many others! WOW! You can meet and get to shake hands with your favorite while collecting autographs.
As if that weren’t enough, there are costume contests for the cosplayers, which are always a convention favorite! Along with panels discussing topics like “The Art of Star Trek” and “The Movies of 1982”. Also dozens of vendors selling every conceivable collectable or artwork, and an artist alley with more talent than you can shake a pencil at! I’m not finished yet! In attendance will be member of The 501st Legion, a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization. These members often take their costuming and fandom and put it to work raising money for needy charities. With the Stormtroopers will be Cheyenne’s own Cheyenne Umbrella Corporation, who are fans of the Resident Evil movies.
There’s so much going on at C3 2017 that your best way to learn more, or to get tickets to the events, is to check out their website, www.cheyennecomiccon.com
See you at the con!
Contributing Author – Tim Mandese
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