First College Station Comic Con kicks off
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Heroes, villains and ghouls took over the Brazos County Expo Center on Saturday to experience the first College Station Comic Con.
The two-day event allows those in attendance to meet celebrities from their favorite shows and have some of their questions answered during the con’s Q&A panels. Con-goers could also buy figures, games, anime and collectibles from over one hundred vendors. Several video game tournaments took place throughout the event for those looking to test their skills.
Clayton Afinowicz, College Station’s Comic Con’s Community Outreach Coordinator, said “nerd culture” has been underrepresented in the area, so it’s great to have an event that can bring people with those interests.
“It’s just fantastic, we have something right here in the community that everyone can come out and enjoy their fandom without having to drive to Houston, Dallas, or Austin to enjoy that,” Afinowicz said.
Afinowicz said the community has been very receptive and helped make putting on the con an easy process.
“The news outlets, the local media, all the businesses have been really willing to work with us to get this off the ground and going,” said Afinowicz.
Kari Wahlgren, a celebrity voice actor known for her roles as Jessica from Rick and Morty, Starfire from DC’s animated movies, Tigress from Kung Fu Panda, Evelyn Parker from Cyberpunk: 2077 and many more roles, had a booth and took part in a Q&A panel.
“One of my family members actually worked at the college for a number of years, but this is my first time in College Station and it’s been really great so far the people have been really nice,” Wahlgren said. “Just really sweet people asking great questions, bringing up fun things to sign. I’ve had a good experience.”
Even though it’s a brand new event, Afinowicz said the turnout has been great with presale numbers a little over a thousand.
“For this market is outstanding, so I would say 3,000 isn’t out of the question for the total weekend,” Afinowicz said.
College Station Comic Con continues on Sunday. Tickets are $20 a person and children 8 and under get in free. General admission doors open at 11 a.m.
“It starts with community support,” Afinowicz said. “The more support we can get from the community we can bring out bigger names, we can have more gaming tournaments, we can have more panels and just a lot more exhibits. There is nowhere to go but up.”
For the full schedule click this link.
