In the wake of North Carolina’s so-called “snowpocalypse,” comic fans in the Triangle came out for a special one-day show in North Raleigh this weekend, months prior to the annual NC Comicon in November.
The first-ever Oak City Comic Show took place at the Hilton on Wake Forest Road where retailers, comic creators, fans and cosplayers displayed their love for the culture.
A Dr. Doom cosplayer stood at the door as I purchased my ticket, while a Raphael Ninja Turtle waited in line for one of the guests. Even a guy dressed as Santa Claus strolled down the lobby.
With tickets at $5 each and free admission for cosplayers, the show brought in several hundred people from around the area. John Gallagher came after seeing an ad on Facebook, working a table selling $1 comics as well as vintage action figures from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. A Spider-Man figure from the ‘90s animated series stood in the center, next to a yellow-suited Wolverine and a classic-style Magneto.
“I was a longtime collector till about 2006 when I went more digital,” Gallagher said. “I was trying to create some room in the basement and things of that nature; you run out of space real quick being a collector.”
Organizers of the event said they wanted to create a smaller and more unique experience for comic book enthusiasts in the area, according to Jeremy Tarney, the chief operating officer of Ultimate Comics in Chapel Hill.
“This show is part of the NC Comicon brand,” Tarney said. “As you’ll notice we didn’t call it the NC Comicon one-day show or the NC Comicon Junior. We wanted to make this a unique experience.”
Guests included writer, comedian and WWE champion Mick Foley, “Marvel 1985” and “Wolverine” illustrator Tommy Lee Edwards, and “G-Man” writer-artist Chris Giarrusso. The show’s special media guest was Addy Miller, famous for playing a zombie girl in the opening scene of “The Walking Dead” pilot.
Edwards also co-runs NC Comicon and said he was excited to participate in this show. He said Oak City is partly in response to the upcoming Wizard World Con, which according to him is more “celebrity-driven” and is more geared toward casual fans.
“I definitely am not thrilled about Wizard World Con,” Edwards said. “I don’t do their conventions and they’re a completely different kind of convention than what we put on, but most people that aren’t really hardcore genre comic fans don’t get that, and it does help us to get out to more of the casual fans as well. We’re more educational-based and more really hitting people that already know the stuff coming in.”
Tarney also said this show is intentionally less media-focused than Wizard Con, which will have big-name actors such as Lou Ferrigno and Sean Austin as guests.
“There are a lot of people I know that want to meet the guy who played the original Hulk or who starred in ‘Battlestar Galactica,’” Tarney said. “I’m glad that that product exists for them, but for us it’s not what we want to do. We want to make sure we have a good alternative to that.”
McKenna Fellows, a senior studying graphic design, walked in and out of the main ballroom in her elaborately designed Elsa costume, looking like a real-life version of the “Frozen” character. She said she recently developed an interest in cosplaying and that this particular costume took her about a month to construct.
“It’s really cool to see what other people put together and show off what you did,” Fellows said. “Especially with Elsa, little kids are freaking out.”
