Wittenberg hosted the Champion City Comic Con in the Shouvlin Center on Sept. 26. The annual convention attracts many local vendors of comics, games and toys.
“For us, [the convention] is great,” said Brian Crock from Epic Loot Games and Comics, which will be opening a store in the Upper Valley Mall on Oct. 3, “It’s a chance to get out into the community and meet people, let them know we exist and just have fun. We’ve had a lot of show-and-tell, made some sales. I’m pretty happy!”
The convention also brought out local creators to showcase their work. Dustin Carson, a local writer who has attended the convention every year, showcased his finished series “No Gods,” as well as other ongoing works in horror and fantasy genres.
Carson explained the premise of the story for his completed series: “It’s about a 14-year-old boy who thinks he’s a clone of Jesus Christ. He thinks the government took the Shroud of Turin and got a blood sample and DNA sequence and cloned Christ, and when he wakes up to a world full of superheroes – some of which are being worshiped like gods – he sets off to destroy all of them because there’s only supposed to be one God.”
Show runners took a different approach to promoting the convention this year by doing radio spots and print advertisements, and perhaps more attendees this year got the message.
“I missed it last year because I was commuting and didn’t know about it,” said sophomore Jacob Snyder, who attended the convention dressed as Rorschach, a vigilante from the popular “Watchmen” graphic novel.
New vendors were also pleased at the attendance. Jason Young, from Maverick’s Comic Books and Baseball Cards located in Kettering, said, “This is our first time [attending the convention].” Speaking early in the day, Young also said, “For it not even being noon, we’ve pretty much paid for our table already, which is great,” referring to the turnout of attendees.
Besides games, contests and, of course, the comic books, the other big attraction was the classic Batmobile from the 1960s TV show “Batman,” starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Parked on the front lawn outside the Shouvlin Center, the Batmobile drew a large crowd of fans of every age group. Carl’s Body Shop of Dayton, an auto repair shop, provided the famous car for photographs. Asa Canaday, who came from Urbana, dressed as Batman and posed for pictures with fans around the car.
“I’m having a great time,” Canaday said. “I love the car. It’s just fun being around other people that have the same interests as me. You know, I like the cosplay, entertaining the kids. It’s great.”
