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Super selfies
Con-goers pose with Batman, aka Lyn Powell of the charity-focused cosplay group known as The Signal, at the 2019 Soda City Comic Con.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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The adventure begins
Faye Kelley, 14, of Columbia acts as the dungeon master for a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Star struck
Breanna Orr, above left, and Kimberly Orr show off items signed by Guardians of the Galaxy star Michael Rooker.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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A way with words and pictures
Columbia’s own Sanford Greene speaks with fans at Soda City Comic Con. Greene is known for his work with Marvel, Dark Horse and Image Comics.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Best dressed
Contestants for the Saturday evening cosplay contest head backstage, including Sophie Smith, in blue, dressed as Cinderella.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
Editor’s note: Soda City Comic Con 2020, originally scheduled to take place in August at the Columbia Convention Center, has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But have no fear, says managing partner Donald Brock Jr. Like a classic superhero, the celebration of pop culture, comic books, sci-fi movies, video games and anime is scheduled for a triumphant return in 2021. Until then, enjoy these stories and photos of the people we met at the 2019 event. For more information, visit sodacitycomiccon.com.
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When a Weird Al Yankovic song suddenly blasts through the loudspeakers in the ballroom of the Columbia Convention Center, an impromptu dance party breaks out. Deadpool is grooving, Catwoman is boogying. Even Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, from the video game Halo, is getting down. Cinderella, Fat Thor, The Falcon—everybody is cutting a rug or singing along.
For a moment, you might think this is an all-star Halloween party. But it’s August, and the crowd here is simply killing time. They’re waiting to learn who will win the cosplay contest of the 2019 Soda City Comic Con.
For the uninitiated, comic conventions (“cons” for short) are festival-like gatherings where organizers make room for everybody’s pop cultural interests. As in, literally there is a room for the autograph-seekers, a room for the video gamers, a room for the board gamers, a room for the comic book collectors, a room for the celebrity panels, and—in the hallways between the rooms—elaborately costumed cosplayers posing for photos with attendees and each other.
Whether you’re into Marvel, or D.C., or anime, or video games, or Dungeons & Dragons, or Star Trek, or Star Wars, or steampunk, or Game of Thrones, or any of the other infinite galaxies of pop culture entertainment, to step into a comic con is to enter a phantasmagorical universe where all worlds happily collide.
The autograph room
Chris Westbury of Orangeburg waits in line for the doors to open while clutching a DVD set of Batman: The Animated Series. He’s here today to meet the voice of Batman—the actor Kevin Conroy—and for $40 he can get the DVD set signed. Other fans in line have similar goals for varying prices—it’s $70 for a professional photo with actor Michael Rooker (Yondu Udonta in Guardians of the Galaxy), $40 for a selfie with John Glover (Lionel Luthor on Smallville) and $30 for an autograph and chance to mingle briefly with Kathy Najimy (Sister Act, Hocus Pocus). Judging from how the lines in the autograph room snake between velvet ropes, the fans have no problem with the prices. The stars seem to enjoy it, too.
“The only time you get to interact with the audience, especially for voice actors, is at these conventions,” Conroy says. “That’s it. So, in terms of feedback, to find out the effect you’re having on these people, it’s here.”
He notes that he’s had people break down in tears and tell him that their troubled childhood was basically rescued by the animated show. He’s had people tell him that the greatest lessons they’ve learned in life came from Batman.
“The Greeks had Orestes and Achilles, Elektra, Agamemnon. But we have Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash. It’s the same thing. Comic characters are our mythology,” he says. “The ancients used those stories to teach their children the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. There were morality stories, and that’s what animation is now.”
The vendors room
Sitting at a table in a room full of things for sale—stuffed animals, figurines, video game consoles, T-shirts, bumper stickers, backpacks, costumes, books, comics (an element of pop culture is, after all, stuff)—is local comic book creator Chad Bowers.
The writer of such issues as Sleepwalker, Darkhawk, X-Men ’92, Deadpool, Youngblood, and Kiss Army of Darkness, Bowers is something of a Soda City legend. Interested in the form since middle school, he self-published comics before landing a job with Marvel. He sees comic cons as the ultimate fan experience.
“If you’re a person who like NASCAR, it always means more to actually go to the race,” he says. “If you’re a person who loves baseball, you go to a baseball game. You can participate with comics in the same ways.”
Across the room, comic bookstores and independent dealers offer colorful, enticing shelf displays of rare (read: pricey) comics intended to lure buyers.
“You have to really want to find a comic book anymore,” says dealer Banks Robinson. “When we were growing up, comics were everywhere. They were in the drugstore. They were in the doctor’s office. Barber shops. Every store was just inundated with them.”
One of his regular customers and clients, Ted Gunderson of Charleston, agrees. An eclectic collector of comics, vintage toys, and military objects, Gunderson says comics remind him of his childhood. “It was a better time,” he says. “Back then we escaped into a different world, a different universe.”
Such nostalgia is why he’s always on the hunt for something new and special. He nods at Robinson and says, “He might shoot me an email saying, ‘Hey, I got a Spidey #1.’ I’d have to take a second mortgage out, but …”—he laughs—“but I’d do it.”
The gaming room
Down the hall, in the Firefly Toys & Games Arcade room, a group of explorers sit at a table, plotting a quest. Durnan The Wanderer, the Masked Lord of Waterdeep, has gone missing in the dungeons below the Growling Groghouse. Their job, according to the dungeon master, is to find him.
So begins “Last Orders of the Yawning Portal,” a part of the Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer League Series, a major attraction at Soda City Comic Con. Part role-play, part imaginative storytelling, this type of gaming requires one person to be the dungeon master, who runs the game as a kind of moderator and narrator.
According to many, one of the best dungeon masters in the room is 14-year-old Faye Kelley of Columbia. That she’s confidently directing a game played by older teen boys, confirms Soda City Comic Con co-founder Steve Powell’s theory about these events: “People that you normally wouldn’t see talking to one another will talk about Star Wars. Will talk about Star Trek. Will talk about The Avengers. Will talk to you about Dungeon & Dragons or comic books. It unifies people.”
And the winner is …
As the cosplay contestants wait on the results of the competition, they are indeed unified. One warrior hands his plastic axe over to another warrior, who flips it and plays a fake bass line on it. A contestant dressed as Spider Man takes the microphone and calls his Mary Jane to the stage. He gets on one Spidey knee and proposes. When she says yes, the crowd goes wild.
Then the emcee—local morning show host Fraendy Clervaud, dressed as The Falcon—calls for a drumroll. And the winner is: Lamont Artybridge of Columbia, with his “Nightmare” character from the video game Soulcalibur.
“Dude,” he says, panting through the mask, “it shows you perseverance conquers everything. This costume was 500 hours-worth of work—sanding, wiring, electronics.”
It is the kind of dedication that like-minded attendees can appreciate.
“This is all about art and creativity and the freedom to express ourselves,” says runner-up Anthony Andress from inside his impressive Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 costume. “We come here for the fun of it. It brings all fans together.”
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Get There
Soda City Comic Con organizers are exploring plans for a one-day mini event in February or March 2021, says managing partner Donald Brock Jr. They also hope to host the full Soda City Comic Con on the third weekend of August 2021. For updates and the latest plans, call (803) 361-6318 or visit sodacitycomiccon.com.
Need more comic con action? Visit thecarolinanerd.com/south-carolina-calendar for a roster of scheduled events for the rest of 2020 and in 2021.