Friends of a Nanaimo comic book convention’s late creator will continue his legacy this weekend.
Curious Comicon takes place Saturday, May 4, at Country Club Centre in Nanaimo from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fundraiser was the idea of Mike Drummond, who died earlier this year, and his contributions will be honoured this weekend.
There will be a guestbook where people can leave messages expressing love for Drummond and how he positively influenced them, said Rob McKee, a board member with the non-profit Curious ComiCon Convention Society.
As for this year’s event, there will be 90 tables of vendors and artists. Vancouver Island Pro Wrestling and Mid-Island Lego Users Group will be there, as well as other attractions.
“The Epic Brick Adventures will be here, they do a Lego-based tabletop [role-playing game], like a Dungeons and Dragons, but with Lego, which is really awesome,” said McKee. “JigglyPig Comics, which is probably one of the biggest comic dealers for conventions, [will] be here. There’s a video game studio, they’re called Cadaver Carnival Studios and they’ll be doing some demonstrations.”
A staple of previous conventions has been cosplay contests and people can dress up as their favourite pop culture or comic book heroes, with categories for children, teenagers and adults.
The event takes place on Free Comic Book Day, so there will be free comics, said McKee. The event also takes place on May the 4th, which has become a day to celebrate Star Wars. Organizers are expecting to see people dressed up as Jedi, Sith and Mandalorians and the like.
“This is going to be Mike’s show, we really want to honour him and do him proud because this was his baby,” said McKee. “He was really proud of it. He loved Nanaimo and he loved the people and so he loved the fact that he was able to put on a free show every year for everybody.”
Money raised at this year’s event will benefit Nanaimo Brain Injury Society.
For more information, search Curious Comicon Nanaimo on Facebook or go to http://curiouscomicon.com.
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