The fandoms awaken at 1st annual West Essex ComicCon

West Essex High School held its own version of ComicCon for the first time ever on Thursday, Dec. 3, at the high school library. The event, modeled after similar famous nationwide conventions in San Diego and New York, was a celebration of students’ favorite comic, TV movie and video game characters and universes.

District librarians Rosemary Rich and Catherine Spinella partnered up with the Fairfield and Roseland Public Libraries to plan the event as an approach to encourage students to read more books.

“We just wanted everybody to have a good time,” Rich said, who was dressed in solid blue with a red cape as “Super-Librarian” along with Spinella. “These are things that students love, different genres of stories, but they’re all visual and fun. People love these characters.”

The room was fully packed with at least 50 students and volunteers from the middle and high schools. During the convention, the library was completely transformed, with a number of fandom-based activities set up in a variety of stations. These stations ranged from a Captain America archery challenge to arts and crafts tables in which attendees could create and color their own comics and assemble characters from various shows and fan universes, such as “Super Mario Brothers,” animated web series “Bee and PuppyCat” and long-running sci-fi TV series “Doctor Who.”

Visitors took part in physical challenges, such as a “Star Wars”-themed bean bag toss and “Spider-man” cotton-ball throw contest. By participating in events, fans won raffle tickets to enter into a drawing for various prizes, including movie theater passes, DVD boxsets, mugs and more.

“I love the event – it’s really cool,” seventh grader Isabelle Smith said. “I really enjoyed it. I’ve been to conventions but not to ComicCon. I really do enjoy and love going to them.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to ComicCon, whether it’s in New York, Chicago, or L.A., but as you know it’s expensive and I can’t commute, so this is the next best thing,” sophomore Samantha Luk said.

The National Art Honor Society contributed to the event by offering their talents through painting students’ faces and, along with the Art Club, creating backgrounds that students could take pictures with. Along with the fun decor and activities, there were tons of comic/movie/TV inspired treats, including pretzel stick “Lightsabers,” “Zombie Brains” popcorn and “Yoda Soda.”

Some attendees dressed up as characters from favorite fan series (in a fan-series staple practice known as “cosplay”), including sophomore Maria Tsakonas as Blake from her favorite anime series “RWBY,” and Smith, who stole the show in her pink dress and purple wig as Robin from the anime series “Black Butler.”

“I decided to dress up as this character because I really like to express myself through cosplay and it was the first anime I watched,” Smith said.

Students who attended said the ComicCon was an opportunity to express themselves in ways that average school functions couldn’t. Rich and Spinella, along with the Fairfield and Roseland volunteers, said they hope to make their ComicCon an annual event.