For Permian Basin Comic Con X event organizer Chris Slatosch, having the convention during the spring has paid dividends.
For one reason, most schools are on Spring Break around the same time, giving families something fun to do.
“March is always a good time to have a comic con because of spring break and it gives families more spare time,” Slatosch said. “They’re not having to battle the holidays. It’s a cool escape in the early part of the year. It’s always a fun show.”
Next week, comic con attendees, dressed as Batman, Star Wars Storm Troopers, anime characters and much more will be flocking to the Tall City for this year’s Permian Basin Comic Con.
This year’s convention runs from March 17-19 at the Midland Horseshoe Arena.
The event brings in over 8,000 unique attendees and fans from all over West Texas.
In the past, Slatosch has helped put on one comic con in the Permian Basin each year.
However, last year an extra comic con was added to the calendar with a convention in December at the Horseshoe Arena.
This year, they’ll be doing three comic cons in the area.
While Slatosch says the spring Permian Basin Comic Con will still be the largest one of the year, there will be a free convention April 15-16 at Music City Mall. The December comic con will also be coming back this year.
“This one is our Super Bowl,” Slatosch said. “We put the most into this one. Then, we’re doing a free one at Music City Mall since we noticed that the movie theater closed down so to try and help encourage people to go to the mall, we’re going to build a free-to-attend show with two celebrity guests. One of them will be signing for free. It’s sort of a giving-back thing. We’re not going to charge for admission and people will get to see some of the vendors that they typically get to see and some new ones. We’re doing the holiday show again. A lot of people liked that. I think we’re going to reorganize a few things and make it more festive and then try it again.”
All weekend long, many vendors and guest artists will be at the Horseshoe Arena, giving convention attendees plenty of options from shopping to signings to panel discussions.
Most of the same format that was used in past conventions will be back. However, there will be a few new activities taking place this year.
“Obviously, we switched up some of the guest talent that is coming out this year,” Slatosch said. “We’ve added some activities. We have a lot more free to play games set up. We have a K-pop dance battle that’s going on that people can sign up for and win money.”
Each year, there’s a star-studded list of special guests who attend the Permian Basin Comic Con.
This year’s guests include Francois Chau, known for his roles as Dr. Pierre Chang in ABC’s “Lost,” Quick Kick on “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” as well as Dr. Chang in the film “21 and Over.”
Another guest will be Canadian voice actor Brian Drummond who is known for “Dragon Ball Z,” “Death Note” and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed.”
“Power Rangers” fans will get a chance to meet Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy who were known for playing the role as Bulk and Skull from the popular 90s TV series.
“We always get clamoring for Power Ranger stuff so we brought Bulk and Skull from the show,” Slatosch said. “They always seem to be pretty popular which is interesting since they weren’t the original rangers. We also brought some of the 90s voice actors who are tough to get. We have some guys from Naruto and even the Netflix series Death and Robots.”
Renowned cartoonist Guy Gilchrist will also be one of the guests at this year’s Permian Basin Comic Con.
“Guy is going to be our biggest headliner,” Slatosch said. “He’s worked on the comic strips and developing characters like Kermit the Frog. All those older cartoons, he’s responsible for animating them and drawing them. He’ll be here. We’re focusing heavily on doing more anime because of the popularity with the 18-25 demographics. We brought some of those guys out here. Emi Lo and Alex Cazares will be out signing stuff for free. They’re pretty big names in the anime community. then we have the actual body and voice actor of Shredder from the Ninja Turtles movies.”
This year’s convention will have a lot for anime lovers.
“I think partly the cooler aspects of this show are the K-Pop dance competitions,” Slatosch said. “A lot of that is based on the Japanese culture. It ties real heavily to anime so it’ll be really cool. From what I know, all the participants are from West Texas. We’ve given them each a place to show their talent. It should be fun. The guest signings and panels give a chance to talk to these professionals. There’s a lot of collectibles and merchandises. … Those are some of the highlights.”
One of the biggest points that Slatosch stresses about the spring Permian Basin Comic Con is how they’ve been able to keep ticket prices cheap and offer attendees more bang for their buck, compared to bigger Comic Cons.
“I think the biggest thing we do that separates us is how we do the activities and how everything is family-friendly,” Slatosch said. “Kids get in free but there’s more emphasis on that family experience and family time. We try to keep it fun. Even if all the prices are like $8 or $10, we’ve been able to keep our $20 ticket prices. This is the eighth year we’ve been doing it. We’ve kept the prices the same each year. So I think that’s what separates us from the larger shows. Some of those shows are like $30-$40 tickets. We try to keep everything family-friendly and keep it something that everyone can afford.”
For tickets and more information about this year’s Permian Basin Comic Con, go to tinyurl.com/2mx9xbu4.
If you go
- What: Permian Basin Comic Con X.
- Where: Midland Horseshoe Arena.
- When: March 17-19.
