Permian Basin Comic Con returns for a special edition

Comic book lovers, anime fans and Star Wars enthusiasts in the Odessa-Midland area are in for an early Christmas this year.

For the first time, the Permian Basin Comic Con, which usually takes place in the spring, will be back for a Holiday Edition this week.

The convention will take place from Dec. 9-11 at the Midland Horseshoe Arena.

Permian Basin Comic Con Promoter Chris Slatosch said the idea of doing a holiday comic con had been in the works for a couple of years but kept getting pushed back.

“We’ve wanted to do it for a long time,” Slatosch said. “We had originally planned to do one in 2020. But the holiday stuff, we feel like a lot of the festivities intermix. It’s a good time to get out with family, shop for Christmas, stuff like that. It’s exciting. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

Slatosch said putting on two comic cons in the Permian Basin in the same calendar year hasn’t been difficult and mentioned the possibility of doing another December convention if the feedback is good enough.

“It’s been good,” Slatosch said. “It hasn’t been too hectic because we’re familiar with the area. We take the formula and replicate it a little and then we get to add a little holiday flavor into it. We’re seeing if the area wants that event in the late fall, early winter. And if they love it, good. We’ll do two. If not, we’ll stick to our March and spring break event.”

This week’s guest lineup will feature plenty of well-known voice actors from popular shows such as Phineas and Ferb, Power Rangers and numerous anime shows.

Actor David Ankrum, who played Wedge Antilles in Star Wars: A New Hope and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, will also be at this week’s convention.

“A lot of the guests that we were getting requests for are coming from the animated world,” Slatosch said. “I think it’s a great lineup. I think we’ll keep March a little more diverse. We tried to shoot for more Christmas-style actors, like ones that were in Nightmare before Christmas but as you can imagine, at this time of the year, they’re extremely hard to get. We just simplified it and kept to the formula and did more fan service in terms of what people are asking for.”

The previous Permian Basin Comic Con earlier this year saw a record for the most people at the convention.

“Our attendance count was about 6,800 for the weekend,” Slatosch said. “We’re really happy with that. That was another reason we decided to set up another date.”

The convention was also moved from its previous location in downtown Midland to the Horseshoe Arena, which Slatosch said is another reason for the large turnout.

“100 percent,” Slatosch said. “When we were in downtown Midland, the parking was a big complaint. They’re still working on stuff downtown. But the parking and building space at the Horseshoe is so important to the growth of the show.”

This weekend’s convention will offer plenty of shopping opportunities in time for the holidays.

“We focus really heavy on the Christmas market,” Slatosch said. “There are a ton of activities for the kids to do. We have free photos … some of the vendors will be geared more towards Christmas. I think the Midland High Orchestra is coming out to play Christmas music and I think they’re going to do a couple of comic con related stuff for us like play a few theme songs from shows. It’ll be more holiday-based but there’ll still be something familiar to other comic con stuff we’ve done.”

For more information about the comic con, go to tinyurl.com/2j6b7u29.