The 2nd Annual Comic Con was a fun filled experience for all the attendees. This bigger, better and much more entertaining convention was not just limited to the comic enthusiasts this year but had lot of exciting things for the entire family. Dilli Haat saw approximately 35 thousand people turning up for the Comic Convention. The place was abuzz and the constant announcement of prizes and launches kept the atmosphere alive.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India shared, “We got a tremendous response. It was very nice and bigger than what any of us had expected. 3 days of constant running to make sure that everything happens smoothly takes a toll but at the end its all worth it. Last year there were many curious bystanders but this year people have come especially for Comic Con”.
This year Comic Con had an association with Disney which turned out to be a treat for the attendees at the convention. Disney promoted its two features- John Carter and The Avengers at the convention. The promotion activities saw a mix of games, photo sessions and line of merchandise up for grabs. These two stalls saw a huge number of fans taking part in the various games and winning varied prizes.
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With more than 20 book launches and 80 exhibitors the convention was impressively packed. Lot of contests had been going on with lot of prizes to be won. Game4u had a contest wherein participants had to answer 3 questions about the game and the lucky winner gets Playstation 3. The winner Ankur Kayesth was announced on the 3rd day.
Similarly Bausch & Lomb had a series of contests going on all 3 days of the convention and 2 lucky winners were announced every 2 hours. The winners got Bausch & Lomb goodies like colored lenses, t-shirts, coffee mugs. Apart from this exhibitors were giving discounts on their books and other goodies as well.
The special guest session conducted on each day of the convention saw an interesting amount of audience. The special guest session on the first day was conducted by Chris Oliveros who took the audience on the journey of Drawn & Quarterly, one of the largest and most prolific independent comic publishers in the world. Next day saw Gary Groth, Co-Founder of Fantagraphics Books and the Editor-in-Chief of the Comics Journal spoke about the history of Fantagraphics and his journey of publishing The Comics Journal, which started with him publishing his first comic fanzine at the age of 13.
The 3rd day’s special quest session was a special retrospective on the life and works of Robert Crumb, considered by many as one of the greatest and comic artist of the last century. The session was conducted by Gary Groth. Robert Crumb is most known for his “Keep on Truckin” comic and the characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural.
Chotta Bheem and Suppandi were also seen making the rounds of Dilli Haat. They were flanked by the excited kids who wanted to get clicked with their favourite cartoon characters and parents who were eager to please their wards by clicking their pictures.
Cosplay saw an amazing turnout of the Cosplay participants. There was Minnie mouse, Super Kudi, Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Alice Gone Bad, Characters from Naruto, Chacha Chaudhary, Shambhu, Captain America, Hulk, Aladdin, Tintin with Snowy and more than 4 Clark Kents! The kids were also seen wearing their tiny superhero costumes and posing for pictures. There was a blue and yellow Wolverine, Batman, Spiderman, and Doraemon.
Rovolt Entertainment a new entry in the Comic Con was busy entertaining lot of comic enthusiasts at their stall. They are preparing themselves to launch 3 of their titles- Aveon 9, Aren and Metafreakz. They had a special preview published to let the readers in on what could be expected from their upcoming titles. The preview contained panels from the books and also a brief on the main characters from all the 3 titles.
About the response Ashutosh R Joshi from Rovolt Entertainment says, “The response was fantastic. It was more than any of us had expected. We were not really selling anything but giving the preview to the interested people. But I can say that it was a complete sell out. We have published quite a large number of preview books but at the end they were all gone. We are very happy with the response that we got at Comic Con”.
Pop Culture Publishing that launched its new title ‘Timpa’ and announced the 2nd title in the Munkeeman series, did sales worth INR 2.5 lacs in 3 days at the convention. Campfire Graphic Novels that launched its new title Sinbad- The Legacy had several titles on display at its stall and did sales of approximately INR 2.5 lacs in 3 days.
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Jazyl Homavazir the creator of the Webcomic ‘The Beast Legion’ was busy promoting his online comic and was also selling the specially published edition consisting of 4 issues of his webcomic. “I have sold around 300 comics in 3 days and I’m really happy with the exposure that I got at Comic Con. I also distributed the fliers to let more people know about The Beast Legion. And hopefully you’ll see me again at the Comic Con Express in Mumbai”, Jazyl added.
About the future plans for Comic Con India Jatin asserted, “We are working on making the Comic Con at Mumbai a permanent affair. We are planning to rename it and make it bigger. In the meantime we may take our travelling version, Comic Con Express to other cities; we are looking closely at Bangalore. And yeah we will start working on the 3rd Annual Comic Con India as well since it takes a year long efforts.”