Comic Con is rightly termed as the #BestWeekendOfTheYear, delivering unlimited fun, adventure, fervour to 1.2 million visitors at ‘India’s Greatest Pop Culture Experience’ for the past nine years. Comic Con India is the place for everyone to ‘Engage, Explore and Experience’ the best that modern pop-culture, literature, and films have to offer from India and the world.
After Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Ahmedabad witnessed its first ever edition of Comic Con at Gujarat University Convention and Exhibition Centre, Memnagar, Ahmedabad on 1 and 2 February.
The first edition of Ahmedabad Comic Con was no less than a paradise for the city’s fandom community to witness and live the pop-culture extravaganza. Organised in association with Vodafone, the venue was packed with a massive gathering of passionate fans hovering around the stage, experiential zones and the exhibitor area to get their hands on artwork from their favorite illustrators and merchandises.
Excited on the first event, Comic Con India founder Jatin Varma earlier told AnimationXpress, “I have been super excited to host Ahmedabad’s first ever Comic Con! All our key partners have been lined up for the show and I hope it was a great experience for the fans in the city!”
The key highlights of Ahmedabad Comic Con were :
- American comic book artist of Archie’s digest fame Dan Parent took the eager fans eager through his work on the comics and shares experience of creating the cover of the special Archie in the Incredible Comic Con India edition.
- Team Bakarmax launched its latest titles like Aap ki Poojita to Pitch Please and more!
- Creator and publisher Vivek Goel launched Holy Cow Publishing’s latest – Age of Immortals and Shaitan
- Professional and emerging cosplayers stole the show with their diverse and creative costumes for India’s biggest cosplay contest in Ahmedabad and the first round of Indian Championship of Cosplay 2019 Ahmedabad Qualifier
- Abhijeet Kini launched his brand new comic books – Ek Din Ka Hero, Fun Tales of India
- Bullseye Press team’s latest comic series, Inferno became one of the crowd-pullers
- Illusionist Karan Singh wowed the audience with his unique act at the main Arena Stage
- Sharleen Khan cosplaying as Yennefer from Witcher won the Ahmedabad Comic Con Cosplay Contest, with Akshay Churi cosplaying as Evil God Awakening Zinogre also qualifying from the city for the Indian Championship of Cosplay 2020 on the first day.
Ahmedabad Comic Con also housed retail stalls by key exhibitors like The Souled Store, Funko by Wizplex, Planet Superheroes, Toki Doki, Printoctopus, XP Pen, Red Wolf Apparel and EFG Store all of them were a big hit with fans who thronged the stalls to take home a memory of their Comic Con experience.
Excited about the success and response at Ahmedabad Comic Con, Varma added, “After establishing four successful properties, we have finally unveiled this brand new property and were absolutely overwhelmed to see the response that we were able to garner. By organising a pop culture convention in a city that swears by its vibrant social and cultural life, we were indeed able to connect with a majority and so far have managed to live up to all their expectations. I am quite overwhelmed with the response generated from the fans in Ahmedabad, which indicates that people in this country are finally identifying themselves with this pop culture. They are not just embracing the west-dominated movies, comics and games but are giving equal emphasis to Indian pop culture foundation, which is a great progress. Already waiting for the next edition with more surprises, performances, gaming, anime and cosplay showcase.”
The event also saw an exciting line-up of experiential zones like the Maruti Suzuki Arena Zone, Vodafone zone, Doritos, WWE, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman and Scoob by Warner Bros India and The Gaming Zone by E-Sports Club.
Talking about the much eventful year of Comic Con in 2019, Varma recalled in a candid chat with us, “2019 was a great year for us as we were able to grow the shows further not just in terms of size and scale, but visitors as well. From the organiser’s perspective, a key takeaway from us throughout the Comic Cons in different cities, was that fans wanted more experiences at the show as well as more entertainment oriented activities at our main stage. As we head into the 10th year of Comic Con India, these will be some of the key areas that we’ll be working upon.”
Varma also had a sweet surprise for us as well as pop-culture enthusiasts about further extension in more cities. Said he, “Yes [we want to enter more cities] for sure. We hope to enter Kolkata, Chennai and Pune by 2021.”
So fans out in these cities, gear up for you’re about to witness a spectacular show!