Get Your Comic Con On
Just like Captain Planet and his Planeteers, magic can happen when the right powers combine. This month, the joining of forces between Wild North Comics and comic store Stone Monkey, in its new location at Coconut Grove, results in Wild North Comic Con, Darwin’s first dedicated comic convention.
By Tierney Seccull
Comic and geek culture is having a moment – one that looks like it’s here to stay – and Wild North Creative Producer Timothy Parish says the time to start a local comic con is now.
“We were so inspired by TROPiCON, and Geekfest out at Palmerston, and I went down to Oz Comic Con down in Melbourne … I was really blown away by the bigger Australian comic scene,” Parish says.
“Geek culture is so massive … so we really wanted to focus on this beautiful art form, comics and graphic novels, which is really thriving up here at the moment. There’s lots of amazing artists, and we thought this would be a great chance to put some attention and light onto those creatives.”
Wild North Comic Con features a variety of activities for comic book fans with an artist’s alley, live digital drawing, cosplay competition, food from Mad Snake Café, plus the launch of four new titles by Wild North Comics creators.
One of those is award-winning screenwriter Philip Tarl Denson, who launches Future Tales Volume One. He says he’s excited the comic community is connecting.
“Things like this, it’s the first one, really kind of unites a group of people that can often be pushed to the corners, reading comics or playing different games, often in their own house – it really brings them together,” he says.
“It’s been really interesting to see people realise that there’s others that have the same passion that they do, instead of just being at home on the computer ... It’s about bringing people together, young to old, as comics have been around for a long time – I think Superman was first created in 1938 – so it’s a long history and it’s good to see people from different walks of life coming together to celebrate passions.”
Other titles launching include the second issue of Zero-Point: Origins by award-winning animator Jonathon Saunders, and the surrealist indie comic Heavengrad by animator, novelist and playwright Levin Diatschenko. Parish also launches his own title, Chronos: The Spacetime Machine Chapter One.
“Throughout the day, people can come and look around, meet the artists and buy some art. We’re also launching our new project – an Australian comic stand called Wizards of Oz Comics at Stone Monkey,” Parish says.
“We’ve been looking into how to get our comics beyond Darwin … and thought we could be a national distributor of Australian comics. The first shop we’ll try is here in Darwin at Stone Monkey, where we’ll have 40 different titles from around the country.”
Make tracks to Stone Monkey and get your comic on at Wild North Comic Con. It’s good to be geeky.
Wild North Comic Con
WHEN SAT 3 JUN | 12-6PM
AT STONE MONKEY, COCONUT GROVE
COST FREE
INFO wildnorthcomics.com
Photos: Paz Tassone
