From March 13 to 15, the second Indiana Comic Con will take place at the Indiana Convention Center. Many comic fans are preparing to go to the Comic Con to cosplay and buy memorabilia, while also seeing the various panels located at the convention.

Last year was the first year that Indiana had its own Comic Con. Lauren Searl, youth cosplay  award winner and senior, said that having a Comic Con was good for comic fans in Indiana, but there were also some problems with it.

“Last year, it was amazing because it was the first year. There was a lot of overcrowding problems, but it was cool,” she said. “(The conference organizers) did not understand how many people were going to show up. They thought (the convention) was just going to be small, but it was not. It was kind of bad because they had to turn people away, but they have twice the amount of space this year so it should be good.”

Editor’s Note: Read HiLite’s full interview with Lauren Searl here.

Comic Con was so popular last year that it helped encourage the reopening of the comic book shop “The Foolery.” According to Jana Cosler, comic fan, Comic Club sponsor and teacher, the organizers were not expecting too many people to attend. She said when she went to Comic Con last year, the line to get in was wrapped up and down the corridor of the convention center about four times.

“It was neat, but it was overwhelming. There were other conventions going on at the same time as Comic Con, so the space allotted for Comic Con was relatively small compared to the attendance. I think if I heard correctly, they were expecting somewhere around 2,000 people and they had 10,000 or something.”

This year the space for the convention will be triple the size that it was last year, having the ability to hold more panels and events in Comic Con. Some of the panels include meet and greets with various celebrities, including Carrie Fisher, Jenna Coleman, Jason Momoa, Linda Larkin and Paige O’Hara. Searl said she was excited to see the celebrities, especially Carrie Fisher, because they are very interesting this year. Last year, she got the chance to meet actors Jenna Coleman and Evan Peters.

Searl said, “It was amazing. We were kind of stalking (Evan Peters and Jenna Coleman) the whole weekend because they were really wonderful. We actually bumped into them in the hallway instead of paying to see them in the meet and greet like a lot of people did. I was just fixing my belt that broke, and we ran into Evan Peters and we took pictures with him. That was really cool.”

Most Comic Con attendees cosplay, which means they dress up as a character in a book, comic, movie or video game. Searl, along with her friends, won the Youth Cosplay Contest for dressing up as the Teen Titans. Searl said they just did it for fun not expecting to win.

She said, “It was really weird because it was our first group cosplay. I’d only done a few others before that, so we were like, ‘Why not do a contest, we’ve got cool costumes.’ And then we won, which was weird. So we won money, and that was surprising and awesome. Now we take it more seriously because we really enjoy doing it. Hopefully we’ll win again. This year we are actually doing a steam punk Adventure Time (theme), as well as our Teen Titans costumes and something from an anime.”

Other than cosplaying, Searl hopes to buy some memorabilia. Jordan “JD” Arland, superhero comic fan and sophomore, said he plans on doing the same thing this year as he did last year, which is to buy memorabilia such as comics and posters. He hopes that he doesn’t have to wait too long in a line, although he is fine with it.

“I think I had to wait 30 minutes in line to just get one poster. But you know, you meet people in line and you meet people around that share similar interests, so it doesn’t really feel that bad when you’re in the moment,” Arland said. “This year I think I’ll just go with my friends, and support the things like ‘Spiderman’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ and whatever I can get my hands on like posters.”

Cosler said she is going to strategize everything she plans to do during the convention. Searl agreed and advised people to buy tickets in advance, just in case Comic Con becomes too crowded again. 

Searl said, “I didn’t read comics my first few conventions I went to, but there really is something for everyone. Even if you’re not that dorky, to just experience that atmosphere of just so many people who are really out there, and people watching, is super fun. They have so much TV stuff and movie stuff. And just seeing all the costumes, and there normally is a gaming hall so there’s something for everyone really. Comic Con is a comic convention. But it’s basically just a bunch of nerdy people getting together and seeing fun nerdy things and doing activities and buying things. The people that you see are just different from anyone you would see off the street, so it’s really cool.”