One of Northern Ontario biggest and longest-running and largest fan convention, Graphic-Con, took over Sudbury Arena on June 22.
Now in its 11th year, Sudbury Graphic-Con celebrates all things that fall under the banner of geek culture, from Star Wars and Star Trek, to comic books, video games, movies and more.
Started by the Greater Sudbury Public Library in 2013, the convention now operates as its own corporation under the moniker Sudbury Graphic-Con Non-Profit Corporation.
Despite the official-sounding name, Graphic-Con is the same welcoming celebration of all things geeky it has alway been, said Neil Stephen, president of the convention board.
“It’s an opportunity to celebrate literature, art, anime, sci-fi — whatever your ‘fan-dom’ is, whatever your ‘geek-dom’ is, it’s an opportunity to really come together and celebrate your geek in a safe and welcoming environment,” Stephen said, who added Graphic-Con is one of the only conventions to go the non-profit route.
When he’s not sporting a Graphic-Con t-shirt and running the convention, Stephen cosplays (short for “costume play”, a popular pastime in geek culture of dressing up as characters from a beloved pop culture property) as a Klingon from Star Trek. In fact, back in 2019 he took on Sudbury.com’s own resident Trekker, Heidi Ulrichsen, in a game of Trek Trivia. Check out the video below to see who won.
While being a geek used to be something geeks hid for fear of being ridiculed (no 1980s teen film is complete without nerd and geek jokes), the 2000s saw geek culture go mainstream, with fan conventions popping up in communities large and small, and attractions like San Diego Comic Con becoming major cultural attractions.
For his part, Stephen said geek culture has always been mainstream, as far as he’s concerned. What’s changed is that geeks are no longer reflexively nervous about being who they are publicly.
“For some reason, we were always nervous about expressing it and about actually coming together to celebrate our geekdom. Now, that’s less of a case,” he said.
He points to the popularity of TV shows like Big Bang Theory for “making it allowable for people to get together, to be who they are, and to revel and celebrate in their common culture and love for all things geeky.”
Stephen cosplays alongside fellow Sudbury Klingons as part of the IKV Crimson Fox Klingon Assault Group. Crimson Fox and the Crimson Dawn (the Timmins Klingon Assault Group cosplayers) regularly team up to appear at fan conventions, while raising funds for causes and non-profits.
“We have raised between ourselves and timmins well into the five digits for various charities around Canada and Ontario,” Stephen said.
At Graphic-Con, the Klingons were raising money for ALS Canada. That fundraiser is running through the summer. If you would like to donate to Team Klingon’s efforts to fight ALS, you can donate here.
Team Klingon is raising funds in memory of Star Trek actor Kenneth Mitchell. The Canadian actor passed away in February after a 5.5-year battle with the disease.
The one-day event not only featured thousands of people revelling in geekdom, it featured local and visiting vendors selling everything from comic books to swords, video games to plush toys.
It also featured various panels on things like video game design and neurodiversity in media, a cosplay contest and “learn to play” game sessions running throughout the day.
Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com.
