If you love comic books and anything related to nerd or geek culture, you will not want to miss this year’s Denton Comic Art Expo, coming up on Saturday, August 5th at the Denton Civic Center.
The same team will hold a Cosplay Karaoke night on August 4th at Bramblitt’s Yellow Dog Art Bar.
And the celebration of geek culture art continues throughout the entire month of August with the Nerd Adjacent Art Show at UNT CoLab.
Inspiring the Next Comic Artist Generation
This is the third year of the Denton Comic Art Expo, says Bryan Kelly, one of the original founders and organizers of the event. Past attendance has numbered over 1,000 and this year they’re expecting as many as 1,500 comic lovers.
Admission to the expo is free, however, those expecting to attend are encouraged to register online.
Kelly says the convention features a large number of vendors, including comic creators, artisans, craftspeople, painters, and more. They will also have food trucks, an appearance by the Denton Spider-Man, photo booths, face painters, and a DJ playing music and emceeing Nerd Trivia throughout the day.
Additionally, they will have three panels featuring real people who make comics professionally. Panel discussions will include various themes centered around comics and comic art, Kelly says, including independent comic creation, comics and other mediums, and video game and comic integration.
As the Denton Comic Art Expo is a family-friendly event, Kelly says the panels are targeted toward young people who aspire to be a drawer, illustrator, cartoonist, or another comic-related profession.
“The idea of the convention … is to make the profession of working in comics or comic-related nerd-adjacent fields like game design, acting, (and) animation attainable and realistic to young people wanting to get into those fields,” he explains. “These are jobs that you can have — you can get into the field, you can realize a dream in a graphic art field related to this generalized nerd culture, to make it real and attainable to anybody aspiring to a career in those fields.”
Volunteers Wanted
Kelly says while the Denton Comic Art Expo has a strong core group of volunteers, they are always looking for additional help.
“We can always use an extra pair of hands on the day to make sure our vendors get water, that booths get watched if they have to take a bathroom break, to make sure that everyone’s staying safe and happy and everyone gets what they need to have a good time,” he continues.
Kelly urges those interested to fill out their online volunteer application. “We would love to have anybody come and help out who wants to help out,” he adds.
Get Your Cosplay On
Also during this year’s Denton Comic Art Expo, cosplayers are encouraged to come dressed up to take part in the cosplay contest. Kelly says this year staff and vendors will select first, second, and third places for best costume and winners will receive door prizes.
“We’ll also have a cosplay parade through the entire show to close out the evening where anyone in cosplay can get in line and march through the convention,” he continues. “Also … any child who just shows up in costume will get a free ice cream cone gift certificate for Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream.”
And this year’s event also features another chance to dress up at Karaoke Cosplay on Friday, August 4th from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am at Bramblitt’s Yellow Dog Art Bar.
A Month of Nerd-Adjacent Art
And throughout the entire month of August, the Denton Comic Art Expo crew will be holding a Nerd Adjacent Art Show at UNT CoLab.
Kelly says the curated show will feature art from local artists that are comic, nerd culture, or geek culture themed. He says they had many artists apply for this year’s show and they are currently in the midst of making their selections.
“We have a couple of notable, very talented local artists that are going to be involved in the show, but we also have a lot of people (where) this is going to be their first-ever show,” he adds. “Denton (is) overwhelmed with creative talent and we’re just hoping to create another venue for that talent to be highlighted and exposed to maybe a new audience.”
The Denton Comic Art Expo will take place Saturday, August 5th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Denton Civic Center. Admission is free — click here to register for free tickets.
For more information on the Denton Comic Art Expo, Cosplay Karaoke, and Nerd Adjacent Art Show, visit dentoncomicartexpo.com or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
