Comics / Comics News

Lafayette Embraces Louisiana Comic Con with Gusto

By Leroy Douresseaux
October 20, 2015 - 15:16

Local play group puts on Disney costumes

Over this past weekend, I attended Louisiana Comic Con, a first-year convention.  From my observation and according to local and regional media outlets, this convention proved to be a big hit at the Cajundome Convention Center, in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Organized by AVC Conventions, the Lafayette Comic Con's inaugural year actually featured two shows.

Greg Hanks, co-owner of AVC Conventions, which organized Louisiana Comic Con.

The Louisiana Comic Con's first show was held in the Shreveport/Bossier City area (northwest Louisiana) on February 21, 2015.  However, the location where that first iteration of the convention was held only allowed convention organizers to admit 5,000 attendees, while reportedly turning away a couple thousand more.

So two Lafayette natives had an idea.  Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comic book artist, Rob Guillory (Chew), and acclaimed comic book writer-artist and graphic designer, Kody Chamberlain (Punks, 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales) approached AVC about changing the convention's location to Lafayette, Louisiana.  Called the “Hub City,” Lafayette is a growing city in south central Louisiana – the heart of the region called Acadiana (Cajun country!).

Rob Guillory and Kody Chamberlain, the two local comic book creators who wanted Louisiana Comic Con in Lafayette, LA.

Eight months later, the Cajundome Convention Center (part of a sports, concert, and festival complex) hosted the Louisiana Comic Con, Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th, 2015.  I arrived at the center's expansive parking area on Saturday to find not one, but two lines wrapped around the building before the doors opened at 10 a.m. (CST).

In addition to Guillory and Chamberlain, comic book guests included Mike Huddleston (Dark Horse Comics' The Strain trilogy), Andy Kuhn (Firebreather) and inkers Roland Paris and Joe Rubinstein, among others.  Film and television guests included Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, “Gilmore Girls”), Baton Rouge native and Emmy Award-winner Pruitt Taylor Vince (“Murder One”), and New Orleans born, Lew Temple (“The Walking Dead”), to name a few.

The convention also featured a large number of cosplayers (costume players), people who dress in the costumes, uniforms, clothes, and vestments of their favorite characters from comic books, live action and animated film and television, and also from video games and books.  DC Comics' Harley Quinn was one of the most popular characters with female cosplayers at the Louisiana Comic Con, but overall, anime seemed to be the most popular source material for cosplayers at the event.

Louisiana Comic Con media guest, actor James C. Leary, known for portraying the demon, "Clem," on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The one thing that most caught my attention was the overall friendliness of the convention organizers and staff, vendors, guests, and attendees.  The last big convention that I intended, which I will not name because it still exists, featured half-friendly and half-sullen guests and event staff.  It was two tastes that are not great together, like a villainous Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  This past weekend, Lafayette hospitality made Southern hospitality seem like mere cordiality.

Anyway, I watched guests like Sean Gunn and Lew Temple smile and interact in such an open and friendly way with so many attendees that I was shocked.  If they were just “acting,” then, they are ready for their close-ups, Mr. Scorsese.

People were enjoying themselves so much that it was infectious.  Two days after the convention concluded, I could do two more days of that show.  Lafayette proved that it was ready for its first “comic-con.”  [Besides being the home to two anime conventions, before one moved, Lafayette last hosted a comic book convention in 1985, AcadianaCon.]  The city is ready to support a comic book convention, and Louisiana Comic Con proved to be worthy of that support.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12