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City's first comic con in years set for Saturday

The Champion City Comic Con will feature vendors, panels, creators and gaming

Fanboys (and girls) assemble! Springfield is getting its own comic book convention again.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 4:43 PM Thursday, September 10, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — If Main Street Comics and Games could be embodied by any superhero, you’d have to go with Ant-Man.

The East Main Street store occupies just 500 square feet.

“It feels like about 20,” griped owner Scott Riley. “It’s so tiny in here.”

Tiny, yes, like Ant-Man, but with the proportionate strength of a full-sized man.

After just six months in business, the little store will undertake a big event — Springfield’s first comic book convention in quite possibly two decades.

The inaugural Champion City Comic Con is set for Wittenberg University’s Shouvlin Center from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12.

“My main goal of the first con,” Riley said, “is to get our name out there even more.”

The local store will play host to vendors, panels, indie creators and gaming tournaments.

And what’s a con without a costume contest? Prizes will be awarded.

“It fell together really quick, to be honest,” said co-organizer Bill Gladman. “We pulled it off in three months.”

It began as a simple conversation between the shop and Witt professor Matt Smith, who recently co-authored the first textbook for the fledgling field of comic arts studies.

“It was one of those things, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if ...’ ” Gladman said.

With a year’s worth of planning, Gladman hopes to make the next con even bigger — with bigger names.

If his memory serves right, Springfield’s last con was in 1989 at the Holiday Inn.

“They had one artist there,” he said, “and that was Marshall Rogers.”

The now-late Rogers is legendary for his run on “Detective Comics” in the 1970s.

This year’s guest of honor is Chad Lambert, writer of the graphic novel “Return to Point Pleasant,” which explores the mothman phenomenon.

At 5 p.m., Lambert will screen a Champion City exclusive — 15 minutes of a not-yet-released documentary, “The Eyes of the Mothman.”

For Gladman, pulling off the first con in years is a big win — but one of its highlights will be a personal victory.

At 2 p.m., an auction of comics and artwork will raise money for a headstone for his mentor, Darrell L. Buffington.

The local fantasy artist died in 2000 at age 44 of complications from diabetes and has been without a headstone in Ferncliff Cemetery ever since.

“He single-handedly corralled most of the creative talent in this town at his house on a weekly basis,” Gladman recalled. “He was the most talented guy in the circle and he died so young.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.