by Georgia McClellan

Comic book fans from across the valley united this past Saturday, at the Mesa County Library for the second annual Mesa County Comic Con. Over 1,500 people attended the con last year and this year’s numbers did not disappoint.

A popular part of any comic con is the cosplay, or when people dress up as their favorite comic book, TV, or movie characters.

In attendance this year was Batman, Deadpool, Deathstroke, Storm Troopers and many more.

Grand Junction resident Jade Anderson said the cosplay aspect was the reason for attending.

“I love comics and being able to dress up as my favorite character. I’m Harley Quinn from ‘Suicide Squad,’” Anderson said.

Aside from the cosplaying, patrons of the con had opportunities to shop from a variety of vendors and attend various panels ranging from how to create costumes to drawing cartoons.

One of the panelists was Shadowfall Workshop. Shadowfall, run by Houston Erekson and Jacinda DuPont, has been in the cosplay business since 2008. They take commission requests as well as having an Etsy store.

“We just started our business a couple of years ago so we do this professionally,” DuPont said. “We were invited to this convention to do a panel on intro to costume making. It was a really awesome opportunity just as our first panel.”

Erekson creates the cosplay costumes and uses a variety of materials to make the customs. 

“For the most part everything is plastic and foam,” Erekson said. “I do all the armor work. All the armor is built out of foam and painted to look like metal or whatever we need it to look like.”

On the other side of the convention there were a variety of artists showcasing their unique work.

One of the artists present was Grand Junction High School English teacher, Corwin Gibson.

Gibson is mainly focused on his teaching career, but enjoys creating art in his spare time under the pseudonym, Mustachiosaurus.

“This is just something I do in my spare time,” Gibson said. “I hire out for commissions online, but I mainly just do it for fun.”

Another artist present was Bryan Wade, a CMU alumnus, who draws crossover cartoons as well as a variety of commissioned pieces.

This was not Wade’s first time at a comic convention. He has also been at Denver Comic Con and Salt Lake Comic Con as well as many smaller ones.

“I’ve been drawing since I was five,” Wade said. “I graduated from CMU back in 1999 with a graphic design degree and I’ve just been living here in the valley and doing freelance work.”

The Mesa County Comic Con will look to continue to grow and pull in people from all across the valley for many years to come.