NWI ComicCon, Five Years Strong

Groovy Louie

(Luis Marquez)

Another year, another great comic-con here in Northwest Indiana! This marks the fifth year of this family friendly event, and it's as popular as ever. With family friendly ticket prices, it's a great way to for a family to be able enjoy pop culture without breaking the bank. I like going to the bigger cons, but It's just me, and sometimes my husband. I couldn't imagine the cost if we had children to take as well...

Show-runner and creator Brian Grabinski, along with his wife Kelly, put their heart and soul into this every year, and it shows. They can be spotted on the stage, on the convention floor, and even in the parking lot, working, helping out volunteers, and socializing with attendees, creators, artists and vendors. And as crazy and busy as it gets, they are always smiling and friendly. And as an attendee and blogger/photographer, I can tell you it is very appreciated. It's a huge undertaking to do something like this for the public, especially in the social media age, where everyone is a critic. I give them HUGE props for that alone. So thank you Brian and Kelly, for continuing to provide us with a family friendly local con... Also thank you to the many hard working volunteers! And a big thanks to the sponsors as well, you help Brian make this possible!!

This year, I entered the cosplay competition myself, so it was a bit more challenging to take my photos, and I wasn't able to get any of the adult competition. I entered just because I though it would be fun, I didn't expect to win anything. And now that I can say I did that at least once in my life, I can go back to taking photos, lol. (For anyone that was there, I was the steampunk Tardis)

So on to the photos that I was able to take.. I do this because I love to support anything local, and well, I'm a geek, so yeah... If you haven't been, this should give you a good idea of how cool it is. If you have been, and see yourself in a photo, feel free to download it as yours to keep. I only ask that if you share it on social media, that you do not crop out my watermark, and if it happens (like for a profile pic) I ask that you give me photo credit, and thank you in advance... My husband is also a photographer and blogger, but he has a day job working long hours. He will have a blog up as soon as time allows him to.. and his will have a lot more photos, I'm sure.. I'll provide the link at the bottom of this blog, along with a few others...

I went around before the crowds came in to get photos of artists and creators...

Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club and South Shore Ghostbusters 

in the house!

Here they come....

Every year they have a silent auction with great items from the artists and creators. All the proceeds go to The Northwest Indiana Cancer Kids Foundation and Humane Indiana (formally the Humane Society Calumet Area)

The chairs are waiting and ready for the cosplay audience...

Host Matt Valuckis welcomes the attendees...

Every year they have an artist create a character with suggestions from the audience..

And they're still comin'...

(I highly suggest buying tickets early online)

Of course Black Panther was there!!

This side of the dividing curtain would be the "line" for 

people that purchased tickets early on line... lol

And on to the kids cosplay parade... Some of them moved pretty fast, lol..

This adorable little Flash was just that...

he ran right across the stage and gave Spiderman a big hug...

Just look at his little boots... Too cute...

Security was tight... lol

But seriously.. this is one of the adult cosplay judges 

(and a porfessional cosplayer himself)

James T Wulfgar

Cosplay contest hosts Luis and Mia trying to fire up the crowd 

before the teen competition...

Teen cosplay judges...

Next up was the adult competition... Sorry, but since I was IN the competition, 

I didn't get photos, except for one while we were all waiting backstage...

My husband is sure to have some on his blog...

I thought this was a pretty cool idea,

Ratigan, from The Great Mouse Detective.

He's pretty scary for a Disney villain..

And here's photos of the winners...

I don't remember what each winner won for, except this guy...

Best Showmanship.... lol

Great job, dude!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog. Below are some links for you to check out. The first two are of my blog posts from previous years of this con. Also are links to the con web page, a few artists that were there, and my husbands blog as well....

2015 NWI Comic-Con

2017 NWI ComicCon

NWI ComicCon Webpage

Wes Bushby Photography/Blog

Some of the Artists:

Anastasia Obscura

Guzman Gloves

Topher Kearby

VONNART

Katrina Catizone

FrankenWerks

Puillustrated

42 Nerdtastic Place

** ALL photos on this blog are property of Christi Bushby, copyrighted and protected as such by law. Please see my copyright page for details and/or permissions of use. 

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"The earth without art is just eh..."