Soda City Comic Con suits up for an epic sequel

Columbia will roll out the red carpet this weekend to welcome all manner of heroes, immortals, magicians and beings from far-reaching galaxies for Soda City’s second annual Comic Con.

This intergalactic event will again be held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center where, like most sequels, fans can expect a bigger budget, more action and a few surprises.

RELATED: Photo gallery from last year’s Soda City Comic Con

“One of the things we’ve managed to do is negotiate with the local affiliates and set up premieres of TV shows that won’t premiere until September,” said Jennifer Epting, one of the three founding members of Soda City Comic Con and its marketing and advertising manager.

“We have the network premiere of ‘Timeless,’ ‘The Great Indoors,’ ‘Man With the Plan,’ ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘24: Legacy,’ which doesn’t start airing till February, some short films and some other teasers.”

Showing the premieres alone is a leap above the competition, said Donald Brock, another founding partner.

“I’ve been to cons up and down the East Coast and I can’t think of any that have television shows that they get to premiere before they air on the network,” he said.

Brock, who is an accountant – in real life and for the event – also runs a vintage comic book business with his wife. It’s this business that put him on the comic con scene for over four years and thus, he was able to tap into a network of friends who also happened to head up businesses that comic con goers gravitate toward – like That Computer Store, owned and operated by Stephen Miano, for example.

“Our retail store is pretty mired in geek culture,” he said. “We eat, drink and sleep that stuff. Looking around the store, there’s a Darth Vader helmet, a light saber, a Millennium Falcon hanging from the wall, 3-D-printed action figures and toys, video game systems, consoles, PCs. It’s in our DNA as a store, so the opportunity to be a part of South Carolina’s comic book convention was a no-brainer.”

The event was also a no-brainer for Robin Jones. The Midlands mom of a 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son who are into anime and manga made it hard to ignore.

“When we heard about Soda City Comic Con, they were all over it,” she said. “Last year, they didn’t dress up, but this year, my daughter is going as a Pokemon, and my son is going as a clone from Star Wars.”

Which might put them in the running for one of the cosplay contests – with one for adults and one for kids.

“A big part of comic con is people feeling comfortable expressing themselves in costume or in characters they mimic or characters they created themselves,” said Brock. “Cosplay isn’t necessarily about going dressed up like Iron Man or like Thor. It’s ‘I can create my own character and come and express myself in an environment where I’m accepted and appreciated.’ ”

“Nobody’s putting labels on anybody. Everybody’s accepted as they are,” added Epting. “It’s a huge compliment for someone to be stopped in a costume and be asked to take their picture. It’s like a canvas someone spent hours painting. And they literally spend hours creating these costumes.”

Some of the event’s special guests also know a thing or two about spending hundreds of hours pouring over a character. Mike Toth, for example, worked as an animator on Disney films from the 90s; Clay Croker, a voice actor most known for his work on “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” will be in the building, along with Roy Thomas, the former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics who was Stan Lee’s first successor.

“Then we have Emmy Award-winning illustrator Phil Ortiz (‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Alvin & The Chipmunks,’ ‘The Smurfs’) who will draw people as Simpsons,” Epting said.

“It’s called being ‘Simpsonized,’ ” said Brock. “He’ll draw you as a ‘Simpsons’ character, and one of his buddies, Tom Cook, who’s worked on ‘He-Man,’ ‘She-Ra,’ ‘Godzilla,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Scooby Doo’ and more, will color it in for you.”

THE VIBE: At this point, you know what the vibe is at Soda City Comic Con, and if you don’t, a quick Google search of comic con images will let you know whether you’re in or out faster than Marvel’s Quicksilver can run around the Earth – and if you know your comics, that’s pretty fast.

And if you go, be prepared to make a few friends: Epting is projecting attendance between 5,000 and 7,000 people.

“We were at 3,500 between the two days last year, and that was during the flood,” she said.

THE VERDICT: Soda City Comic Con faced off last year with a surprising foe, Mother Nature, but managed not only to survive but come back bigger and more star-studded. Just goes to show you can’t keep a good event down. Especially when you have so many super friends.

This story was originally published August 24, 2016 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Soda City Comic Con suits up for an epic sequel."