MGA Con brings comic book fandom back to Middle Georgia

For those who might not know, Macon is full of wonderful nerds. In fact, the whole of Middle Georgia is full of us comic-book loving, video gaming, sci-fi theorizing, Brown Coats, Whovians, Trekies, Avengers, Jedi and more.

That might all just be Klingon to you, but there are enough comic book nerds to warrant three years of MGA Con, an annual convention for comic book fans to “come together from every walk of life in an environment that is fun and friendly,” as the official website of the event explains. Of course, today, comic books reach every aspect of the entertainment world, so MGA Con also “promotes the skills and talents associated with art and writing in the comic industry and showcase the medium in movies and video games.”

The Con (short for “conference”) offers all sorts of panels and activities, including my favorite con activity, cosplaying. Cosplaying is short for “costume play,” i.e. dressing up as your favorite character, or any interpretation thereof. This can be as basic as donning a Spider-Man onesie, as intricate as welding your own Iron Man suit, or as inventive as reinterpreting Thor as a 1950’s pinup girl (yup, that’s a thing).

For those of us who just like to watch and appreciate someone else’s hard work, most of those friendly cosplayers are happy to take pictures for that perfect Instagram moment.

Other brilliant panels include sessions with fantastic artists, actors, producers and editors who create these comic book, movie and TV worlds, and the fandom universes that emanate from them. These talents have worked on such epic titles as “Captain America,” “Black Panther,” “The Walking Dead,” “Archer,” “Star Wars” and more. Even for those in the general population who are just a little familiar with the world of Marvel and DC Comics (we all know Captain America and Batman, right?), seeing the hard work and talent, plus the overwhelming joy, that comes from all the various universes is worth the visit to a con.

And for those gamers, there’s multitudes of options, whether you fancy old school video games (care of Reboot Retrocade & Bar), role playing games (Dungeons and Dragons and beyond), board games (like Settlers of Catan) and card games (Magic the Gathering, for which there will be a Friday night tournament).

If you have kids, children under 10 years old are free (accompanied by an adult), with Saturday afternoon’s Kids Costume Contest an excellent way to indulge your young nerd, giving growing fans a first glimpse into the crazy world of cons.

MGA Con takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Anderson Conference Center, 5171 Eisenhower Parkway. For more information, visit mgacon.com.

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 8:20 AM with the headline "MGA Con brings comic book fandom back to Middle Georgia."