Thousands swarm film and comic con

Over the weekend, thousands of comic lovers convened at Minal Siyahi for the Middle East film and Comic Con. It is said to be the largest popular culture festival in the Middle East, focused on film, TV, comics, manga, animation, collectibles and pop art.

Not just Dubai residents, but comic lovers and gamers from across the Emirates and even Qatar queued up to get a taste of their favourite superheroes and manga comics.

A first time visitor to the comic con, 19-year-old Salem Al Ro Maithi had come from Abu Dhabi and said he was “very impressed by the Star Wars characters” — the men in costume who were seen all around the venue. One of the highlights of the comic con was the many different characters — from DC and Marvel comics, Batman and the Joker to Darth Vader and the Sky Walkers.

While Friday saw, according to the information booth, thousands of comic-lovers line up for all slabs of the ticket prices, Saturday was a relatively slower day that picked up post noon.

There were events such as auctions of 40 unique villain figurines, starting at Dh200 and panel discussions with filmmakers, as well as talks on topics such as comics in the classroom, by Nancy Silberkilt, Co-CEO of Archie comics, who spoke about the social impact of bullying in classrooms.

At most stalls, there were posters and other comic-related memorabilia on sale, some priced at as little as Dh10 — the India stall had posters as cheap as that, and there were larger portraits of Popeye and Lichenstein-like prints for up to Dh300. You could even have your portrait drawn whilst adorning the costume of your favourite superhero.

On the first floor of the venue, there was a wide array of faux-Swarovski designer tee shirts with words etched on them such as ‘Shawarma Vixen’, along with plenty of black tee shirts of Wolverine figures and other merchandising like mugs, badges and notebooks with your preferred comic motifs.

Stores such Jashanmal and Kinokuniya had their outlets selling manga and other comic books.

At the India stall at Comic Con, Jatin Vama, the founder of the India edition, and possessor of the only Fantastic Four comic, number 44 signed by the Stan Lee — the man who co-created, among others, Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and X-Men — was pleased with the response of visitors as they were “all sold out” of their most popular titles, ‘Random’ and ‘Payback’.

nivriti@khaleejtimes.com