The 2010 Phoenix Comic Con was simply amazing.

Brent Hofsta and I started out from Green Valley Thursday afternoon and met Ralph Miley at the Phoenix Convention Center and helped with the setting up of the CCAS table. The crowds were like San Diego. Wall-to-wall people. An early estimate was 10,000 to 12,000. I believe it easily exceeded those numbers. The Phoenix Con has graduated from a dealers convention to a full fledged Con with many panels and other events. It reminded me of San Diego maybe 20 years ago when it was a the old S.D. Convention Center. (The official attendance for this year’s Phoenix Con was 13,988. The San Diego Con had 13,000 attendance in 1990 with its 21st convention). The Convention administration was very gracious, coming around every day to find out how we were doing and offering us cold water and so on.

We were able to pay (and then some) for the cost of the small press table through sales of comics and graphic novels.
We met many, many Christian Convention goers who were very pleased to see us there. This was a very unexpected, but pleasant and blessed surprise. We met  a number of young Christian creatives who expressed interest in networking. There was one couple that are leaders in their church who volunteered to host a local Phoenix CCAS meeting. We did get their contact information. This opens up the possibility of having a local CCAS group do the convention. Lots of opportunities for ministry.

We handed out a lot of the comic tracts as well a good sales for the comics. We had dinner Friday night with Brent, a professional level Christian artist, who was very eager for fellowship. There were at least three of other Christian comics vendors there. One was Bryan Kilgore who had done Logos — some manga-ish adaptations of parts of the life of Christ and educational comics. Also was Pepe Melon who is the artist on Tales of Watchman. We also met Joey Lee Cabral the writer/artist of Kause of Death. Tom Hall and Daniel Bradford of Blacklist Studios also had a booth selling their R13 and The King comics. Tom Hall really wants us to do a Spiritual Themes panel at the New York Comic Con.
The Spiritual Themes panel went well. We had Joe King, Tom Hall and Daniel Bradford on the panel that was moderated by Ralph and myself. We had an audience of around 20-25 who were very interested in what we were talking about. After intros and general discussion we had audience questions which went up to the end of the hour and we had to cut the discussion off. I spoke with an LDS man who attended. I offered to have an Mormon rep be on the panel next year. He said he would contact some of his artists friends. Also the next day I started chatting with a Star Wars devotee who was very knowledgeable about the Buddhist roots of Star Wars. She is a book reviewer. I gave her my e-mail address for having her on the panel next year. Overall the Phoenix Comic Con was a very positive experience. Lots of prayers answered. Also lots of sharing opportunities with the people who came to the table.

We met Howard Salmon, a reform Jew, who was selling his Comic Book Siddur For Shabbbat Morning Services. This graphic album presents the Jewish perspective on how an observant Jew prepares himself for Siddur.

On Thursday night a 16 year girl came up to the table without her glasses and chatted with us. The next day she was back (with glasses) and Ralph, Brent and I had a prolonged talk with her. I found it amazing she wanted to share about her life with three strangers. Pray for Jessica a very intelligent young lady.

An atractive 35-ish woman came to the table on Saturday who was puzzled about the meaning of the Comic Con [answer: fantasy & imagination]. She was obviously a Christian and didn’t really connect with this aspect of youth culture. She is typical of the lack of understanding many people in the institutional church have concerning popular culture.

Report by Don Ensign