MegaCon, short for Mega Convention, is a large speculative fiction convention that caters to the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

, and gaming communities, often occurring in spring at the

Orange County Convention Center The Orange County Convention Center is a convention center located in Orlando, Florida. Opened in 1983 as the Orange County Convention and Civic Center, it is the primary public convention center for the Central Florida region and the second-lar ...

in Orlando, Florida. The convention is the largest Fan convention event in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

and second largest in the US with an attendance of 140,000 recorded in 2022.

History

The first comic book convention held in the Orlando area was

OrlandoCon OrlandoCon, also known as O'Con, was a long-running comic book fan convention which was held annually between 1974 and 1996 in Orlando, Florida. The first comic book convention held in the Orlando area, OrlandoCon billed itself as a "Central Florid ...

, held annually from 1974 to c. 1994. Regular guests included C. C. Beck,

Floyd Gottfredson Arthur Floyd Gottfredson (May 5, 1905July 22, 1986) was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip, which he worked on from 1930 until his retirement in 1975. His contribution to Mickey Mouse comi ...

, and Hal Foster. MegaCon was founded by James Breitbiel and first held in 1993. The convention was acquired by the Tampa-based publisher CrossGen in 1999,Weiland, Jonah
"Battling Conventions? Talking with the NY Comic Con and MegaCon Organizers,"
Comic Book Resources (June 10, 2005). with Elizabeth Widera brought on to run the show in 2000. (Breitbiel became CrossGen's Marketing and Distribution Director.) During this period, from 2000 to 2003, MegaCon heavily promoted CrossGen products and creators, to the frustration of some other exhibitors and attendees, although the show itself grew and thrived. In late 2003, Widera purchased the convention from the failing CrossGen, which was restructuring
ICv2 (November 19, 2003). (the publisher went bankrupt in 2004). Widera, who is a board member of the comics charity

The Hero Initiative The Hero Initiative, formerly known as A Commitment to Our Roots, or ACTOR, is the first federally recognized not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers and artists in need. Founded in late 2000 by a consorti ...

, currently runs the show along with her daughter Christine Alger. In September 2008, MegaCon headquarters moved from

Safety Harbor Safety Harbor is a city on the west shore of Tampa Bay in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It was settled in 1823 and incorporated in 1917. The population was 16,884 at the 2010 census. History The area has been inhabited since the Stone ...

Live Oak, Florida Live Oak is a city in northern Florida and it is the county seat of Suwannee County, Florida, Suwannee County, Florida, United States. The city is the county seat of Suwannee County and is located east of Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee. As of 2 ...

, although the actual convention remains in Orlando. In 2009, in addition to the main show, held February 27–March 1, convention organizers produced a "mini-MegaCon" held August 22–23, the only one to date, featuring a number of actors from the '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' TV show. On April 7, 2015, it was announced that MegaCon had been sold to Informa. The con now operates under the auspices of Informa's Fan Expo group, which also runs

Fan Expo Canada Fan Expo Canada is an annual speculative fiction fan convention held in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded as the Canadian National Comic Book Expo in 1995Fan Expo Dallas, and

Fan Expo Boston Fan Expo Boston, formerly Boston Comic Con, is a multigenre convention held annually in Boston, MA. Primarily focused on comic books, the convention later featured media guests from film and television, cosplayers, an art auction, a tabletop/CCG/ ...

. Unlike other conventions of Fan Expo, MegaCon has retained it's existing name rather than being renamed to "Orlando Fan Expo". Following Megacon 2015 it was announced that for the first time Megacon will be extended to 4 days in 2016. Shortly after Megacon 2016, Megacon Tampa Bay was announced for October 28–30. MegaCon Tampa last happened in 2018 and has not returned since due to the increasing sizes of convention rivals

Tampa Bay Comic Con Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough Count ...

and

Metrocon Metrocon is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. It is Florida's largest anime convention and organized by Team Dynamite Productions. The convention evolved from meetups of ...

as well as the size limitations of the

Tampa Convention Center The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in downtown Tampa, Florida at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. It has both waterfront views of Tampa Bay and views of the city's skyline. Harbour Island is across the epony ...

. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Initially planned to be held April 16–19 and June 4–7, it was replaced by a smaller "limited edition" "mini-MegaCon" with the next main event to be held on March 18–21, 2021. These dates were also cancelled with the next date, August 12–15 being a return to operations, though masks were mandated as a measure to quell an outbreak of COVID-19. The 2021 event was plagued with many guest cancellations due to pandemic-caused filming conflicts affecting many including

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Woo ...

Brendan Fraser Brendan James Fraser ( ; born December 3, 1968) is an American-Canadian actor known for his leading roles in blockbusters, comedies, and dramatic films. Having graduated from the Cornish College of the Arts in 1990, he made his film debut in '' ...

, and James Marsters who were to be among the headline celebrities of the event. 2022 featured a return to normal operations with

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...

Dominic Monaghan Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan (born 8 December 1976) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy ''The Lord of the Rings'' (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on J. J. Abram ...

, and Billy Boyd, the Hobbits of the

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

, reuniting on stage as well as

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film '' Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, ...

and

Jason Mewes Jason Edward Mewes (born June 12, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, film producer, and podcaster. He is best known for playing Jay, the vocal half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, in longtime friend Kevin Smith, Kevin Smith's films. Early lif ...

of the

Jay and Silent Bob Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most of the films, comics, and television programs written and produ ...

show,

, and

Gina Carano Gina Joy Carano (born April 16, 1982) is an American actress and former mixed martial artist. She competed in EliteXC and Strikeforce from 2006 to 2009, where she compiled a 7–1 record. Her popularity led to her being called the "face of wome ...

being other highlight guest appearances. Numerous traffic issues in the surrounding areas due to record attendance reached local news headlines. Several tiers of tickets including family packages and youth tickets were sold out on Saturday. Surpassing

Comic Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

's attendance cap of 130,000, MegaCon became the second most attended fan convention in the United States after

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a ...

. The last day of the 2022 convention hosted a memorial service for the late comic artist George Perez, who was a frequent guest at the convention.

Dates and guests

Events

Events include the Indy Film Festival, annual cosplay/costume contests, all-genre costume contest, panels, and rave dances. MegaCon also offers attendees the option of game playing. Current game systems offered are

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

living campaigns, Living Forgotten Realms, Pathfinder Society and Legends of the Shining Jewel. Other non-campaign role playing games are offered.

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

is also offered in a card room, and board and strategic games are often on the dealer floor. E-gaming tournaments are also held at the event for games like Super Smash Bros. Since 2001, MegaCon has also been the location of the long-running "Paranoia LIVE!"

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

, based on Mongoose Publishing's ''

Paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy co ...

''. In 2007, MegaCon hosted the first live presentation of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards. In August 2008 MegaCon announced that it would host the first inaugural Project Fanboy Awards ceremony, awarding authors, writers and publishers with honors voted on by Internet users on the Project Fanboy website. The Project Fanboy Awards are now an ongoing event. Starting in 2022, MegaCon inaugurated FanExpo's partnership with virtual auction site WhatNot, featuring a Virtual MegaCon with virtual celebrity signings, comic artist sketch streams, and streams of cosplay contests, as well as a WhatNot booth.

References

External links

*
MegaCon at About.com
{{Commons category, MegaCon Multigenre conventions Comics conventions in the United States Fan conventions Culture of Orlando, Florida Recurring events established in 1993 Conventions in Florida 1993 establishments in Florida