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Pop-culture event at Eastwood
By SEAN BARRON
NILES
Ten-year-old Jackson Belknap doesn’t remember seeing the second “Star Wars” movie when he was 2, although his memories of Darth Vader will not evaporate anytime soon — or contain fear.
That’s because the fearsome cyborg and “Star Wars” series’ central antagonist was in a friendlier mood.
“He greeted us when we walked in,” said Jackson, of Austintown, referring to meeting and taking a picture of Darth Vader upon Jackson’s arrival Saturday at the second annual Screaming Tiki comics, toys and pop-culture convention at the Eastwood Expo Center.
The three-day event continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the center.
Jackson, who came with his mother, Jennifer, said his favorite aspect of the all-day show was the opportunity to add to his collection of action figures and Lego toys.
Jennifer Belknap said she and her son attended the first event in October 2008 and were “keeping close tabs” on when it would return to the area.
“It was perfect timing, and we were really excited to find out it’s here,” she said.
The family-friendly convention is a combination of pop-culture aspects that includes illustrators as well as other local, regional and national artists and vendors.
Also on hand were several movie fan clubs and actors, role-playing-game aficionados and movie buffs, noted Peter Smith of Austintown, who organized the event.
A sampling of notable people who came included Michael Bell, the voice of many cartoon characters in the 1980s, and Glenn Shadix, a voice actor who played the mayor in Tim Burton’s 1993 film “Nightmare Before Christmas,” said Smith, an illustrator who completed an internship with Marvel Comics.
Many attendees enjoyed looking at or buying merchandise that certainly wasn’t in short supply. A sampling: comic books for $1, posters, prints, DVDs, board games, designer T-shirts, super-hero dolls and figures, and discount tickets to the annual Great Lakes Medieval Faire and Marketplace, set for July 10 to Aug. 15 near Geneva, Ohio.
Some people perused the table containing the works of Cat Staggs, an illustrator from Los Angeles who has contributed to DC and Marvel comics.
Staggs, who’s been a professional artist for about 20 years, mainly uses pencils, ink and markers to create composites of Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman and other famous action figures. She’s also assembled annual sketchbooks of her work since 2006, and attends roughly six to eight such shows each year, she added.
A lot closer to home is Daniel P. Gorman, a free-lance illustrator from Kent.
Gorman, who also works for an Akron law firm, explained that his specialty is to create pop-culture character illustrations at customers’ requests. He mainly makes pencil sketches, then scans them and sells prints of his work, Gorman said.
The primary focus of vendors such as Ron Novak was to raffle autographed photographs and T-shirts for a fundraiser to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.
Novak is a member of the local chapter of Starfleet, a 36-year-old international Star Trek-fan organization. It gives fans of the series and films a chance to befriend one another and give back to their communities, among other things.
Next to the local group were members of USS LaGrange, a Cuyahoga Falls-based Starfleet chapter. They were raising money on behalf of the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank.
Smith said that the rarity of such conventions in Northeast Ohio was a motivator for his organizing the Screaming Tiki event.
“This isn’t a giant show with us coming out here making hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. “This is for the fans. We had a great time putting it together.”