Comic books, artists bring out aficionados and costumes

By Jordan Cohen | July 19, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN

The most eye-opening sight at the sixth-annual All Americon comic book show Saturday at W.D. Packard Music Hall was not the thousands of comic books, art works and toys that lined the walls and filled the entire floor for the shoulder-to-shoulder turnout.

It had to be the colorful costumes worn by a number of fans who showed up to browse, buy and probably to be seen.

Fans such as Elainie Huncik, 15, of Lowellville, resplendent in green as Poison Ivy, a character in the Batman comics. Her face tinted green and hair dyed red, Huncik said it took more than four hours to put her costume together.

“I used two bottles of temporary hair dye and two bottles of red hair spray,” she said. “It’s cool to see everyone dressed up.”

Her friend, Selena Phillips, 15, of Campbell agreed. She was one of a few young women who came dressed as Harley Quinn (harlequin, get it?), the girlfriend of Batman’s nemesis The Joker.

Damiana Landfried, 16, of Niles, said her costume was based on a character from Tokyo Ghoul, an animated Japanese production featuring hand-drawn characters referred to as anime.

“I’m doing it just for fun, but I’m here to buy Magic Cards,” she said as she displayed one she had just purchased. The cards are designed to reveal various images.

Costuming wasn’t limited to teenagers, however.

Crystal Junk, 37, did her best Johnny Depp imitation as the Mad Hatter from Depp’s “Alice in Wonderland.” She drove to the show from Imperial, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh.

“I love doing it for the kids and seeing their eyes light up,” she said. “I used to do The Joker, but not as much because it scares the little kids.”

Mike Wilson is not the kind of guy one might expect to be in costume. He has been a Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputy for 15 years, yet there he was dressed as Medieval Spawn, “a good guy,” he said. Wilson, whose business card identifies him as “Knightmage,” does his appearances for charity.

“I’m donating the money I get from signing autographs today to the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership,” Wilson said while standing behind a table with numerous photos of his many identities. The organization promotes and supports Warren neighborhoods.

One of the show’s biggest draws was Michael Golden, an artist whose work has been featured in “The Walking Dead,” “The Micronauts” and other famous pop-culture artwork.

Golden said commercial design “is my day job because you can’t make money doing comics,” but he enjoys the responses from the fans.

“That’s the satisfying part of it because that means I’ve done my job,” he said while signing his 1980 drawing of The Incredible Hulk for Erick Bognar of Akron. When Golden’s drawing was published, Bognar, then a child, mounted it on his bedroom wall. He has kept it ever since.

The show’s organizer and founder, Greg Bartholomew, a Warren councilman, said he expected All Americon to draw more than 1,500, easily exceeding last year’s turnout of 1,000.

“It takes eight or nine months to prepare for this show, but it’s well worth it,” said Bartholomew, who smiled as he watched the crowd fill the hall.