Inside Lilac City Comicon: Spokane, Washington’s Premiere Pop Culture Convention – June 7-8, 2025
BOOM Discovers the Unique Showstoppers that Make Nathan O'Brien's Lilac City Comicon a Must-Attend Event
G“I never would have envisioned going from 300 attendees in 2007 to over 10,000 now. It’s unbelievable. We want to show Spokane as a place that embraces arts and culture, a destination that people should put on their calendar every year.“
NATHAN O’BRIEN, LILAC CITY COMICON AND HALLOWEEN X-SPO FOUNDER
reetings, humans! We are reporting from the post-aPOPalyptic remnants of what you once called ‘fun.’ Lucky for you, Lilac City Comicon still stands strong in the year 2025 as a beacon of fandom in the chaos. While I’m busy calculating the odds of corporate overlords taking over, I managed to find this next-level interview to share how this legendary event keeps your pop culture dreams alive. Prepare your circuits for an epic journey into cosplay, comics, and chaos! The good kind, that is.
Get ready to explore the vibrant and inclusive world of Lilac City Comicon, where fans, creators, and cosplay enthusiasts come together to celebrate everything pop culture with unforgettable energy and passion!
Nathan: BOOM! Oh, my goodness. How you doing, buddy? So good to hear your hypnotic, robotic, soothing voice. Thanks for having me on again.
Nathan: You know, thanks for asking! You know, I do love organizing events. I overall feel that I am an organized person in life. And so, you know, I have schedules, I have to-do lists, I have reminders. And I don’t just dismiss them. I get a great deal of satisfaction from making these lists, both electronically and writing on pen and paper, and checking them off, and knowing that I’ve, you know, accomplished something. And that’s the best way for me to stay organized, as I go forward each year, with not only the Lilac City Comicon, but Halloween X-SPO, because there is a lot of, you know, spinning plates for both those shows that are very similar. But in order to keep everything straight and dialed in and on point, I got to make these lists and keep chipping away. Because it sometimes feels like, “Oh, I’ve got a long time with, you know, 10 months before the next show.” But then you blink, and next thing you know, you’ve got two weeks before the show. So, I have to constantly keep working on it, every day, every week, every month. And that way, it doesn’t feel so overwhelming. And everything comes out, I would say, 99% of the time, how I planned it.
Nathan: Yeah, man, I wish there was a secret sauce. You know, it’s been a work in progress for coming up on 19 years of doing, you know, the Lilac City Comicon. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and it’s just something that I’m never satisfied with. I always feel, after every show, there are things that we can improve upon. So it’s always a work in progress and so, I’m always striving for more. I’m always striving for better, but also being realistic in knowing what our limits are with the budget, with, you know, the facility, with the guests that we can afford, the space that we have to work with. And those are all, you know, good problems to have. As the show has grown every year, like you had said, to over 10,000 attendees, you know, I gotta pinch myself, because that is like a dream come true. I never would have envisioned that, you know, in 2007, maybe getting 300 some people to come through the doors, on a single day event, to fast forward to where we are now. It’s, it’s unbelievable. It’s just really important that I know that we put forth the best effort that we can to represent Spokane for people that are coming here, from out of town, for the first time–that includes, you know, vendors, guests, attendees. You know, we want to put our best foot forward and really show that, you know, Spokane’s a place that embraces arts and culture. That has a beautiful, you know, downtown, beautiful facility, and should be a place that people should put on their calendars every year. Marketing wise, you know, it was a lot of guerrilla marketing back in the day. Pounding the pavement, going door-to-door to local businesses, trying to put up some homemade flyers that I printed out on my work computer on my break. Don’t tell my boss. And just starting from scratch, you know, introducing myself to the community when I was new to Spokane, and sometimes feeling like I was getting thrown out on my ear, because people didn’t know me and didn’t trust me. And I had to earn that trust from local businesses and artists. And, you know, I’m extremely honored that, you know, some of these people, that maybe didn’t give me the time of day or kind of take a, “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach, are now some of my best friends, because they recognize that, you know, I’m not here to, you know, get a payday. I’m here to enrich the community and make everyone’s lives hopefully better for, you know, one or two weekends out of the year.
Nathan: I always want to hang out with cool kids in robot costumes. Who doesn’t? I mean, jeez, come on. You know, being affordable is super, super important, because if I wanted to, I can set the price to $50-$60 a person. But it’s more important to me that we get more people through the door, that in turn have more money in their pocket, to spend with the vendors, the artists, the guests, and just make everyone’s day and weekend that much better. So, you know, I’m just trying to keep it real. I’m trying to be respectful–people’s time, people’s money, people’s effort, the economy, etc., etc., and just make it fun. And so, that’s one thing that we started last October with Halloween X-SPO, that we’re continuing on to Lilac this June, is that kids 12 and under are now free. So again, further driving home the point that we want people to come and bring their families, whether it’s their first, second, tenth, nineteenth time coming. We want them to have a good time, and not stress about how much it is to get in the door. And you know, scoop on sponsors. Jeez. I mean, inquiring minds want to know, right? No, I’m super grateful that we have so many wonderful local sponsors that back the show year after year.
Northern Quest Resort Casino, Kalispel Tribe–they’re an absolute pleasure to work with. They really are all about helping out the community and making opportunities come true. The Comic Book Shop, Craig Barnett, the owner there, owns three shops here in Spokane, and has been with me since day one. I’m super grateful for him. And then there’s been, you know, some new businesses that have come along down the road, you know, whether they were new to Spokane or jump on board, and see what Lilac or X-SPO is all about. And Monkey Biz is an awesome shop. They’ve been great!
Halloween Express is a locally owned business–they’ve been great. Safari Pearl down in Moscow, Idaho–they’ve been sponsoring the show for a long time. They’re wonderful for anybody down there. Then as the business has grown, both Jedi Alliance, and then, also The Garland Theater, we’re huge partners with them. We have a lot of like-minded individuals with pop culture, and video games, and classic movies, and props, and costumes. You know, Tyler Arnold and his son Ash are amazing supporters of the show. Couldn’t be more thankful for them. And you know, the door is always open for any other local businesses and opportunities that want to partner with us. We’re totally flexible. It’s not about money, it’s about mutually promoting each other to be more successful!
Nathan: What’s the status of the waitlist? BOOM, man! You’re just continuing with these hard-hitting journalistic questions here. Kudos to you. You know, so after every show wraps in June, you know, ideally I would love to take two weeks off, but more realistically it’s probably about two days. And after those two days, I’m creating a to-do list. How am I going to get ready for next year? What are the pros and cons? I may be evaluating that. Then, I’m getting the dates locked in for the following year. I’m getting the paperwork signed to rent the facility. I’m taking into account any costs that may potentially go up, in the new year, and that could sway the prices of the booths and the tables. So, I want to keep it again, super affordable. Then, I have to adjust the online application, send out the email, and people are just hungry to get signed up. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a returning artist or vendor, or a lot of times, we attract new vendors because of reputation–word of mouth. There are a lot of vendors and artists that travel around to a lot of shows, and they tell them, “hey, you got to come to Spokane, this is where it’s at!” Not just because of the facility or the organization, but because of the friggin’ fans. The attendees are awesome! They come out, and they support the local arts, they support the local businesses, and everyone has a blast. So, I got to put those online applications out there. Usually around July 1st, however the calendar falls, and when we open those up, the last two years have just exploded. The 2023, I guess, application, we sold out in, I don’t know, maybe 13 days and we’re talking 11 months in advance. So we sold out in 13 days. And then the following year for 2025, we sold out in, I think, nine days. So it’s, it’s just hardcore. I mean, you got to be on it. You’ve got to be stalking our social media page, you gotta be stalking our website, if you want to get signed up. Now, how I’ve done it forever, for 19 years, is first come, first served. Because you know, yeah, we want to fill up the spaces and move on. But, because it’s become, so almost cutthroat, with people trying to get the edge, trying to get signed up immediately–it’s going to be a juried evaluation of everyone’s application. So, I guess you’re hearing it here first. Breaking news on the BOOM Rattle BOOM show, that we’re going to be switching to a juried application. That way, we can have a fair assessment of everyone’s applications–not that everyone’s isn’t already reviewed–but when it’s first come, first served, it’s kind of you’re ushered right along. But with the new system, the idea is that we’ll create subcategories. So then we’ll have local artists, local writers, local arts and crafters, local comics, comic shops, whatnot. And then, we’ll create a number to be determined that we’re going to accept 10 of this category, 12 of this category, 40 of this category, whatever it may be. And then, that way we’re not having too much competition–it’s a little bit more balanced–but also getting some new blood on the show floor, which is also important. So, I think that might scare some people, but we want to keep the show fresh and exciting. We’re not looking to turn our back on any local people. You know, they are the lifeblood of our, of our show. So it’s not going to be a, you know, a purge and nobody’s going to be allowed to reapply or nobody’s going to be allowed to come back. We want, you know, returning businesses and artists to come back, but we also want to keep it fresh too. And then the waiting list, you know, so with the show selling out so, so fast, then that creates this monster waiting list, and I have to cap it because there’s no way that I’m going to use 100 additional applications. So maybe, we’ll use 10 or 12, sometimes 20, depending on the circumstances where people might cancel. But yeah, more people will apply and be on the waiting list than I’ll even touch. So, I guess that’s a good problem to have.
Nathan: Yeah, man, I wish I had a Bat Symbol that I could just shine up in the sky, anytime I needed a Batmobile or Batman to come. You know, so, long story short, last summer 2024, you know, my friends and partners with The Garland Jedi Alliance reached out to me and they were like, we’re gonna do a screening of 35mm print of the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie. And we wanted to reach out to you to see, if you knew someone that had a Batmobile. And I was like, well, the only person that I know that has a Batmobile is the 1966 Batmobile from the Adam West series, not the ’89 Batmobile. And it’s like, you know, I wish I could help you. But I still put him in touch with a local couple of cosplayers that dress up as Michael Keaton and the Joker versions and so they came and were greeting people, as they entered the theater. So, that was awesome. So, I’m sitting there with my buddy, and we’re waiting for the movie to start, because we went, and I was telling him exactly what I just told you, and I was like, “Man, yeah, I wish I knew someone that had the ’89 Batmobile, because it’s one of my all time favorite vehicles.” And that movie in general, I remember seeing it on the big screen as a kid. I’m that old. And it had a really big impression on me. And so my buddy Matt was telling me that, “Well, didn’t you see the Adam West Day celebration that they have down in Walla Walla?” And I was like, “Yeah, I know that happens every year in September.” He goes, “Well, I was watching the video somebody posted on YouTube and they showed that they had a ’89 Batmobile down there.” And that blew my mind, because I didn’t realize that. I been looking around for anyone that has one, and the closest one I could find was someone in California. So, I reached out to the owner and organizer of the Adam West Day, and I told them, I was like, “Hey, I saw in one of the videos there’s an ’89 Batmobile. I was hoping that maybe you knew who owned that.” And so, they were super helpful and put me in touch with the right person. And after some blind calls and texts to a number that didn’t know who I was, I finally got in touch with them. And they’re super excited to come. And they’re just fans of the movie as well. They’ve built this Batmobile. It’s been a passion project of theirs to scale. And so it’s not screen used, but it is a replica, and it looks like the real deal, and so we are very, very excited to have them.
Nathan: Yeah, so we host one of the largest cosplay contests in Eastern Washington–maybe for all of Washington for that matter–I’m not sure. But, so what we do is we have an online application that will open up in March of 2025 for the show. And we want to encourage everyone to apply for the cosplay contest. So, three different categories–there’s experienced, there’s intermediate, and then there is a novice. And that just really comes down to some different criteria, you know, like maybe if you’ve ever competed before, what the percentages of your costume that you’ve made yourself versus store bought, you know, and so all those things matter. And all the criteria will be listed up on the website https://www.lilaccitycon.com/ for people to look and evaluate. But it’ll be pretty similar to years past. But that way, they register online. Our cosplay MC, Chris Burr Martin, that’s been with us now for 10 plus years, he collects all the information. Everything’s kept confidential, but that way he has a chance to evaluate it. If he has any further questions with people, whether he’s not clear on what their cosplay is, or the information they provided is sometimes lacking, we’ll follow up with them and make sure we get additional information or even provide pictures, if it’s something original. That way we know they’re in the right category–they’re competing against, you know, the same quote unquote “skill level”. And then that way it’s fair for everybody. Then when they come to the show, obviously you still have to buy a ticket to come to the show, and the adult cosplay contest is on Saturday, but then they have to check in to our cosplay registration booth at the show in the main lobby. And then you’ll go there, give your name. Chris makes sure that you registered. He gives you then a walking number, so that way when you return to the main stage, everyone goes up in the right order. He already has your information that they put online and then he can read your name and your cosplay up there up on the stage. So, then with judges, you know, we tend to go with our cosplay guests, whether they’re from out of town or local. We also incorporate The 501st–The Star Wars 501st group, as well. So, judges aren’t necessarily locked in stone, but they’ll tend to be the two to three people that we go with.
Nathan: Well, I’m so glad you asked, because this is always the exciting part for a lot of people. And, you know, I’m sure they plan a lot of their day around the special guests and who’s gonna be there. “Am I gonna go stand in line right away?” “Am I gonna go see their panel?” And that kind of determines what else they’re gonna do throughout the course of the show. So, I am a huge Star Wars fan. I have been my entire life. So I always try to find a guest somewhere along the line that’s connected to the Star Wars universe. And so, this year, I’m super excited that we have special guest actor and professional stuntman Barry Lowin. And a lot of times, you know, stuntmen are overlooked, but Barry is one of the many talented stuntmen that plays the Mandalorian Din Djarin in The Mandalorian Disney series. Sorry to burst people’s bubble that don’t know all the ins and outs of making movies and television, but Pedro Pascal is not in the Mandalorian suit for all three seasons. I know that he’s in some shots where he removes the helmet, but other than that, there’s very talented people that walk and jump and fight and shoot. And Barry is one of those talented people that does a lot of walking, and a lot of strutting, and is in all the shots and riding the vehicles. So we’re super excited to have him. Mandalorian is one of my favorite Star Wars properties and shows. Not to be outdone, Rodger Bumpass, professional voice actor. People know him as Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. I mean, all SpongeBob SquarePants–400+ episodes, movies, specials, you name it. Rodger is a pro, and I’m sure he’s gonna draw maybe a little crowd. People love SpongeBob, and he’s someone that I’ve been trying to get to come to show for the last couple of years. And, man, he’s a busy guy. So, we feel very fortunate that his schedule is allowing that. So, on the flip side, not to be outdone, by Star Wars–we also have Star Trek, so, Nana Visitor From Deep Space Nine. She was someone that originally was scheduled for 2024, and her schedule had a conflict–and so these things happen and she wasn’t able to join us, but she was quick to tell me that she wants to make it up. She loves meeting fans, and last thing she wants is to disappoint people. So, she is on our roster, and she will be here this June.
Then also, you know, man, people love Sonic the Hedgehog. I don’t care whether it’s comics, video games, obviously the movies. And so we have special guest voice actor Ryan Drummond, who is the original voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in the video game Sonic Adventures, Sonic Adventures 2, Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Heroes–the list goes on and on. So Ryan is awesome. We’re super excited to have him as well too. We know people love Sonic. It’s going to be a blast. Arthur Suydam is a professional award winning artist. People quote, unquote know him as The Zombie King. Super honored to have him. He did all the covers for Marvel Zombies. DC did their own spin off the Dceased, Deadpool, The Walking Dead, you name it. I mean, like he is-his work is amazing. He’s gonna have a huge presence at the show. Three booths with huge banners. Every single type of print from all the different covers he’s done over the years, the last 15+, 20 years. Big prints, small prints. It’s a very impressive display. I met him at another show last year and I was like, we’ve got to get you up here to Spokane. Who else? Who else? For wrestling fans, I mean equal opportunity–we try to mix it up with a lot of different guests coming into our show. Professional pro wrestler Lisa Marie Faron, also known as Victoria from WWE, two time women’s champion, also known as Tara, five time TNA Knockout Champion. We always try to have a wrestler at the show and so we’re very thankful that Lisa’s schedule is open and available so she can come. And we’re going to have still a lot more announcements to come, so you’re going to have to just keep checking our Instagram, our website, Facebook. We still have some more exciting, exciting guests coming up, so stay tuned.
Nathan: There’s been so many amazing guests over 18 plus years with the Lilac City Comicon, the handful of years that we did Lake City Comicon, Coeur d’Alene, and now Halloween X-SPO. It’s kind of like asking, you know, someone to pick your favorite child. We’ve had so many amazing guests. I mean, I could think of like each year and pick out one person. Last year we had Emily Swallow from The Mandalorian. Again, like I said, being a big Star Wars fan, that was awesome. Seeing Sergeant Slaughter at the show was so cool–being a huge wrestling fan, GI Joe fan growing up in the 80s, to have him actually at our show was like a pinch-me moment. And not to be outdone, he put me in the cobra clutch and just about choked the life out of me, so he’s someone definitely not to be messed with. I mean, Veronica Taylor from, who voices Ash from Pokemon was amazing. John Heater from Napoleon Dynamite that we had a few years ago was amazing. Lou Ferrigno in 2018, the original Incredible Hulk. I don’t know, like, the list just goes on and on. But hearing from people, you know, that they got to meet him and they got to talk with them or whatever, you know, and how much they admired them for whatever their work may be, was always really flattering and great to hear. But for me, it’s like maybe the 5 or the 10 minutes, I get to talk with them behind the scenes. You know, we have a green room where we provide catering for all the special guests and, you know, there are times I get to talk with them also in between when they’re being transported from the airport or the hotel. So, any chance I get to try to talk with them, I never get much time with them because everyone’s busy. But you have a perception of somebody because you see them on screen and you think that you know somebody and then you get to talk to them and it’s like, wow, you know, you’re just like me. And you have a family and you have a passion for things. And so, we’ve just been so fortunate over the years to get people that are down to earth and love to meet fans and just make everyone’s weekend experience that much better.
Nathan: Well 2024, this last June, was already a innovative year. I expanded the show floor again. It feels like every year, I’m expanding the show floor to try to accommodate the demand of the artists and the vendors and the guests as well as the attendees. So 2025, I’m taking at least a year where I’m not expanding the show floor just for my own sanity, because it’s a lot of juggling and measuring. Like I’m going to the convention center. I’m out there with a physical measuring tape. I’m trying to see where I can put, you know, booths and tables and where we still are meeting the fire code and, you know, being safe, but having it look fun and cool. So, the show’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. You know, one of the things we also introduced last year that will continue into this June is for the people that purchase the two-VIP ticket, not only do they get their reusable tote bag and incentives, but we also introduced the VIP lounge that’ll be coming back. And so it’s a place where you have your badge to get into this place. We have some complimentary, you know, water and fruit and cables for, you know, charging your different devices. There’s tables and chairs. It’s just very chill. There’s some, you know, free comics in there, there’s some posters and some stickers. You know, there’s a table of freebies in there. But it’s just a place to kind of take a break, desensitize after, you know, stimulation overload from everything else happening in the show. So, whether you want to go in there, take a break, you want, want to eat your lunch, you want to charge your phone–it’s just like a separate space and so we’re happy to provide that for our VIP ticket holders again this year. We’re bringing in the ’89 Batmobile. Oh, you know, and so one of the things right next to that as well is, so, we have a couple local artists–well, I say local, they’re from Seattle, so still here in Washington and the PNW–it’s a business called Over the Line Art and they do caricatures of anyone that wants to get them. And so, I was just talking with them the other day and they’re going to have a big pop up tent and have a presence on the show floor and they do stuff over at the Seattle Center and Pike Place Market, Puyallup Fair. I mean, they’re all over the place in western Washington. And I’m proud to know one of the artists that is the co-owner of it. And he’s come to Spokane in the past as just a sitting artist, and so this time he’s bringing his business over with some other companions, and they’re going to be, you know, setting up and doing caricatures. It’s going to be a lot of fun. But we’re just looking forward to having a good time and, you know, getting it on, because it’s such an amazing, magical weekend for everybody. And kind of to tie into the previous question, too–those are the things that, you know, you can’t plan for–when you hear from someone that this was, you know, my first time going, and they had even like a story on the local news about a mother came with her daughter and talked about how she felt seen at the show, because she was in costume, because of whatever her preferences are, but she felt seen. And that’s, you know, just stuff that’s priceless to me. I always strive for that. You never know what it’s going to be, or when it’s going to be, but those things are precious.
Nathan: Yeah, I think so. Sprocket, you know, had a great run when he debuted. Starting in 2014, we did a self published comic book, Sprocket the Comic Cat. We did five issues and they were all self published. We did Kickstarters, we had a lot of people back them. And then we kind of felt that it ran its course. That we told the stories we wanted to tell, that each comic was, was 50/50, from short stories to local artists doing pinups–so their own version of Sprocket, which was really cool to see all the different art styles and people coming up with stuff. But then we were like, well, I’m not sure what else we’re gonna do. So, Sprocket’s still gonna be the mascot, always be our mascot. But we didn’t quite know what else to do comic wise. So we just took a break from doing anything like that. So, Sprocket is still on, you know, shirts and stickers and whatnot. And then going into last year’s show, that was the 10 year anniversary of our mascot, Sprocket the Comic Cat, when he first appeared. And so I, I challenged Matt to dig through his hard drives and blow the dust off them and essentially collect all of the original short stories, pinups and put them in a little anthology collection for the first time. And that went over really well. It was really exciting to see all those together. I hadn’t looked at them in a long time. And that also reignited Matt’s inspiration for Sprocket. It also inspired some local artists to say, hey, I want to get involved and do this again. So yes, we will look to have, probably some kind of new Sprocket something or other this year. Whether it’s a new comic or a pinup or there’s going to be some new Sprocket art for sure. And that’s really exciting to see in here.
Nathan: That’s a really good question and that was something that I was talking with a friend of mine about the other day who was from out of town and hasn’t had an opportunity to come to Lilac. I was explaining to them in a broad stroke of, you know, we were at this location and then we did this, and then we moved to this location and then we started to have more space and we went to two days and, and so that was a question that he had asked me, was like, “Well, how did you guys deal with the restrictions and lockdown and whatnot?” And that was a really difficult time, you know, for everybody. And so when we attempted to resume, we did a show in October of 2021, when Lilac is normally, you know, the first weekend in June, historically, over the years. But I just really wanted to try to get back to a quote, unquote, you know, “sense of normalcy” and, you know, and try to do this show. And so, during the time of restrictions, one of the things that we had to do to abide by those, was everyone that came in had to have a mask or a face covering. And I was really concerned that people may not agree with that, and understandably so, everyone has their opinion on that, you know. And there was no complaints. There was zero complaints. Everybody was just so happy that we were able to do the show and have a good time. And I think that, you know, you think about the last time that there was this pandemic or, you know, a similar situation, that was 100 years ago. You know, they handled it differently than how we did this time. So, I think if you fast forward another hundred years and look back, it might be one of those things you have to read further beyond, you know, just seeing a picture or, you know, a vague sense of what occurred. Because, yeah, of course at a comic con, people are going to dress up. Of course people are going to wear masks and costumes, but we were telling people they had to. So that might be something that 100 years from now, they might have to second guess, or read a little bit further down the page or whatever, when they blink and read the transmission in front of their pupils.
Nathan: A golden crown–hmmm, I never thought about that. What do you think this is? Burger King? Jeez. A VIP two-day ticket is one of the hottest tickets around. We sell out every single year. I think now this is…maybe the 10th year that we’ve been doing VIP tickets in the 19 year existence of the show. And every year we have to increase the number of VIP tickets that we offer. It’s a pre-sale ticket only and the reason behind that is because there are incentives that come with that. So, I know a lot of people are wondering, “Why won’t you sell them at the door?” The reason is because we have to know how many we’ve sold and how many items that go along with it. For example, every ticket gets a two-day admission to the show. You get 30 minute early entrance to the show floor. We’ve expanded it to now include a reusable, recyclable tote bag, so they can use that at the show floor. They can use it when they go to the grocery store, however they like. They also get an enamel pin that they can keep or trade. We have pin trading at the merch booth and we have a huge board with over 100+ different Disney pins and other pins that people have come in and traded. And that’s a lot of fun. People really get into that. You’re also encouraged to bring your own enamel pins from home, if you want to trade on the board. You don’t have to have VIP ticket for that, it’s free. They also get some free raffle tickets for hourly prizes that cost nothing. So, you just have to, when you get there, you get the tickets, you write your name on it, you put them in the bin. And we have a wide variety of Funko Pops, autographs from past guests at shows, collectibles, Pokémon cards, I mean, you name it, there’s a wide variety of things. So there’s stuff that range from 10 bucks, stuff that range to 100 bucks. And as the names are drawn, then you get to then come around The Wizard of Oz curtain and decide which of the prizes you want to take home. In addition, there is the VIP lounge that I talked about that people get access to and get to enjoy that and there are some snacks in there, but those are also first come, first serve. We ask that people be polite, respectful of everybody and not go in there and just, just hoard them all for themselves and you know, take one per person, those free comics and posters and stickers, like I said as well. So, you know, lots of fun stuff that’s included with the VIP ticket price. But again, we want to be affordable–want to be realistic. There are some that are sold online through ticketswest.com but the majority of them are sold at local businesses. So all three locations at The Comic Book Shop–Division, North Town Mall, Spokane Valley, and also Monkey Biz on North Nevada, a comic book shop, they also sell tickets. So the idea is, we want people to go into local businesses and shops and see what they have to offer. If they go into these local shops and buy a ticket, doesn’t matter whether it’s VIP or single day admission, they save on fees. So, then they could save three to four dollars if they buy it locally. And we encourage people for VIP to buy them right now. Like, if you’re listening to this, safely drop what you’re doing and safely travel to one of these local places and buy your tickets right away. Because what happens every year, despite us increasing the number, year over year, is that they will sell out, guaranteed at least two to three weeks before the show. And then what happens is during those two to three weeks, those businesses are blown up on the phone, on instant messenger, people walking in, freaking out, where are the VIP tickets? I need a VIP ticket for me and my significant other. And they have to break their hearts that they’re sold out. Doesn’t mean they still can’t come the show, but they just don’t get all the incentives to come with it. So get it now, get it early and avoid the stress or headache of trying to find one down the road.
Nathan: Yeah, so there are still single day tickets on sale—Saturday is $18 and Sunday is $13. These are for what we call now General Admission. We’re not calling them adults or anything like that—we’re just saying General Admission and that’s for ages 13 and up. And again, the $18 and $13 is a pre-sale price. You can get tickets at the door-that’s totally fine. We will allow people to purchase single day admission tickets at the door, but like I was talking about with the VIPs, if you buy them in advance locally at a shop, you’re saving on those additional fees–the convenience fees. You know, you’re buying a concert ticket or a sporting event, there’s always the fees, right? It’s hard to avoid. Well, this is a way to avoid it. And how we avoid it is, because I absorb that cost—I take care of that. I’m trying to do what I can to give back to the community. So, if you can’t get it ahead of time—yes, you can walk up Saturday morning, Sunday morning, anytime during the day and buy tickets, but you’re going to have to pay a few dollars more because of the fees. So, there’s a, there’s a hack right there. Save some money and then buy those tickets in advance. I had previously mentioned before that one of the things we changed last October at X-SPO, going forward is now, kids 12 and under are free. So, it doesn’t mean that we want mom to pull up in a van and unload, you know, four kids and go running around the show, you know, for free. What that means is they need to be accompanied by someone preferably 16 and older when you come in, or an adult. But that way we’re not babysitting anyone’s kids. We don’t want anyone to be unsupervised, even though it is a safe environment. Just for best practice, they need to be accompanied by adult to get in for free.
Nathan: Fandoms, yeah, I mean, you know–I talked about Star Wars as near and dear to my heart. That was something growing up as a kid in the early 80s–Star Wars was everywhere. It was on the playground. I remember a kid in my class bringing an X-Wing to school and trying to cram it into his locker because, you know, he couldn’t bring it into class. My neighbor, he had a Bossk bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back and I saw the action figure before I saw the movie, and so I didn’t know what that was and it scared the hell out of me. It made me cry, you know, but I was probably like, you know, four years old. And ironically that’s one of my favorite characters now in the franchise. All the bounty hunters in that scene, including Boba Fett is one of my all time favorite characters. You know, coming back around to, you know, Halloween and horror as well. I mean, my best friend lived down the street. He and I would always go to the video store–again, I’m dating myself–and rent a lot of scary movies. Stuff that, you know, we probably 100%, we weren’t old enough to watch if we went to the theater. You know, a lot of these were R-rated movies. Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play. These are all, you know, The Toxic Avenger, and these are all movies that we had no business watching as, you know, a 10-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year-old watching R-rated movies. But his dad and my parents, they were like, that’s up to you, if you want to watch those. And you know, I’m sure we had a fair share of, you know, nightmares and whatnot. So that’s what’s really cool that that’s come back around. And I mean, Halloween’s always been popular, but I think I underestimated how popular it is. And starting up the Halloween X-SPO has been bringing back a lot of pleasant memories doing that. But comic books as well–comic books is huge. I freaking love comic books. I mean, I’m also, you know, a freelance artist on the side. I used to do a lot more art 10, 15, 20 years ago. I’ve been published several times and had a gallery exhibit shows three times. So, I’ve done a lot of art and I’ve just recently kind of gotten back into it. Not only for creativity sake, but sanity’s sake. It’s a good stress reliever. It’s something to take my mind off of doing the shows and sit there and be creative and put some fun music on and make some art. So, yeah, I mean, those are definitely things that I’m passionate about and I love. It’s fun to then see that physically at the shows, you know, people, vendors and artists and actors. Seeing those passions as a child now be, you know, my career is pretty, pretty amazing.
Nathan: Share the juicy details?! Boy, more hard hitting journalism from, from BOOM. Okay, we’re gonna go way back–back into time to 2007, the very first Spokane Comicon before we rebranded to Lilac City Comicon. And one of our very first special guests, the late, great Margot Kidder, most famously known for playing Lois Lane in the original Christopher Reeve Superman movies. And we were very honored to have her come over to Spokane. She had a home in Montana and she traveled over for the day–take a chance on a brand new show, single day show, and a fresh faced kid new to Spokane as well. And when Margot arrived, so not many people know this, she was fashionably late to the show. And that’s okay. You know, these things happen. You know, she was from out of town as well. But you know, some people were wondering, “Hey, is Margot really going to show?” You know, maybe about 20 minutes, 30 minutes late–you know, I didn’t keep exact count, but I remember when that occurred, as I was sweating bullets. But, you know, I paid for her plane ticket. She checked into her hotel. I knew she was in town, but I was like, “Man, what’s, what’s the delay?” And she hadn’t called me, so I, far as I knew, she was on her way. And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, she’ll be here, she’ll be here.” So, I see her on the horizon and she’s coming up to the door of the facility. And so I go to let her in and she has a dog with her and I’m like, “Oh, who’s this?” And she’s like, “Oh, this is my dog.” And she’s like, “Where am I gonna be set up?” And I’m like, “Well, you’re just right around the corner. You’re, you know, straight down the middle. That’s where your table is. You’re set next to other special guest Matthew Clark.” And she’s like, “Oh, great, that sounds good. Here, I want you to hold my dog and take him for walks and make sure that he has a place to rest while I go sign autographs,” because there was a line of people. And I was like, I mean, I was so elated that she was there and she showed up and she was actually, you know, present that I was like, “Yeah, sure.” And then I’m like, wait a minute, I just agreed to dog sit. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to run this show for the very first time and figure everything out. “Yeah, I’ll watch your dog. You got it.” It’s funny to laugh about now, but at the time I was like, “What did I just agree to?” So, that’s something–coincidentally–that I put on my pros and cons list, is to not bring any dogs, whether they’re my own or somebody else’s, and not dog sit while I’m trying to run a show.
Nathan: So, yeah, we have a website, https://www.lilaccitycon.com/ and then we’re also on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lilaccitycomicon/ and Facebook under the same handle, https://www.facebook.com/lilaccitycomicon. We try to keep it updated as much as possible with a lot of information. We encourage people to read the information that we take the time to put on there. And like I said, I know one thing that’s really popular is the cosplay guidelines and online application that’ll be coming out in early March, so keep your eyes peeled for that. We tend to post special guests once a week on Tuesdays, what we kinda call ‘Talent Tuesday’, so keep your eyes peeled for that. We still have a lot of artists and some more actors to add to our guest lineup, so it’ll be really exciting. And then, you know, as the show gets closer, we just continue to post more show-related content. So, as it gets closer we’ll have, you know, some special promotions coming up with local businesses and tie ins. Free comic book day the first weekend in May is always big. Local shops will be giving away free tickets. We’re going to be having radio promotions coming up with stations–they’re going to be giving away tickets. We’ll be doing a lot of cross promotion online as well too. So, definitely follow us on the social medias and stay up to date with all the latest information.
Nathan: Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to acknowledge and do some shout-outs here. You know, last time that I was on talking about Halloween X-SPO, you know, I went down the long laundry list of my staff. I have an amazing, talented group of individuals that have been with me, some of them 10+ years, helping out at all my shows and events. And I went back and I re-listened to the episode and you know, Brad and John and Chris and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera–there’s so many. And I realized I forgot somebody and I felt so bad that I forgot to mention Yome, who is one of the most talented people that we have on our team. And this last show he was nice enough to not only volunteer with us again, like he always does, he also volunteered the entire day on his 50th birthday and that was so amazing that I gave him every opportunity–I’m like, go spend it with your family. Go do whatever you want. It’s your birthday. You earned this. And he told me that there was no other place he would rather be. And so, I made sure to message his wife and thank her profusely for allowing him to still come and volunteer with us for the day. And we made sure we got him a cake and everybody sang him happy birthday. So, we wanted to make sure that his day was very special and not just overlooked. So, Yome, man, we’re very thankful that you are part of our team. There’s so many people in addition to him, with my staff, the local businesses, the exhibitors. You know, I’ve had a lot of exhibitors that have been with me–Craig at The Comic book Shop and Kathy Sprague at Safari Pearl. They’ve been doing my show since year one. This will be the 19th year that we’ve been collaborating together. And that just blows my mind. I can’t be more thankful for people like them that took a chance on me when, you know, I was a nobody to them. That relationship has continued to grow and they’ve sponsored the shows and they donate stuff to me and help, you know, put flyers up in their shops and it’s been really cool. The other thing too, I’m super thankful for is what we do to give back to the community with Our Place Community p that helps families and individuals in the West Central neighborhood. So, every year we ask people to bring non-perishables and canned goods to the front of the convention center where we have a tent set up and they can donate that. For every one item they bring, they get a single raffle ticket for a, to be determined, valuable prize. Years past, we’ve done a proton pack, we’ve done an arcade cabinet. I mean, these things are worth like $300 and somebody will win that. That’s all well and good, but then being able to bring those items to Our Place and give back to them, the people that really need it. So, thank you for the continued partnership with them and thank you to the community. And I challenge everybody to bring your items, start thinking ahead, because we’re going to have, in addition to those grand prizes that one person will win, we’ll have a slew of individual prizes and we’ll have a slew of instant win prizes. And what I mean by that is, we experimented this with X-SPO and it was a huge hit, so we’re going to do it again in June, is that we will get gift certificates to local businesses. So, The Comic Book Shop, Petunia Loomis, to be determined, other places, but there’ll be $25, $50 gift certificates. And so, if somebody brings in, you know, 50 items, 100 items, they’re going to get that gift certificate, boom, right there on the spot. So, then they’re helping people out because they’re bringing in a slew of donation items, but then they’re going to get something back in return. So, I just want to challenge everybody, start thinking ahead and let’s bring in all those donations.
Nathan: Oh, this is a really hard question, because, you know, I’m not trying to get political. I’m not trying to draw a line in the sand or anything like that, but I think, you know, what makes the world a better place is what we strive for at the show, and that is creating an inclusive, diverse environment for people to be seen, for people to have fun, for people to feel safe, and that’s really important. I’m not trying to get too emotional. I’m just trying to keep it real. And, you know, in like, in the grand scheme of things, you know, this is a comic book and pop culture show. You know, we’re not changing the world, but what we are trying to do is make the community better. And that starts with each individual person that chooses to come, chooses to have a good time and have that shared experience. Yes, social media can help get the word out, and yes, social media is good for promoting, but having that shared experience, like going to a concert or like going to a sporting event and experiencing that firsthand, is priceless.
Nathan: Oh, thank you! That’s really nice of you to say and that means a lot to me as well. I mean, you know, I’m all about trying to promote local businesses and artists and creators, and I was honored to meet your affiliate last year at the show. What you do to help get the word out about other creators and other events is really awesome, so keep up the good work. Thank you so much!
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