Bellcon 2008

Bellcon
http://www.myspace.com/bellcon2007

2nd ANNUAL COMIC BOOK CONVENTION TAKES OVER BELLINGHAM

The tremendous success of last year's comic book convention has made Bell-Con Washington's 2nd largest comic book and pop-culture convention, second only to Emerald City in Seattle. This year's convention will take place on September 27th on the Whatcom Community College campus. As always, we are bringing some of the top comic book talent to Bellingham, such as Clayton Crain (Spider-Man), Jason Metcalf (Wrath if the Titans), Brandon Jerwa (GI JOE, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA), Tom Peyer (STAR WARS), as well as local writer Carnell (FANGORIA MAGAZINE), and Darren G. Davis (10th MUSE, LEGEND OF ISIS). Local artist Ben Hansen will present a Bell-Con Exclusive of his new book THE DEPENDENTS.

The convention will feature a variety of games, contests, and prizes, including a HeroClix tournament hosted by WizKids and a costume contest sponsored by the SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE. A raffle will be held every hour with prizes worth at least $100 in value from Sony, BCI Eclipse, Merch-Bot, Legend Films and Liberation Entertainment. In addition, there will be door prizes from Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Bluewater Comics and Top Cow.

Publishers and retailers from across Washington and Oregon will be attending the convention this year, including local retailers and businesses like KISM, Merch-Bot, The Comics Place, Camcord @ Large and many more.

The Music Festival portion, which runs throughout the day of the convention, will be sponsored by What's Up Magazine and will feature hot local artists like Hot Roddin Romero's.

The English Department at Whatcom Community College will be sponsoring the event. During the Spring Quarter of 2009, the college will be launching a new Graphic Novel Literature course taught by instructor Chad Helder. In addition to the English Department, the Bellingham Library System will also be on-hand to participate in the celebration and promote the role of comics books as a step to literacy.

This year, we are extending the schedule beyond the day of the convention. On Thursday the 25th at 7:00 pm, we will launch the festivities with a comic book signing at Village Books for "Bartholomew of the Scissors," the new Bluewater comic from writer Chad Helder and artist Daniel Crosier. That same evening, we will hold a 9:30 screening at The Pickford Cinema sponsored by Camcord@Large for the colorized debut of "Last Man on Earth" from Legend Films, which stars Vincent Price. The film will be followed by a Q&A with "Vincent Price Presents" comic book team. On Friday the 26th, we will hold a special comic book art show at the Whatcom Museum, featuring the work of Daniel Crosier.

"Our main focus is to make this a lot of fun for people of all ages," says Darren Davis, convention promoter. "I've always believed in giving back to the community. With our annual comic book camp and now with this convention we hope to continue that tradition. We had over 1,500 people at the last convention – so we needed to up the production this year."

For more information and updates, go to www.myspace.com/bellcon2007 or call Bluewater Productions at 360-778-1033.