Goulburn Comic-Con Brings Pop-Culture to Life

The clatter of a 20-sided die, the crash of swords and shields and the buzz of hundreds of people celebrating modern pop-culture, are not sounds one would expect to hear from a major event in a regional town like Goulburn. But the Goulburn Comic-Con has quickly grown to rival the status of Goulburn’s biggest attractions.

Organised by the Goulburn-Mulwaree Library and most recently held on the 16th of March, the event has exponentially grown over the course of four years. Starting as a minor affair in the small Goulburn library four years ago, and now barely fitting into Goulburn’s massive Veolia Arena, there is no doubt that the Comic-Con has become incredibly popular.

The day’s festivities captured the feel and experience of a big-city comic-con and injected it directly into the regional hub, creating a full day of exciting cultural celebration.

The Comic-Con’s ‘Gaming Zone’ lauded the rich history of tabletop gaming, from classic board games like Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, to the pen and paper fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons and the micro-figure painting artistry of Warhammer. The zone presented opportunities for play that many citizens of Goulburn and it’s surrounds may have never experienced before.

The ‘Artist Alley’ let the creative mind flourish, providing a unique opportunity to meet authors and artists and even learn how some of them work their magic. The Society for Creative Anachronism created a little slice of medieval Europe, replete with crafting, pageantry and epic duels to the death. Superheroes clashed with villains in the Infinity stunt show.

Stalls of all shapes and sizes lined the walls of the arena, selling everything from comic books to green screen photography. But for many, the biggest highlight was the cosplay; people from Goulburn and beyond came together to bring pop-culture’s biggest characters to life. It’s hard to miss the near-perfect renditions of Deathstroke and Thor roaming the halls of the convention or the imposing presence of Darth Vader and the 501st Legion looming large. The myriad features made for another strong showing for the young comic-con; a rousing success for a more modern style of attraction.

The Goulburn Comic-Con is doing a vital service as a modern attraction in a town full of traditional ones, a chance for new representations of culture to reach Goulburn and a chance for Goulburn to connect with it’s growing youth population.