FITCHBURG — Diehard comic book fans, super friends, and artists from around the country teamed up for this year’s Plastic City Comic Con on Saturday to express their love for an art form currently experiencing a resurgence in popular culture.
Matches Malone and Michael Poirier, donning the costumes of Batman and the Flash, respectively, joined forces during the event to achieve one goal: make young fans smile.
“It’s all for the kids,” said Poirier. “When they see Batman, or the Flash, or when they see Wonder Woman, or Spider-Man, they light up, and that really makes your day.”
The pair initially met at NorthEast Comic Con, and now consider themselves “super friends.” This is the fourth year they have attended the convention in Fitchburg, they said.
Malone said he’s been performing cosplay for nearly 26 years.
“It’s been a bad habit of mine,” said Malone.
He said comic conventions can be an important event for many reasons. People get to meet artists and writers of their favorite comics, and it’s a good space to talk about the stories they love, Malone said.
Plastic City Comic Con is also the perfect spot for people who can’t attend bigger events, such as those in Boston or San Diego, he added.
“You can interact with a lot more people here, it’s more personable, and it’s got more heart,” Malone said.
The convention was also the right spot for writers and artists to show off their talent and love for comic books.
Leominster resident and comic book writer Erik Radvon said he’s been coming to the convention since it began.
“It’s a great place for me to showcase my work,” said Radvon. “I definitely got my sea legs after doing about a dozen, but it’s a unique experience.”
At his booth, Radvon displayed some self-published comics, an action-adventure series he hopes to publish nationally, and a few anthology books he has contributed to.
“I think I was reading comics before I could read,” said Radvon. “I’ve always loved the medium as a way to tell a unique and interesting story in a way that you can’t really capture in film or prose.”
He said a lifelong love of comic books drove him to the career. Radvon’s very first job at the age of 15 was for That’s Entertainment in Fitchburg, which continues to sell comics today.
“Once you have the bug in you, it’s hard not to keep doing it,” he said.
Radvon also said the recent resurgence of comic book fandom has brought a lot of vitality to the genre of writing.
“Even when I was a kid, people were saying the comic industry was on its last leg,” he said. “Somehow, with technology and video games, there is something about comic books that captures the imagination of people young and old.”
Radvon said the success of the most recent “Avengers” movie shows just how widely appealing comic book material is nowadays. “Folks who may have never read a comic book in their life, they found something in these stories that comic readers found 30 or 40 years ago,” he said.
Team Manticore, a husband and wife duo from New York, also set up a booth to promote their unique comic book creations, drawings and plush creatures.
Some of the books on display include a children’s book, a collection of dark fairytales, and collections of comics the pair individually worked on for more than a decade.
Rob Silver said he enjoys coming to the Plastic City Comic Con because it’s an event purely about comics rather than television and film. Silver said comics have always been an integral part of their lives and his wife, Rowyn Golde, even learned to read from Batman comics. Naturally, the two were drawn to the business themselves.
“I initially started this for my own entertainment,” he said.
After showing off his work and realizing people enjoyed it, Silver said he decided to take it more seriously. He said these conventions are a great tool for artists to interact with their community of readers.
“You’re getting to know the people who read your comics and other artists so we can talk shop too,” said Silver. “It’s also a good crowd with very passionate people.”
Daniel Monahan: , dmonahan@sentinelandenterprise.com
