Los Angeles Comic Con (LACC) is a small annual event that takes place at the L.A. Convention Center, where all local comic book lovers and superhero nerds of L.A can cosplay as whoever they want, buy merchandise from their favorite fandoms, support wonderful artists, and see a couple of celebrities. It is the ultimate local gathering of pop culture fans who live in L.A.

At LACC there are many shops and exhibits for attendees to explore. Even though it is called Comic Con, the event is not exclusively dedicated to only comic books. Fandoms related to gaming, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, anime, and pop culture are also catered in this convention. Merchandise for these fandoms are sold, like special collectibles, super rare Funko pops, posters, weapons, costumes, and many more items. There are also an endless amount of talented artists who sell their fanart, like paintings, keychains, crochet dolls, and other forms of art. 

Some examples of the fandoms that are catered at the convention are Star Wars, DC comics, Marvel, and many more. There were real-life Overwatch loot boxes that were sold, allegedly containing surprise Overwatch merch. There were replicas of weapons from famous videogames and superheroes. 

The famous manga/comic app, Webtoon, had an entire section dedicated to signings of famous Webtoon authors, like Uru-Chan of unOrdinary, Quimchee of I Love Yoo, Rachel Smythe of Lore Olypmus, and more. 

At the event, classic horror character merchandise such as, like the Chucky doll, action figures of Jason and Freddy, and other horror characters, were sold. There were also amazing displays, like a life size R2-D2, the Delorean, the infamous car Christine, and sculptures of superheroes and iconic characters that seemed real. The Air Force had a truck parked inside, where you had to solve special puzzles, one of them similar to defusing a bomb. Following that was a life-like simulation where you fly a fighter jet and shoot down enemies. Another section was dedicated to the art of witchcraft. Hot Topic had a giant booth where anybody could spin a wheel and win something for free. There were many different kinds of activities at the event. All sorts of merchandise from many different kinds of fandoms are sold at LACC. 

An entire portion of the floor was where all the amazing artists sold their art. A lot of the art that was sold was related to fandoms, so there was a lot of fan art. There were mesmerizing paintings of iconic characters, or cute tiny little keychains. Tiny stuffed toys or crocheted characters, Different sized prints and posters that were very decorative were sold, and most of the artists that I have encountered are kind. RossDraws, an instagram artist with 1.2 followers had his own booth where he sold his beautiful artwork. Some of the artists that were at LACC in 2019 were Blood and Teeth, Built by Sketch, Bat in your Belfry, Rest in Paz, and countless more. 

The merchandise and the talented artists are not the only thing that makes LACC a wonderful event to attend. The environment of the people around you, including the friendly cosplayers are amazing. 

About half of the people there were wearing costumes, and within that half there were detailed high-effort cosplayers. The artistic cosplayers stay at the bottom floor of the convention center, where they welcome people to take photos of their display. They are all usually friendly, and their costumes are very detailed and creative. Sometimes, a person wearing a costume, usually a spiderman or stormtrooper, would bring a stereo and play dance music out loud, and from that emerged a gleefully amusing dance party. 

Based on personal observation, it seems as if all these strangers would bond and enjoy their time together during this event, which was why it was such a wonderful experience with good energy. There were smiles on many people’s faces especially at the bottom floor where everybody was all together.  

There were more people wearing costumes just for fun, but there were still a lot of expert cosplayers. There are many people dressed up as different characters. I recall seeing a long line of children dressed up as characters from Stranger Things, a Wonder Woman whose armor was pixelated, Belle, from Beauty and the Beast but as a heroic warrior, many different types of Spidermen from Spiderverse, a cosplayer who looked exactly like Heath Ledger Joker, and many other creative and talented cosplayers. The creativity and the quality of the high effort cosplayers were astonishing. 

In 2019, there were many celebrities that attended the event. Elijah Wood (actor of Frodo from Lord of the Rings), Ron Pearlman (actor of Hellboy), Gerard Way (lead singer My Chemical Romance and writer of The Umbrella Academy), Tom Kenny (voice actor of Spongebob Squarepants), and more attended. Leslie David Baker, Oscar Nuñez, Kate Flannery, Phyllis Smith, Creed Bratton, actors from The Office were also there, and so were some voice actors from Steven Universe, My Hero Academia, and other animated shows. 

L.A Comic Con is like the smaller and local version of the extremely famous International San Diego Comic Con. LACC usually takes place late October,but because of this pandemic, it got rescheduled temporarily to mid-December of 2020, as requested by the attendees. However, LACC 2020 eventually got completely cancelled, and the event will take place next year in September.. Zachary Levi (the actor of Shazam) will be scheduled to appear as a guest next year so far.