This Weekend: EternalCon

This weekend marks the arrival of Long Island’s largest fan event: EternalCon. Now in its eighth year, EternalCon brings together fan communities and creators from across the comics industry for meet and greets, industry panels, and other fun activities.

This year’s major guests include Lindsey Wagner of The Bionic Woman, Lee Majors of The Six Million Dollar Man, Sam J. Jones of Flash Gordon, Emily Swallow of Supernatural and The Mandalorian, Ross Marquand of The Walking Dead and Avengers: Infinity War, and Butch Patrick of The Munsters. Artist Alley is populated by Sean Chen who worked on Marvel’s Iron Fist series this year, Keith Williams who did ink work for Infinity Gauntlet among many other comics, Rodney Ramos who worked on the iconic DC/Vertigo series Transmetropolitan, and Melissa Kleynowski who worked on Nickelodeon’s comics based on The Loud House.

For tabletop gaming fans, there are tons of organized games and tournaments from many different games including Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is experiencing a resurgence thanks to a free-to-play game that teaches the rules and a reversal of an incredibly unpopular rule, Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons, and Star Wars Legion. There are also tournaments and casual gaming events for various video games including Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo Switch.

Much like other conventions like this, EternalCon features industry insider panels designed to help people who want to make it in the industry get their start. Panels include a makeup tutorial for visual effects makeup, a tutorial on managing social media and YouTube for creators, a trivia contest, writing workshops about dialogue and using history to inspire fantasy, and a guide to freelancing in the comic book industry.

Beyond all of that there is a car show, showcasing cars like Kitt from Knight Rider and the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo. The show floor is populated by various exhibitors showcasing collectables from across all fandoms. There are tables that sell collectable cards, action figures, movies, retro video games, steampunk memorabilia, and one-of-a-kind collectables from independent creators.

Those who are interested in attending Day 2 can go to their website (eternalcon.com) and pickup tickets there at the low price of $25 for the day. It is worth the ticket price for anyone who wants to attend an event where they can showcase their fandom.