The Northwest Arkansas Comic Con was canceled a year ago because of bad weather, but it returned to rousing success this past weekend.
Officials with VXV Events of Jackson, Mississippi, said two-day weekend tickets were sold out, and attendance, while not officially confirmed, was expected to be as high as 7,500 for each day at the Rogers Convention Center. Fans were able to meet and get autographs and photographs with celebrities, as well as buy merchandise from a plethora of third-party vendors.
The turnout reflects a growing, prosperous industry with more than 1,000 comic conventions held nationally, most of them popping up in smaller venues compared to the famous ones held in San Diego and New York City. DiMarket, a market research firm, estimated the comic con industry would grow from $20 billion in 2025 to more than $34 billion in 2031.
VXV Events, which also hosted a comic con in Little Rock in September, has organized events since 2022. The company has 19 scheduled this year, mostly in the Mid-South region of the U.S.
“The companies that put on the big comic cons in San Diego and New York are never coming to these smaller, more mid-sized markets,” said Joey Mills, communications director with VXV. “If we can bring that big Comic Con experience to these other smaller markets, that’s an underserved audience. Those are people that would love for something like this to show up in their town.
“It’s been gangbusters for this company since we started doing these. It’s just grown year after year.”
Stars on the Ledger
VXV’s business model is based on guarantees to the celebrities who attend rather than paying an attendance fee, Mills said. VXV pays for the guests’ airfare and hotel accommodations but nothing else if the individual guest hits his or her minimum goal.
For instance, if a celebrity earns $4,000 of her $5,000 guarantee over the weekend, VXV makes up the difference. The visiting celebrities set their own price points for autographs, selfies or something extra such as a video or voice message.
Celebrities at Northwest Arkansas Comic Con ranged from actors such as Edward James Olmos of “Miami Vice” and Diedrich Bader of “The Drew Carey Show” to performers from the Red Dead Redemption video game series, along with voiceover actors in cartoons and anime.
There was plenty of money exchanged during the convention. The three actors from the Red Dead Redemption 2 video game had long lines throughout the day and then standing-room-only attendance during the trio’s Q&A panel Saturday.
“It’s incredible to see so many people come out,” said Rob Wiethoff, the voice of Red Dead Redemption protagonist John Marston. “It’s really cool because we already have something in common. You meet a complete stranger and can celebrate something we all have in common.”
There were also long lines for other voiceover performers, as well as actor Khary Payton, who is known for his role on “The Walking Dead.” Much of the crowd was younger and in costume — each convention has a cosplay competition — but there were also celebrities with older fans.
“We are having a great time, getting a chance to see fans,” said singer and actor Joey Fatone, most famous as a member of the mega boy band NSYNC. “Some people may not even know who the hell I am. … Their moms know who I am. Sometimes their grandmas know who I am.”
More Intimate
Bader said smaller comic conventions give him a chance to interact more with his fans, which he said is a blessing for an actor who doesn’t always get a chance to understand his impact. Bader, also known for the movies “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Office Space,” made one fan’s day, or perhaps month, by repeating a famous line from one of his movies.
“Being told that you’re loved is a beautiful thing,” Bader said. “It’s the interactions that I love the most. They are actually more intimate, I can get into a real conversation with people instead of just perfunctorily signing something.
“They come up and say that they love you. Who could hate that? It makes you feel great. As an actor you’re trained to always look forward. Comic cons are about looking back. It’s nice to know that my years of doing this means something to people.”
Resilient Industry
Mills said VXV officials were worried at the start of the year because rough economic conditions might make fans less willing to pay money to interact with celebrities. Those fears were not realized in the group’s first two events of the year, which include northwest Arkansas’ event.
“People continue to show up in greater numbers year after year, which means we can make them a little bit bigger and a little bit better every year,” Mills said.
Bader’s booth was adjacent to the three Red Dead Redemption booths. He was unaware of the video game but recognized that, in the convention world, fame is unique.
“I don’t know who anybody is,” Bader said. “A lot of these guys do video games or anime or something like that. It’s fascinating, the microcosm that this is of fame. You don’t recognize a lot of these people but, in the cons, they’re giants.”
Wiethoff and fellow Red Dead Redemption actors Roger Clark and Benjamin Byron Davis ran out of time during their one-hour Q&A panel with more than a dozen fans still waiting to ask them pressing questions about the Western adventure game released in 2018.
“It’s just a wonderful, wonderful blessing to see the effect our work has had, even seven years after,” said Clark, the Irish-American actor who performs as Red Dead Redemption 2 hero Arthur Morgan.
Each of the three Red Dead Redemption 2 performers took time during and after signing autographs to talk to their fans, something that has been strikingly common at the last two VXV events in Arkansas. In Little Rock, for example, the actor Lou Diamond Phillips spent extra time with fans, even taking selfies.
Mills said celebrities such as Phillips are dream guests because of their generosity. VXV works hard to select a good cross-section of guests that cover movies, television, anime, cartoons and video games, as well as a diversity of headliner names and niche stars.
“A bonus for us is like Khary Payton from the live-action ‘The Walking Dead,’ but most of his jobs are voice acting,” Mills said. “He’s got a tiger in ‘The Walking Dead,’ and he voices a bunch of stuff for DC animation. He hits multiple fandoms.”
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