East Coast Comic Expo welcomes thousands to Moncton

For the ninth time since 2013, the East Coast Comic Expo brought together comic book lovers from all over this weekend.

“I’ve always been a big fan of cosplaying and I wanted to meet a lot of different people and make some new friends and also enjoy having my friends with me today and having a lot of fun,” said 15-year-old Heidi Lewis who came all the way from Bathurst on Saturday.

Like many other attendees, Lewis was dressed up for the event.

In just 18 days she was able to create an “Inquisitor” costume from Star Wars.

“I saw the opening, I saw how big it was and I was like ‘this is going to be fun’,” she said about when she first entered the Moncton Coliseum.

Over the course of the two-day convention, organizers expect to see between 2,000 and 3,000 people on Saturday, and they saw about 500 attendees on Friday night.

“Let’s face it, this has become a part of pop culture now,” said Georgio Paulin, who is a part of the planning committee.

“The biggest movies are based on comic book properties, people want more of this and a lot of people will travel to larger centres to go meet the creators that they like and we wanted to bring them to them.”

A Star Wars character is seen at the East Coast Comic Expo in Moncton, N.B. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)

For Lewis, she thinks it’s great to have a convention like this right in New Brunswick.

“I think it’s important because you get to experience different things because at Comicon it’s got like not just anime or comics, it’s got a whole bunch of different things and you get to meet people who are the same as you and you’re not like standing out to too much,” she said.

“You get to enjoy experiencing things with different people and you get to make new friends and stuff and I think that’s really important because being lonely is not fun.”

People are seen dressed at at the East Coast Comic Expo in Moncton, N.B. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)Paulin says this year brings over 50 vendors and 100 artists from all over to Moncton.

“We had taken a break during COVID and then 2023 was our first year back and we were just sort of getting readjusted and this year everything went really well with the planning, social media reach has been huge, biggest yet,” he said.

The two-day event will wrap up Saturday at 5 p.m. and tickets are still available at the door.

Planning is already underway for next year.

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