Aly Albright of Montgomery, 13, said she enjoys comic books including X-Men and found herself immersed in that imaginary world on Saturday in Aurora.
“I like the cartoon versions and also reading the comic books,” she said while visiting the Comic and Pop Culture Extravaganza at Santori Public Library in downtown Aurora. “My dad hasn’t taken to me to many Marvel movies yet because I was too young but now, I’m hoping to go. I watch TV shows mostly and have some comics I still have to get to. The characters here look real.”
The six-hour event included a superhero storytime and a Pokemon meetup, with all three floors of the facility being used for the fest, which concluded with a costume parade.
Allison Lanthrum, events and program coordinator for the library, said she has overseen three of the five yearly Comic and Pop Culture Extravaganzas which “began during the pandemic when it was completely virtual.”
“This year, we are turning things up about 10 notches and will have something going on at all three floors,” she said before the event. “We’re hoping throughout the day we’ll see about 500 people.”
Some of Saturday’s highlights, Lanthrum said, included a professional “foam-smith” named Maker Fishmeal “who is carving giant blocks of foam into oversized props and set pieces.”
“She’s going to be leading programs and doing demonstrations,” Lanthrum said. “We also have the tabletop role playing game – we have mini figurines and people can meet with a therapist and talk about how tabletop role playing can be used as a therapy. There will also be staff from the Fair Game store in Geneva who will demonstrate a number of games and an experienced game master who will share tricks.”
Aly Albright’s father Tony Albright said he was “a Marvel guy who read a lot of X-Men.”
“I like seeing this through my kids’ eyes and watching them discover things that I grew up with,” he said. “They took to comic book lore pretty easily. They like it.”
The library’s atrium was awash with volunteer “superheroes” looking very much like the movie and book characters they were playing.
Eli Escalera of Evanston was dressed as Deadpool and said he loves playing the character “because of the smile of the kids. It’s the best thing you’ll ever see.”
“This is the fourth time I’ve worn this. For Halloween, I bought my best friend’s costume of Wolverine so that’s coming later on,” he said. “In terms of what this event is about it teaches kids that imagination is big and it especially helps them when they are reading. It helps them in their minds to spread open instead of living in a small box. Anything is possible.”
Andrea Gantz of Durand was dressed as Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” and, like Escalera, was representing The League of Enchantment – a nonprofit group that visits children in hospitals and works with other nonprofit groups.
“I have many other costumes, maybe 20 or 25,” she said. “My favorite thing to be is Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ When kids see us they are just in shock and awe because to them we are the real thing so that is what we try to do as a group and bring these characters to life. There’s 100% buy-in.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
