Rita Okoye
It was an exciting three days for lovers of comic books, animation, film and gaming at the 8th edition of Africa’s biggest geek and comic event – the Lagos Comic-Con.
The 3-day event, which held at two locations – Alliance Francaise, Ikoyi and Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island – from September 19 to 21, was attended by over 6,500 guests.
A total of 157 people took part in different competitions with Folorunsho Kelly, who dressed as the Joker, winning in the cosplay category and walking home with N100,000 and a brand new mobile phone.
Awards were also given to best comic illustrator, best comics of the year and best comic studio of the year, among others, at the Fist Awards ceremony, which also took place at the convention.
Speaking about the success of this year’s convention, Ray Anyasi, Event Coordinator, Lagos Comic-Con said: “In these three days we saw local publishers of novels and comics make millions in sales of their titles, we had exhibitors of game and animation from all over Africa and even from the US.”
“Beyond confirming that this is Africa’s biggest geek and pop culture marketplace, it shows us the latent ability of the creative industries to bolster our economy via foreign exchange and raising employment levels,” he added.
Some of the highlights of this year’s event was the exclusive screening of groundbreaking films in animation and CGI/VFX, most notably the Malika Animation project by Youneek and Anthill Studios, starring Adesua Etomi, Deyemi Okonlawon and others; an exclusive screening of Hero Cop, yet another animation movie and Foreigner’s God by Ifan Ifeanyi Michael.
Related: FG to invest in animation industry – Osinbajo
Speaking at a panel session, Ayodele Elegba, Founder, Lagos Comic-Con, stressed the need for people to take animation more seriously and use it as a tool to tell African stories. He also mentioned that the animation industry is one of the biggest exports from Nigeria.
This year’s event was proudly sponsored by Fearless energy drink, Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre, the French Embassy, Film House Nigeria, African Movie Channel, Scooper news, Spoof Animations, Sodas ‘N’ Popcorn, YNaija.com, KraksTV, Legit.ng, The Lagos Weekender, Naphtali Books, Book House, among other corporate supporters.
The 9th edition of the Lagos Comic-Con has been scheduled to hold from September 17 to 19, 2020.