The James City County branch of the Williamsburg Regional Library is putting on its own mini-Comic Con in conjunction with their annual Summer Reading Program.
This year’s Summer Reading Program theme, “Every Hero Has A Story,” lends itself to a Comic Con-style event, so organizers at the library decided this year would be a good time to launch it.
The event, scheduled for Saturday, is geared toward kids of all ages, grades K-12. For the younger crowd there will be character visits from several high profile super heroes such as Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Iron Man and Captain America.
Older readers may enjoy a Teen Comic Talk, presented by library staff, that highlights the most popular comics among teenagers today.
Additionally, there will be crafts that appeal to all ages, a photo booth with a comic book style background and a costume contest with separate categories for grades K-6 and 7-12.
Event organizers have also arranged for several super hero-themed carnival games to be set up on site, such as super villain bowling and comic bean bag toss.
The headlining event will be a real-time Skype session with Bill Wise, a well-known artist and technical director for such Pixar movies as The Incredibles, Brave, Monsters Inc. and Wall-E.
Though the primary focus of the event is to bring awareness to the library’s Summer Reading Program, which offers incentives for kids to keep reading throughout the summer months, there are also some secondary goals that organizers hope the event will achieve.
“We also want to raise awareness that the library does carry graphic novels and comics in addition to traditional books, and they are a great place to start for reluctant readers,” said Rachel Nelson, a Teen Librarian with WRL.
As for what goes into putting together a brand new event such as this one, Nelson notes the important role that people from many departments of the library have played.
“People from all different parts of the library have been pitching in, which makes it really exciting,” she said. “This is our first time trying to do this so we wanted to start small, but it’s been something everyone is helping out with.”
Comic Con will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the James City County branch of the library on Croaker Road. Admission is free and open to the public.
