Comic books, movie legends and local cosplayers took over Tucson Comic-Con last weekend for its 15-year anniversary.

Seventeen years ago, Mike Oliveras founded Tucson Comic-Con and changed Tucson’s fandom community by giving members a place to gather together every year (save for two during COVID-19).

“Honestly, my motivation was just being a fan of comic books and comic book shops, and us not having anything close to a comic book convention here in town,” Oliveras said.

Oliveras says he was also inspired by comic book artist Michael Turner, who continued going to conventions even after a cancer diagnosis.

“He did what he loved, going through what he was going through,” Oliveras said. “I shouldn’t have any excuses not to just do it.”

According to Oliveras, the first con was “very small and very hot. It was a small meeting room at the Four Points Sheraton on Speedway and Campbell, which is now Aloft.”

Fifteen cons later, a lot has changed and Oliveras no longer oversees the operation of the con.

“I candidly say that I am retired,” Oliveras said. “Obviously, I’m the founder of the show. Out of my own decision, I’ve stepped away from ownership. My wife is one of the three owners with Brian and Francisca Pulido, and basically I’m just enjoying the show that I started.”

Roark and Petra Polzin, siblings, professional cosplayers and costume and prop makers with their “space family,” use Comic-Con to both promote their work and connect with other Star Wars cosplayers. The two expressed trepidation about the upcoming con.

“I would definitely prefer it to be a different time of year like it used to,” Roark Polzin said, “November was a really great time because the summer heat is rough for costumes, and I know people who have specifically not worn costumes because of the heat.”

Petra Polzin expressed frustrations with years past. 

“I feel like there’s not enough to do. Phoenix Fan Fusion has had escape rooms, laser tag or cosplay karaoke and cosplay meetups,” Petra Polzin said. “Tucson Comic-Con doesn’t really have anything like that, so at some point it gets boring.”

Coralee D’Agostino and Aidan Epstein, the community ambassador and vice president of the University of Arizona “Pokémon Go” club, said this was the club’s second year coming to the con.

The club had an elaborate set-up for any “Pokémon Go” players. Players could complete a special research task by completing challenges around the convention, similar to a research in the game itself. They also had a Pokémon Gym, similar to a gym in the Pokémon games and anime.

“Last year, it was a little different because it was in a different room and we had a different set of people coming through,” D’Agostino said. “The room was off to the side and people didn’t really know we were in that room. I really like our setup this year compared to it.”

When asked about the experience of running research tasks, Epstein said “It’s been fun, having everyone come and search for us and look for us as gym leaders, it kind of gives people an interactive thing to do at Comic-Con which is really fun, and it’s all “Pokémon Go”-based, so if you like Pokémon, you’re gonna like this kind of stuff.”

“Pokémon Go” is just one way to have fun at Comic-Con. Brynne Feinberg, a student at the University of Arizona, says she spends a good chunk of her time at Tucson Comic-Con on the scavenger hunt.

“This was actually my third year doing the scavenger hunt,” Feinberg said. “You’re tasked with finding the password of the day or to go to these different booths and give them a high five, take a picture and scan a QR code.”

While this was Feinberg’s third year attending Tucson Comic-Con, it was her second year going for free after having won the previous years’ scavenger hunts. This year, she won again, and will be going next year for free.

“I went with my friend Isabel, and we did the scavenger hunt again this year, and we reached the fourth tier of prizes, which means you get free weekend membership for next year’s Comic-Con, so we ended up getting that,” Feinberg said. “So we’re gonna hopefully go next year as long as we’re both free.”

Another way to spend time at Comic-Con is to see panels, and in some cases, participate in them. J. Patrick Ohlde, author of “Tucson’s Most Haunted” and “Finding Ghosts in Phoenix,” has done many panels for many different things.

“I used to do panels with Katie [Mullaly] for the books. I think I did that for three or four years,” Ohlde said. “Now, we’re doing a podcast panel. Last year, we did a panel for ‘Hot Reels,’ the movie podcast that I do, and ‘Ghosts, Ghouls, and Mysteries,’ which is another podcast.”

Ohlde says he noticed that the panels help his podcasts grow. 

“I ran into some people that were in the crowd walking the floor later, like the next day, where they said that they subscribed to the podcast and listened to a bunch of the previous episode,” Ohlde said.

With convention guest panelists to see, scavenger hunts to partake in and booth activities you can do, it’s hard not to have a great time at Tucson Comic-Con.

Happy 15 years, Tucson Comic-Con.

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