It was three exciting days of fun for lovers of comics, animation, film and gaming at the 8th edition of Africa’s biggest geek and comic event – Fearless Lagos Comic-Con.
The event which held at two locations: Alliance Francaise Ikoyi and Silverbird Galleria Victoria Island Lagos, from 19 – 21 September 2019, was attended by over 6,500 guests within the duration of three days. At this year’s event, a total of 1,163 persons attended the panel sessions while 218 persons attended 12 masterclasses.
A total of 157 persons took part in the different competitions with Folorunsho Kelly, who dressed as the Joker, won the cosplay category and walked home with N100,000 naira 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 amongst others at the Fist Awards ceremony, which also took place during 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.
While also speaking during a panel session at the event, 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, amongst others.
The 9th edition of the Lagos Comic has been scheduled to hold on 17 – 19 September 2020.