CORNWALL, Ontario – Let’s face facts – these days, it’s cool to be a nerd.
Superhero movies are raking in billions of dollars, TV shows like The Big Bang Theory are at the top of the ratings list, and public events like Comicon and others are drawing huge numbers.
With that in mind, a Cornwall event is taking shape that will bring under one roof everything you can imagine that flies, fights crime, and wears a costumer.
The Cornwall and Are Pop Expo (CAPE) will take place April 18 in the Seaway City. The acronym plays off the ‘cape’ that nearly every superhero includes in their costume.
Randy Sauve, owner of the wildly popular Cornwall comic book store Fantasy Realm, as well as his partner Carol Grant, are organizing the event.
“It’s about three years we have been planning this,” said Grant, adding the couple have visited a number of Comicon-type events recently, to gain some knowledge about how to organize such an event.
They’re also local experts in the field of comics. Fantasy Realm carved a niche for itself 30 years ago on Pitt Street and continues to be a local hub for everything from Spider-Man to Godzilla.
Sauve said the Cornwall market is ripe for this type of exposition.
“Cornwall is ready,” he said.
There have been other events, to be sure, in Cornwall that focused on comics and superheroes.
Cornwall’s Tiny Convention (CoTiCon), took place earlier this summer, and ‘Heroes of the North’ (HOTN) a popular web series, held an autograph session last year at Fantasy Realm.
But the CAPE event will take place on a grand scale. Grant said organizers are in the process of securing a large venue in Cornwall that will support dozens of exhibitors, vehicles, and special guests.
She and Sauve weren’t ready to divulge specifics yet, but they said comic book artists from mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC will be at the expo – as well as other “celebrities.”
“We knew we were going to do this. We just wanted to make sure we are going to do it right,” said Grant.
More information on the event, as well as updates, can be found at the CAPE Facebook page, here.
