The groups behind organizing Capital City Comic Con is confident folks far and wide will come to the Garden city of British Columbia to get their geek on. It takes place at the Victoria Convention Center and Crystal Garden on March 16-18th, 2018 and passes are on sale through Ticket Rocket.

Cherry Bomb Toys, The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) and Tourism Victoria are not resting over the holidays. Announced Friday morning is Patrick Warburton. He’s done many cartoon voices like Kronk in The Emperor’s New Groove and played The Tick (2001) and the narrator, Lemony Snicket in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. To hear him talk about his career will be fascinating. Most will remember him from Senfield but how many people will remember him in Quantum Leap?

Guests announced in previous month include Graham McTavish (Aquaman movie, Preacher) and James Marsters (Buffy). Both are great draws for those people who love their works. More names will be revealed in the coming months, and the plan is to make the star around this city brighter. It is known for Nerd Row where the corner of Broad and Johnson has a high concentration of shops to buy goodies from and the municipality of Oak Bay is recognized as where Gracepoint was filmed. On other parts of Vancouver Island, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla came to town and so did parts of the western beachscape became the battlefront for War for the Planet of the Apes.

Biago Woodward is one of the convention producers. He said he would love to get more people from Hollywood to take notice in everything this city, if not the entire island, can offer. It’s been used in many a cheery Hallmark movie like A Heavenly Christmas and independent production like Nick Simon’s masterful horror flick The Girl in the Photographs. Disney and Fox sent a crew to this island to make use of Hatley Castle to film Descendants (both movies) and X-Men 2. Deadpool knocked at the door of this historic building to find Professor Xavier. Only time will tell when the second movie comes out if he answered it or not.

“This city has its own tastes, its own feel … we’re going to do what’s best for the city to highlight the tourism and what the downtown core offers,” revealed Woodward.

Resident artists like Ken Steacy (Astroboy), Gareth Gaudin (Perogy Cat) and Dan Schoening (IDW’s Ghostbusters) made their home in this city. Even legendary artist Todd McFarlane lived here for a short time, in Duncan.

The Force is strong with Biagio (pictured right) in wanting this city’s downtown core revitalized. Photo Credit: DVBA

This event will not just be about comics either. There will be a space set aside for board game and role playing game enthusiasts, panels on a variety of topics and adult themed bits of entertainment courtesy of Geekenders, from Vancouver, BC, on Friday night. Although not confirmed, it’s a safe bet there will be a costume contest for Saturday night. Certain con staples will be present. When Cherry Bomb Toys has ten years of experience running The Ultimate Hobby and Toy Fair (a different style of event for mom and pop style dealers), a new venture is needed because the organizers have noticed the local populace is showing they are ready for more.

Biagio wants activities to help bring the community together. This convention is being made by fans for fans. Nearly everyone in town has something on the fence to say about this event because of this city’s history with not having many long term shows. There has been a few comic book type shows with media guests, but they have been few and far between. Surviving events do not have much to worry about, namely Tsukinocon for anime fans and LANtasy for videogamers. The rumour floating around is that they have no plans on growing and Gottacon closed its doors in 2015.

With very few locally run shows around, there’s no worry to compete since there are none. Sure, there are the mainland shows like Emerald City Comiccon and Sakuracon being weeks before and after, but if nobody from this city is going to it, there is no argument. People from abroad have foreign exchange in their favour when coming into Canada.

“Plus, everything we have planned is going to emphasize who we are as an island and when you come here, you are joining the island experience.  We also want the people coming over to come, relax and enjoy their stay here. Ultimately, [as our reputation grows] we want to expand this event where we can do something active and fun for everyone,” said Woodward.