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Long before comics for younger readers were fashionable, there was Kids Comic Con, the brainchild of writer Alex Simmons. The ninth edition of the event will be held this year on April 25th at the Bronx Community College from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be comics guests, workshops, face painting and everything else needed for a fun family day.

All the info on the fest is presented below the fold.

The annual event continues KCC’s mission to encourage positivity through imagination and creativity, with special kid-targeted programming including drawing workshops, special presentations, cosplayers, panels and autograph signings by a variety of comics industry and children’s entertainment professionals.

“KCC’s primary goal is to promote reading, creativity, and exploration in kids’ lives,” KCC organizer Alex Simmons said. “We believe it’s so important that young people embrace a continuous flow of positive ideas, skills, and outlets for their thinking as well as self-esteem.”

 Guests already confirmed for the April 25^th event include:

 

• Alex Simmons (comics writer-playwright-educator, Archie, Scooby Doo, Tarzan)
• Alitha Martinez (artist, Marvel, DC, Archie, etc.)
• Louis Henry Mitchell (Sesame Street Workshop artist & art director)
• Diana Leto (artist on Tarzan, My Little Pony, artist/co-creator of Halloween Legion)
• Emilio Velez Jr. (artist/creator of The Dodgeball Teens)
• Ray Felix (comics artist-creator/Bronx Heroes)
• Gregory Garay (Visual Verbosity)
• Joey Endres and Jesus Marquez (artists and co-creators, Space Scamps)
• Jim Salicrup (Papercutz)
• John-Marc Grob/JMG Studio (multimedia studio – FriendFish children’s books, comics, animation)
• Matt Herring (comics author, and host of Secret Identity podcast )
• Mark Mariano (Happyloo, Flabbergast creator-artist)
• Paul Castiglia (comic writer and editor, Archie, DC, Dark Horse)
• Pronto Comics (comics publishers)
• Scary Monsters Nice Sprites
• Tim Fielder (creator/animator of Matty’s Rocket)
• Mike Lopez (educator, kids’ comics advocate)

 

Kics Comic Con founder Alex Simmons

An exciting new addition to this year’s programming will be role-playing card game tournaments featuring Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic, the Gathering. The Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments will be open to both Junior ($7 entry fee) and Expert ($12 entry fee) levels. Yu-Gi-Oh! contestants will receive one free booster pack with entry. The Magic tournament will be a Star City Games open trial. Both tournaments are sponsored by The Lair, the Bronx’s premiere comics and gaming store, “Where Collectors Dwell!” The tournaments are open to all ages and prizes will be given for both. Visit www.facebook.com/thelair1808 for more information.

More guests, panels, workshops and special presentations in the works for KCC 9 will be announced soon, including some one-of-a-kind, interactive experiences not to be missed!

Preceding the flagship event, on April 11 and 12 the KCC Road Show crew will travel to the Meadowlands, New Jersey to take part in the “Kids Love Comics Pavilion” at the first-ever East Coast Comic Con.

“The ‘Kids Love Comics Pavilion’ offers a wonderful opportunity for KCC to bring its ‘comics and kids: perfect together!’ message to the masses. The organizers of East Coast Comic Con are very supportive of kids’ comics and we appreciate the opportunity to exhibit there,” said Simmons.

KCC-affiliated guests for the East Coast Comic Con’s “Kids Love Comics Pavilion” include the afore-mentioned Simmons, Fielder, Castiglia, Leto, Mariano, Endres and Grob, along with:

• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (puppeteer and voice of Sesame Street’s Abby Cadabby)
• Noel MacNeal (Writer, Director, Puppeteer, voice of Bear in the Big Blue House)

In addition to having artists at the table doing sketches and demonstrating drawing tricks, KCC will be offering special programming during the East Coast Comic Con including:

“Sci-Tech Heroes”: In this amazing hands-on workshop Alex Simmons demonstrates how to explore and create superheroes and villains using the boundless regions of science and the imaginative realm of comics. Kids will discuss the powers and abilities of popular comic book characters, and then create their own.

“Try Your ‘Hand’ at Puppets”: Emmy nominated puppeteer Noel MacNeal will conduct a “puppeteering workshop” based on his best-selling book, 10-Minute Puppets. Learn the pro puppeteers’ “secrets of lip-sync and manipulation, make a simple puppet, and operate professionally made puppets!

“Jump Start Your Imagination!”: Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and her wonderful puppet friend Lolly Lardpop are committed to spreading joy and the power of creativity though this wonderful and wacky interactive workshop. Join them as Leslie shows kids how to have fun through puppetry, imagination, and the creative arts!

“Pixel Portraits”: A Digital Storytelling Workshop by the creator of Matty’s Rocket, Tim Fielder, showcasing his storyboarding process of panel-to-panel techniques for comics, animation and film.

 

Autograph signing schedules for both the East Coast Comic Con and KCC 9 will be announced at a future date, as will post-KCC 9 events in the works for the Road Show team.

 

“Since 2007 our annual Kids Comic Con event has introduced thousands of kids and families to the power of imagination and creativity,” added Simmons. “Our Road Shows have traveled from everywhere from Chicago to Miami, from Jamaica to Africa, and we continue to bring interactive programming to Ronald McDonald House NYC and partner with them, and others, in its fight for children against cancer.”

 

This year’s KCC events follow a very successful 2014 that found the KCC team not only organizing KCC 8 but also revving up the “KCC Roadshow” for special events including The South Carolina Book Festival, Chicago’s C2E2 and Awesome Con in Washington, DC. The team also participated in two special happenings for Ronald McDonald House (RMH), including a Sesame Street-themed NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) reunion party of children born prematurely, and the first ever “Superhero For a Day” event for the patients and families staying at RMH.

 

Simmons added, “This year, we’re launching a program called ‘KCC International Comic Club.’ Our inaugural effort will unites student and teachers in the United States, Senegal, and Ireland in a collaborative, comics-creating project. A formal announcement detailing this project as well as other upcoming KCC events will be made soon.”

 

The 2015 KIDS COMIC CON is set for April 25 at Bronx Community College, 181^st Street and University Avenue, Bronx, NY from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For additional information and up-to-the-minute programming updates, please visit www.facebook.com/KidsComiCon.

Kids Comic Con, the annual NY-based event celebrating kids and comics, will have a variety of activities at this year’s NYCC, including a SuperhEro Day at Ronald MacDonald House and panels showcasing what kids, comics and cons can do together. Kids Comic COn founder Alex Simmons will be at all the events. Here’s all the info via PR:

On Saturday, October 4, in anticipation of the big NYCC weekend, Ronald McDonald House New York City will host SUPERHERO DAY, an event being co-run by the KCC team. At this special private event, everyone’s a hero! In addition to inviting its own guests, Ronald McDonald House is also opening its doors to the patients and families of neighboring children’s hospitals. The Ronald McDonald House will be decked out in super-heroic fashion and there will be many giveaways available including free comic books and movie posters. Other activities scheduled for the event include:
• Opportunities to meet law enforcement officers
• Costumed hero characters on “patrol”
• Autograph signing with Dark Knight author Brandon Snider
• Cartoonists doing free sketches
• Archie Comics Station
• Face Painting Station
• Giant Superhero Balloons
• Dylan’s Candy Bar Station

In addition to co-running the event, KCC will also have their own Kids Comic Con Station where artists including Jim Salicrup, Suzannah Rowntree, Chris Giarrusso, Diana Leto and Soriah Chavel will offer free sketches to the children.

On day one of NYCC, KCC co-founder Alex Simmons takes part in the panel, Comics to Expand Your Brain: Educational Graphic Novels in Public and School Libraries. Simmons and his fellow panelists will discuss graphic novels focusing on math, science and historical events as valuable tools for the classroom or library that can help educate as they entertain. The panel takes place on Thursday, October 9 from 4:00-4:45 p.m. in room 1B03.

On Saturday, October 11 members of the KCC Roadshow return to NYCC for an encore presentation of the well-received panel from last year’s NYCC, Creatively Energizing Your Students with Comic Books and the Arts. The panel will explore how to utilize popular entertainment to inspire and empower youth to learn and express themselves in unique ways, taking a look at how comics, performance, and music can be used in classrooms, libraries, and after school programs to engage students.

Included on the panel will be such Kids Comic Con luminaries as:
• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (puppeteer and voice of Sesame Street’s Abby Cadabby)
• Noel MacNeal (Writer, Director, Puppeteer, voice of Bear in the Big Blue House)
• Ray Felix (Executive Director of Bronx Heroes ComicCon, educator, Broadway/movie/TV art director, comics writer: A World Without Superheroes)
• Diana Leto (Designer/Production Artist: Sesame Street, artist for Cave Girl comic strip and IDW’s My Little Pony comic book)
• Alex Simmons (KCC co-founder, educator, playwright, comics writer: Archie, Tarzan, Scooby Doo)
• Paul Castiglia (comics writer-editor-historian: Archie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
• Mike Lopez (educator and moderator of the panel)

Special guests on the panel will be Abby Gerdts, Director of Programming for Artists Striving to End Poverty and various artists from the initiative. The panel takes place from 11:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in room 1A05.

Alex Simmons closes out the KCC-related programming with his popular Sci-Tech Heroes workshop which he has given at several past events. The workshop explores the amazing world of science through the imaginative realm of comics. Kids will examine the powers of a popular hero, and then create their own hero or villain based in real science. Their characters must be able to create a natural disaster… or survive one. It’s a fun way for kids to see the possibilities of the future, and their place in it as Creators, Inventors or Explorers. The Sci-Tech Heroes workshop blasts off on Saturday, October 11 from 3:15-4:15 p.m. in the Family Room HQ – 1C02

“KCC’s primary goal is to promote reading, creativity, and exploration in kids’ lives,” said Simmons. “Now more than ever it is imperative that young people embrace a continuous flow of positive ideas, skills and outlets for their thinking as well as self-esteem. Since 2007 our annual Kids Comic Con event has introduced thousands of kids and families to the power of imagination and creativity,” added Simmons. “Our road shows have traveled from Upstate New York to Miami to Senegal in Africa. We continue to provide interactive programming to Ronald McDonald House NYC and partner with them, and others, in its fight for children against cancer.”

Archie Comics will be celebrate its 70th anniversary with Archie #625. The thirty-two page comic book hit stores on September 28th. For a first look at the issue, follow this link.

Here’s more from the release: “The special issue, written by noted educator Alex Simmons and veteran Archie artist Dan Parent, reveals that a friend of Archie and the gang has a family member with cancer, and because of treatment, may have to move. The Archies then band together to provide help for their friend and get them a spot at the Ronald McDonald House, so they won’t have to leave Riverdale.”

Proceeds from the issue will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House. This charity provides temporary housing to pediatric cancer patients.

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