The first-ever Memphis Comic Expo debuted this year to throngs of comic fans looking to buy comic books, meet artists and authors, and revel with other fans. The inaugural year’s lineup included over 35 guests in the art and fiction world, hailing from all over the country. Even wrestler Jerry Lawler was a guest, displaying his Batmobile — a replica of the 1966 car Adam West and Burt Ward drove in the 1960s-era “Batman” TV show.
With the expo aligned in rows, comic book fans bobbed and weaved around cosplayers, large comic book collections, action figure displays, and huge art presentations. A podcast was even being recorded live on-site from the folks at Black Nerd Power, a podcast featuring thoughts on the science fiction and fantasy world from a black perspective.
Attendees could also commission a piece of art from an illustrator during the expo, get an autograph, or purchase completed pieces directly.
One Memphis artist, Derrick Dent, sold his illustrations as well as pieces that had been previously commissioned as part of the annual Bikesploitation event that had its fourth year last May. Dent has been illustrating since he was in college, and he was first commissioned his junior year. His style was originally influenced by “a lot of manga and a lot of video game art,” he said.
“I was a really big fan of traditional cartoonists, and I understood what they were doing was a form of drawing, but it was a magical kind of thing,” Dent said. “It was so clean and precise.”
The fast-talking artist brought his work to sell as well as promote, offering a table-length’s worth of art that attendees could view.
“A lot of my work is really kinetic,” Dent said. “There’s a confident line to my work that I think people are attracted to. There’s a sense of tradition because I do a lot of brush and ink drawings. That’s a timeless way of creating images — I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. I handle black-and-white images very well, and I think that’s always been a strength of mine.”
During the interview, Dent was working on an Elvis illustration — one that he admitted later to its recipient that it might have been more Johnny Cash.
Comic books were not the only facet of nerd culture at the expo. Science fiction and fantasy author Cecilia King was promoting her novel, Take It to the City in the Sky. King is also from Memphis and said she’s been writing since she was little. Her novel features a teenager named Avi, a juvenile delinquent in the year 3047 who has been arrested for the third time — this one revolving around drugs.
Even if comics were the overarching theme, any self-proclaimed nerd could have found his or her fill at the expo. The Memphis Comic Expo now joins the growing number of nerdy and geeky conventions, exhibitions, and gatherings staking their claim in the Mid-South.
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