When the ‘geeks’ come out to play
By Shakya Wickramanayake
ome be yourself ” goes the official slogan of Lanka Comi Con 2017. In its third year, the convention dedicated to comic books, science fiction/ fantasy film and literature, invites geeks and nerds of all ages, ethnicities, and languages to join in and let their inner geek loose. Whether that means coming dressed as your favourite superhero or villain or setting down for a round of ‘Cards against humanity’, dabbling in some fan art or engaging in geek-dom discussions, Lanka Comic Con is open to it all.
Lanka Comic Con began as a side event at Gamer.lk’s Gaming Convention, the SLGC. With just 500 square feet of space, the Geek Club of Sri Lanka attempted to launch the country’s first ever comic book and science fiction convention in 2015. “We were not sure how many people to expect. We thought we’d get about 150 people,” says Thilani Samarasinha, one of the club’s founder members and an organizer of Lanka Comic Con. But to their amazement over 600 turned up, some 170 in costume!
Their second convention at the J. D. A. Perera Gallery attracted as many as 3000 people. It was packed, Thilani explains, so much so even the venue’s air conditioning system couldn’t take the load. This year, they’ve chosen the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre (SLECC) as the venue and with over 40,000 sq feet of space, area wise this year’s convention will be 80 times its original size.
But to understand how Lanka Comic Con came to be, you have to look at the beginnings of the Geek Club of Sri Lanka, the founders of the convention. Without any forums or events, it was easy to believe that there was no comic book, anime or sci-fi following in the island.Up until 2011 Thilani thought so too. An ardent comic book fan she would religiously visit the Vijitha Yapa bookshops in search of comics, and it was only on an email she received about new releases that she saw close to 20 others copied in. Excited to know that there were others like her, the idea of bringing together all these comic book fans took root.
It was with the intention of creating a community that Navin Weeraratne and Thilani started the Facebook group Geek Club of Sri Lanka and it soon had a following of over 14,000. On the last Saturday of each month, members meet to talk about comics, discuss fan fiction and play tabletop games. It was during one of these Geek Meets that they first toyed with the idea of a Sri Lankan comic book convention. The rest, as they say, is history.
So what can we expect from this year’s Comic Con? Aside from the usual tabletop games, cosplaying and geek merchandise, the event will feature martial arts demonstrations; a few local Science fiction films, in both English and Sinhala; a two hour performance by rock band Stigmata and several panel discussions from topics of how ebooks are helping Sri Lankan authors to go global to the art of miniature figurine design.
For children attending the event, there will be a range of activities to keep them busy and entertained - a Lego play area, and DIY activities such as ‘Build your own space dinosaur’.
In an attempt to inspire and instil a love of science in children, the organizers have decided to run some science experiments to demonstrate a few principles of physics and chemistry.
The organizers maintain that this is not an event exclusively for ‘English Speakers’, as some have perceived it to be. In fact in order to be more inclusive they’ve pushed hard towards making it a tri-lingual event, and have done so by including a panel discussion in Sinhala and featuring films, books and comics written in the Sinhala and Tamil languages at the event and on their website. “Yuval Harari said three things unite humans, money, government and culture. And here we’re uniting people around the geek culture,” explains Navin Weeraratne, one of the organizers of Lanka Comic Con. He goes on to say that what’s unique about comic book and sci-fi culture is that its non political in its nature yet at the same time paradoxically political in its substance. Pointing out that even their logo for the event by virtue of being tri-lingual and in the colours of the national flag, is a statement of sorts.
The convention has also helped vendors increase their customer bases, as well as meet the market better. Now many of which started as an online store or a stall at Comic Con have gone on to set up shop - Yamato One, which sells anime and manga merchandise; Red Dot Geek, an online comic book store; and Collectique, a shop for toys and collectibles.