Ozcon International is coming to Cal Poly Pomona campus

Wizard of Oz enthusiasts from across the United States and several other countries will gather in Pomona on Saturday for the 58th annual Ozcon International.

The all-day event will be held at the Kellogg West Conference Center on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona, 3801 W. Temple Ave., and opens at 9 a.m. for registration.

At Ozcon International, attendees will discuss Oz books and movies, swap Oz collectibles, display Oz crafts, listen to guest speakers and share their love for all things Oz.

This year, Ozcon celebrates the animals in Oz, inspired by the centennial of “Kabumpo in Oz,” the 16th book in the Oz series and one of those written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, who continued the Oz series started by L. Frank Baum.

Ozcon will also feature a screening of “Dorothy at Ozcon,” a new film by filmmaker and photographer Glenn Roberson and film producer Ashley Chase, and the event will salute Judy Garland, who portrayed Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” 100 years after her birth, according to a news release.

There will be Oz items for sale, Oz quizzes, presentations, and panels and an Oz drawing contest with prizes for the best drawings.

Special guests include Eric Shanower, a cartoonist who has produced a series of graphic novels based on the Oz books; and Steve Cox, who has written several books about MGM’S 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” including the upcoming “Flying Monkeys of Oz: Tailing the Winged Creatures.”

For the full schedule and to register, go to ozconinternational.com.

Ozcon International was founded in 1964 as the West Coast Oz Convention by four Southern Californians — Blake Maxam, Judy Pike, C. Warren Hollister and Peter Hanff — as a West Coast gathering of members of the International Wizard of Oz Club. Since then it has expanded beyond the United States and the Oz Club to become an international convention.