It all began 15 years ago when Supanova Pop Culture Expo was born out of the relative disinterest the previous iteration of the brand, Comicfest! Entertainment Expo, was receiving. It was prior to the era of ‘cool’ that San Diego and The Big Bang Theory would bring to comic-book conventions, or ‘comic-cons’ around the world.
Now in celebrating 15 years as Supanova’s Founder and Event director, Daniel Zachariou, has decided it’s time to once again to loudly and excitedly confirm the industry’s biggest non-secret, that Supanova has always been Australia’s ‘comic-con’, and to remove the confusion of what “pop culture expo” represents in the marketplace by rebranding to Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Expo, with the ‘Gaming’ aspect of the title also representing the massive strides that mode of entertainment has made in the last decade and a half amongst fans.
Aside from comics, a key component to being a ‘Comic Con’ when looking at the biggest and best, Comic-Con International: San Diego, is access for fans to amazing new film and TV projects, and this April Supanova is proud to be hosting cast and crew from seven different productions; Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child, Cleverman, Space/Time, Project Eden: Vol.1, Boar, Blue World Order and Garrison 7 (Gold Coast exclusive).
To help Supanova share its passion and focus on providing future local filmmakers and talent with an ongoing platform to launch genre related projects from, they’ve also appointed their first Supa-Star Ambassador: cinematic veteran John Jarratt, whose iconic turn as ‘Mick Taylor’ in Wolf Creek has established him as a genre legend!
The focus on Gaming can be seen through partnerships with streaming giant Twitch (who’ll be broadcasting content live throughout each weekend), Hasbro’s Nerf (the world’s leading manufacturer of foam-based toy blaster weaponry), Mwave Australia (one of Australia’s leading online IT retailers), ZQRacing (as the Official Seat Sponsor of 2017), plus Melbourne exclusives Wizards of the Coast (featuring Magic: The Gathering’s latest set Amonkhet) and Epic Gaming with their Retro Gaming Lounge. All of which represents so much more fun and immersive content for fans attending the expos.
Supanova also has great news for the cosplay community with creative retailer IronLak making a huge impression by sponsoring the main prize of $1,000 in paints for the winner of Saturday’s ‘Best In Show’ for Supanova’s Cosplay Competition.
Finally, Supanova are introducing their very own five woman pro eSports team, Supa-Stellar, hailing from all over Australia! During the weekend they’ll battle it out on stage and offer insight on how to get in to professional gaming.
In what will be equal parts of going back to their origin story while rebooting for the future in 2017 Zachariou concluded, “we’re making it easier for fans who have yet to hear about us to understand what we’re about just through our name while seeking to keep raising the bar for an enhanced experience for our current fans while maintaining the spirit of inclusiveness that’s made us Australia’s biggest and best national event in the pop culture/comic-con marketplace”.
Supanova is where fandom comes to life, celebrating the worlds of film and television, fantasy, comic books, anime, sci-fi, cartoons, books, gaming and collectables. There’s ‘cosplay’ (costume-role play), fan clubs, musical performances, creative master classes, celebrity Q&As, wrestling, tournaments and competitions, and an expo full of shopping possibilities meaning there’s something for everyone, for every fan to have a blast!