“We want to bring all these creators together and create a place for them to show the world the amazing stuff they are creating” Aaron Rackley on the inspiration for SparkCon 2020 a new kind of virtual comic convention
SparkCon 2020 is the latest online comic convention that is helping to fill our schedules now that Coronavirus has seen all the real world convention cancelled. Hot on the heels of last month’s #KitchenCon, this one is being run by the fantastic team at Little Heroes Comic Kits and Fairspark Books (publisher of The Spark, Megatomic Battlerabbit, Hopper! Gallant and Amos and more!) We caught up with publisher and organiser Aaron Rackley to find out more:
“SparkCon2020 is a response to the Corvid-19 crisis causing conventions across the world to be cancelled.” Aaron explains to us. “Little Heroes Comics and Fair Spark Books are two organisations setup to support children across the country and the small press world that keeps it alive. We wanted to try and show our support during this difficult time by building a platform where for one whole day, we will attempt to bring all these creators together and create a place for them to show the world the amazing stuff they are creating.”
With small press guests like Sam Roads (Cryowulf), Steve Tanner (Time Bomb Comics), Ken Reynolds (Cognition), Tom Sparke (The Misadventures of Spring Heeled Jack) and more already signed up for the virtual artists alley, we asked Aaron what epse was happening on the day? “We are going to be doing this by sharing the stores of the creators that sign up, we will be doing Livestream talks and lessons throughout the day and we are also working with creators to make some youtube videos that will appear on our channel across the day as well.”
So is this the future for comic Con’s? Aaron is unsure: “I think this will always have its place outside of the mainstream public gathering cons because we are always finding better and quicker ways for the world to communicate across boundaries which allows creators who can not get too physical cons due to cost an easy and very cost-effective way of reaching their audience.”
However in these uncertain times we are so excited that someone has worked out a way to help bring a bit of comics positivity to the world and help create another community focused day which is what keeps the small press world going, whatever is happening in the outside world!
SparkCon is set to take place on Saturday 25th April and you can find out more at www.littleheroescomics.co.uk/sparkcon-2020
