Comic Relief: Kraken Con back in Oakland

Bay Area comic enthusiasts are preparing to gather for this year’s fall Kraken Con at the Oakland Convention Center. On Oct. 4 and 5, like-minded people will dress up as their favorite characters from various media whether it is comic books, anime, video games or cartoon characters.

The whole appeal of this convention is for fans to come together to celebrate the aspects of these genres that they really enjoy. In addition to dressing up, there are various vendors that sell merchandise, from t-shirts to comic books.

There have been two prior Kraken Cons with attendance increasing with each Con that passes by. The first Kraken Con hosted around 1,200 people with the second hosting around 1700 people, greatly exceeding expectations of those putting together the event.

“We’ve been working incredibly hard to have the same density of quality content for our attendees on both days,” said Stephen Daugherty, deputy director and founder of Kraken Con. To do this, they will be introducing a talent show as well as a concert on Sunday evening.

Every year there are guests of honor that attend the convention. This year, some of the major guests include Caitlin Glass, a voice actress best known for her role as Winry Rockbell on Fullmetal Alchemist, Matthew Mercer, a voice actor best known for his voice work in such games as Resident Evil 6 and Batman: Arkham Origins, and Eric Stuart who is a musician and voice actor who many will recognize as the voice of Brock and James on popular Japanese games Pokemon as well as Seto Kaiba on Yu-Gi-Oh.

In addition to voice actors, there will be Daydreamernessa who is a cosplayer, short for costume play. Daydreamernessa will offer advice on the art as well as her 10-year experience of being a cosplayer, and comic book artist Chris Marrinan, who has worked on various titles for Marvel and DC.

A graduate of the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Marrinan likes to support conventions held around the Bay Area and enjoys being a guest at these events.

“It’s great being a vendor, I can sit there and sketch, and people pay me for my drawings and original comic art pages as well as prints I’ve made of comic characters,” says Marrinan. “People come up to me to talk about my work and they enjoy watching me draw, the creative act going on right in front of them.”

Tickets are available at krakencon.com for $25 or you can purchase them at the door for $30. The event will run from Saturday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Oct. 5, and is open to the public.