BuckeyeCon unites Ohio State fans of gaming and comic culture on campus

Nina Pieri
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 01:22:45 +0000
Arts & Life, News, artist, buckeye con, campus, comic, comic books, comic con, cosplay, culture, drlupo, fans, Gabby rivera, gaming, marvel, ohio state, ohio union activities board, OUAB, riddle, students, Twitch, weekend, writer

Ohio State’s spin on Comic-Con, BuckeyeCon, was held in collaboration with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum this past weekend. Credit: Nina Pieri | Lantern Reporter

Students passionate about all things comics and online gaming culture came together last weekend to take part in the first-ever BuckeyeCon, Ohio State’s spin on Comic-con.

BuckeyeCon, hosted by the Ohio Union Activities Board in Sullivant Hall on Saturday, presented students with everything from convention foam fighting to virtual reality rigs to presentations from famed personas in the online gaming and comic world.

In collaboration with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, OUAB welcomed guest appearances from Twitch streamer DrLupo, cosplay artist Riddle and Marvel comic writer Gabby Rivera.

“[Ohio State] has the biggest cartoon library in the country, and OUAB hasn’t really planned events to market towards that kind of culture or those kinds of people,” Alex Hasselbach, a fourth-year in biomedical engineering and member of the Specials committee of OUAB, said. “I thought it would be really cool to have all of the aspects of a normal comic book convention, so we decided to try and make that happen.”

Morgan Schultz, a third-year in anthropology, is the treasurer of Dagorhir Club at The Ohio State University, a full-action, full contact live-action role play organization. She said it’s difficult to get students involved in the club.

“At the student involvement fair, everyone is really happy that we exist, but people aren’t necessarily interested,” Schultz said. “At BuckeyeCon, I’m hoping to get some of the people that don’t find us at involvement fairs or don’t see us out on campus and get them interested.”

Ohio State’s spin on Comic-Con, BuckeyeCon, was held in collaboration with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum this past weekend. Credit: Nina Pieri | Lantern Reporter

The event also featured convention foam fighting, a half-contact, live-action combat game where players battle each other with shields and foam-padded weapons such as swords, clubs and glaives.

“We run assorted, different games – one of our favorite games is the team deathmatch – straight unlimited respawns where [combatants] just go at each other,” Chris Vasquez of Convention Foam Fighting, said. “We travel all around the Midwest at a lot of anime conventions.”

The event was the brainchild of two OUAB committees, Lectures and Specials. Ryan Miller, a first-year in marketing and member of the Lectures committee of OUAB, said Lectures had an idea of inviting someone from the esports world, and Specials wanted to do something with comics.

“As soon as our exec board saw the two ideas, they just made a really cool combination of the two, and here we are,” Miller said.

Both Miller and Hasselbach are interested in this realm themselves, an interest that assisted them in bringing this comic-con event to life.

“Just the fact that we’re able to bring all these pieces together and construct this multilayered event is really cool,” Hasselbach said.