Wasatch Comic Con devotes attention to creators, artists, writers

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WEST VALLEY CITY — Comic book and superhero fans gathered at Valley Fair Mall on Friday to learn from those who created their favorite comics.

The Wasatch Comic Con, happening Friday and Saturday, is an event focused on creators — the writers and visual artists — who come up with comic fans’ favorite characters and stories.

Many comic cons feature TV and movie stars while writers and artists take a backseat, Wasatch Comic Con co-founder Roger Prows said. There’s a lot to learn from the creators, though, he said.

“If you want to know what the motivation behind a character is, the best person to talk to is the person who created that character or created that story arc,” Prows said.

This is Wasatch Comic Con’s inaugural year, and Prows said he was expecting between 3,000 and 5,000 people. Several dozen people had already shown up by early Friday afternoon and were getting autographs from the con’s guests and purchase their artwork.

The con has a full day of panels and workshops scheduled for Saturday. To see the schedule and find out more information, visit wasatchcon.com.

Two of the biggest names making appearances at the comic con are Kevin Eastman, co-creator of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” and Bob McLeod, co-creator of “The New Mutants.”

Eastman said it’s nice to get back to the roots of the comics world with a creator-focused event.

“It is great that we get to take it back to grassroots and make it all creator-centric because this is how I started,” he said.

In 1985, after he had self-published the first TMNT issue, Eastman appeared at an event along with his co-creator Peter Laird. They asked a handful of family members and friends to come to the event so it appeared that they had lots of fans, Eastman said.

After they published the second issue, which had 15,000 copies pre-ordered, they knew they were set, he said.

“Once it started selling it never stopped selling,” Eastman said. “That’s where the dream came true for us.”

Alex Yang, of Salt Lake City, cosplayed as Bebop from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" before meeting TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman at the Wasatch Comic Con on Friday in West Valley City. (Photo: Jacob Klopfenstein, KSL.com)

McLeod also said he enjoyed being at a comic con that was focused on the creators. He said he has been at bigger events where people didn’t recognize him.

“It’s just a nicer feeling when it’s a smaller convention like this,” he said.

A new movie based on “The New Mutants” is in production and is scheduled to be released in 2019. Though he hasn’t been involved with the film, McLeod said he’s looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Filmmakers plan to take “The New Mutants” in a different direction than most comic book movies by making it a horror film. McLeod said he likes that idea.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “Let’s try something different and maybe bring in some horror fans in addition to superhero fans and make a bigger audience. It could be really good.”

Prows said there are some things in the works for next year’s event, but he couldn’t talk about them yet. He was looking forward to connecting with the fans and getting feedback on how the event could be improved.

“We’ve already got this facility again for next year so it’s happening for sure,” Prows said. “We want to know any way we can get better. We are looking forward to next year.”