The Return of MegaCon

Dante Nahai/ Staff Writer 

Comic conventions have a special place in my heart. I’ve been going to these events since 2015. While the coronavirus pandemic is making it difficult to go to these events, I am happy I was able to go to one again. 

MegaCon is one of the biggest comic book conventions in the southeast. According to Fanxpohq.com, the con has an average of 100,000 attendees per year.

Of course, with the entire world dealing with a pandemic that made us fear huge crowds of people, I couldn’t help but go to MegaCon this year. 

With MegaCon I’ve been going yearly since 2016. The build-up to those four days always got me excited. Which is also the magic to these conventions. 

Comic and anime cons are the few places where you can truly immerse yourself into the culture for a few days. 

Fans come far and wide to get this break of reality and do activities that you normally wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else.

Not only can you cosplay and get figures, comics, art, from fandoms you adore, it’s also a great place to meet the ones who helped fuel your passion for these properties. 

A big push to the convention is the opportunity to meet actors, actresses, writers, etc. The fan is able to get a one-on-one experience with the celebrities they want to meet. 

So when 2020 happened and we weren’t able to go to these events, it was strange. Who were you to tell me that I couldn’t go to my beloved MegaCon? Well, a worldwide pandemic did.

But here we are now in 2021 and just as I thought it would get better, we got a worse variant of the virus.  

I was hesitant at first to attend MegaCon 2021. With another wave of covid and it is the worst in Florida I thought to myself, “maybe I should just wait for 2022.”

Yet, I stopped to think about it. I am fully vaccinated. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t. On top of that, the convention modified the covid safety guidelines to wear masks at all times. 

While there was no way to monitor social distancing since we’re just in one big room, the staff of the convention handled the entire event smoothly. 

Even with the restrictions, the convention still felt like any other convention I’ve been to. From attending panels to getting photos with your favorite celebrity, it was as it always was. 

Eventually, the four days come to the end and you watch as the exhibitors pack their things and slowly leave the convention center into another empty room. 

It always sucks to see this happen, most con goners coined the term “post-con depression” since now all we can do is wait for the next one. 

This is where I am now, all I can do is wait until I’ll next year and luckily enough MegaCon is confirmed to return in May 2022. 

Hopefully, by then we’ve gone over the hurdle that was the past year and a half. Just know that I’ll definitely be there and it’s an event that I would recommend to anyone.