The long-running Motor City Comic Con is celebrating its 35th anniversary this weekend. Pop culture fans cosplaying as their favorite characters have filled the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi for the three-day convention.
This edition of MC3 features some of their biggest guests yet, both on the celebrity side and for comic book creators.
It’s an impressive list of actors and actresses who are meeting and signing autographs for con attendees. Jeremy Renner, best known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Hawkeye, is joined by Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, Spider-Man 3, Terminator Salvation), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets, The Addams Family, Casper), Bill Nye, Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix, Memento, Pompeii), Ahmed Best (Star Wars) and more.
Comic creators include writer Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween, Smallville, Teen Wolf), Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza, Arthur Adams (Longshot, X-Men, Monkeyman and O’Brien), Black Lightning co-creator Trevor Von Eeden — who is also the first Black artist that DC Comics has ever hired — and more.
As with any fan convention that involves so many moving pieces, sometimes things change — including guest cancellations. Big names like Martin Sheen, Rainn Wilson and Vincent D’Onofrio canceled their appearances due to sudden scheduling conflicts. Motor City Comic Con organizers have learned to deal with this issue over the years and do the best they can to call an audible.
“It’s such a case-by-case basis. When Rainn [Wilson] and Angela [Kinsey] canceled, we obviously wanted to get something to support The Office fans that already bought tickets to the show,” MC3 co-show manager Sam Yankee said. “We were thankfully able to get a couple of guests from The Office.
“Martin Sheen had to cancel. Thankfully, he was able to reschedule for the fall, but it was a little too short notice to try and book somebody else,” Yankee explained. “He’s still in our program guide and those kind of things, you know, it’s already different. And we’ve got thousands of program guides printed. We can’t really change that.
“But it does help when they’re able to confirm for the next show because not everyone can. They’ve got a busy schedule. It’s really hard to anticipate who’s going to cancel. The industry…changes so quickly. And a lot of things, their projects that they may have signed on for a while ago, but they don’t get dates until it’s about to happen. It’s really hard to predict.”
Along with the celebrity guests and comic book creators, the convention features hundreds of vendors selling comic books, anime and manga, replica props, custom artwork, jewelry and more. Fans can share a room with some of their favorite creators and performers at panels hosted throughout the weekend, including Bryce Dallas Howard at 11 a.m. and Bill Nye with Bob Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate) at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday. See the full panel schedule here.
Motor City Comic Con went back to a bi-yearly schedule in 2022, the first time since October 2006. The next fall show happens Nov. 14-16 at Suburban Collection Showplace. Yankee and her team have no worries about comic con fatigue in the market since there’s so much content being released.
“So we definitely try to lean a little bit more horror for the fall,” said Yankee. “There’s so much to pull from. We don’t just do comic books, it’s pop culture. And with the amount of TV shows and movies and video games and D&D [Dungeons & Dragons] and influencers — it’s just so much to pull from that we’re able to put on a full show each time.”
Motor City Comic Con runs through Sunday at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. Get details including tickets and full schedule at motorcitycomiccon.com.
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