Nerds and geeks unite: Ottawa Comiccon is back this weekend

OTTAWA -

If you love science fiction, horror, anime or comics, you will once again have the chance to reunite with fellow geeks for a weekend of shopping at the EY Centre in Ottawa's south end.

After almost two years, Ottawa Comiccon is back.

Artiist Victoria Putinski has been waiting for this day for months. To finally get back to selling her digital art, in person.

“Oh my God, it’s so amazing. I've been waiting for so long. Just the atmosphere of setting up is giving me so much fuel," says Putinski. "From watching anime when I was 13 on YTV.  And then I was just like, I wanna do that. And then 17 years later, here we are."

This is the Holiday Edition of Ottawa Comiccon. It’s a smaller version of the original event, but Vice-President of Operations Scott Péron says it still has everything anyone could ask for.

"It’s basically just a geek shopping experience," says Péron. "People wanting to get their holiday shopping or just a chance to hang out with friends who they haven’t seen in two years. That’s what it’s going to be all about this weekend."

Everything from your favourite anime swords, to ultra-realistic superhero masks.

You can even have spray-paint artist Nathan Salmon create something for you in three minutes or less.

"I make custom artwork," says Salmon. "I make whatever somebody asks for in about three minutes using just spray paint and a few household objects. But I can make whatever somebody wants."

Some here are also giving back, like the Doctor Who Society and the Capital City Garrison of the 501st Legion, who have some of the best Star Wars costumes around.

"We really focus on the quality and screen accuracy of these costumes," says John Mihailov of the Capital City Garrison. "And why we do it? We actually do it for charity. We’ve supported by both Disney and Lucasfilm. And we’re involved in raising money for organizations like Make-A-Wish."

"We raise funds for our children’s hospital," says Robin Vernell of the Ottawa Doctor Who Society. "So in Ottawa it’s for the CHEO Foundation, specifically for neonatal intensive care. And to date we’ve raised over $30,000 for neonatal at CHEO.”

If you love superheroes, celebrity artist Kurt Lahner has you covered. His work has been used to launch some of the biggest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"What I do is I take the retro art style, and I merge it in with the feeling of the movies," says Lahner. "So it feels like the movie, but it also looks like the comic book. So you have the two universes merged together."

The holiday edition of Ottawa Comiccon runs all weekend, with tickets starting at $8.