The ninth SEMO Con, a regional anime, fantasy, sci-fi, gaming and comic convention, brought a multi-dimensional element to the city of Poplar Bluff last weekend.
Event organizer and coordinator Christopher Pense hoped the three-day event would bring between 1,000 and 2,000 guests over the weekend.
Pense said while this is the seventh year for the actual “con,” festivities in the city began earlier with a cosplay festival.
“That was a single-day event held at a comic book shop every year,” he said. “When I started, I convinced the organizers of both events to join together and they did.”
Eventually, the cosplay festival merged with SEMO Con and the mega-event is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.
“We even had a virtual year, so we still existed but it was just a virtual event,” Pense explained. “We came back last year with a full three-day event.”
While the attendees proved to be one of the main highlights of SEMO Con due to their colorful cosplays, the vendors and the artists also contributed.
“Next year, we are looking at having some notable comic artists,” Pense said. “Like a popular anime voice actor.”
In addition to the celebrity appearances and artists, another component of the con is community building. Events such as a cosplay karaoke, a ramen eating contest, dance party, Pokémon trivia, Disney karaoke and an anime lipsynch battle provided fun activities and opportunities for guest interaction.
Even local community members such as the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library joined in as one of the sponsors of SEMO Con and helped to organize an escape room.
“This year was a haunted library,” Pense told the Daily American Republic.
Pense also mentioned the con’s contribution to charity. Every year, the SEMO Con donates to a local nonprofit.
“This year’s nonprofit is UCAN — the United Cancer Assistance Network — it’s a local charity,” Pense said. “We always bring in a local charity.”
Proceeds from the silent auction went directly to UCAN.
“Next year, we have already confirmed that we are bringing in 4-H as our choice charity,” Pense mentioned.
Another component of the con consists of the local heroes.
Lonnie Johnson is a cosplayer who organizes a nonprofit called Heroes for Kids.
“Typically, I am dressed as Superman,” Johnson said during an interview. Due to an ongoing injury, Johnson was not able to dress as the Man of Steel, but he did have several cosplay characters already in mind.
“Both characters that I have done this weekend are characters that I made up — that’s the fun part about being doing cosplay — you can throw just about anything together and put it out there whether it be pop culture, comics, TV, anime, or come up with your ideas,” Johnson explained. “Yesterday, I had a Star Wars character that I came up with. And then today, I am actually in the process of writing a story, so the character I was dressed up as today was the main character of my story.”
Johnson mentioned part of the inspiration for his charity and cosplay is witnessing the smiles on the faces of children and their families. But he also said that being able to help the community is another major takeaway.
“We help other organizations; we even visit schools, churches, hospitals, and we just have fun doing it,” Johnson told the Daily American Republic.
Sponsors of SEMO Con included Ken’s Comic Man, Holiday Inn, Rent One, the SEMO Cosplay Festival, Casa Grande, the Poplar Bluff Library, Pense Productions, Valkyrie Gaming and the Poplar Bluff 4-H.