The city of Lexington held its annual comic and toy convention at Rupp Arena from Thursday, March 23, to Sunday, March 26. 

Attendees could meet up and take pictures with multiple pop culture figures, such as actors, cosplay artists and directors. 

Standouts included director Sam Raimi, most known for the original “Spider-Man” trilogy, and actor Jason Lee, who played Dave in “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” according to the comic con’s website.

Christian Barlow is a cosplayer that attended the event to have fun with his friends. He attended in costume, dressed up as the “Bugle Boy” variant of Spider-Man. 

“I’m also here to actually meet Yuri Lowenthal, who is not only the voice of Spider-Man in the current video game by Insomniac, but he also voices older Ben 10 which is a cartoon — another cartoon I’m a big fan of,” Barlow said. 

Barlow said he had three other cosplays planned for the weekend’s event, including a “Ben 10”  portrayal. 

Barlow is from Memphis, Tennessee, but decided to come to the comic con to meet with his two friends, David Cashman and Johnathan Frost.

“My dad brought me last year, and my uncle came with us as well,” Barlow said. “My dad’s a big comic fan and he really got me into all this comic book stuff, and I owe him a lot for that.” 

Although Barlow traveled from Memphis, he was not the member of the trio that had to travel the farthest for this year’s comic con. 

“I traveled like 16 hours to get here,” Cashman said. “I used to live in Kentucky, I moved out to Oklahoma, and it’s just kinda like something my friend John and I did last year because you know, why not? And it turned out to be a really fun experience.”

Cashman cosplayed as a tourist “Spider-Man” variant. He shared Barlow’s excitement to meet Lowenthal and Raimi.

“I’m a huge fan of Spider-Man. Sam Raimi, (is) obviously the director of the first three Spider-Man movies, which is what got me into the character as a kid. It’s just phenomenal movies,” Cashman said. 

Many attendees were also seen in anime-inspired costumes.

Kat Stevens is a cosplayer who dressed up as Chocola from the anime video game “Nekopara.” “I watch a lot of anime, I read a lot of manga, and I play a lot of games revolving anime,” Stevens said. 

Stevens has attended six comic cons, all of which have been in Lexington. She said her favorite part about the event is hanging out with her friends, making new ones, cosplaying and being around people that like the same things as her.

“Nyeh nyeh!” Stevens said, in character. 

Professional wrestlers are also a common sight at comic cons around the country.

Cosplayer Demi Jones dressed as the Buc-ee’s Beaver and came to Lexington Comic Con from Atlanta to see wrestler Danhausen.

“I’m obsessed with wrestling … WWE and All Elite Wrestling and all that type of stuff,” Jones said.

Others populated the convention in the main ballroom.  Many of them were local Kentuckians with booths wanting to market their art. 

At one of these booths was Justin Stewart, the co-illustrator and co-author of the book “Kentucky Kaiju.”

“It’s a fake field guide to giant monsters that live in Kentucky,” Stewart said.

Stewart said the book has a giant horse monster for Louisville already, but his team is saving Lexington’s monster for volume two.

“We had an internal debate on what’s too cliche … but I would like to do a wildcat horse hybrid,” Stewart said. 

He said he’s been a comic book maker since 2005 but describes himself as a Swiss-Army knife. 

“I write, draw, letter, color, pencil, ink, all that good stuff,” Stewart said. 

Stewart shared the booth with his friend, fellow artist Zach Joseph.

The two met through a live art group in Lexington called Six Bomb Boards.

“Once I met Justin, started doing more of that live art events it just kind of built confidence and then started selling my art at stuff like this,” Joseph said.